Author: William Kerr

…the class was given the choice to read either The Chrysalids by John Wyndham or Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.

The vote went to ‘Catcher in the Rye’ as many of the classmates felt the John Wyndham book would not be a great read.

A few years later, during some late summer boredom, I picked up The Chrysalids and devoured it within an afternoon.

Wikipedia’s comment on the book states, “It is the least typical of Wyndham’s major novels, but regarded by some as his best.”

Years later, checking out the potential of a new position for which I was headhunted, a number of colleagues warned me against working for the company as it was considered a terrible pressure cooker of a place to work and the CEO was a “narcissistic madman,” exact quote.

I decided to try it and felt that, if the rumours were true, I would just leave. It turned out the pressure cooker connotation was true but it was pressure from a constant drive for excellence and innovation which I blossomed in.

The CEO was a very demanding man who put me through a number of ringers, a person from whom I learned a great deal, and someone I respect to this day, thirty years later.

It seems if there is some controversy or strong opinion one way or the other regarding something, the reality is that it’s either as bad as they claim or incredibly good. The middle doesn’t seem to elicit such strong reactions.

The only thing we can do is find out for ourselves as sometimes the negative comments and reactions are just an indication that “it’s not for them,” not that there is anything intrinsically wrong.

But it might be “just for us.”

Written while listening to Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group.

Best thing I came across over the last week, a post on silent meetings.

…enjoying a bit of Fall warmth and colours.

While wandering, a voice from an early mentor showed up with a reminder that much of our work is dealing with what isn’t.

Meaning!

We all, at some point, are responsible for influencing or intervening in a present direction, in some meaningful way, so that it turns out differently than the course we are presently on.

The old proverb that, “if we don’t change our direction we’ll likely end up where we’re headed,” outlines the situation perfectly.

There seem to be a couple of ways we can attempt this. One is looking at options, which come from our past experience. The other is to look to possibilities which come from a commitment to the future.

Blending the two might be better than either/or as long as the possibilities are not too far outside the proverbial box so they rhyme with the past with the options giving us a bit of grounding in how to get there.

So, what many of us actually get paid for, as my early mentor stated, is ‘what isn’t’ happening at the moment to get us to what we would most like to happen in the future.

And we all thought we’re paid for what we’ve already done.

Written while listening to some Dvorak symphonies.

Best thing I came across over the last week. Lex Fridman podcast with Ray Kurzweil.

…is one of those memes that keep popping up here and there that people quickly take to heart.

Maybe ‘loving what we do’ first and then ‘doing what we love,’ when we’ve actually figured out what that might be, is a more useful strategy.

Another meme and constant exhortation is to be authentic. Seth Godin has mentioned that a person needs to be professional, not authentic. One doesn’t want, for example, one’s dentist to be authentic while performing a root canal. One wants him/her/them to be professional.

We can be authentic with our friends but maybe our colleagues deserve us to be professional when engaging.

These memes and rules of thumb are great generalizers that maybe need slightly more scrutiny than we usually give them.

Written while listening to Ludovico Einaudi

Best thing I came across over the last week.

“It’s easy to blame the ability of technology to replace human labour for declining wages and increased wealth inequality. But technology is being used for cost reduction rather than to empower people and to reach for the stars not because that is what technology wants, but because it is what the legal and financial system we have built demands.”

Tim O’Reilly, WTF, What’s The Future and Why It’s Up To Us