Archives February 2022

Monthly summary
by Rob England

Blog posts for January 2022

Only three posts in January

Decyphering Dr Vu

One of my resolutions for 2022 is to help the English speaking world (including me) better understand what Dr. Cherry Vu is doing in Vietnam, because it clearly works. 

Bring on the Roaring Twenties

2022 is here. Enough gloom. It’s time we all rise up from the past few years, and kick off the Roaring Twenties. With some optimism, some economic resurgence, a swing to the left, and lots of vaccination, let’s hope the rest of the decade can go off. [Boy, that post didn’t age well, thanks to Putin.]

Carrot and stick

Treat people right and you don’t need carrots or sticks to get quality work.

Ideas
by Rob England

The paradox of tolerance

Popper’s paradox of tolerance is that to create a tolerant society we must be intolerant of some views.

This creates a dilemma of when do we restrict freedom of speech and action in order to defend freedom of belief.

I believe the resolution is to focus on safety.

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Ideas
by Rob England

Ethos

There is a word I knew but always forgot to use: “ethos”.  I will use it more.  It’s a great word for what we stand for.  Every organisation should have a clear ethos.

Ideas
by Rob England

Advancing values in the workplace

Social idealism – quite rightly – funded early renewable energy efforts, but it is economics that will save the planet. See the link in comments for an example. The only road to macro social change – other than bloodshed – is profitability. Whatever we engineer needs to make people better off financially as well as environmentally.

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Commentary
by Rob England

Stealth remote working

A mobile home park in small-town New Zealand.
I’m outside our tiny battered old caravan, towed by an aging Toyota. I don’t recall when I last washed them.
I haven’t washed my hair either for days. I’m in decaying loafers, combat style pants, and a shapeless outdoors jacket, topped by a cheap straw hat.
Talking to the neighbour, I’m always excited to share our amazing lifestyle.
“My wife is inside. She is working right now. We are international management consultants. She is coaching and training the top executives of one of Vietnam’s biggest banks.”
He looks me up and down.
”Riiiight… ” and changes the subject.

This scene has played out several times.