Fred,>>>I can just hear Fleckenshmuck now......"<<<
The problem with Feckenstein, Barron's(Abelson), Jim Grant, et al - is that these guys are more often right than wrong. But, don't get me wrong - I don't think that is such a great thing.
Feckenstein, in particular, is an attractive guy with good manners and a polished presentation. He articulates his case very well. The problem with him, and the others mentioned above, is that he is perpetually negative. If you have been in a large Corporate setting, you would recognized the Fleckensteins right away. They are always there at the meetings. They have somehow ingratiated themselves to someone in top management and is always given a place at meetings. They are everywhere in large organizations - government, education or private.
These are never the guys that propose doing anything. They are there to shoot things down - regardless of their merit. Whenever someone comes up with a suggestion or a proposal to do something - the Fleckensteins are always there to give you a litany of reasons why they can't and shouldn't be done. They would look at you with those sincere and reality piercing eyes. The problem is they are more often right then wrong.
The bigger problem, however, is that nothing will ever get done with these guys around. They will discourage everyone and everything. That is one of the reason why nothing really creative ever comes out of a large organization.
If Fleckenstein was around Bill Gates or Steve Jobs when they started out, he would have been the first to give them the sincere and stern looking glaze and admonish them to stop fooling themselves - how could they ever think about competing against the established order - IBM, Harvard physicist Ahn Wang, Motorola et al. Get real. Get back to college and stop fooling around.
If they were around Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, Michael Jordon, YoYo Mah, when they were young, I doubt those guys would have done what they did.
If it were entirely up to the Fleckensteins, Barrons, et al - we would not have Microsoft to kick around, or have to fight our PC's each day, in fact the earth would still be flat - as far as what they would still be teaching in Universities - just as they did at Oxford University when it was founded.
Mary |
