Things that Matter: Robert Kennedy Speech on Gross National Product

"Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product ... if we should judge America (replace by any country) by that - counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. ... and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

"Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. ...

Christine Lagarde

On being a woman... and the first woman in important roles:

Logan: In a lot of things that you've done, you are the first woman. Does it matter to you? Is it important?
Lagarde: What matter to me is that I am not the last one.

On what is important in life:
Lagarde: When my father passed away and then when later on I gave birth, those are sort of ground-breaking experiences that put everything else into perspective. You know, when I sit in meetings and things are very tense and people take things extremely seriously and they invest a lot of their ego, I sometimes think to myself, "Come on, you know, there's life and there's death and there is love." And all of that ego business is nonsense compared to that.

Imagining university

Here is one perspective to understand universities in today's world. Imagine a spatial unit that stands on three legs. The three legs are financial viability, student learning, and knowledge boundary.

Lately, research universities have increasingly focused on the first leg (financial viability) and, to some extent, the third leg on a push for new knowledge through funded research. This is because funded research serve both purposes. However, this leads universities to become unbalanced and perhaps unsustainable in the long run. The fact that many universities do not offer "meaningful learning experiences" is very disturbing.

So, the daunting question is how to maintain all these three goals in a more balanced way in order to obtain sustainable progress? Not easy indeed.

What makes "Organization" GREAT

Here is a story of how one medical doctor discovers answers to the question "what makes a hospital great (i.e., excellent patient care)?"

Here is the link to the full article in the New York Times.

• She used to think that hospitals have great results because their surgeon are so good at their operations.
• She discovered from her own experience and from reading the latest study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that, in fact, investing in new technology and acquiring superstar surgeons may not be the top reason to why hospitals reap great results.
  
• Instead, improving patient care require investing in and focusing on cultivating the culture of the organization.
• What kind of culture? "A culture in which there is a cohesive organizational vision that focused on communication and support of all the efforts to improve care."
• Dr. Bradley, one of the the investigators said "We have to focus on the relationship inside the hospital and be committed to making the organization work. It isn't expensive and it isn't rocket science, but it requires a real commitment from everyone."

I can't help but wonder if this is true for other kinds of organizations as well.

Words of wisdom from Dr. Seuss

I am re-reading words from "Oh! The Places You'll Go" again. Here are the words/phrases/sentences that jump out to me:

• You'll look up and down streets. Look'em over with care. About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there." With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're too smart to go down a not-so-good street.
• You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly-perch. And your gang will fly on. You'll be left in a Lurch.
  
• You'll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, that you'll be in a Slump.
• And when you're in a Slump, you're not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.
• The Waiting Place ... for people just waiting.
• Life's a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.
• Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So .... get on your way!
  

Purpose of life

The purpose of life is not to be happy -- but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you lived at all.

Leo Rosten, 1908 - 1997

I got this quote from kiwanja.net. This life meaning makes a lot of sense. But I still struggle with the question of "what is the meaning of living?"