Requisite Writing

The Office Bully Does It Because He Enjoys It

Forrest Christian — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:07:48 +0000

I’ve been reading a bit on sociopaths and border line personalities for use in an upcoming chapter on how they affect your career, so this little gem from Medical News caught my eye: “Brain Scans Show Bullies May Enjoy Watching Pain“. Yes, bullies enjoy hurting you. Wow. Like this should be news. The study, written up [...]

Move Towards Danger To Find Security

Forrest Christian — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:09:29 +0000

If you are a Hidden High Potential (HHP) and you never hear anything else from me, memorize this statement: What is safe for other people is dangerous for you; what is guaranteed to fail for most people is what’s most likely to succeed for you. Or, as Pippin in the Two Towers movie put it: The closer we [...]

Why Is Career Advice So Useless?

Forrest Christian — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:53:23 +0000

eWeek, a leading rag in the corporate IT industry, has a new article by Rich Milgram on “How to Ensure IT Job Security Despite an Economic Meltdown“. It’s a great example of useless career advice. And you don’t even have to be in IT to see that. Here are his four points, if you can call them [...]

Keynes on Why Bankers Can’t Self-Regulate

Forrest Christian — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:29:38 +0000

I asked Warren Kinston about something I had recently written regarding Imaginist thinking and Obama’s success. (He points out that Imaginist isn’t appropriate at societal level; I was wrong and should study more.) But that got me thinking about the values in play, and I returned to his Working With Values to look at Ethical [...]

Feeds Corrected

Forrest Christian — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:38:18 +0000

There has been a problem with the feeds for some users. This has hopefully been corrected. The new feeds all go through Feedburner.com so that I can supply the best feed for your needs. If you read Requisite Writing, The Secret Rules Blog in a newsreader, let me know if you’ve got new problems. For some [...]

Becoming the Enablement Vehicle

Forrest Christian — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:08:44 +0000

Back when I was working on the GO Society’s book, Organization Design, Levels of Work and Human Capability: Executive Guide, I had the opportunity to spend an Sunday afternoon talking to Julian Fairfield in his early Monday morning. (I love talking to Australia!) He’s an amazing thinker with a wide ranging interest that started [...]

Studs Terkel Takes His Bow

Forrest Christian — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 02:30:28 +0000

I was sitting here typing up a new post on Sociopaths in business (it’s going to end up being an e-book and a new Secret Rule) when I heard news that Studs Terkel, the Chicago radio commentator and general social commentator, passed on. I read his Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day [...]

ASSOCHAM: Indian Firms May Fire 25%

Forrest Christian — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:54:06 +0000

ASSOCHAM threatens that Indian firms may lay off 25% of their workers in the next 10 days, according to Expressindia. This seems a bit excessive even by my apparently ghoulish attitude to the current recession/collapse. I’m not sure what this means or if it is simply posturing by Industry. A quarter of your workforce is [...]

Give the World a Drink

Forrest Christian — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:35:11 +0000

Dr. Pepper, the venerable American cola brand (born of Texas!), has announced that they will keep their promise to provide every American with a can of Dr. Pepper if rock band Guns N’ Roses (GNR) would finally get off their backsides and release Chinese Democracy, the now going on 15 years late album. Which they [...]

“10% Unemployment Likely”: JLFC

Forrest Christian — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:59:31 +0000

Floyd Norris at United Panic reports today on this month’s report from the Jerome Levy Forecasting Center. They have consistently been the wet towel in the face of the “It’s raining dollars!” forecasters over the last few years. The overview: it’s going to be a lot worse than people think. Of interest to us is their [...]