Miscellaneous personal matters
In seventh grade Shop class, I tackled an ambitious project: building a working “pump lamp.” Squaring wood, bending copper, drilling precise holes, even wiring a bulb—I learned craftsmanship one mistake at a time. That experience taught me lessons in patience, problem-solving, and how things fit together that I’ve carried ever since.
Rt. 49 runs north and south along the west slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, at about 3000 feet elevation. Further east are serious mountains. To the west are foothills descending to California’s huge Central Valley. It was along this route where gold was discovered in 1848, triggering the Gold Rush and the…
I was recently introduced to the concept of a “Quake book” — a book that changed the way you looked at things in a profound and persistant way. As one blogger characterized his concept derived from a conversation between polymath Tyler Cowen and Ryan Holiday … Every once in a while, I stumble across something…
Simplification is a watchword for my 2016. When writing for customers, clients and even shareholders, I’ll keep George Orwell’s six simple guidelines for writers to follow, as specified in Politics and the English language: Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use…
When I was leading Voice-tel (1991-1995), we opened a number of operations in Australia and New Zealand as part of an international expansion effort. I flew to Sydney in early February of 1995 to meet with the management there for the first time. A week later, Debi, Pat and Tyler flew in during winter vacation…
The Redpaths had let us use the guest house in Ft. Myers Beach for a couple of the fall months as a sort of honeymoon present. The small, one-bedroom cottage was a great place to relax, cook, sort out our domestic roles, discuss the future we wanted (which, in retrospect SHOULD have been done earlier…
