A Good Thought

Power is the ability to not have to learn anything.

Karl Deutsch

Avoiding power and its attendant sclerosis is perhaps a matter of perception. A sweet, pointy-headed colleague recently introduced me to someone he wanted to impress as being worth $xxx,000.00 in research grants. For people who care more about their careers per se than they do about the content of their work, this kind of advantage is a stick with which to beat others. But perhaps a career is just like a phone bill, if you don’t pay it, your service will be cut off, but if you pay it without a fuss, you have a number where you can be reached. Having the common sense to maintain your phone service is not wisdom or even knowledge, it is simply the understanding of cause and effect. But if one keeps everything in perspective, then knowledge and possibly even wisdom are not blocked out by the static of power…

~ by Daniel Mroz on June 28, 2009.