I’ve learned to be skeptical of anything headlined as “according to science.” The “science” is usually second hand and cherry-picked.

It’s going to take a whole lot of human intelligence to get artificial intelligence right.

Alexa routinely “suggests” things I might like. I already bought some of them. She “suggests” books I’ve bought and books where I’m listed as author. If this is state-of-the-art AI, we’ve got a long way to go.

A whole lot of success boils down to doing the basics day after day, with unremitting diligence.

Leadership doesn’t come with a numbered instruction sheet. It’s not one-size-fits-all either.

Reading leadership books is good, but reading isn’t leading.

There is no easy and comfortable way to learn to lead well.

People catch on quick. You may think you’re fooling the people you work with, but you’re probably not.

All feedback is a gift. Some is useful.

Someone on Twitter said that “vaccines don’t work.” He must not be as old as me. I remember when polio and measles killed kids in my school. Then vaccines came.

Emerson said that “If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.” No other single statement has accounted for as much business failure.

It’s not true that “if you build it, they will come” but if you build it right, they will come back.

Three Favorite Quotes

“If you can’t make a mistake, you can’t make anything.” ~ Marva Collins

“Nothing is really work unless you’d rather be doing something else.” ~ Peter Pan

“The obsession with control is a delusion and, increasingly, a fatal business error” ~ Ricardo Semler

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Jimmy Cannon and Me

If there was one writer who inspired me to want to be a writer, it was Jimmy Cannon. I discovered him because I liked to read the paper while I ate my dinner before starting work after school. That meant I read an afternoon paper in the early 1960s. So, I’d come up out of the subway, grab the Journal-American at the newsstand, then stop at the deli for the sandwich I ate for dinner. Every night I ate the sandwich and read the paper, starting with Jimmy Cannon’s column.

I loved the way he wrote. It was clean and sharp, full of insight and opinion. Jimmy Cannon was a sportswriter, but he wrote about everything, especially in his occasional columns, “Nobody asked me but.”  I wanted to write like Jimmy Cannon. I wanted to write as well as Jimmy Cannon. I’m still trying.

This post uses the title Cannon used for his most interesting occasional column. It is a pale imitation of the originals.