James L Adams—People and Products

Creativity, Large Groups, and Tribalism

Post June 20,2020

The history of the human is tribalism.  Still is.  Certainly a tribe is easier in which to communicate, sell common values, and flaunt, or try to flaunt superiority. But it if gets large enough, even it will break up into tribes.  An example is the tribe of white males, which is getting a lot of attention these days, but so large it has been breaking into pieces for some time, in this case for the better. 

But a good example of large scale tribalism can be seen in the Covid 19 situation.   The U.S.and China are trying to blame each other for it.   The leader of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, is trying to get the country to ignore it.  The surprisingly large tribe of “anti vaccine groups in America and the rest of the world are seizing on the pandemic to try to further their cause. There also seem to be  a fairly large informal group of “screw the deaths, let’s worry about the economy” people and an equivalent “screw the economy, let’s worry about the deaths”.

A Pandemic such as this is a time for international  cooperation, not competition and blame. Many  drug companies are working on developing a vaccine, but do we think they are sharing their “secrets”?  That they plan to share their profits”?  The statistics on Covid 19 and poor people, “people of color” and old people are frightening.  Are the rich, the white, and the young sharing the “wealth”? Come on human tribe members, let’s share the cost and the benefits.  From that will come the greatest rewards.

The same is true of the “cost” of damage to the environment, wrangling about  ownership of territory and resources, and other areas where very large numbers of people are involved, and moroe creative solutions to the problems could be reached  if tribes  joined together to define and solve them. 

Truck Progress   

 We are now in what I will cause the “cosmetic” phase of restoration.  The vehicle could now play the role of being a truck (although a few law changes in California will cause it to forever be a “Historical” vehicle, but that’s fine with me, because I have no intention of starting a trucking company). After pressure washing off the grime and grease, and sanding the exterior surface, It seems to  be in pretty good shape, except for the scars, bends, bumps, rust patches, and other marks of 50 years of hard usage on a farm, followed by 25 years of neglect out of doors.  My friend and I are therefore spending our time armed with hammers and dollies, clamps,  Bondo (a magic “filler” material) different grades of sandpaper, so-called “orbiter” sanders, which sand under power without leaving pronounced sanding marks,  and various grades of primer paint, needed to avoid rust while we do our attempt to nullify damage and give the finish paint something to hang on.to

I sent you a few photos of the rescue job on the air filter of the truck.  Here are a couple of photos of a fuel tank, one of them with the damaged paint and rusted areas cut down to the metal, and one with a bit of Bondo added,primed. and ready for paint. Is this fun?  We think so.

 

 

Creativity and Leadership

June 4,2020

I realize that I have been talking about the creativity of large groups in previous posts, but I have delayed on writing this post because of the difficulty to grasp the mess we are in due to the juxtaposition of the Covid 19 pandemic and the very believable insights in the still existing racism in the country—ranging from the much larger toll of the pandemic among poor. old people, and people of “color”, to continuing homelessness. Are we never going to grow up, recognize our weaknesses, and work together to better our lives? As an example of the cause of our problems,  I spoke a bit previously about the need for outstanding leadership in situations in which change was needed in large groups.  I think it is safe to say that we are sorely lacking  such at the highest levels.

Jim Mattis is a highly decorated Marine general, who was Trump’s first appointment to be secretary of defense.  I thought it was an excellent choice, knowing Mattis by reputation. He left his job in a relativley short period and I and was impressed at a vow he took to at least in the short term say nothing negative. about Trump, since after all Trump was his Commander in Chief, and Mattis was a good Marine. He has written a few books about his life and none of them have attacked Trump.  He is now in residence as the Davies Family Distinguished Fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford, a well known conservative think tank. But he has obviously decided “enough already”

He wrote an essay, recently published in The Atlantic Magazine, which is getting a great deal of attention in the press.  In that paper he points out that U. S. strength has always relied on hanging together ( In Union There is Strength). As opposed to the Nazi Slogan ( Divide and Conquer).  It is a short paper and well worth reading.  A statement from the paper that is often being quoted is “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not ever pretend to try.”.  “Instead he tries to divide us.  We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort.  We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.”(

I served my time in the U.S. Air Force and in many profit-making and non-profit making organizations, and taught a course at Stanford for many years entitled ‘War and Technology’.  Leadership was a constant topic we discussed, and I was amply aided by several graduates of the military academies,  who had studied leadership and then practiced it in combat, and in other activities under their responsibility.  Leadership is more than an abstract concept. Many books have been written about it and it can be clearly described. And if creativity is wanted, one key is to pull a wide variety of thinkers together, not push them apart.  

I recently watched Ken Burn’s excellent series on the Roosevelts, and could not help but try to compare Trump with FDR, both leaders in times of international crisis.  I could not even come close.  Roosevelt and his staff were not only extremely inventive, but capable of seeing their ideas blossom into reality and communicating them to unite the country.  Boy, do we need that now——less effort to self-aggrandize, and more to make things happen.  The latest “strategy” that Trump is playing with is to send the military, a proud force of people dedicated to uphold the nation’s constitution, out into the streets to punish people  of whom Trump disapproves .  Hopefully, he will see the difference between the army and the police, and war and civil disobedience, and realize that his present instincts will fuel the flames, rather than put out the fire.

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