A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying. –B.F. Skinner, American psychologist, inventor, and author Questions: None. Just consider its applications in your own activities.
The Value of Computer-based Social Networks–Or Not
Technology as a means of establishing and facilitating communication between people has a long history. Let’s skip right to more modern means, beginning with the telegraph, move through the years to the telephone and on to fax, followed by the early days of computer-network mediated message handling via nascent email and early chat tools. As we get closer to today’s …
Repurposing
I just spent a couple of days in fly-on-the-wall mode at the 2011 Great Divide Weather Workshop, which focused on sharing innovative science and service, with researchers and practitioners of meteorology, hydrology and related fields from across the Northern Rocky Mountains and High Plains, as well as the Pacific Northwest and Great Basin. The idea was to present and share …
Is Failure an Option?
Failure seems to be much in the news lately. Over the space of just a few days, I came across several interesting items in the New York Times (What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?), the Harvard Business Review (Three Ways to Turn Setbacks into Progress), and a blog post from The 99 Percent (Why Success Always Starts with …
Perceived Powerlessness
As I write this, the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. is feeling more than a bit of what Earth’s dynamic systems can evince: Hurricane Irene—while weakening from its higher-powered status—is causing major disruptions to various ecological systems and those wrought by humanity, as well. Whole areas of Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware are being evacuated, and the mayor of New …
Connectivity Withdrawal
Our Internet connection went down last night, as a result of a huge lightning strike to our ISP’s central distribution site. We found this out upon returning to the office after a much-needed one-hour respite from professional activities. I can’t speak for the rest of the group, but my immediate reaction—other than a technological “I-wonder-what-happened?”—was a huge yawn. At the …