The credit crunch explained...

...in plain and simple English.

Climate change meets free enterprise

This is what I love about free enterprise.

Pop!Tech and EBay just launched a new initiative. You can now go to an online store (here), estimate your carbon footprint and buy credits to offset it. You can choose how much of your footprint to offset. Credits that you buy get distributed between 3 Green projects currently underway in various corners of the world.

Pop!Tech just made it to the (extremely short) list of conferences I want to attend.

Institutionalized nonspecificity

Or How I try to explain to people what I do (and usually fail)
.....................................................................................

Them: I'm a sales manager at Widget Corporation (or Professor of History at Doomsbury University or in fact, any title where you can tell what the job is). How about you?

Me: (slightly embarassed) Uh..I'm a consultant.

The polite audience nods sagely before letting a slightly confused expression show. Others, they simply move on to the next question.

Them: What kind of consultant?

Me: (knowing that this is not going to make things better) Strategy consultant, actually. You know, we typically work with senior management at companies on large strategic issues.

Everyone realizes at this point that things are clear as mud, and the topic is dying. The more determined audience, in an effort to prove their determination, ask for examples. This is almost always a dead-end because management consultants typically won't give out specific examples.

The more creative audience decides to ask for my job title (or, politely, for a business card). And there, in bold print on the business card, it says...

Them:...Oh, so you are an Associate...

I wince, and wait for it. We both know they are thinking of the Associate at Bloomingdale's who helped them find the nice pashmina for Grandma.

Them:..which means..?

Me: It's kind of like a manager. That means I'm usually in charge of solving one particular problem, and sometimes I also have people working for me.

Them: oh. ok.

Silence. Then we move on.

Further thoughts on climate change

I just had to post this article. It is always a pleasure to encounter clearly articulated, internally consistent thoughts.

Best sentence: "...military intelligence bears the same relationship to intelligence as military music does to music."

Excerpt: " My first heresy says that all the fuss about global warming is grossly exaggerated. Here I am opposing the holy brotherhood of climate model experts and the crowd of deluded citizens who believe the numbers predicted by the computer models. Of course, they say, I have no degree in meteorology and I am therefore not qualified to speak. But I have studied the climate models and I know what they can do. The models solve the equations of fluid dynamics, and they do a very good job of describing the fluid motions of the atmosphere and the oceans. They do a very poor job of describing the clouds, the dust, the chemistry and the biology of fields and farms and forests. They do not begin to describe the real world that we live in. The real world is muddy and messy and full of things that we do not yet understand. It is much easier for a scientist to sit in an air-conditioned building and run computer models, than to put on winter clothes and measure what is really happening outside in the swamps and the clouds. That is why the climate model experts end up believing their own models."

Climate change: are we going to make it?

A few weeks ago, I flipped through Al Gore's book. Summary: the prognosis is not good. We're in a *lot* of trouble, and we'd better do something about climate change. Quickly.

Since then, I've been reading about the impact of climate change on our world. The Green movement is gathering steam, and more and more companies are jumping on the bandwagon. Is that going to be enough, though?

John Doerr doesn't think so.

More fascinating stuff

The journey of mankind. Click here.

Note: Still on my history binge, will be back with posts soon. In the meantime, wouldn't it be fascinating if the information above could be combined with a language history of the world? Anyone know a website that does that?

Escape to the Eiger

Hinterstoisser Traverse. Swallow's Nest. Death Bivouac. Traverse of the Gods. Higher, past these hazards, the White Spider awaits the next climber. This is one of the most feared faces in the world, the North Face of the Eiger. Considered unclimbable for a century, it holds a very special place in climbing lore.

I saw it for the first time exactly a year ago. Directly below the North Wall stand the four or five buildings that make up the village of Kleine Scheidegg. One of these buildings is the Restaurant Eigernordwand (literally, Eiger North Wall), while another is the grand old Scheidegg Hotel. Once upon a time, a telescope sitting on the patio of the restaurant was the only relatively reliable way to keep track of climbers on the Face. Sitting on that patio, reading White Spider and seeing that Face looming over me every time I looked up, is one of the most unforgettable experiences I've ever had. A great memory and to me, one that would not have been possible without "being there" reading.

If you're a "being there" reader, please leave a comment and share your stories.

More reading: Guardian's Great Escapes, Part 1, Guardian's Great Escapes, Part 2.

Related posts: White Spider.

Bad, bad powerpoint

Every consultant's favorite program - Powerpoint - just turned 20. Today's WSJ has a very nice article about it. On this occasion, I thought it would be useful to direct everyone to this article.

Seth is a writer I have a lot of respect for. Some of his recommendations clearly come from the marketing background, but they can be adapted and applied.

Is life one long rush hour?

Everyone must go here and read the article immediately.

The premise: Put one of the best living classical violinists, playing the most elegant music that has ever been written, on one of the best violins ever made (a Strad from the 1710s, if you must know) in front of a rush hour crowd.

The question: Does beauty get recognized?

Read the whole thing, it's worth the time.

India Rising - order out of chaos?

Just found this fantastic video online.

In the last few years, everyone in the US has seen and heard and read ad nauseum about the Infosys campus and the call centers that are the symbols of the "New" and upcoming India. In this video, you can see, perhaps for the first time, beyond this hoopla. See the shantytowns in Bombay with Pentium PCs at work inside broken down hovels and the buzz of activity in a Delhi bazaar. You'll see young Indians making statements that may surprise many (for example, a young tutor says "A child in the 7th grade in India is at about the same level as a child in the 10th grade in the US"). I, for one, am not among the surprised.

India Rising.

Things seem to be finally getting to the point where the organized chaos that is India can be appreciated for what it is. And full credit to ABC for actually making an effort.

Tom Sawyer and me

What do I have in common with Tom Sawyer? Among other things, we're not fans of Monday morning. He had his reasons, and mine is having to get up at 4AM to catch a plane.

And now, bright and early on a Monday, I'm hanging out in SFO. Why? The flight is delayed. Why? They don't have de-icing equipment in San Francisco, and the plane is frozen over.

So how is a plane de-iced? Carefully, I hope.

Women without spouses

From the NYT of the day. I'm sure the content is interesting, but full marks on geekery (and zero for readability) for the title.

51% of women now live without spouse.

Positive reinforcement

Toss him a Mackerel.