Gleanings
Items of interest on faith and culture from around the Internet
A useful exercise for leaders
Fri 20 Mar 2009 by Peter Edman
Alan Jacobs calls our attention to the blog of Douglas Bowman, a lead designer at Google who is leaving that company. Bowman explains his rationale for moving on in a provocative post:
Without a person at (or near) the helm who thoroughly understands the principles and elements of Design, a company eventually runs out of reasons for design decisions. With every new design decision, critics cry foul. Without conviction, doubt creeps in. Instincts fail. “Is this the right move?” When a company is filled with engineers, it turns to engineering to solve problems. Reduce each decision to a simple logic problem. Remove all subjectivity and just look at the data. Data in your favor? Ok, launch it. Data shows negative effects? Back to the drawing board. And that data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions.
It would be a useful exercise to extend this argument to other fields, notably ethics. Do you find parallel situations in the organizations you lead? How important is it for to leaders to understand the principles by which their organization is run?
Are there situations where you are tempted to rely too much on data—science, polls, market “demands,” what is technically possible—to take the “subjective” factors out of the decision and make sure no one is ultimately responsible for a decision. Is this what causes a “corporate mindset”?
By what standards do you evaluate criticism of yourself or your organization? How do you help other people in your organization understand core principles, whether ethical, operational, or aesthetic?
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, RIP
Sun 03 Aug 2008 by TTF Staff
“A great writer is, so to speak, a secret government in his country.”
The Chains of Freedom
Fri 11 Jul 2008 by Mark Meador
Wendell Berry could be called an agrarian curmudgeon, if not the agrarian curmudgeon. He could also be called modernity's Cassandra, an unheeded prophet of coming misfortune. And yet no matter how off-putting his tone may be (at least in his essays), no matter how hard-to-swallow his message, it is a challenging task to convince yourself he is wrong. His insights and logic seem to carry an uncomfortable truth.
Such is the case with his piece in the May issue of Harper's Magazine, wherein he attacks modern society's ahistorical and foolish preoccupation with limitlessness, something with which he says we equate “freedom.” This understanding of freedom, Berry argues, does not liberate humanity but rather destroys it:
What Does it Mean to be Human?
Tue 10 Jun 2008 by Mark Meador
On May 31, 2008, at the World Science Festival in New York City, a panel of scientists gathered to discuss what it means to be human.
It appears to have been quite an interesting seminar, and the things that were spoken were true and insightful. Yet most were plagued by a somewhat restricted perspective. All of the contributors being scientists, the insights were mostly of a scientific nature, but scientific insights into the meaning of being human largely center on identifying the limits of science more than pointing out fundamental truths of what it means to be human. Even the sociologist’s views culminated in the summary, “I think we’re more than biological creatures. I’m not sure biology has answers.” Several contributors talked about humans being uniquely rational, having the ability to remember, having a “human program” in our DNA, and so on; but these ideas don’t seem to capture the fullness of humanity conveyed by ideas like justice, love, and friendship. At the end of the day, it was the neuroscientist in the group that had the most meaningful input: “I like to think of a generator of diversity in the frontal lobe—and those initials are G-O-D.”
Sire on Wright
Fri 01 Sep 2006 by Peter Edman
Dr. James Sire has a review in the current Christianity Today on Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense by N. T. Wright (Harper San Francisco, 2006).
I’ve mentioned this book in other posts, but I have not yet reviewed it here. In “Echoes and Voices from Beyond,” Dr. Sire essentially captures my thoughts on the book as a whole. It really is excellent. I have a few quibbles on Wright’s understanding of economics, but they do not detract from this overall recommendation.
Perspective, Perspective
Thu 20 Jul 2006 by Peter Edman
I am struck by the tone of the arguments over the stem cell veto by President Bush. Others have said most of what needs to be said, but I do want to link to this post on the weblog of Ignatius Press, publisher of the books of Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI.
After Carl Olson summarizes the one-sided and utterly histrionic (or else cynical) rhetoric of Mr. Bush’s critics, he refers us to a book by then-Cardinal Ratzinger, which has a quote on technology that is definitely going into a future revision of the technology curriculum (so many books, so little time). The quote below is from Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures.
Gates and Buffett and Carnegie
Fri 07 Jul 2006 by Peter Edman
John Miller, author of a book on the Olin Foundation, has a commentary in the Wall Street Journal of 7 July 2006 on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I am with him in agreeing that it is better that Warren Buffett give his money to the Gates Foundation rather than spend it himself on global population control.
In “Open the FloodGates,” Miller argues that the Gates family should follow the Olin model at least, and either give the money away during their lifetime or arrange for it to be done so within a couple decades after their death. This is certainly what Andrew Carnegie would have advised, I expect, seeing what has become of his foundations.
Definitely worth a quick read. But let me also comment on a few items of interest.
Irony
Mon 19 Jun 2006 • Responses: 1 • by Peter Edman
A quick comment here on a situation of high irony. I’ve been tangentially aware of a debate going on between Kevin Kelly and John Updike.
I have sympathies with both sides of this argument on print versus pixels, but I find it seriously ironic that now that we have reached a point where technology via the Web permits us to say what needs to be said regardless of length and without concerns for the costs of printing and distribution, we must access it via technologies that most people seem to find uncomfortable for extended reading.
In the case of our website, I’ve tried to pick colors that are easy on the eye, and I have also created a stylesheet that should allow you to print out any of our articles to your own printer at a convenient type size. Try it out.
RIP Jaroslav Pelikan
Tue 16 May 2006 by Peter Edman
I was sorry to read this morning of the death of Yale theologian and historian of religion Jaroslav Pelikan.
I recently read his 2005 book Whose Bible Is It?, which is a useful and well-balanced primer on the history of the Bible and its readers. He also begins to explain some of the ways we are finally moving forward in our understanding of the Bible after the modernist/fundamentalist controversies of the twentieth century. I’ve been planning on writing a short review of it for Implications, and will probably still do so in conjunction with a later piece. I certainly commend his books to our audience—they are by and large easily accessible and definitely worth your time.
McClay on Auden
Fri 12 May 2006 by Peter Edman
Historian and humanities professor Bill McClay has an article in the Weekly Standard and the Ethics and Public Policy website, “Grappling with God: The faith of a famous poet.” in which he reviews a new book on the Christian wrestlings of W. H. Auden. It’s an important review of what looks like a solid book.
Also worth noting on Auden is an essay in Alan Jacobs’ Shaming the Devil, a collection about which I’ll be writing more shortly.
