Thoughts
Thoughts
Occasional essays. Published when there is something worth saying, not on a schedule.
Decline to Self-Identify
On the questionnaire that invents the person it counts, and the one box on it that cannot
Read the essay
Tenure Without Persons
On what actually becomes permanent inside an institution, and the accession number that answers a polemic
Nothing to Photograph
On why firms automate the step they should have deleted, and the committee that makes it inevitable
Whose Egg Is That
On abolishing the hiring layer, and returning the decision to the people who have to live with it
The Org Chart Travels
On what actually crosses a border when an idea is exported, and why the argument stays home
Inventors of Problems
On the staff function that must manufacture demand, and the executives who pay it to do so
Ask Who the Party Secretary Is
On dealing with an adversary that files its intentions publicly, and the diligence question nobody wants to ask first
Sea Room
On the difference between knowing where you are and having somewhere to go
The Unsmiling Class
On the finance headshot, and the face it has agreed to wear
Guérir Quelquefois
On the word "cure," and the men who sell it