Daily Thoughts 8/31/2009

This picture was taken by David M. Alexander in the early 1980s on Jack Vance's boat in San Francisco Bay. Alexander has hereby released his copyright to the picture and has placed it in the public domain to be used for any purpose and by anyone who wants to use it, as long as he is credited as being the photographer. Hayford Peirce 20:16, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

Daily Thoughts 8/31/2009

This morning I was at the mechanics for my car inspection which passed. I sat in the waiting room and finished reading The Management Myth and The Practice of Management. I even had a chance to write the rough drafts on my thoughts on these two books. The waiting room had coffee, but no donuts. I guess they are trying to save money.

The Management Myth Why The Experts Keep Getting It Wrong by Matthew Stewart.

Matthew Stewart has a Ph.D. in philosophy. This is both the story of how he became a business consultant and a critique of the practice of business management. Mr. Stewart uses his background to attack the foundations of management theory initially focusing on Frederick W. Taylor and Elton Mayo, both who are considered to be cornerstones of the concept of "scientific management." He does not critique Edward Deming or Peter Drucker, however.

The book can be funny, pointed, and acerbic. He has quite a bit of bile for consulting. He makes some very irreverent claims; the moment a consultant says the word strategy you start paying money and the real purpose of consulting is to do the things which a company cannot do by itself but knows needs to be done. There are points where the book became hard to read because there was so much angst.

We learn about hunting whales or clients flush with cash. Simple principles like the Pareto or the 80/20 Principle allow consultants to create self evident truths they can charge for. The world of consulting that Matthew Stewart describes is one of excessive pay, venality, and a focus on short term business gains above all else.

The book attacks many of the accepted ideas in business. He points out most business gurus rely on past data from successful companies to make their points, there is a utopian streak in the idea that workers will accept lower pay and higher performance, and points out numbers often don't predict the future.

If you can take a lot of angst, black humor, and a story of greed and lawyers you may like this book. Matthew Stewart ultimately successfully sued his employer for not paying him to be let go from his consulting practice. If you also want a very pointed attack on the underlying assumption that business management is reasonable and an MBA (Masters in Business Administration) is useful read this book. It pricks and deflates many assumptions.

The Practice of Management by Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker claims to be the father of modern management practice. When reading his books, his ideas come across as being authoritative and sensible. They also seem more philosophical to me than anything else. A lot of his thoughts are focused on ethics. They also seem to have become the standard practice in many modern corporations. I am not sure this is completely a good thing. If you read books on Japanese lean manufacturing and Edward Deming's quality circles, they are very different than what Mr. Drucker is saying.

You can quote what Peter Drucker is saying very easily, he is a wonderful communicator. Some quotes are "In hiring a worker one always hires the whole man," and "Whatever the manager does he does through making decisions." These quotes have a nice feeling to them.

Peter Drucker focuses on iconic American companies that were very successful in his time, General Motors, Ford, IBM, and Sears. Now, General Motors and Sears are not doing so well, but they were excellent at that time in history. The book shows how things change. As ideas are adopted they are built on further.

We learn about the place for the professional in the scheme of management as well as the worker and manager. We learn a lot of truisms like managers must manage. There is little that can be directly refuted. There is also a slightly utopian streak. People should work at peak performance and money is not the best motivator for employees. These are common beliefs held by many managers.

If you want to understand many of the ideas behind management practice read Peter Drucker. You may not agree with it, but it seems to set a standard for business practice across industries.

I spent quite a bit of time reading both of these books. They are often quite insightful. A lot of it is just learning the language which is being spoken. I think sometimes when you read this material, it helps clarify what people are saying. There is a professional language attached to business administration and public administration degrees which often uses coded meanings which are not always apparent to people who are line workers or professionals.

I spent some time this evening reading a bit of Graceling by Kristin Cashore. I also have the novel, Fire by Kristin Cashore on hold. Both of these are young adult fantasy novels.

Daily Thoughts 8/23/2009

William Gibson, American playwright, author of The Miracle Worker a play about Helen Keller

Daily Thoughts 8/23/2009

I have been reading more of Peter F. Drucker's The Practice of Management. Peter F. Drucker considers The Cyropaedia written by Xenophon to be the best book on leadership ever written. It is a classic novel about the rise of Cyrus the great in Persia. http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=2085

Daily Thoughts 8/22/2009

Alexander and Aristotle

Daily Thoughts 8/22/2009

I am on vacation right now. I went to Barnes and Nobles and bought a paperback science fiction book, Ariel by Steven R. Boyett. It is a postapocalyptic fantasy novel. Magic comes comes back and all the electricity and gunpowder stops working. It is entertaining so far. I'll probably donate it to the library where I work when I am done with it. I don't keep most of the books I read.

I watched a little bit of 2001 A Space Odyssey on dvd. It is interesting watching it. Before, I did not realize there were no ethnic cast members. Russians, Europeans, and Americans are represented in this film so far. The film has a very anglophile feel to it. The story is still excellent and the cinematography is beautiful.

I finished reading Ariel this afternoon. It is a fantasy novel about a young man who becomes attached to a unicorn. The villain wants the unicorns horn and Peter Garey must protect the unicorn. There is a theme of virginity and coming of age in the novel.

It is also a travel novel. The hero travels on a quest to get to a postapocalyptic New York where the villain resides. Gunpowder does not work, nor does electricity. This is a deus ex machina where the characters fight with swords and bows in a postapocalyptic world.

The author includes an afterword which describes his experience writing the novel and submitting it for publication. The novel was originally released in 1983 and is being rereleased in 2009. It was the authors first novel. There is going to be a sequal released in November. The story went quickly with lots of action, especially swordplay.

I am still reading Peter F. Drucker The Practice of Management. This is not an easy book to read. There is a lot of very deep thinking involved. A lot of the ideas in the book are eye opening and different than what I am used to. I like a quote of Andrew Carnegie's epitaph on his tombstone, "Here lies a man who knew how to enlist in his service better men than himself." The epitaph which was at the beginning of Chapter 13 in the Practice of Management. I will read a little bit of it every day until I am finished.

Daily Thoughts 8/20/2009

Bertrand Russell Nobel laureate in Literature 1950

Daily Thoughts 8/20/2009

Today, I have been weeding some more in the 800s. I am in the poetry section right now. Sometimes, you find odd titles which are appealing like Untitled Epic Poem on the History of Industrialization by R. Buckminster Fuller. I found it rather intriguing.

I finished reading Dean Koontz's Frankenstein Dead and Alive Book Three. The series was satisfying but a little strange. It is also on the Locus Magazine paperback bestseller list. Dean Koontz has been focusing on writing about odd people a lot lately. The last book I read of his before this series was Odd Thomas. In the Frankenstein books, I can recognize the influence of the british writer Brian Lumley. It is a nice distraction if you want something to pass some time reading.

I read some more of The Practice of Management by Peter F. Drucker. It identifies the main purpose of a business is to create customers. Businesses do this through marketing, innovation, and productivity. Profit is the end point of doing these things right. The book makes a lot of sense. There is no jargon in this book. It is very different from more modern business texts. There are no charts and statistics.

Daily Thoughts 8/14/2009

James George Frazer (1854-1941), author of The Golden Bough

Daily Thoughts 8/14/2009

I read some more of The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie. During the book, he disavows his intention to break labor in the steel mills. He even goes one step further saying he went to Scotland so that the other members of the company could carry out what they thought needed to be done in the steel mill strikes. It was very interesting how you could read the steel underneath the smile. He comes across as fair in the way he writes, but history seems to give a very different account of the Homestead Strike than what Andrew Carnegie describes in his autobiography. It was a very bloody, violent confrontation involving Pinkerton security, striking steel mill workers, and eventually the army. The book is written to create a persona in many ways.

I found the book fascinating because it showed a very optimistic view of the world with a smiling outer persona that covered up an incredibly driven person. Even in giving, he sought to further his name. He built over two thousand libraries, many museums, trade schools, university scholarships, art centers, and started numerous endowments. He even became an ambassador. He was largely self taught. He would listen to people then endeavor to teach himself about the subjects he heard about. He was constantly seeking to meet new and important people. Towards the end of his life, he was talking to presidents and emperors and traveling all over the world.

There is a lot about morality in this book. Some of it was hard handed. He avoided "low people", foul language, and demanded very few concessions from the people who worked for him. He also talked a lot about religion and morality. There was a sense that he helped people who were gracious to him and came down hard on anyone who stood in his way.

The writing is very familiar. It feels like he is talking to you directly. It has a clean, proper feeling to it. There is no foul language. He is talking about his accomplishments, but it does not come across as bragging. It would have been valuable if I had read it earlier in my life.

There is a certain sense of indebtedness which I feel to his work. At the same time there is a certain regret in his heavyhandedness. He after all gave the money which was used to build the library I work in.

I started reading The Practice of Management by Peter F. Drucker. Peter F. Drucker claims that this is the first book to systematically codify modern management practices. This book was written in 1954. The copy I have includes a preface by Peter F. Drucker from 1985. The book itself was published by Harper Collins in 2006. Peter F. Drucker is considered to be one of the most important business thinkers.

Today was another solid day. We had a reference meeting in the morning to discuss reference sources. I also did a little bit of weeding, made sure the new arrivals section was in order and printed out my orders for next week. There was a big event outside for the kids and teenagers with music, a magic show, a clown, music, and prizes for the summer reading program. It ran for several hours.

Daily Thoughts 8/13/2009

'Book-Head, 3,297,421', bronze sculpture by Jonathan Borofsky (American), 1979-90, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel

Daily Thoughts 8/13/2009

Today has been another steady day. I did a bit of weeding in the 800s and sorted through the gift books putting in slips for material that needed to be added. Enough has been done lately with the new books for everyone to be caught up, so we can do the secondar activities. I also put in some slips with descriptions for repairs that needed to be done for some of our older books. Things have been shaping up steadily.

I read some more of The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie. So far, it is the story of a steady rise from being a messenger to being a telegraph operator, to working as a railroad clerk, to being a superintendent of a railroad at an early age. There is a mix of religion, a focus on clean living, and a desire to understand great literature.

The book, The Practice of Management by Peter F. Drucker has come in for me to read. I will probably start reading it when I finish reading about Andrew Carnegie. I took a look at Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. The book is positively enormous. It is the kind of book which would take a couple of weeks to read at the minimum. I am going to ponder when I will read it.

On the way home, I read some more of The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie. There are a few things which stand out in this book; an unrelenting focus on excellence and quality, a reminder to do what others have not done yet, and a focus on cleanliness, quality tools, and orderliness.

Tomorrow, I plan on going through all my email communications to look at what I have promised; sometimes, it is good to review what you have said. It is easy to forget your promises or lose track of what you think you are supposed to be doing.