The Rise of the Machines: How the philosophies of a physicist, a wizard and a serial killer warned us of this financial crisis

Is intuition the only tool we have with which to transcend machines? Read this NY Times Op Ed piece by RICHARD DOOLING: The Rise of the Machines

Being or having a coach without training is like flying a plane without flight school.

I don't usually promote other people's coach training, but Mattison is in a category by herself and the manifesto, below, is worth considering for any one who uses coaching skills. Or anyone thinking of hiring a coach.

Begins Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Coaching Tools at Work
Professional coaching tools for results driven professionals

Coaching in the workplace is all the rage, that is for sure. But do you know what you are doing? Is the person who is coaching you trained? Being or having a coach without training is like flying a plane without flight school. You wouldn't do that would you? Of course not. You wouldn't even consider it. So why are you coaching without any formal training? 20 years of experience in anything does not qualify you to coach. Get the tools you need so you know what you are doing. I promise, if you think you know what you are doing, you are exhibiting non-coach thinking. Coaching is not managing, accountability, telling, advising, mentoring, fixing people, solving problems, persuading or influencing. If you are doing these things and calling it coaching that is akin to trying to take off or land a plane without training. Coaching Tools at Work is the premier coaching skills training in the country and is the same curriculum that is taught at the University of Houston. This program will give you the professional coaching skills you need to really know what you are doing and move your career forward.

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The Ant and the Grasshopper: Post-Modern Version

POST-MODERN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the grasshopper is out in the cold and the ant's mortgage company has announced that due to ants not paying their mortgages, the company is about the go bankrupt and needs the government to use ant-taxpayer's money to bail it out. CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, ABC and FOX provide pictures of foreclosure signs in front of homes across America and trigger a nationwide financial panic that causes the ant to lose its job. Now the ant's home is foreclosed and ant's family is out shivering in the cold along side all those shiftless grasshoppers. To pay for the bailout, the government moves to slash assistance for the homeless, which warms the ant's little heart, until he remembers he's homeless, too. America is stunned by this development. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor hardworking ant is allowed to suffer so? Where will this crisis end? What will our leaders do?

President Bush spends 2 minutes on TV announcing that there is a crisis. John McCain insists the economy is strong and deregulation is still the way to go. Both (along with Democrats) sign a bill to give nearly a trillion dollars of tax-payers' money to bailout all those "unregulated" banks and mortgage companies.

MORAL OF THE STORY:

Emails like this can be slanted to mean anything the writer wants you to believe. This one may look familiar to you. It's simply been edited away from its original Republican-slanted view. These stories have circulated snail mail for decades and now make the rounds of email inboxes with the same old recycled stories, like the Democrats will raise your taxes and the Republicans will burn your books. Sound familiar?

Don't be stupid enough to base your vote on rumors. Take the time to get the facts.

In the United States in 2008, it is critical for you from be a well-informed voter.

And there's no excuse for you be an ill-informed voter.

Open Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2008

Anyone may use this text in its original, un-edited form with full attribution.