Book Review: John Adams by David McCullough

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I finished winding my way through another 500+ page biography as I continue to try to satisfy my appetite for vivid portrayals of America’s founders.

This time it was David McCullough’s masterful biography of John Adams. Adams was a fascinating figure. From his relationship with Jefferson and Franklin, to his arduous journeys to Paris, to his parenting of John Quincy Adams, to his amazingly romantic and touching relationship with his wife Abigail, Adams’ life is more than worth an in-depth look. Not only was his life interesting, but because of his prolific letter-writing and journaling he left more source material for biographers to work with than perhaps any other founding father.

An image I’ll never forget — I also saw it portrayed on Friday at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science‘s special exhibit on Ben Franklin — is Adams and Franklin in bed together at a tavern. They are both exhausted. But before going to bed, they argue over whether to keep the window open during the night. They argue and they argue. Franklin won’t shut up, seeing as he believed in the healing qualities of the night air. Adams eventually falls asleep while Franklin continues making his point. I love it.

It’s hard to go wrong with a David McCullough biography.

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The Alpha Male Restores Order in the Pack with a Show of Aggression

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It is posts like this that remind me of my adoration for corporate America, from "Overheard in the Office":

9AM The Alpha Male Restores Order in the Pack with a Show of Aggression

Sales guy slamming down phone: Fucking bitch.

Boss: Tell me you didn’t just slam the phone down on our biggest billing client.

Sales guy: What? She couldn’t hear that.

Boss: What the fuck are you talking about?! I get the phone slammed down on me all the time — I fucking hear it.

Sales guy: Yeah, I guess maybe she could hear it.

Boss, picking up phone: Call me.

Sales guy, getting very nervous: No, it’s okay. I’m sorry.

Boss: Fucking call me. I said call me! Fucking do it now! [Sales guy calls. Boss starts slamming his receiver against his desk screaming] Can you fucking hear that?! Huh?! Can you fucking hear it, bitch?!

Sales guy: I hear it, boss, I hear it. Please, please stop.

For the past three months I’ve been working in the Mobius Venture Capital offices in Colorado. We work alongside two of the portfolio companies (ReturnPath and StillSecure). I won’t go into any detail, but suffice to say that I have witnessed events not dissimilar to the above. Terribly distracting but also hysterical.

Related Post: The Aspirations of Young People: Play on the Firm Softball Team

Hat tip for above link: Ramit Sethi

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Our Education System: A Big Waste of Time and Money?

Posted inSchool / Education3 Comments on Our Education System: A Big Waste of Time and Money?

Bryan Caplan thinks so. Writing as an academic to whom "the education system has been quite good" I suspect his book-in-progress will be even more provocative. I’ve said before that our public education system today is one giant trainwreck. Practical or not, it’s still fun to debate "big ideas" and giant reform around education. I look forward to what Bryan prescribes. From his page one:

[T]hree decades of experience, combined with two decades of reading and reflection, have convinced me that our educational system is a big waste of time and money. Practically every politician vows to spend more on education, and as an insider, I can’t helping asking "Why? Do you want us to waste even more?"

Most people who criticize our education system complain that we aren’t spending our money in the right way, or that ideologues-in-teachers’-clothes are leading our nation’s children down a dark path. While I mildly sympathize with some of these complaints, they often contradict what I see as the real problem with our educational system: There’s simply far too much education going on. The typical student burns up thousands of hours of his time learning about things that neither raise his productivity nor enrich his life. And of course, a student can’t waste thousands of hours of his time without real estate to do it in, or experts to show him how.

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To See What’s in Front of One’s Own Nose Needs a Constant Struggle – Or Does It?

Posted inPhilosophy4 Comments on To See What’s in Front of One’s Own Nose Needs a Constant Struggle – Or Does It?

I can’t think hard and communicate (send email, sit in meetings, talk on phone, etc.) at the same time. Either I’m reacting and communicating, or I’m pausing, reflecting, thinking.

For people whose livelihood depend on constant communication with others (CEOs with many employees, or start-up entrepreneurs who live in the trenches and obsess over minutia) I ask them, “When and where do you find time to think?”

The answers vary.

Some can do what I cannot which is think deeply and communicate those thoughts in real time. Whereas the contemplative mind, for me, suffocates under a barrage of communication, for some it’s a fertilizer of sorts, the 24/7 “always-on” environment positively affecting their ability to think original thoughts, reflect on larger trends, and so forth. Others block off chunks of time to “unplug” and try to make sense of the chaos they just went through.

Andrew Sullivan is an example of the first case — a public intellectual and journalist who blogs 20+ times a day, often simple quick links or pithy bon mots. For him, I would guess his larger themes emerge in real-time from the thousands of data points he communicates each week. Niel Robertson, a successful technologist, is the opposite. He posts very infrequently but when he does they are long and clearly the result of a thoughtful pause and reflection. I’m guessing his style is to communicate like crazy with his team, read bits and pieces of posts and articles and news headlines 17 hours a day, and in general embrace the chaos that is today’s connected world…and leave the deep thinking to scheduled moments.

Me? I’m in the middle. Each week I live in chaos, sending and receiving hundreds of emails a day, reading thousands of news articles or blog posts each week, reading a book or two a week, and meeting new faces and old over meals. In the evenings or on the weekends, when there’s less going on, I budget time to read, write, and generally reflect. I do value Orwell’s line that “to see what’s in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle,” but I also find it hard to engage in this struggle on a daily basis.

How do you deal with this tension?

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Steve Ballmer Video on Google and the Four Stages of a Business

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Steve Ballmer recently visited Stanford GSB and CNET has an awesome eight minute clip of his talk. While his comments on Google’s growth and the four stages of a business (launch an idea, reach critical mass, milk the critical mass, and then regenerate the business to start at stage one) are interesting, the most impressive part is his overall enthusiasm and likeability, even while taking a jab at a competitor.

Then again, Steve Ballmer’s passion has never been a question. (See: Steve Ballmer going crazy or Steve Ballmer chanting "developers").

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