The Passion of the Specialist I remember once talking to my friend Cella when she was between jobs. She said she was working out 9 hours a week, which I found stunning at the time. I try very hard to get 3 hours a week in, and I am usually successful, but it's not without sacrificing sleep and being deliberate about my schedule. So 9 felt luxurious, but appropriate for someone between jobs. With that as a frame of reference, I have heard lots of definitions or embodiments of the word "commitment" before, but I ran across another one the other day that I still find mindboggling. I have a gym friend at the New York Sports Club where I…
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Current Affairs
Book Short: Entrepreneurs in Government
Book Short: Entrepreneurs in Government Leadership and Innovation: Entrepreneurs in Government, edited by a professor I had at Princeton, Jim Doig, is an interesting series of mini-biographies of second- and third-tier government officials, mostly from the 1930s through the 1970s. The book’s thesis is that some of the most interesting movers and shakers in the public arena (not elected officials) have a lot of the same core skills as private sector entrepreneurs. The thesis is borne out by the book, and the examples are interesting, if for no other reason than they are about a series of highly influential people you’ve probably never heard of. The guy who ran the Port Authority of New York for 30 years. The guy…
A Network of Teams, Not an Integrated System
A Network of Teams, Not an Integrated System We were in and out of the hospital a lot back in March/April for the last few weeks with one of our kids (she’s ok now). One of us was with her 24 hours a day for the 10-11 days she was hospitalized, with lots of down time, which gave me lots of time to observe health care in action. While she ultimately got very good care at a very good hospital, it was incredibly clear to me that the hospital functioned as a network of teams, not as an integrated system. The nurses were great. Followed their routine practices and responded to doctors’ orders on cue. Same with the nursing assistants. …
The Party's Over?
The Party's Over? American party politics have had a few major realignments over the 220 years since we adopted our Constitution. I took a class on this in school, but that was a long time ago, and I'll never remember all the details. What I do remember is that they're somewhat chaotic. And that they typically take several election cycles to take root. I think we're in the middle of one now. Arlen Specter's decision to become a Democrat is a particularly poignant example of it, though the fact that something like only 25% of the country now identifies with the Republican party is another. With Specter, it's not that he changed his ideology — it's that his party changed…
Please, Let There Be Another Explanation
Please, Let There Be Another Explanation One of the things I was most excited about with an Obama presidency was that it finally seemed as if we had a real leader in the hot seat. Someone who might actually be able to run an effective government instead of a bureaucracy paralyzed by partisanship. I still have this hope. But I also hope what we’re seeing around the stimulus bill is not what we’re in for the next four years. What I’m seeing is a complete absence of leadership around the problem. Seems to me, taking lessons from the corporate world, that Obama should have done two things that would have gotten the program passed in a bipartisan way much more…
Angry, Defiant, and Replete with Poor Grammar
Angry, Defiant, and Replete with Poor Grammar I didn’t see Bush’s farewell address on TV on Thursday, but Mariquita and I did see his press conference on Monday. It was exactly what you’d expect it to be and quite frankly just like the last eight years: angry, defiant, and replete with poor grammar. I’ve said repeatedly that I think Bush has destroyed the Republican party and will go down in history as one of the worst presidents this country has ever had, if not the worst. It’s not surprising that his tone at the end is as the title of this post describes. But it is a shame. His whole administration is a shame. The really sad part is that…
Bundle of Elyse
Bundle of ElyseMariquita and I are pleased to introduce our newest family member, Elyse Joy Blumberg, who arrived this evening! Quite an experience today – just doesn't get boring, no matter how many you go through. The official announcement is here.
Book Short: Two New Ones from Veteran Writers
Book Short: Two New Ones from Veteran Writers I’m feeling very New York this week. I just read both Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell, and Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – and How It Can Renew America, by Tom Friedman. Both are great, and if you like the respective authors’ prior works, are must reads. In Outliers, Gladwell’s simple premise is that talents are both carefully cultivated and subject to accidents of fate as much as they are genetic. I guess that’s not such a brilliant premise when you look at it like that. But as with his other two books, The Tipping Point (about how trends and social movements start and…
Projection
Projection A few years ago, I wrote about how smiling and nodding or waving at strangers while running was a fun way to start the day and that once in a while, someone actually smiled back. My not-so-revolutionary discovery was that people are generally in their own cocoons and not particularly receptive to a friendly gesture, but that when they are, they're completely receptive and quite friendly in return. In the last couple of days, I've rediscovered that principle with a twist. As I get myself used to a new routine of train commuting and working out in a big New York Sports Club gym, I'm seeing people in cocoons all over the place again. And I've started being more…
Delicious Irony
Delicious Irony Great coverage in The Washington Post of an ironic aspect to the auto industry's poverty plea for a government bail-out this week. The three execs from GM, Ford, and Chrysler each took a separate private jet from Detroit to DC for the Congressional hearings for the occasion. I'm not a fan of Congressional hearing grandstanding and think most members of congress are asses when they do things like this, but not this time. These guys had it coming and clearly don't have a clue about symbolism (either the importance of it or the art of it). The details are rich. Read them here. Thanks to my colleague Stephanie Miller for pointing this one out. …
Why Do I Have to Be Frisked to Go to an NFL Game?
Why Do I Have to Be Frisked to Go to an NFL Game? I am freaked out about terrorism as much as the next person, but our obsession with security has gone too far. Some of the airport-related security is dumb enough — I can’t hijack a plane with my shampoo any more — but at least there’s some logic to the general premise. But the major pat-down I got last weekend when I went to see the Chargers beat the Chiefs was just silly. It certainly didn’t make me feel more secure sitting in the stadium. It wouldn’t have even occurred to me to feel insecure in the first place. The experience reminded me of all…