Monthly Archives: December 2015

What, Me Worry?…..

I am back in World Headquarters once again after our trip across the pond. It was a marvelous sojourn that lasted but one week. We did a variety of things but the pace was perfect. A sight here and there but moreover a chance to spend some QT with the Kenny’s of the UK. Christmas there is steeped in tradition and there was an air of festivity as we went to dinner on Christmas Eve and then on to carols and Mass at what seemed to be at least a century old church. Splendid!

There was one notable absence during our stay. News! The kids don’t watch the telly that much and as is true throughout the world, our goings on in the States don’t demand all that much attention overseas. So upon our return I curled up in my old leather chair with a week old copy of The Week which remains on of my favorite sources of update. This of course was the year end edition and I was struck by a section on polls of what we Americanos think of the current state of affairs.

It seems our mood is dark. 70% of us think the US is on the wrong track. An equal number think we are not as great as we used to be while 60% think the American Dream is broken. Ironically we tend to blame this all on Washington with Obama, the Congress and even the Supreme Court in our crosshairs. Unless we changed our mode of government while I was gone I think in two cases we elect these representatives. And don’t we have the power to get rid of them? Sorry. Why screw up a good story with a touch of reason?

It goes on to enumerate our acceptance of same sex marriage and pot but religious intolerance is on the rise. A fascinating discovery was our distaste for technology. More than a plurality thinks it makes us lazy,illiterate and is ruining our interpersonal communications. How many I Phones and Android devices were given this Christmas? Like Nancy Reagan championed awhile back, can’t we just say No? Ah yes,when in doubt blame someone else.

The section that captivated me was devoted to our fears. It seems 85% think that a large scale terrorist attack is just a matter of time. I believe there will be an attack but I am not quite sure how large it will be.However I can tell you I am not staying up nights thinking about it. A whopping 60% think there are sleeper cells imbedded in our society. 45% think our government could use the military to seize control of certain states and 44% believe machines with artificial intelligence could wipe out our civilization. That’s scary. Not the events but the fact people are having these notions.

Intriguingly this all supports our current political maneuverings. I am going to figure out what is petrifying you and tell you I can fix it. Even better I will chastise any opponent in sight who thinks I am not right. He or she is the Anti Christ and damnation will occur for anyone who doesn’t vote for me. Now you may think think this is absurd but then again you may think it is true. As if this whole thing was not whacky enough we can refill our popcorn box because William Jefferson Clinton is about to arrive on the scene. The sheer prospect of Willy and the Donald locking horns over sexism should sell better than Star Wars.

This whole fear thing is becoming endemic in our society. Growing up I had to learn to “Duck and Cover” in the basement of St Mary’s grammar school. That was nothing compared to our present day world. We worry about germs and allergies. ISIS is right alongside the food we eat, the air we breathe and the water we drink. We freak out that our kids won’t get into the right school or won’t have the right friends or God forbid not marry well, whatever the hell that is.

I have mentioned it before but I really think we are losing it. Incredibly we are paranoid about the government prying into our innermost thoughts and yet will tell the world of our every moment and thought through Facebook and Twitter. We worry about Big Brother but we are buying drones by the thousands. This thing called anxiety or worry seeps into our vey pores. I meet people who can’t believe Kathy and I would have the balls to fly to London. Okay maybe that last one is just me. I am not being critical but quite frankly laughing on one end and feeling very sorry for these people on the other.

I am an optimist but at the same time a pragmatist. I am either too stupid or too old to be afraid. Life comes at you in so many ways if you try to hit every curve ball thrown at you,you are going to be terribly disappointed. Shit will happen! I think the difficult part today is that people haven’t seen the bad in a really long time if at all. We don’t focus on the root causes of things but as usual just try to treat the symptoms. There are very specific reasons for our maladies and yet we don’t have the time to sit down and understand what they are and how to take evasive or corrective action.

All these fears and percentages above are just a state of mind. A matter of perception. We crave the good old days. A sort of Norman Rockwell, Mayberry notion. Fuggedaboutit! We got it good here. Real good. In 2016 my simple resolution is to look at things squarely but with a particular bent to the upside. Alfred E Neumann used to appear on every Mad magazine cover with a goofy grin that smacked of innocence and not taking himself too seriously. That is one vestige of yesterday I can embrace. What,Me Worry? Never. Happy New Year to all and

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

On Christmas Day in London all public transportation (trains and buses) are closed for the entire day. You can drive car or walk but that’s it. The Queen comes on the telly at 3:00PM to address the Commonwealth. Doesn’t say all that much but people watch. They have parties to view it. Beats Obama.
Heathrow Airport in London is fascinating. These are some facts I “borrowed” from their site.
More than 70million passengers pass through every year – six million more than the UK population. Heathrow is now the third busiest airport in the world after Atlanta in the US and Beijing, China.

Heathrow sells more than 26,000 cups of tea, 35,000 cups of coffee and 1,050 bottles of champagne every day. More than 974 tons of chips(French Fries) are sold every year

One bottle of Chanel No 5 is sold at World Duty Free at Heathrow every nine minutes.
Breakfast is the most popular meal of the day at Heathrow with almost five million eggs, 6.4million croissants and 4.5million rashers of bacon served every year. The number of pastries sold annually would line a runway in both directions 350 times
.
Safety vehicles are fitted with a digital scarecrow system that plays the distress calls of various bird species to scare them away from runways.

A total of 27,260 separate items have to be stocked on to a Boeing 747-400 before it departs on a long-haul flight. With space at such a premium careful calculations are made to ensure sufficient quantities for 377 passengers are carried without waste and to keep down fuel costs. The items loaded include no more than 233 toothpicks, 58 loo rolls, 2,000 ice cubes (five per passenger), 1,263 items of cutlery, 340 safety cards, 1,291 items of crockery, 650 paper cups, 337 blankets, five first aid kits, 220 drinks stirrers, 735 glasses, 99 full bottles and 326 quarter bottles of wine, 435 sickness bags (1.15 per passenger) and 164 bags of nuts in Club World.

One plane takes off from Heathrow airport every 45 seconds.

.Terminal 5, which is humongous, has 30 miles of baggage conveyors, 2.8 miles of tunnels and 44 baggage reclaim belts. Around 53million pieces of luggage are processed every year.

The Heathrow Animal Reception Centre (HARC) receives and cares for more than 80million animals each year, including 45million invertebrates, seven million live eggs, 28million fish and 13,000 cats and dogs. ?????

GO IRISH! GO BRONCOS!

Peace on Earth…

We are here in merry olde England for the holidays with our son Scott, his wife, Dionne and their two boys Aiden(12) and Jack (10).
They live in Wimbeldon which aside from its tennis fame is a suburb about 5 miles from Central London. The flight from Denver on British Airways was 8 hours which seemed like a ride around the block after our South African jaunt.

We of course had many questions about how the Brits and Europe as a whole viewed terrorist activities after Paris. Our driver appeared well dressed and wearing a turban. Welcome to multiculturalism. Walking through the airport we quickly woke up to the fact there were people of every sort from Indian to Muslim to African. How did they let this happen? You only had to think back to the former British Empire which contained some 50+ countries of all nationalities and sizes. London was home plate and presto a melting pot that has been centuries in the making.

People are aware of the possibilities of attack but they seem to take it in stride. Maybe nightly fire bombing by the Germans in WWII inured them to the concept. Even more meaningful is their attitude towards political correctness. It started in Denver as we boarded our flight. A very pleasant woman took our ticket and wished us a Merry Christmas. Wow! I said thank you for saying it and she smiled gratefully.

It was not a single occurrence. Throughout London it has been repeated constantly. There are carolers at the Tube station. Yes, there is a Church of England but it goes beyond that. There are only about 55% of the population that consider themselves religious but that does not hold them back. My daughter in law says she receives greetings from all regardless of age,creed or nationality. Rather than get bent out of shape as to whether or not you are going to be offended, people use the opportunity to carry on a wonderful tradition. Refreshing.

We went to the Orangery at Kensington Palace yesterday. Very elegant and festooned with ornamental beauty that can only be described as neat not gaudy. You had your choice of tea or luncheon served in a quiet but stately fashion. Everything seems more subtle here. Yes, people are shopping of a sort but it just doesn’t feel over the top. Maybe it is because we are on city streets and not mammoth mall parking lots? Perchance it is due to the fact that most ride public transportation and you can only haul so much that you keep it sweet and simple.

You are struck by the minimalistic everywhere. Of course there are McMansions but for the average Londoner space is at a premium and very expensive. Rooms are multifunctional but charming. Everyone shows their Xmas trees in windows but they are not the big fat ones we are used to. They’re just fine. Beyond that, cars are small not only because to the price of gas but they are easier to find parking spaces for. Buses are double decker not for the view but because you can get more people on in a limited space. Lorries are snub nosed to get around tight corners. Their fire engines even seem more compact. Why didn’t we think of that?

The locals do put me off a bit. They avoid eye contact walking down the street or on trains. Even when you buy a cafe`and scone. But there is an interesting phenomena. If you do somehow engage them, they light up and become more than friendly to the point of almost seeming to be bubbly. Now you know TTG is always going to try to make them smile. As I engage this one or that of course my grandsons duck for cover in embarrassment Hey, it’s what I do.
We went to see Star Wars VII in 3D no less. I wanted to wear a Darth Vader mask but was voted down. It was quite a show. Harrison Ford didn’t look too bad but Princess Leiah and Luke Skywalker certainly had put a lot of miles on those bodies. I kept wondering if I showed that much age. As I watched the First Order try to subdue the Resistance and crazy weaponry galore I had to begrudgingly realize that this is probably the way the world is supposed to be. You have got a lot and I want it. There is never enough to go around. It is that simple. C’est la vie. C’est la guerre.

Kath and I took a long walk this morning. It is a treat to see grass flourishing in December. The trees are bare but the holly and evergreen bushes abound. People walk dogs and kids ride bikes. Couples loll over coffee in the local tea room. By jove, there is even a Starbucks here and there. The tree lined streets could be anywhere in the states. We really have so much in common.

Going back to British Empire, it once held over 20% of the world’s population and a higher proportion of its wealth. It started as a collection of trading posts and colonies. It had the largest navy of the world in the 1800’s. It was not only the world’s greatest power but by default the globe’s policeman. One by one members gained independence and became significant in their own right. Even in a Commonwealth they became desirous of stature. Most times the way that was exhibited was by war or economic dominance.

It makes one wonder if forms of governance are fleeting as we seek the perfect method. Monarchies, totalitarian states, democracies, theocracies, oligarchies all rise and fall. Maybe we just keep tinkering. I love what we have but will we too change as democracy outlives its usefulness? Who knows? I hope not. I am continually impressed by the universality of this place. Christmas is Christmas. No more . No less For now, our very best wishes to all far and wide. Life is good.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

Multiculturalism can be viewed as a strength or a plague. People must be assimilated and a common language is foremost especially as the nation becomes larger. At the same time new settlers bring new ideas and customs. It is a balancing act.

The British Empire had areas as diverse as India, Australia, Canada, Ghana. Nassau,Botswana and Afghanistan.By 1922 the British Empire held sway over about 458 million people, one-fifth of the world’s population at the time. The empire covered more than 13,000,000 sq mi (33,670,000 km2), almost a quarter of the Earth’s total land area.

High tea which is usually served at 4:00 PM became popular by royalty. In Victorian times there were only two meals,breakfast and a formal dinner which was usually served at a late hour. Towards mid afternoon the queen was getting hungry and started having tea and sandwiches sent to her quarters. And so it began.

Boxing Day is the day after Christmas It was named in olden days for when the employers gave their staff boxes of goodies.

Fueling Up at the BP

Tis the season and an austere group known as LOFO,Loyal Order of The Fat Ones (cigars, not body type) assembled at a den of iniquity called  Churchill’s, in the Brown Palace(BP) Hotel here in Denver.This crowd of reprobates numbered close to a dozen. It’s just good for the soul to smoke a cigar, drink some scotch and tell lies.

I immediately came under fire for sporting  a still sizable bandage on my bald melon. I had MOHS surgery on a squamous cell cancer two weeks ago and still have the stitches in. There was no mercy. Several questioned whether they went deep enough to find gray matter while others asked if it was a frontal lobotomy? I finally shut them all up by claiming their sympathy was fraudulent and besides we were not talking about a vital organ here.

The makeup of this crowd was significant. There were lefts and rights. Big wheels. Not so big wheels. One heads up the Small Business Administration for the Rocky Mountain Region. There was the Body Snatcher who owns a highly successful funeral business here in Denver. Alex calls himself a Blaxican because his parents were black and Mexican. He sells agricultural goods to the Ivory Coast in Africa.There were lawyers, oil men and Wall Street types. There was a great friend who is going to be spending his first Christmas without his dear wife who passed on this year. Another was ecstatic that his son was going to be moving to Denver to start a new job. So many twists and turns.

The conversation was energetic. People switched seats constantly to engage one another. No one was looking around the room to see if there was somebody more important to talk to. That person was right in front of you .We laughed heartily. I mean belly shakers that felt so good right down to your bones. There was no ISIS or Trump or stock markets. No agendas. We just had fun.

As I drove home I thought about my week. I have had interactions with people in the city administration in my quest to clean up the Cherry Creek.  People told me to stay away from this one or that because they were assholes.  Turned out not to be true. Funny how a civil tone and just treating someone like a human being can go a long way. Even more I dwelled on the thought that over the last year I have met a whole raft of people I would never had known if I hadn’t gotten involved. That’s a very cool thing .

Last Saturday my son in law and I drove out about forty miles from Denver to a place called Byers, Colorado. It was snowing and visibility was low but it didn’t matter because there is nothing but open plains to see there anyway. We were going to pick up a new Labradoodle puppy for his kids. Funny, we acted just like kids ourselves.

The breeder told us how she had lost her husband last May. She wanted to talk and the paperwork took far longer than it should have. Impatience could have come spilling out but somehow we thought that we should just let the woman speak about hospitals and doctors and whatever. It was the right thing to do. When we got home the girls were beyond elated. They screamed and giggled and welcomed the new member of the family with proverbial open arms. Life is good.

Sunday evening we fly to London to be with my son and his family. We are beyond thrilled to be able to go there. Nothing crazy or extravagant  but just spending a Christmas in their home even though we will be far away from ours. Seeing how their part of the world lives. My thoughts go not only there but to all the places we have been lately. I wonder what the holiday is like in South Africa or Zimbabwe? What about those kids in the orphanage at Victoria Falls?

Sorry if this all sounds corny to you. I truly hope it doesn’t. I guess I am just lucky, happy and most of all thankful. We all have so much and that is fine. I hope we just realize it and sit down and think about it from time to time. I have had a lot happen this year from surgeries to jumping out of airplanes to walking with lions. Shot a couple of decent rounds of golf and have a great wife and kids and grandkids. On balance I would say I am very much on the plus side.

I will write next from across the pond. I hope I can find a BP just like the one here in Denver. Maybe just sit down and enjoy a Scotch with my son or a glass of red with his wife. Filling stations are great wherever they are. They keep our motors running and the lube bays keep us from rattling or squeaking too badly as we get older. Don’t ever let your gas gauge go down to E . It’s bad for you .

As always
Ted The Great.

Factoids:

None to speak of.

Outcomes….

This whole thing with ISIS has got me thinking. I O’Ded watching talk shows that I have taped starting with my favorite, Charlie Rose. I wanted to hear from a bunch of different perspectives that were calm and deliberative rather than the nightly insanity of obscene tours of terrorists apartments and inane interviews with the neighbors.

Whether you were for it or against it this thing started with the invasion of Irag in 2003. Osama and his band of Al Quaedas were holed up in Tora Bora while we went hell bent for leather towards Baghdad. When we arrived Louis Paul Bremer III was our man in charge. He was a decent diplomat but hardly a top flight manager. The first thing he did was fire 300,000 of Sadam’s soldiers. Seems on the surface to make sense but the absurdity was these guys were making about $200 a month. For $6 million a month we could at least keep them under a watchful eye.

They became the Genesis of ISIS. They were trained, had a command structure and did not exactly turn in all their weapons upon departure….and most of all were out of a job. Unemployment being what it was they literally had nothing to do. Now some enterprising radicals approached them with a better idea. And they were off to the races. Slowly at first but picking up steam. It is a theme for ISIS recruitment today. They go to the unemployed and disenfranchised and promise them notoriety under the guise of religion. You can be something. We will even let you rape women and chop off heads to boot. What’s not to like?

So we started off with a good idea and it blew up in our face. Please don’t go on about whether we left too early or all we need is a little more time. Somehow it seems if ten years and $2 trillion couldn’t do the trick then I think we have to cut bait. Worse is the fact that I don’t think we really thought through what a power vacuum would be created and their idea of democracy was not really simpatico with ours. Outcomes became nightmares.

Let’s get off wars and get to something more fun. The Internet. It happened almost by accident. People wanted to send messages in a simple way and the rest is history. As it grew exponentially we graduated from laptops to smartphone to tablets and we were all connected electronically. Very cool. But wait a minute nobody told me that my life would be subjected to scrutiny, sexting, parsing by major companies and of course Lord Snowden blowing the whistle on the NSA.

This marvel of media or shall we say social networking had an incredible capacity to let little known people become famous. You could publish a book, musical composition or even a manifesto on line without the hassle of corporate America. But wait, you mean you can steal downloads of music and movies without paying for them? You can reach millions just by Facebook or Twitter? Damn, if I am a radical or malcontent I now have a voice. Hmm, I don’t think we thought of that.

I love to hack around but I never thought my life would be invaded by what you call hackers. These guys can steal your identity, trade secrets, access to our power grids and even the Department of Defense. Was that really in the cards at the onset? Why weren’t some of these geniuses really thinking ,”What hath God wrought?” There is always tomorrow.
Back in 1965 we put in a little thing called Medicare. It was supposed to ensure that old people would not go without medical help. No one was living that long so it seemed like a palatable and even cheap solution to a problem. Now the government figured for Part A hospital expenses in 1990 would come in at $9 billion. It was actually $67 billion. For physician services the number today was to be $500 million. Sadly the actual number is $168.3 billion.

It actually gets worse. Many of the medical advancements today are the result of government funding in a round about way. It never argued about high priced procedures and exorbitant drugs. The bigger and better, the more we paid. Now these treatments helped people have a longer if not questionably a better quality of life. We were discovering new and better ways to prolong life for a mere 3-6 months at the cost of Who cares? That sounds harsh but it is a dilemma that only grows more complex by the year. We may someday have to pay this bill in full and nobody will know how we got here. You know ,”The guy behind me is paying.”

Nobody could have foreseen these things but the real question is should they have? The Industrial Revolution put millions of people to work and created a financial bonanza that has lasted over 150 years. Now that we have developed our ways of life around a manufacturing society how do we make the transition to a technological society? Should somebody have thought that through or was it even possible? I think when we look at these things they evolved through that marvelous thing called man’s ingenuity and creativity. It just seems to me now that we are traveling at such a warp speed we may just go off the cliff without even knowing it.
Nobody has a faster hair trigger than me. I can take an idea and run with it without carefully considering the consequences. Don’t bug me with naysaying and pragmatism, I am on a mission. I am an innovator. And that is where the practical has to come into play as much as I hate to admit it. We should develop the ability to temper both. Yin and Yang. If it was 500 years ago it would not be so complex.Today? Oi Vey. Somebody should turn the music down so we can at least take a break at this party. You are right. That is an outcome that will probably never happen. Hey, I tried.

As always
Ted The Great.

Factoids:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been one of the most debated fields of science. Simply put we are trying to endow a machine with all the attributes of the human mind. The most difficult part has been ethics,empathy and sensitivity. It is projected that by 2050 AI will enable a machine to be smarter than man. Thank God I don’t think i will be around for the outcome.

Space travel and its science has created a wonderful array of products from freeze dried foods. memory foam mattresses, cochlear implants,water purification, solar cells. Unfortunately contrary to common belief it was not responsible for Tang, Velcro, nor Teflon

Robotics is simply the use of machines to perform human tasks. There have been usages in physical therapy by helping people with missing limbs to walk. The self driving car can be considered one. Ditto drones. The development of robots in every aspect of our life has created the reduction in the manual workforce manyfold. Some jobs will never exist again.

Good ideas with bad outcomes.”The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”.(idiomatic) A proverbial expression used to signify the futility of making detailed plans when the ability to fully or even partially execute them is uncertain. I concur.

Aha Moments….

I am siting here in the Cutaneous Oncology department of the University of Colorado Med Center. They are performing MOHS surgery on my forehead or as a golfing buddy says,”they are taking a divot.” Now this being Ted’s Head I am not sure if they will tap into my grey matter or even more terrifyingly if there is any? I will try to write fast.

Mindsets, creativity and innovation have been cruising around my cranium for the last few days. I look at everything going on in the world and rather than succumb to depression about the course of events I find myself looking for where the solutions will come from. I noted the other day that technology of the future will be able to examine my stools on a daily basis to see if I am healthy or not. Surely such a noble pursuit should make it easy for us to solve more obvious problems.

Now do we look to the octogenarians, millennials or infants for salvation? I happen to think it is going to be all of us. From just a few months after birth we begin on life’s journey for better or worse. We develop mindsets which may encompass our intelligence, personality and aptitudes. We become us. Science has taught us that through genes and environment that somehow the dye is cast one way or another. You only have so much to work with and we will do our best but please realize your limitations.

Aha, there is a different dimension. It seems that may best be described by the concept of fixed and growth mindsets. Fixed is as we described above and the resulting implication is eye opening. If you believe you can’t be any better, then you are preoccupied with the hand you are dealt. You then seek out attribution, praise and judgment based on that. You are looking at the same face in the mirror every day and seek approval over and over again. As one pundit put it,”You have been dealt a hand. You would like it to be a royal flush but you are petrified you are just a pair of eights.” Interesting.

Now the growth mindset is more fluid and in a way forgiving. You are encouraged to try or experiment but you also make mistakes. That is how you learn. You look at your ignorance not as an ugly birthmark but something to be corrected and enhanced through hard work and persistence. You don’t worry about your self esteem because you really don’t have time for it. You develop a passion for learning because that is how you get better…and brighter, whatever the hell that means.

Today we mark everyone on material accomplishments which is fine. But you could take a billionaire who although rich is not realizing his potential. His gauge of measurement is completely out of whack which is why we find major portions of people from all economic strata trying to find themselves or at best merely unhappy. I was in a meeting last night with a young woman who is a paleontologist for the Colorado Department of Transportation. What ?? As she explained what she did there was a wonderful element of passion for finding bones or whatever at the site of a new highway in the mountains.

Passion is a wonderful word. How about zeal,ardor, love, fervor, fire, enthusiasm, relish, gusto, vigor, energy, intensity. When was the last time you felt any of those? It is about having a vision for who you are or what you want to learn rather than just marking time. You potential becomes unknowable because each turn opens up a whole new roadway.

We hear the word talent and feel it is innate. Ben Hogan was a klutz in high school. Gates and Jobs were flops in academia. Oprah Winfrey grew up dirt poor. Henry Ford was a farm boy. Lucky or just driven by what could be? We seem obsessed by have and have nots, blue collar and white collar, right or left. We want to put people in categories because it is a lot simpler than having a zillion people with an equal number of conflicting beliefs. We fail to see each of us an individual with deep inner worth and yes incredible potential.

I am truly concerned about our kids from preschool to college. The recent university upheaval over the desire for a warm and nurturing place is not going to prepare them for a tough world but just an extension of the coddling first 18 years. Universities should be places of conflict and resolution of those travails. We praise, we pamper and most of all we make excuses for their inadequacies.We teach them how to cop out and not how to grow up. I am not saying beat them over the head but a critical evaluation provides a plan for betterment in the future rather than a cushy throne when they fall.

Just them? Think on. Through life we face the same fork in the road. I have this or that and it will keep me in whatever as time goes on. Happy? Sorry TTG, that is a state of mind that I can ameliorate through the finer things in life. Old farts? I have earned my life as it is and I am going to just sit back and enjoy it. As a matter of fact you owe me. I am entitled.

Growth mindset requires constant challenge and uncertainty. It is contrarian in so many ways. We can’t stand the unknown and what we perceive as impossible. You can give me a thousand reasons why something won’t work. Don’t bug me with all your foolishness. I am not a risk taker. I have never been good at science or math or art. Thinking outside the box is too scary. What if it doesn’t work or God forbid I lose everything? Are you really thinking about yourself or are you wondering and measuring by what other people think about you?

What if you just could pursue what you want to? What if you didn’t have a spouse and kids? What if you were impervious to judgment and criticism? What if you could just be you…the real you that lies within? If you can get there my friends, that is a real Aha Moment.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

Only about 7% of the companies today are considered dynamic and open to change. Contrast that with the fact that we are by far the most innovative country in the world.

Change evokes several fears. First and foremost is the fear of failing. Secondly is insecurity. You get used to who and what we are and don’t want to risk the alternative. Third is the fear of being judged by others.

3M is a marvelous company. It thrives on innovation and failure. The Post It Note was accidental while trying to find an all purpose adhesive. They have a 30% rule where 30% of their business has to be from products developed in the last 4 years.

The Torrance Test for Creative Thinking has been administered to grammar schools students for the last fifty years. It does not test IQ but rather creative thinking. The test scores have descended significantly significantly. One possible cause is lack of free time and helicoptering parenting.