Provocative Quotes for the Day

Some quotes gleaned from someone I respect:

"It is generally much easier to kill an organization than change it substantially."
- Kevin Kelly, Out of Control

"Incrementalism is innovation's worst enemy."
- Nicholas Negroponte

"The corporation as we know it, which is now 120 years old, is not likely to survive the next 25 years. Legally and financially, yes, but not structurally and economically."
- Peter Drucker, Business 2.0

"The 'surplus society' has a surplus of similar companies, employing similar people, with similar educational backgrounds, coming up with similar ideas, producing similar things, with similar prices and similar quality."
- Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrole, Funky Business

"Our business needs a massive transfusion of talent, and talent, I believe, is most likely to be found among non-conformists, dissenters and rebels."
- David Ogilvy

"Thomas Stanley has not only found no correlation between success in school and an ability to accumulate wealth, he's actually found a negative correlation. 'It seems that school-related evaluations are poor predictors of economic success,' Stanley concluded. What did predict success was a willingness to take risks. Yet the success-failure standards of most schools penalized risk takers. Most educational systems reward those who play it safe. As a result, those who do well in school find it hard to take risks later on."
- Richard Farson & Ralph Keyes, Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins

"The best swordsman in the world doesn't need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn't do the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn't prepared for him; he does the thing he ought not to do and often it catches the expert out and ends him on the spot."
- Mark Twain

"This is an essay about what it takes to create and sell something remarkable. It is a plea for originality, passion, guts and daring. You can't be remarkable by following someone else who's remarkable. The reason its so hard to follow the leader is this: The leader is the leader precisely because he did something remarkable. And that remarkable thing is now taken-so it's no longer remarkable when you decide to do it."
-Seth Godin, Fast Company/02.2003

Tags: quotes
by Brett Rogers, 5/5/2005 10:21:48 AM
Permalink

"Incrementalism is innovation's worst enemy."
- Nicholas Negroponte

I LOVE this one and truer words have not been spoken. It reminds me of something my Dad always used to say. "Do SOMETHING. Even if it's wrong." (Meaning wrong as in mistaken, not wrong as in hurtful :->) Details can always be worked out later. There is little that can't be fixed. But the easiest rut to fall into is worrying so much about how to make a change or do something, that you never actually do it.

Posted by Bella, 5/5/2005 10:54:07 AM

Bella, you're gonna hate me for this comment, but that's an astoundingly great argument for what Bush is doing with his efforts toward fixing Social Security. And exactly why I oppose the Democrats doing nothing about it.

That aside, my respect for your dad only grows.

Posted by Brett Rogers (http://www.beatcanvas.com), 5/5/2005 3:30:42 PM

LOL! Oh for God's sake! I think I've said this before to you ....I don't think many democrats would disagree that there needs to be change to Social Security...or even BIG change to it. What they would disagree with is that George Bush's idea is a good one. Most of the country would seem to agree, or he wouldn't have had to go cross country stumping for it.

But I digress.... :-)

Posted by Bella, 5/5/2005 5:07:46 PM

The guys on my brother floor in college played the card game 500 all of the time. They had intricate strategies and "knew" what cards were in your hand by the way you bid. My best friend and I played them one day and defeated them. Like the swordsman, their assumptions led to their demise. (For one game at least.) heh heh heh

Posted by red fish, 5/5/2005 6:34:03 PM

You know, I'd be excited to hear a constructive statement from Democrats on the matter of Social Security. But I just news googled for a democrat statement on Social Security, and frankly, I couldn't find one idea or plan. Not one. Just criticism.

Does that count as non-movement?

{chuckle} You know, we haven't talked politics in quite a while.

Posted by Brett Rogers (http://www.beatcanvas.com), 5/5/2005 11:24:14 PM

lol - that's cool, red fish. At least you got one good game in ;)

Posted by Brett Rogers (http://www.beatcanvas.com), 5/5/2005 11:24:52 PM

That's funny, because when I googled it, all I came up with were Republican blogs calling the Democrats names for not agreeing with the President. Perspective I guess. :-)

But check this out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/30/politics/30pozen.html

...and the reason we haven't talked politics in awhile is because I don't believe friends should argue, but we always will about this because I will never like George Bush, and you will never see that he is a product of everything bad about this country...influence peddling, ego and self importance. His utter lack of statesmenship and the flaunting of his ignorance disgrace us all.

So....any new paintings? :-)

Posted by Bella, 5/6/2005 10:45:40 AM

I did see that a few years ago, prior to George's grab of this third rail of politics, a Democrat named Pozen was the one whose ideas have been adopted. I think that's wonderful. So why aren't the other Dems behind their guy's ideas??

My daughter watched the president's press conference the other night, and she came away pissed that she may have to shoulder a 300% FICA tax increase so that she can pay for Baby Boomer retirement benefits.

I don't care if it's Democrats or Republicans, frankly. But I'm tired of politics with my kids' futures.

There's a problem. Some movement is better than no movement, as long as we keep moving toward a solution.

As for paintings, you betcha - I'm in a card mood lately.

And friends - sometimes friends argue with each other because they're honest with each other and they're not going to agree on everything. No biggie.

Posted by Brett Rogers (http://www.beatcanvas.com), 5/6/2005 11:05:39 AM

Oh, I dunno...maybe because it's a BAD idea? :-) There's a difference between embracing radical change because you don't know what else to do, and doing something that you believe is a bad idea just because you don't know what else to do. Granted, it's a fine line, but a line, nonetheless. I would like to see both sides work together to reach a better conclusion, which they probably could if they'd quit bickering about their parties.

And indeed you have been in a card mood lately, and they are beautiful! Y'know when you were talking about the edges of the gerbera daisies, I thought...why does he want to be all exact and photographic? The answer, of course, is probably that you just want to play with different styles. But for what it's worth, I really like the softer edges and semi-abstract nature of the cards. They are more...evocative. A little sentimental. Pretty. :-)

Posted by Bella, 5/6/2005 12:52:22 PM

"I would like to see both sides work together to reach a better conclusion, which they probably could if they'd quit bickering about their parties."

Amen, sister! Can a brother get a hallelujah?

You bring up a good point about going photographic and objective versus semi-abstract and subjective... you're right, it's about styles - in this case, mastering technique. Think "practicing my arpeggios..." (suddenly I hear The Aristocats)

I figure that if I can paint anything my eye sees, then I can paint anything my mental eye sees.

Posted by Brett Rogers (http://www.beatcanvas.com), 5/6/2005 1:31:42 PM