Posts about Culture
On November 11th
covering Culture, reality, Uncategorized
I’m glad my professional association (one of them, anyway) has made a forceful statement condemning California’s Proposition 8. Here’s the press release titled Psychoanalysts Censure California’s Vote to Ban Same-Sex Marriage.
Here’s the previously existing position statement on the issue overall. Well put.
UPDATE: Where is the American Psychological Association? if there’s a statement on Prop 8 I can’t find it. (There’s this, a general statement on homosexuality). Another reason I like to say I’m a psychoanalyst-who’s-also-a-psychologist rather than the other way around.
On October 5th
covering Culture, Uncategorized
Headline today: “Gloves Are Coming Off In Campaign.” I’ve seen so many headlines this campaign that say that Obama and/or McCain have taken the gloves off, should take the gloves off or will take the gloves off. I have to wonder how many pairs of gloves they started with. And you never see mention of them putting the gloves back on.
Glad I got that off my chest.
On September 30th
covering Business, creative partnerships, Culture, Group psychology, Music Ensembles
Since I listen all day to the anxieties of people, I’ve gotten an earful this week. And it’s only Tuesday. The mega-environment is becoming rough and uncertain. Money, especially money for new projects, is expected to be harder to come by, and a lot of things will become difficult.
Doing well in this climate will require psychologically resilient people and organizations — those with the capacity to resist despair, fear, and retreats into fantasy, to keep doing what needs to be done. Flexibility, an unfazed grasp of reality, persistence and patience will serve people well. (Sometimes it will require the flexibility to abandon projects that are checkmated and move on to something else with a minimum of handwringing). Groups that can manage discouragement and anxiety and support one another will do all right. Teams and groups who sink into finger-pointing when times are tough will not make it. Read more »
On August 9th
covering Culture
In the age of social networking, we need finer gradations of the concept of friend. Here’s Kevin Kelly’s.
Mine is this: A friend will help you move. A good friend will help you move a dead body. How often do you find that on Facebook?
On August 8th
covering Business, Creativity, Culture, Leadership, Teams
Y Combinator is a Venture Capital group led by Paul Graham. It’s named after a mathematical function that I can’t come close to understanding. Something to do with recursion, I gather, probably an inside joke for LISP programmers. They provide seed money for tech startups — small amounts that allows them to do the initial work that will attract larger funding.
More importantly, they ask their sponsored groups move to Cambridge or the Bay Area for an intense 3-month sprint (they don’t like calling it a boot camp) where they receive lots of mentoring and work like their very lives depend on it. Read more »
