I have a week and a half to get the paperwork in now, to be in the running for an APA scholarship.

Whee!

some details to nut out, but it's looking solid.

details to come.

And I think it could be a winner!

If there is anything that really pisses me off, it's failure. Failure to deliver¹, failure to pay attention to the small details², complete failure to implement something that might even remotely work!³ But even worse, failure to accept that failure just might be normal. Even really bright people make mistakes.

I'm still determined to find a way to link Law and Information Systems - but with Failure, I don't think that'll be too hard.

I'm definitely keen on Strategic Thinking, and the Pragmatic kind still looks like a winner.

Key themes in my work will still be Trust and Integrity. And I'm very much an advocate of Simplicity, Flexibility, and Responsibility also.

To be clear, it is not Failing that pisses me off, its the avoidance of being associated with failing. Finding any way possible to Not Be The One Who Failed™. That, IMNSHO, is a real winner of a way to fail. Lots. Big time. That, and completely ignoring anyone who might be even suggesting that your winning approach is, or might be, collapsing around you. What would they know anyway, right?

The Failure I have in mind is systemic, built right into the whole shebang.

Why should anyone be happy with a Fault-tolerant system, when what we really need are fault-coping, or failure-absorbing ones. Perhaps scrapping the stupid Perfection model of Reality™, and replacing it with just looking out the window occasionally? Or leaving the desk for a while. And stop worshipping the Accountancy-susceptible, Economically-imagined bottom-line for a while.

In case you're wondering, I've been reading Frank Furedi's Culture of Fear and Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone? with The Politics of Fear next on my list.

I find myself agreeing with much of what Furedi has to say, and many of his conclusions about what to do about it. For a sociologist, he doesn't suck completely. Even for a Marxist. But I do have my doubts, and my disagreements. Crap. I'm engaging with what I'm reading and all that stuff.

Next I'll be drafting a thesis statement or something.

1. "We'll have it to you by Friday" - but you don't - and I'm sure you weren't being general as to any old Friday. Especially as I just paid extra to have it "expressed" - whatever that is ...


2. Like, there ought to be toilets in buildings if people are expected to work in them all day. Some, any. In the original design. Having to retrofit toilets and 'disabled' access to multi-million dollar buildings is just stupid. And they're still 'upgrading' the 'landscaping' around them to achieve accessibility ...


3. Too busy playing politics to actually do your damn job. Or hire someone else to do it for you.