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Showing posts from June, 2013

The usefulness of useless knowledge

“The real enemy is the man who tries to mold the human spirit so that it will not dare to spread its wings.” In an age obsessed with practicality, productivity, and efficiency, I frequently worry that we are leaving little room for abstract knowledge and for the kind of curiosity that invites just enough serendipity to allow for the discovery of ideas we didn’t know we were interested in until we are, ideas that we may later transform into new combinations with applications both practical and metaphysical. This concern, it turns out, is hardly new. In ' The usefulness of Useless Knowledge' , originally published in the October 1939 issue of  Harper’s , American educator  Abraham Flexner  explores this dangerous tendency to forgo  pure curiosity in favor of pragmatism  — in science, in education, and in human thought at large — to deliver a poignant critique of the motives encouraged in young minds, contrasting those with the drivers that motivated so...

I can't get good people

R ecession or boom time, employers, organisations and leaders always echo one sentiment, 'We can't get good people these days'. Good, means different things to different people. Unfortunately most leaders and employers rarely know what they themselves want. It is safe to say that employers want subservient employees who will do as told, deliver miraculous results and never give a dissenting opinion. Employers expect employees to never complain, be productive, always deliver high quality with a smile.  Typically bosses and colleagues only demand saying 'Give me, give me, …….  Give me this and give me that'. Everyone wants but no one wants to give. People resent this unilateral approach preferring rather the relationship to be bilateral. They would be delighted to hear from employers and colleagues, 'I want to do this for you and I want to give you this'. * Image by Ben Heine As social creatures most human endeavour requires ...