(The next post today will address the Underachieve issue directly. This one describes why Wilfred Brown is important to listen to. We’ll refer to these things later.) As Paul Holstrom pointed out, my telling of the story about the Glacier guys coming up with Timespan was a bit off. They had been having a pint and were talking about the …
New York Public Library's Business in iTunes U
TUAW reported that the NYPL joined the iTunes U pages. What’s incredible is that this includes some of their business presentations and audio, including such things as “Accounting and Bookkeeping Essentials” and “Credit Management and Credit Repair for Entrepreneurs”. A worthwhile look for those of you who are starting up new businesses in this awful environment.
When Being An Underachiever Is Really Just Being Stuck
Do you feel like you’re underachieving because you are just stuck where you are and can’t get out? Byron (not his real name) feels like this. He was doing well for a long time. A graduate of one of the top HR schools in the U.S. He had been the compensation manager for a shoe company with operations in several …
New MacUpdate Promo Bundle
Since I got so much grief from some of y’all for failing to mention the last one, here’s the news: a brand new MacUpdate Promo bundle is available. You get some great apps, plus the chance that they will unlock SoundStudio (probable), BannerZest (likely), and Parallels Desktop (possible but don’t hold your breath), all for US$64.99. In my opinion, the …
The Bookshelf Mocketh Not the Poor
(Or perhaps “Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.” The make of my bookshelf is 57th Street Bookcase & Cabinet so maybe they don’t care.) Michelle Malay Carter tagged me recently to participate in the book your reading meme. The assignment, since I decided to accept it, was to …
Are You An Adult Underachiever or Is That Someone Else's Label?
We’re taking a detour on our answer to last week’s question on Adult Underachievers to address something that has popped up in emailed responses. It’s a great question because it gets to the real heart of the matter. It may address a problem that was never raised when we talked about Maye Rain’s belief that she was an underachiever, even …
Chinese Young People: Loyal and Adamant About It
The New York Times has a recent piece on the surprising loyalty of Chinese young people to the government, especially its actions in Tibet. (They do have a point that China is treating its “aborigines” better than the Americans treated theirs.) This is not just a problem in China. Because growth in one’s capability of information processing (CIP) is a …
Thoughts on underemployed high-moders (Adult Underachievers)
Some random thoughts I’ve had over the past couple of years, collected. Randomly. About what I call underemployed or underutilized high-mode individuals. Others call them “ex- gifted child” or “adult underachiever” or “irritating screw ups”. If you don’t know what “mode” means, here’s a quick explanation. Elliott Jaques and Wilfred Brown discovered that people’s ability to handle complexity was tied …
Are You Really An Adult Underachiever?
Too many good people think they are “adult underachievers” but aren’t. What they really are is folks who have chosen a different lifepath than the one that is accepted as the best way to live in our society. (I’m in America, but probably still true in Australia and the UK. It’s less true in Europe. If you’re somewhere else, you’ll …
Why Requisite Organization Fails: People Don’t Like the Implications
Let’s face facts: Requisite Organization (RO) means that a lot of people (1) aren’t as “smart” as they think they are, and (2) the system in which they have succeeded is built on sand. And that’s a big reason why RO doesn’t succeed. When people read about work levels and Requisite Organization — especially Bioss’s Career Path Appreciation (CPA) and …






