The Longest Run

Trout Eating A Fish Pellet A couple of days ago we had a fun visit to the state fish hatchery in Sandwich, MA. It's a fun excursion if you are in the area. My friend Phyllis sent me a story from the Cape Cod newspaper about a seal who (happily) found the hatchery last January. Seal Finds Trout Buffet at Sandwich Hatchery And here's a video of the story:

It's much better with the picture I saw this morning on CNN, but here's a funny story about a Colorado woman's attempt to get a vanity license plate.... Colorado Nixes Woman's ILVTOFU Vanity Plate

I'm very interested in the process and journey of personal development, particularly the challenge of leaving behind old behaviors, mental maps, and self-definitions. I'm also interested in how that process plays out in interpersonal relationships, having observed how difficult it can be for other people to see you as the person you've become as opposed to the person you've always been (for them). Peggy Orenstein's article in today's New York Times, Growing Up On Facebook , touches on these issues and how they may play out at a time when we increasingly share the details (minutiae?) of our lives on facebook, twitter, blogs (!), etc.. Orenstein writes: college was my big chance to doff the roles in my family and community that I had outgrown, to reinvent myself, to get busy with the embarrassing, exciting, muddy, wonderful work of creating an adult identity. Can you really do that with your 450 closest friends watching, all tweeting to affirm ad nauseam your pres...

I've had the great pleasure over the past year to work on a key strategic project with some consultants from the Goldratt Group (including a trip to Amsterdam last year (to work directly with Eli Goldratt - see Jamming With Eli ). David Leonhardt's Economic Scene column in today's New York Times ( To Spend or to Save? Trick Question ) addresses the conflict many people are feeling right now between spending and saving; the paradox is that we need spending to improve the state of the economy, but we need savings to reduce personal debt, recapitalize banks, etc. Given all that, it's hard to know what to do, and the natural instinct is to hunker down and stop spending any more than is absolutely necessary. Leonhardt writes: It’s your fault. Part of it is, anyway. You, the American consumer, spent too much money. You bought too much house, took on too much debt and generally lived beyond your means. Your free-spending ways helped cause the worst financial crisis since the G...

During what can charitably be described as challenging times in the business world - when it can feel like the world is collapsing around you and the rules as you understand them are changing, it's sometimes difficult to maintain perspective. Yesterday's Wall Street Journal had a thought-provoking article on the risks of being addicted to a kind of success that revolves primarily or exclusively around career. As the article says: The deepening recession is exacting punishment for a psychological vice that masquerades as virtue for many working people: the unmitigated identification of self with occupation, accomplishment and professional status. This tendency can induce outright panic as more and more people fear loss of employment. For the entire article, see: You Might as Well Face It: You're Addicted to Success In terms of what one can do about professionally focused success addiction, the piece has this to say: To disassociate identity from professional status, therap...

From Outdoors On The Frozen Lake - January 2009 From Outdoors On The Frozen Lake - January 2009 From Outdoors On The Frozen Lake - January 2009 Had the first chance recently in my 40+ years to make an ice skating rink on a frozen lake - see the pictures above. Nice article in the NYT about the weather being cold enough this year for lots of ice skating in the area: Skate, Sure, but Don’t Expect a Zamboni . We could have used a Zamboni to smooth out the ice, but I don't think the kids cared much....

Spurred to action by Virginia Heffernan's article in the New York Times Sunday Magazine ( Confessions of a TED Addict ), I've started watching videos from the annual TED conference . You can read Heffernan's article for a more in-depth overview of what the conference is about, but I think the TED tag line sums things up pretty well: Ideas Worth Spreading. I've got a bunch of videos lined up to watch, but my favorites so far are by Peter Reinhart on baking bread and Benjamin Wallace on the price of happiness. Here's the Reinhart video: And here's the Wallace video: (here are links to the Reinhart and the Wallace in case you can't see the embedded videos). If yoy are interested in baking bread, you should also check out Reinhart's new cookbook The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread . The cookbook has won a couple of awards and is terrific. I've not made any of the breads yet but have enjoyed just reading Reinha...

I recently came across two articles that were relevant given that lower back pain has been one feature of my post-marathon suffering (not much progress on that front, by the way). Jonah Lehrer, author of How We Decide , has an article which discusses research showing that the solution to back pain is often psychological rather than physical. An entry yesterday in the New York Times Well blog came at the back pain problem from a slightly different angle. Scans For Back Pain Ineffective addresses research showing that scanning (x-rays/MRIs/CT scans) to find the source of back pain are often ineffective because those interpreting results often fail to account for the normal effects of aging and time. Both are worth a read. I did laugh at this quote from the Lehrer article: Chronic stress is another important risk factor for chronic pain. One back surgeon, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of offending his patients, said that he's seen several men develop lower back pain shortly...

At the New York Times, an early article from next Sunday's Magazine: The Big Fix . Absolutely worth a read. From the concluding paragraphs: The norms of the last two decades or so — consume before invest; worry about the short term, not the long term — have been more than just a reflection of the economy. They have also affected the economy. Chief executives have fought for paychecks that their predecessors would have considered obscenely large. Technocrats inside Washington’s regulatory agencies, after listening to their bosses talk endlessly about the dangers of overregulation, made quite sure that they weren’t regulating too much. Financial engineering became a more appealing career track than actual engineering or science. In one of the small gems in their book, Goldin and Katz write that towns and cities with a large elderly population once devoted a higher-than-average share of their taxes to schools. Apparently, age made them see the benefits of education. In recent decades,...

From the New York Times: Fitness Isn't An Overnight Sensation . Terrific article on the benefits of exercise and the commitment required to make a difference. Here's one great story from the article: Then there’s Charles Reilly, a federal prosecutor in Manhattan and a marathon runner who took a 10-year hiatus from the sport when he joined his local school board. He just did not have time to exercise, he said. Along with exercising less, he ate more. Soon he ballooned from 159 pounds to 282. “It came on gradually, but it came on,” Mr. Reilly said of the weight. On April 18, 2005, he had his last school board meeting — he’d decided not to run for any more terms. Eight days later, he went out for a run. “After half a mile, I had to stop and walk,” Mr. Reilly said. But he kept trying. A month later, he could run three miles without stopping. After three or four months, he says, he could run for five miles. By the end of 2006, he ran 10 miles. In the meantime, he also changed his di...

The crash today of the US Airways flight into the Hudson River reminded me of an article I read a few weeks ago in Vanity Fair - The Devil at 37,000 Feet , by William Langewiesche. It's the account of a terrible aviation tragedy in Brazil that is fascinating for its exploration of human/technology interface issues and workgroup dynamics (in this case two pilots who were flying a small business jet), among other things. A fascinating read. Related articles by Zemanta Tightly-Coupled Systems, Airlines and Error

There's an excellent series of short articles on health care in the US on the New York Times web site - definitely worth a read. I think it's important to become familiar with the issues given that health care improvement is one of the stated goals of the new President. Links to the series are below. If you have any recommendations of other good writing on health care, let me know in the comments. Speaking of comments - be sure to check out the comments in each of these blog posts. Why Does U.S. Health Care Cost So Much? (Part I) - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com Why Does U.S. Health Care Cost So Much? (Part II: Indefensible Administrative Costs) Why Does U.S. Health Care Cost So Much? (Part III: An Aging Population Isn’t the Reason) Why Does U.S. Health Care Cost So Much? (Part IV: A Primer on Medicare) U.S. Health Care Costs, Part V: Can Americans Afford Medicare? U.S. Health Care Costs Part VI: At What Price Physician Autonomy? U.S. Health Care Costs Part VII: Reining in Doctors...

From the New York Times Economix column: New York, New York: America’s Resilient City From the Wall Street Journal: New York, Boston Prices Expected to Fall Further The Times piece seems more optimistic while the WSJ piece seems more realistic.....though one could argue that the differences have only to do with time horizon. Related articles by Zemanta NYC Not As Screwed: "Wall Street is just about to...

A friend at work recently asked me to recommend my favorite articles or readings on leadership; after assembling the list I figured I would share it with you. If there are other pieces you'd recommend, let me know via the comments! Leadership Favorites Books Primal Leadership - Daniel Goleman (also here and here ) Five Dysfunctions of A Team – Patrick Lencioni (also here and here ) The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive – Patrick Lencioni (also here and here ) Personal Development/Leadership/Role of an Executive What Makes An Effective Executive – Drucker Managing Oneself – Drucker Managing For Business Effectiveness - Drucker Leading Change – Why Transformation Efforts Fail – Kotter What Makes A Leader? – Goleman Leadership That Gets Results – Goleman What Leaders Really Do – Kotter Discovering Your Authentic Leadership – George Five Minds Of A Manager - Mintzberg Reaching Your Potential – Kaplan What To Ask The Person In The Mirror - Kaplan Ways CEOs L...

According to Don't Starve A Cold Of Exercise by Gina Kolata in the New York Times, the little bit of research that has been done to date suggests that one should not skip workouts while sick. The studies which were done don't sound to me like much fun given that the subjects were 'deliberately infected with a rhinovirus' and the researchers 'collected the subjects’ used facial tissues'....

My friend Jeff recommended this New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell: Annals of Education - Most Likely To Succeed . On reading Most Likely To Succeed, I was reminded of another Gladwell article which I found thought-provoking when I first read it: The New-Boy Network . Both articles speak to the power of conventional wisdom and the downside of reflexively protecting self-interest.... Related articles by Zemanta Review: Stephen Moss on Malcolm Gladwell's live show in London

As the year winds down and we approach the new year, I naturally start to look back at this year to think about what was good and what was less good and to plan goals for next year. Around this time last year I came across an article in the New York Times called Year-End Review, With Yourself from the Shifting Careers blog . I'm planning to revisit the article in the coming days and figured you might find it helpful as well.

I've written in the past about the idea of ambient intimacy ( here and here ), and I certainly value the opportunity to connect with friends via The Longest Run, facebook, etc. The Wall Street Journal covers a new iteration of sharing online in The New Examined Life: Why more people are spilling the statistics of their lives on the Web . Beautiful graph of the smallest details of a guy's life here . Nice tools to do the same for yourself at Daytum and mycrocosm . But perhaps things have gone too far.... bedpost .

I really enjoyed this article by Caitlin Flanagan: What Girls Want , though I did find scary the idea that "living with a teenage girl [is] one of the most unpleasant experiences God metes out to the unsuspecting." Yikes.

Came across an article today in the New York Times that's quite timely: The Pain May Be Real, but the Scan Is Deceiving . I'm currently enjoying my own medical odyssey - trying to get to the bottom of what's up with my back and leg pain and soreness. After seeing an orthopedist yesterday, my next step is to see a physical therapist who specializes in runners; I'll see him next week for a video analysis (!) of my running gait to check if there's something I'm doing that's causing the problems. No running for now, but I have been cleared to do biking; lots of spin classes in my future! The lack of a clear diagnosis of the cause of the problem is a bit frustrating....but I'm hopeful that connecting with a good doctor will lead to some answers.