Collecting stamps along the way...
One of my proudest academic moments is my perseverance in slogging my way through physics. Both organic and inorganic chemistry flowed easily — it simply made sense. The old way of teaching physics was death by a thousand mathematical equations without much in the way of grounding us in awe. Now I am a fan girl. I consume all the information regarding the cosmos and use a non-trivial amount in my talks about planetary boundaries and how we ended up at this modern crossroad.
In science there is only physics; all the rest is stamp collecting. — Lord Kelvin
I became suspicious when college level courses confidently allowed you to bring a list of equations into the exam room. They knew that we were nothing without a fundamental understanding of the theorems and bigger questions. Why not let us load up our useless sheets of paper and graphing calculators?
I think the big picture is the ability to learn and think critically. I might whine a little bit along the way but once you can do hard things — you can do hard things.
There is this great article in the Costco Connection, the mailer you get every month if you are a Costco member.
Don’t get foiled: What business leaders can learn from the sport of fencing
I fenced in college (foil) and love the application to business:
Don’t forget the ground game (so many skills all at once that include footwork, precision, speed)
Pick what works for your repertoire (we aren’t Swiss army knives. Work to your strength)
Achieve your goals to reach your objectives (what tactics do you have up your sleeve so you can meet long term objectives?)
Think it through (you need to think on your feet)
My objective has been to get my third book, Geospatial Data Science and the Art of Storytelling out into the world. I am lucky that I was able to bring it from the previous publisher to my own newly minted small press but my immediate goal is to lay out the pages and prepare the book for print. I want something thoughtful. I am printing each chapter as its own small book with the whole shebang sometime down the road.
Paid subscribers will get glimpses of each chapter as they wrap.
Here is a sneak peek at page one and two of the first chapter.
I am almost ready to share behind the scenes videos for indesign users. In my case the book is written but each page is being placed with fresh images and updates.
Reminds me of placing stamps one by one on little envelopes…