Know your numbers

…especially if you’re supposed to be a numbers person. James Bullard, President of the St. Louis Fed, was on CNBC this morning talking QE2.  His comments weren’t particularly noteworthy — at least to me — until the conversation turned to what happened next with QE2 itself. The headshaker happened when Becky Quick asked him how [...]

So NASA, you gonna stick to that story?

There’s a lot about President Obama’s new space strategy that I like (here is a pretty good recent roundup of the approach and reaction from all sides).  The Bush plan was uninspired and a sop to the space/industrial complex.   It is past time to get NASA out of the low earth orbit business and into [...]

Old school advice

I appreciate Todd Smith’s posts, especially when I need to get back to basics.  His site — Little Things Matter — focuses relentlessly on its subject.   I think of it as an extended riff on some advice about the “little things” I got as a fledgling McDonald’s shift manager: Keep the corners clean and the [...]

Hamel’s Stretch Goals for Management

I’m working through the pile of links I’ve accumulated.  Gary Hamel’s 25 Stretch Goals for Management caught my eye, if nothing else because I liked the challenge they attempt to address: What is it about the way large organizations are currently managed that will most imperil their ability to thrive in the decades ahead; and [...]

Sputnik and Delayed Gratification

The President’s remarks about a “Sputnik moment” in his SOTU speech last month prompted lots of comment, most claiming he misapplied or misunderstood the impact of Sputnik. However, I came across an article from American Heritage — can’t give the hat-tip because I can’t find the cite — that shows that many of us don’t [...]