[Photo credit: Chris Seufert]
I’m sitting on the deck of our vacation house looking over the sun coming up on the Atlantic Ocean. I see the sun glinting, the waves rolling…and seagulls. Lots of seagulls.
Remember that old joke about the definition of a corporate seagull? A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps [...]

I’m on “vacation” this week, which means I’m staying in house by the shore and doing work rather than being in my office and doing work. (Well, not quite. I went into the office yesterday for a few hours to participate in a conference call and pick up my rebuilt computer. Then I drove back [...]

[Photo credit: Tasmanian Government]
Paul Byron of the NYT called the platypus a classic animal design by committee. Look at that thing. He cites a poem about the composite animal:
I like the duck-billed platypus
Because it is anomalous.
I like the way it raises its family,
Partly birdly, partly mammaly.
I like its independent attitude.
Let no one call it a [...]

See that house in the picture? It was built in Ridley Creek State Park, just outside Philadelphia, in 1736. Two hundred and fifty-two years ago that house was the best and brightest house around. It functioned as a mill and a home to the family who built it. Which made me think about our view [...]

This video of Malcolm Gladwell talking about the challenge of hiring people is fabulous. The question he addresses is, “How do you hire the right person?”
He talks about the Mismatch Problem. Recruiters: Watch and weep.
BTW: If you’re asking new hires about their college GPAs, stop it now. It’s ridiculous. It has nothing to do with [...]