Sun, Dec 31, 2006
Tom Clancy on War
#
I read TomClancy's Debt of Honor over the holidays. It was a guilty pleasure, although it wasn't that pleasurable. I hadn't read Clancy since high school, and Debt of Honor -- the eighth of the JackRyan franchise -- felt stale. It was 400 pages too long, there was too much exposition, there were too many series characters who didn't need to be in the book, and the plot was just too outrageous in the end. Yes, JackRyan is awesome, but in this book, he's Superman. Kind of ridiculous. (LMA)
That said, I read the whole damn book. All 990 pages. Pages 500 through 900 are classic Clancy. Clancy writes about war like no other, and the level of detail was, as always, extraordinary. Clancy, incidentally, is proof-positive of how effective OpenSourceIntelligence can be. (LMB)
I especially enjoyed this exchange between JackRyan and the President on the nature of war: (LMC)
"There's something big we don't know." (LMD)
"The why?" (LME)
"The why may be it. First I want to know the what. What do they want? What is their end-game objective?" (LMF)
"Not why they're doing it?" (LMG)
Ryan turned his head back to meet the President's eyes. "Sir, the decision to start a war is almost never rational. World War One, kicked off by some fool killing some other fool, events were skillfully manipulated by Leopold something-or-other, 'Poldi,' they called him, the Austrian Foreign Minister. Skilled manipulator, but he didn't factor in the simple fact that his country lacked the power to achieve what he wanted. Germany and Austria-Hungary started the war. They both lost. World War Two, Japan and Germany took on the whole world, never occurred to them that the rest of the world might be stronger. Particularly true of Japan." Ryan went on. "They never really had a plan to defeat us. Hold on that for a moment. The Civil War, started by the South. The South lost. The Franco-Prussian War, started by France. France lost. Almost every war since the Industrial Revolution was initiated by the side which ultimately lost. Q.E.D., going to war is not a rational act. Therefore, the thinking behind it, the why isn't necessarily important, because it is probably erroneous to begin with." (535) (LMH)
"Almost every war since the Industrial Revolution was initiated by the side which ultimately lost." Something to think about, especially with what's going on in the world today. (LMI)
/books |
Posted at 5:45pm
Thu, Dec 28, 2006
Blue Oxen's 4th Anniversary
#
A few weeks ago, about 50 friends and colleagues -- including
co-founder ChrisDent, visiting from Seattle -- joined us at
ChrisMessina and TaraHunt's gorgeous
new office in
SanFrancisco, CitizenSpace, to help celebrate BlueOxenAssociates' 4th
anniversary. Thanks to all who came and to all who sent well-wishes.
Thanks especially to Chris and Tara for being such great, generous
hosts, and thanks to TaraAnderson for handling all of the logistics.
Pictures are
up on Flickr,
and there's a
funny video of some late night, after-party silliness as well. (LLX)
Of course, being a BlueOxen event, there had to be a "group exercise."
This year, KaliyaHamlin led us through an incredibly moving one. She
asked all of us to take a moment and write down a meaningful thing
that happened to us this past year. She then asked us to write down
something we hope will happen next year. Everyone then
posted
them on the whiteboard for all to see and share. (LLY)
A few people signed their notes, but most of them left theirs
anonymous. Some notes were easy to identify, but most still leave me
wondering who wrote them. Some notes were business-related. Many
were deeply personal. Some notes were knee slappers. Others were
heart-wrenching. People wrote about relationships, both good and bad.
They wrote about losing family members and about surviving
cancer. They expressed both despair and hope. (LLZ)
What the exercise did was raise the group consciousness. I knew
almost everyone in the room, most of them well, and over the past
year, I interacted regularly with many of them. Yet this simple
exercise surfaced many things about the people in my community I
didn't know. It changed the way I looked at everyone in the room, and
it reminded all of us of our humanity. (LM0)
Great group exercises not only surface interesting content, but also
elicit surprising behavior. JonasLuster started the process by
drawing
connections between cards of people he thought should connect. I
don't know how many people connected through the wall, but I know some
did. (LM1)
Due to the hustle and bustle of being the host of the party, I didn't
have a chance to contribute my own meaningful moments to the wall, so
I thought I'd rectify that here. My list is long. Most of my moments
consist of late-night conversations with friends and colleagues over
dinner, over drinks, and over the phone, covering everything from
concrete topical challenges to philosophical ramblings to general
silliness. Just thinking about many of these moments brings a smile to
my face. (LM2)
If I had to sum up all of the meaningful moments from the past year
into one sentence, it would be this: (LM3)
I'm grateful that my relationships with many of my work colleagues
have evolved into true friendships. (LM4)
I'm a firm believer in professionalism, which often translates into a
wall between myself and my colleagues. It's my personal manifestation
of the IntimacyGradient, and my wall is probably a bit higher than
others. Nevertheless, I do let down my guard over time. It's never
planned. It's just something that happens organically over time, a
natural deepening of trust past a personal threshold. When it
happens, it's always incredibly enriching. It happened a lot this past
year. (LM5)
I am so grateful to have such high-quality and supportive people in my
life. It makes me all the more motivated to chase my dreams, to
continue to learn and improve, and to contribute as much as I can to
this world. I've discovered something that's special and important,
and I'm not even close to fully understanding it. I'm going to
work my butt off until I do, and I'm going to share what I learn as
widely as possible. (LM6)
/blueoxen |
Posted at 3:59pm
Fri, Dec 01, 2006
Notable December Events
#
There are several notable events this month. Next week is
Internet Identity
Workshop (IIW) 2006B at the ComputerHistoryMuseum in MountainView.
I'll be speaking on Monday afternoon about IdentityCommons. There
will also be an Untalent show on Tuesday night, which promises to be
spectacular. (LKV)
Starting Wednesday, December 6, LisaHeft will be
leading a three day
Open
Space Technology Workshop. Those of you interested in learning more
about OpenSpace should really attend. Lisa's a long-time practitioner
and thinker, and she is very well-respected in the community. (LKW)
AllenGunn and company are throwing a San
Francisco Nonprofit Technology Center
Holiday Party on
December 13 at their new space on 1370 Mission. Anyone who's ever
been to one of Gunner's parties know that this is not to be missed. (LKX)
Finally, ToddDavies and CPSR are sponsoring
Technopolitics Camp in
SanFrancisco on December 17. (LKY)
Happy December! (LKZ)
/events |
Posted at 9:12am
