Philosophy
Today is Labor Day, so I'm thinking about work. But I am also thinking about Ed Johnson, a Gettysburg College alum who just passed away. Ed was a wonderful person for so many reasons, but one of the things I admired so much about him was his commitment to the value of ideas. He ran an insurance company and would occasionally have days where the firm took a break from business and gathered for discussions about great books. He would bring people out from the college to help facilitate conversation and in small groups, the employees would spend the day discussing the perennial questions of meaning, ethics, and being. It is sadly a peculiar view that work is a place for personal and only professional growth, that a better environment is created when room is made for thoughtfulness and the usual hierarchical arrangements are forsaken. It is wonderful to have gyms and yoga classes, on-site childcare and other conveniences as part of the workplace, but what Ed did was wholly other. He created a place where work was done by those who could engage each other at deeper levels. Ethics is not just a code that you better follow at risk of termination, but something living and humane, something that the company in each others company thought about honestly and openly. We live in a world that separates ideas from work, an assembly line mentality where efficiency demands people be made into cogs. Humanizing work has the effect of humanizing workers. Maybe that is why so many don't do it, but why it was so wonderful of Ed Johnson that he did.
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This is my 1,500th post on the Playground. That's a lot of words. I first really got plugged into the blogging world during the Presidential primary of the 2004 elections when Howard Dean's campaign was largely a self-organized on-line phenomenon....
- Responsibility For Unintended Consequences
Are we responsible for that pain which our actions have caused, but which we did not intend to create? So last night I go to do my stand-up bit and the audience was filled with friends and relatives. People from every part of my life, TheWife and LilBro...
- Thank You
It is a wonderful thing to have a time set aside to reflect on that for which you are thankful. I am indeed an incredibly fortunate individual. One of those things for which I am very grateful is the community that has grown around this blog. I am very...
- Rip Maynard Ferguson
We lost another great one yesterday, jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson passed away at 78. A big man, Maynard had the ability to hit notes that a trumpet was not made to hit. During his solos, he would work up a scale and just when you thought there was...
- Why Scientists Shrug Off Ethics
Dr. Free-Ride at Adventures in Science and Ethics has a couple of interesting meditations on a recent piece in Cell by bioethicist from Penn's med school entitled "Reasons Scientists Avoid Thinking about Ethics". On the one hand, the reasons he cites...
Philosophy
Work and Thought
Today is Labor Day, so I'm thinking about work. But I am also thinking about Ed Johnson, a Gettysburg College alum who just passed away. Ed was a wonderful person for so many reasons, but one of the things I admired so much about him was his commitment to the value of ideas. He ran an insurance company and would occasionally have days where the firm took a break from business and gathered for discussions about great books. He would bring people out from the college to help facilitate conversation and in small groups, the employees would spend the day discussing the perennial questions of meaning, ethics, and being. It is sadly a peculiar view that work is a place for personal and only professional growth, that a better environment is created when room is made for thoughtfulness and the usual hierarchical arrangements are forsaken. It is wonderful to have gyms and yoga classes, on-site childcare and other conveniences as part of the workplace, but what Ed did was wholly other. He created a place where work was done by those who could engage each other at deeper levels. Ethics is not just a code that you better follow at risk of termination, but something living and humane, something that the company in each others company thought about honestly and openly. We live in a world that separates ideas from work, an assembly line mentality where efficiency demands people be made into cogs. Humanizing work has the effect of humanizing workers. Maybe that is why so many don't do it, but why it was so wonderful of Ed Johnson that he did.
- Is Blogging Passe?
This is my 1,500th post on the Playground. That's a lot of words. I first really got plugged into the blogging world during the Presidential primary of the 2004 elections when Howard Dean's campaign was largely a self-organized on-line phenomenon....
- Responsibility For Unintended Consequences
Are we responsible for that pain which our actions have caused, but which we did not intend to create? So last night I go to do my stand-up bit and the audience was filled with friends and relatives. People from every part of my life, TheWife and LilBro...
- Thank You
It is a wonderful thing to have a time set aside to reflect on that for which you are thankful. I am indeed an incredibly fortunate individual. One of those things for which I am very grateful is the community that has grown around this blog. I am very...
- Rip Maynard Ferguson
We lost another great one yesterday, jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson passed away at 78. A big man, Maynard had the ability to hit notes that a trumpet was not made to hit. During his solos, he would work up a scale and just when you thought there was...
- Why Scientists Shrug Off Ethics
Dr. Free-Ride at Adventures in Science and Ethics has a couple of interesting meditations on a recent piece in Cell by bioethicist from Penn's med school entitled "Reasons Scientists Avoid Thinking about Ethics". On the one hand, the reasons he cites...