From: Warren Miller [mailto:
wmiller@beckmill.com]
Shucks, Romie, if you were a kid in the United States, you wouldn't be
diagnosed as having a "lack of focus." However, you could easily be
diagnosed as having Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Stateside, that
would mean additional federal and state funding for your school.
Not surprisingly, that funding has resulted in a veritable epidemic of
reported ADD, which has given kids artificial barriers to hide behind and
early introductions to altering their behaviors through drugs. It's given
their parents a whole new plethora of excuses for their kids' lousy
academic performance, too. Big pharma loves it, the teachers love it (the
better to fuzzy up attempts to measure their classroom performance), and
the shrinks love it. What a gravy train.
Nuttiness subsidized is nuttiness rewarded.
I don't think you lack focus, Romie. Rather, I suspect you're just a
curious person, and I think that's terrific!
Warren
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*
* Website:
http://beckmill.com *
* Warren D. Miller, MBA, CPA-ABV, CMA *
* Beckmill Research/Lexington, Va. *
* Research Orientation, Results Mentality *
* 540.463.6200 (v); 540.463.6208 (f) *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*
There are 3 messages totalling 352 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Linear thinking: Re: Writing & Thinking (3)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 09:31:08 +0100
From: Romie Littrell <
littrellaom@yahoo.co.nz>
Subject: Linear thinking: Re: Writing & Thinking
Fred Nickols' interesting reference, " 'The Art of
Practical Thinking' by Richard Weil, Jr., published in
1940 by Simon & Schuster" is a good treatise in
mono-chronic, linear Western-style thinking. I do not
function that way, but it gives some good ideas for
linear documentation of processes for us polychronic,
compulsive multi-tasking, large backlog of
work-in-progress, immediately switch from a foreground
task to a background w-i-p task when new useful
information is stumbled upon people. The older I get
the more I need to document my multi-tasking, and the
more frequently I forget to.
Some might call this behaviour "lack of focus"; focus
is overrated. It can be boring and non-productive, and
happens naturally when the available data and process
flow are matched. If the data isn't available, why
focus on one problem.
Regards,
Romie
--- Fred Nickols <
nickols@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> I like Warren Miller's linking of writing to
> thinking and I do indeed
> believe there is a link. I'm quite convinced that
> someone who can't think
> probably can't produce much of anything worth
> reading. However, I'm not as
> convinced that a good thinker is necessarily also a
> good writer. But that's
> a different matter.
>
> Romie Littrell suggested one of Stuart Chase's books
> dating from 1956 and
> I've got a "golden oldie" too.
>
> One of my favorite books is "The Art of Practical
> Thinking" by Richard Weil,
> Jr., published in 1940 by Simon & Schuster.
> Obviously, it's out of print
> but, just as I did, you can obtain a copy via used
> and antiquarian book
> dealers, in particular,
www.abebooks.com.
>
> I was so impressed by Weil's book that I wrote a
> reprise of chapter six -
> General Rules for Better Thinking - and published
> it. You can find a copy
> of that on my web site at the following link:
>
>
http://home.att.net/~discon/six_rules.pdf
>
> Weil, by the way, was an executive, not a professor.
> He was president of
> Bamberger's, a large, well-known New Jersey
> department store that was later
> acquired by Macy's (where Weil had started his
> career in 1928).
>
> In any event, Weil's book is well worth reading and
> as relevant today as
> when he wrote it in 1940.
>
> Regards,
>
> Fred Nickols
>
www.nickols.us
>
nickols@att.net
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Management Education and Development
> Discussion [mailto:MG-ED-
> >
DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU] On Behalf Of Charles
> Wankel
> > Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 11:54 PM
> > To:
MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
> > Subject: Re: It's our fault if business students
> do not write better than
> > students in other disciplines
> >
> > From: Warren Miller [mailto:
wmiller@beckmill.com]
> >
> > Valued colleagues--
> >
> > As one who hires, and advises clients about
> hiring, financial
> > professionals,
> > and sometimes new college graduates, let me
> respectfully suggest that
> > arguing whether business students do or don't
> write better than students
> > in
> > other disciplines is like arguing which is better,
> premeditated murder or
> > negligent homicide. You're arguing about your
> hair styles when your feet
> > are on fire.
> >
> > The problem is not with the students' inability to
> write. It is with
> > their
> > inability to think. A non-thinker's writing
> sample is simply a signed
> > confession of that fact. You can give them all
> the technical writing
> > suggestions in the world, and it won't help. They
> can't think. Until or
> > unless they learn, this debate doesn't matter.
> The solution to the
> > problem
> > should have occurred long before they got out of
> high school. In fact,
> > they
> > shouldn't have been allowed to graduate from
> secondary school without
> > being
> > required to write, from scratch, a coherent
> paragraph on a subject given
> > to
> > them at a testing site.
> >
> > Most would fail, of course. That failure would
> open the can of worms
> > about
> > the rotten state of government education at the
> elementary and secondary
> > levels generally. No need to go there with this.
> But those who can't
> > think
> > can't write.
> >
> > An example: A client of ours hired an MBA
> graduate of one of Canada's
> > finest business schools. Besides having her
> graduate degree, she had
> > several years' work experience and had passed the
> Chartered Financial
> > Analyst exam, one of the most demanding
> professional credentialing
> > regimens
> > in existence. She was smart, charming, and
> affable. But she couldn't,
> > and
> > can't, write a lick. If I owned her alma mater,
> I'd pay her a chunk of
> > money every year not to tell a soul that she had
> somehow graduated from my
> > institution.
> >
> > Another: I hired a new graduate of one of
> Virginia's finest business
> > schools. He had a high GPA, put himself through
> school, and presented
> > himself well. We underwrote his efforts on the
> CPA exam; he passed all
> > parts on the first try. But he routinely says
> "could have went" and
> > writes
> > fragments as if there's no tomorrow. The first
> time I offered him
> > constructive criticism, he resisted, saying
> "Everyone says I'm the best
> > writer they've seen." I don't know the context in
> which "best" is used.
> > I
> > do know that we're back to comparing murder-one
> and negligent homicide
> > again.
> >
> > Warren Miller
> >
> > P.S. Our employee is now a CPA. . .who can't do
> accounting. That's
> > another
> > discussion. But he's not alone. I see it all the
> time. So do our
> > clients.
> > Show me a CPA beneath the age of 27, and I'll bet
> I can show you someone
> > who couldn't close a set of books if her/his life
> depended on it. Shame
> > on
> > those accounting faculties. Shame on them.
> >
> > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
> * * * * * * * *
> > *
> > * Website:
http://beckmill.com
> *
> > * Warren D. Miller, MBA, CPA-ABV, CMA
> *
> > * Beckmill Research/Lexington, Va.
> *
> > * Research Orientation, Results Mentality
> *
> > * 540.463.6200 (v); 540.463.6208 (f)
> *
> > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
> * * * * * * * *
> > *
>
PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
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"Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
Romie F. Littrell, PhD, An fánaí fiáin
Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
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Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 09:13:49 -0400
From: Fred Nickols <
nickols@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: Linear thinking: Re: Writing & Thinking
Regarding Romie Littrell's closing comment from her recent post...
> If the data isn't available, why focus on one problem.
The same notion of data and information availability on a cross-problem
basis applies within an effort to solve a single problem, hence the notion
of problem solving as a "cover the bases" activity instead of one that has
you trot 'round them in 1-2-3 order.
As I wrote in "Reengineering the Problem Solving Process" published back
in
1994:
"Rather than follow a narrowly defined sequential procedure, the search
for
solutions should proceed along many fronts at once, taking advantage of
the
available information and working on what can be worked on at the time."
http://home.att.net/~OPSINC/reengineering.pdf
In short, couldn't agree more, Romie.
Regards,
Fred Nickols
nickols@att.net
www.nickols.us
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 21:34:19 +0100
From: Romie Littrell <
littrellaom@yahoo.co.nz>
Subject: Re: Linear thinking: Re: Writing & Thinking
Good Fred. Was just reading last evening, "An
intelligent person is one with whom you agree."
However, from another old book by Dwite Batteau,1966,
?Stupidtheorems?, to paraphrase, "You rarely learn
much from someone you agree with, but you get a lot of
work done. You don't get much done working with
someone with whom you disagree, but you can learn a
lot."
Another reference on linear thinking, e.g., in
English:
Systems Thinking as a Language, by Michael Goodman,
The Systems Thinker?, Volume 2, Number 3: "Language
has a subtle, yet powerful effect on the way we view
the world. English, like most other Western languages,
is linear ?- its basic sentence construction,
noun-verb-noun, translates into a worldview of "x
causes y." This linearity predisposes us to focus on
one-way relationships rather than circular or mutually
causative ones, where x influences y, and y in turn
influences x. Unfortunately, many of the most vexing
problems confronting managers and corporations today
are caused by a web of tightly interconnected circular
relationships. To enhance our understanding and
communication of such problems, we need a language
more naturally suited to the task."
--- Fred Nickols <
nickols@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> Regarding Romie Littrell's closing comment from her
> recent post...
>
> > If the data isn't available, why focus on one
> problem.
>
> The same notion of data and information availability
> on a cross-problem
> basis applies within an effort to solve a single
> problem, hence the notion
> of problem solving as a "cover the bases" activity
> instead of one that has
> you trot 'round them in 1-2-3 order.
>
> As I wrote in "Reengineering the Problem Solving
> Process" published back in
> 1994:
>
> "Rather than follow a narrowly defined sequential
> procedure, the search for
> solutions should proceed along many fronts at once,
> taking advantage of the
> available information and working on what can be
> worked on at the time."
>
>
http://home.att.net/~OPSINC/reengineering.pdf
>
> In short, couldn't agree more, Romie.
>
> Regards,
>
> Fred Nickols
>
nickols@att.net
>
www.nickols.us
>
PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/
"Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
Romie F. Littrell, PhD, An fánaí fiáin
Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
___________________________________________________________
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End of MG-ED-DV Digest - 29 Jul 2005 to 30 Jul 2005 (#2005-77)
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