The nearly lost art of note-taking, post-Yolanda

The nearly lost art of note taking by hand
The nearly lost art of note taking by hand, post-Yolanda.

 

I’ve been trying to step successively into the shoes, first of Tacloban mayor Alfred Romualdez, and next of DILG Secretary Mar Roxas, without any prejudices whatsoever, and just try to understand what their problem was, really. I mean, there was a national emergency raging outside that room, everyone was waiting for their marching orders, and here were two presumably intelligent government officials trying to set the terms of reference in responding to the post-Yolanda emergency. It took them at least 45 minutes to try to agree on their TOR, and they finished not reaching any crucial agreement. What WAS their problem? Continue reading “The nearly lost art of note-taking, post-Yolanda”

When flipping a coin produces the best decision

Piet Hein
Piet Hein (December 16, 1905–April 17, 1996) was a Danish scientist, mathematician, inventor, designer, author, and poet, often writing under the Old Norse pseudonym "Kumbel" meaning "tombstone". His short poems, known as gruks or grooks, first started to appear in the daily newspaper "Politiken" shortly after the Nazi occupation in April 1940 under the pseudonym "Kumbel Kumbell". Source: Wikipedia

Sometimes I’m stumped by a very difficult decision point, a fork in the road, an “answer with yes or no, no ifs and buts” type of question. Faced with that situation and with the kind of personality that I have, often I will agonize for days before coming up with a decision. Even then, while I go ahead with its implementation, it will take another round of self-convincing to assure myself that I made the right choice.

Continue reading “When flipping a coin produces the best decision”