Ronald Reagan and the Belgian law dealing with subsidy conditions Ronald Reagan used this old Russian proverb (“Doveryai, no proveryai”) when referring to his relationship with the Russians in the context of the nuclear disarmament in the 1980’s. In essence, the proverb refers to the understanding that any agreement needs to be accompanied by some … Continue reading Trust, but verify
Clay Shirky on newspapers or really any innovative industry
Vacation time is reading time. And I’ve built up quite a queue of Instapaper articles I needed to get through. As I was moving my archive to DevonThink, in order to be able to consult it quicker, I came across this quite old article by Clay Shirky. Titled “Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable”, Shirky explains … Continue reading Clay Shirky on newspapers or really any innovative industry
About taking notes with pen on paper
I’m probably one of the more technologically inclined people within my environment. I use an iPhone, work quite a lot with an iPad as one of my main tools, communicate on WhatsApp, use markdown as a language to write documents which I export to Microsoft Word for those who have yet to master the art … Continue reading About taking notes with pen on paper
Drinking the organisational culture cool-aid
Context I’ve been around the block a few times in terms of organisational culture. I have three big 6 CPA firms on my resumé, I’ve worked for a US stock quoted company, I’ve worked for a fully government owned development actor, I’ve worked as an advisor to a vice-prime minister. And now I’m a ComEx … Continue reading Drinking the organisational culture cool-aid
Why the world is not falling apart
I believe I’ve linked to this article on Slate before, but even so, it’s more than worth reading. With everything going on around us, there is this tendency to think we are all the victims of circumstance and that the world is become a worse place. It isn’t. The only sound way to appraise the … Continue reading Why the world is not falling apart
Redirecting the blog
Exploring the Black Box has been dormant for quite a while, with the exception of some articles on the work of Kourosh Dini. There are a number of simple reasons that led to that sorry state and will lead to this blog changing somewhat in terms of content in the near future. The first reason … Continue reading Redirecting the blog
Zen & the Art of Work – review part 7 – “addressing thoughts”
This is the seventh part of my review of Kourosh Dini's video product which consists of 16 "sessions", video chapters, on how to get to beter work. You can find more about it here. It guides the users through the first steps in the build and the acquisition of a new or improved toolset which … Continue reading Zen & the Art of Work – review part 7 – “addressing thoughts”
