Queuing

As kids, we learn all the rules that get us a good mark in “Plays well with others”. One of them is how to form a queue or line and act like good little kids that do not frazzle our saintly elementary school teachers more than necessary.

This carries over into being a supposed adult. When I went to pick up my son at summer camp recently, they had an elaborate procedure in place to guarantee the kids’ safety. Everyone had to present a form of ID to pick up their child, and it was compared to a list of valid parents and caretakers. This operation took a lot of time, and so everyone automatically formed a line.

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“Make No Small Plans”

“Make no small plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood”

When Daniel Burnham said this, he was an architect who was at the top of an architect’s world. He was in the process of designing the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, a neoclassical playground highlighting all the great gifts of the mechanical age and the rebirth of the city ravaged by fire 22 years earlier. It was the right time and place to think big. The bosses of Chicago loved it, and the people were enthralled.

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Community

I’d like to include a pointer to a recent article I posted on the essential elements of community:

http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewarticle.asp?id=30576

Why is such a thing needed? Everyone has a different definition of “community”. Most of these definitions are not all that useful when it comes to evaluating whether or not a project enhances community or not.

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Minor Leagues

Think of book agents as something akin to baseball talent scouts. These are the guys who sit in the bleachers at high school games and generally just watch. What are they looking for? What interests them more, raw talent or hustle? What brings them here, and will they be back? A real player who wants to “make it” needs to know.

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