Recent Posts
- Going greenOut of the blue, only weeks before my scheduled retirement from Mercer, where I’ve worked for more than nine years (more on that journey in another post), an old friend asked me to join the Advisory Board for a green energy startup: Grimes CarbonTech. I debated with myself. In 2002… Read more: Going green
- Disillusionment with AmericaI returned to New York yesterday after a few days in Paris. This country always looks different from abroad, and people I meet still speak of NYC with a certain awe, expressing their dream to go to visit our chaotic metropolis. But more and more, I hear disgust with the… Read more: Disillusionment with America
- Lapse in the mainstreamFor years I envied my friends whose lives mapped to the “normal” template, who hit all the appropriate milestones in the appropriate order: learning to walk, starting school, finding a passion – or at least a predilection – starting a career, raising a family, buying a small house, maybe a… Read more: Lapse in the mainstream
- The Sycophant TaxI’ve often thought about instituting a sycophant tax on consulting services designed to tell leaders what they want to hear. It’s amazing how many organizations ask for advice but don’t really want to hear it. Not that amazing in a daily life: there are many times when it might be… Read more: The Sycophant Tax
- Sunday MorningA moment of respite before the helicopters intrude. I started a peaceful Sunday morning with coffee and stretching in the garden. Then a tennis lesson at the Central Park courts. There’s nothing as gratifying as being a beginner at something. Your learning is visible – like filling up a knapsack… Read more: Sunday Morning
- Vacuuming the sidewalkFor decades, the old mansion has stood empty. Looming there on the corner of West 85th Street and Central Park West, its ground floor windows blurred out by brown paper and painter’s tape. A sign on the basement window warns politely that all who venture near are on camera. But… Read more: Vacuuming the sidewalk
- West 85th StreetI moved to this block 26 years ago. February 1, 1997. I saw the place on a frigid January evening. No one had lived in the apartment for many years. The building owners were German and had kept the ground floor flat for themselves. But they had died several years… Read more: West 85th Street
- Adventures in corporateI used to be a writer. Fiction, theater, bad angsty poetry. For years I wrote every day, and when I look back at my free-written musings, I am surprised to find little nuggets of who I used to be. Vivid and digressive. Sometimes so obsessive it makes me cringe. But… Read more: Adventures in corporate
- Bragging & Shaming on LinkedInI just read a post on LinkedIn that made me want to bitch slap the author. The post, titled “I am not responsible for your student debt” goes on to talk about how she went to the Air Force and then went to college (paid for, as many commenters noted,… Read more: Bragging & Shaming on LinkedIn
- Kiuyu Mbuyuni27 September 2009On Friday I made my last trip to Kiuyu Mbuyuni (at least for now), stopping by to talk with the Micheweni District Commissioner and the District Planning Officer on the way. I was escorted by Adi F., who works on the JP5 program for the Ministry of Finance… Read more: Kiuyu Mbuyuni