I wrote a rather direct letter to the Board members of one of my companies today, with lots of (hopefully) constructive criticism about how we conduct ourselves in meetings. We’ve started to talk over each other a lot, interrupting each other, and generally acting without a lot of respect and decorum. Not my idea of a thoughtful Board. We’ll see how my criticism is handled by the others – I’m as guilty as any of them, and I tried to be clear about that. But I don’t like being in the midst of unruly debates when I’m trying to get something done.

And I don’t know if this is more prevalent now than years ago, but I find that I express myself so much better in writing than I do in real-time verbal jousts. In writing I’m focused, and the constant editing of words happens at just the right speed. In person, verbally, I blurt things out before I’ve had time to really consider if that’s what I want to say. Particularly if there are multiple people in the conversation. My attention shifts from person to person, point to point, and I never seem to land on the “right thing” to say at the right time. With writing, I’m in control of the conversation. Guess it isn’t so hard to understand after all.

Here’s an audiophile nightmare. Imagine you bought a cheap-ish tube amp, hoping to experience the mellow, warm sound of tube amplification. Then you discovered that what you’re really driving your speakers with is a Rube Goldberg design that doesn’t use tubes for amplification at all, and there’s a cheap solid-state amp buried inside the case. Yikes!

From the Neils Bohr Institute, stars are heavier than we thought. And I thought they were pretty damned heavy…

Closer to home, Jessamine seems to be doing fine post-broken arm. It’s great to see him happy.