Only the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, the New York and Harlem Railroad, and the New York and New Haven Railroad...Grand Central Depot.
Posted on 01/17/2009 11:27:40 AM PST by Publius
When we get there, you'll like the people who populate the gulch. You'll meet them along the way.
In army terms, every good CO needs an XO. For every Dagny, there's an Eddie to keep things moving. I'm an Eddie Willers type, and I'd like to get in.
I really like the study of history, especially WWII. One thing that struck me in a show about D-Day was the comparison between the average allied soldier and the German soldier. During the invasion, the allied soldiers were given the responsibility to achieve a specific goal and given the freedom to improvise in achieveing that goal. The German soldiers missed opportunities to repel the invasion because they had to wait for orders from higher up and were more fearful of acting unauthorized than of allowing the invasion to gain a foothold.
When I read the book last summer, it was my first time to read it as a business owner. I think about the difference in the two sides on D-Day and I try to give my employees the room to innovate and the comfort of knowing that I am there to back them up if one of thier decisions goes bad.
In another post, someone said "don't ever let your boss think that you are smarter than him". I actually like it very much when one of my people proves themselves smarter than me... because I was smart enough to hire them.
The country had already begun falling apart when the book starts, it just hadn’t become all that apparent to the majority.
What bugs me is how the majority continue to be sheeple as they starve and their world collapses around them. Thats eerie and seems to be the case for realm life
Good to hear from you again!
I’m a little late to this party.
Are y’all accepting suggestions for the FReeper Book Club? If so, I’d suggest Animal Farm followed by 1984.
He’s not even been crowned yet and I’m seeing all kinds of parallels between nObama and Animal Farm.
The general reaction to anything falling apart was, "Who is John Galt?" ("Why bother? What can anyone do?") That saying became a mantra to cover everything, and it absolved the speaker from having to think.
The definintion of "sheeple" would have to include something about not thinking or being obligated to think.
In some respects, the passivity of the train crew is tied to an unwillingness to think critically.
They had just given up on anything ever getting better, and in so doing assured that nothing would get better
As I was reading about the hollow tree I couldn’t help but think about the state of California (who now cannot afford to refund overpaid taxes), and all the Jim Taggarts that helped Ca. (and soon - NY) get to this point.
There is no lack of Jim Taggarts out there.
” and a teacher coaching a sport is considered much more important than one that can, say, teach physics or calculus extremely well.”
a personal observation I’ve noticed regarding coaching and teachers.
There are some teachers who coach for the extra pay = you can tell right away by the quality of their team and win-loss record.
Then there are teachers who coach because they enjoy the kids - the athletics, and that particular sport.
Excellent coaches are usually excellent teachers too - and they have the respect of the kids when they are good at both.
“You can’t make the obvious decision and act on it because you have not been through their process. And they use their process to inhibit any progress.”
It sounds like something right out of a Dilbert cartoon.
Yes, it is like Dilbert. They try to gain power by controlling who is successful. But, they want liberal or useless things to succeed and block true innovation. I managed a product area where these people controlled the people assigned to my program and they dumped the worst on me. I got a broader definition for my group so I just hired from the outside (not relying on management staffing decisions) and grew the business for this customer from a few $100k projection to over $60M. These control freak managers hated me for succeeding even though it benefited them. They wanted to pick the winners and loosers and their winners were the Chucky Schumers and Barney Franks of my company. Head-to-head is the only way to go with these people.
One of my favorites, and so applicable.
Only the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, the New York and Harlem Railroad, and the New York and New Haven Railroad...Grand Central Depot.
The key is being able to find some way to take ownership of whatever you do, the equivalent of signing your name on your work.
I live in Maynard, Massachusetts about a half mile from the large mill that Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) called home during the boom times. That mill has one of the oldest continuously operating clock towers in New England.
I have lived here for more than 20 years, and didn't know much about it. They gave tours a few months back so my wife and I went in. It was great. It had this beautifully maintained mechanism with cogs and gears and took up as much real estate as a dining room table...when you looked at it, you got this oddly discordant simultaneous effect of high technology contrasted with the beauty of an antique.
But what struck me most was the table that the entire mechanism sat on.
It was a beautifully crafted wooden table with curvaceous victorian legs.
Nowadays, we would pour a concrete slab or build a metal bolt together table. But this was a beautiful, attractive and well built piece of furniture for this utilitarian device.
Someone was tasked to make a table, and they could have done ANYTHING. Nobody was going to go up to look at that clock tower mechanism and admire the table, they would all be looking at the mechanism. Everyone who I was there with was.
But the person who built that table built it as if anyone who looked at it for the next 200 years would appreciate that whoever built it cared for and appreciated his work.
And that was good enough for him.
Long ago I would have welcomed most any Freeper.
But the last year has taught me to be far more selective. And it IS my choice, after all.
Actually, Grand Central Depot was enlarged and renovated into Grand Central Station during 1899 - 1900. It was a virtually new building.
It's interesting to note that when the depot was built, there wasn't much in midtown Manhattan. Even Central Park was new and wasn't all that central.
And thanks for that photograph!
Ping to Chapter 1.
I think a lot of voters are in for a reality check in just a few days.
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