The Bus to Abilene

A couple weeks ago I read Colin Powell's It Worked For Me: In Life and Leadership. The book begins with elaboration on a 13 principles that formed the basis of an article in Parade magazine a number of years ago. Powell tells stories containing insights on life and leadership situations. It's a very good book and I am planning to borrow it from the library and listen to it again sometime. (The audio version, of course.)

One of the stories he tells had to do with an expression called "the Bus to Abilene." It's about how groups can sometimes go down a wrong path when individuals in the group think everyone else wants to go that way and they don't want to be out of step or the one to be a naysayer.

It's an intriguing problem and I recognized how this can sometimes happen. But how do you stop it? Colin Powell says that in the army it is possible to simply stop and ask, "Are we on the bus to Abilene?" Everyone would know what this meant.

The book I am currently reading is called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. It's another really good book that I would recommend to everyone, introvert and extrovert alike, especially extroverts. Interestingly the author Susan Cain also talks about group dynamics quite a bit, and the bus to Abilene story came up again. So I thought I would share it here.

From Wikipedia:

In an Abilene paradox a group of people collectively decide on a course of action that is counter to the preferences of many (or all) of the individuals in the group. It involves a common breakdown of group communication in which each member mistakenly believes that their own preferences are counter to the group's and, therefore, does not raise objections. A common phrase relating to the Abilene Paradox is a desire not to "rock the boat." This differs from groupthink in that the Abilene paradox is characterized by an inability to manage agreement.

The term was introduced by management expert Jerry B. Harvey in his 1974 article The Abilene Paradox: The Management of Agreement. The name of the phenomenon comes from an anecdote in the article which Harvey uses to elucidate the paradox:

On a hot afternoon visiting in Coleman, Texas, the family is comfortably playing dominoes on a porch, until the father-in-law suggests that they take a trip to Abilene [53 miles north] for dinner. The wife says, "Sounds like a great idea." The husband, despite having reservations because the drive is long and hot, thinks that his preferences must be out-of-step with the group and says, "Sounds good to me. I just hope your mother wants to go." The mother-in-law then says, "Of course I want to go. I haven't been to Abilene in a long time." The drive is hot, dusty, and long. When they arrive at the cafeteria, the food is as bad as the drive. They arrive back home four hours later, exhausted.

One of them dishonestly says, "It was a great trip, wasn't it?" The mother-in-law says that, actually, she would rather have stayed home, but went along since the other three were so enthusiastic. The husband says, "I wasn't delighted to be doing what we were doing. I only went to satisfy the rest of you." The wife says, "I just went along to keep you happy. I would have had to be crazy to want to go out in the heat like that." The father-in-law then says that he only suggested it because he thought the others might be bored. The group sits back, perplexed that they together decided to take a trip which none of them wanted. They each would have preferred to sit comfortably, but did not admit to it when they still had time to enjoy the afternoon.

Colin Powell recommends that a good leader will be paying attention and -- when he or she senses something is awry -- stop the meeting to ask, "Are we on the bus to Abilene?" If we're lucky, we'll catch ourselves before the driver turns on the ignition key. Susan Cain amplifies the importance of making sure we listen to the quieter ones in our group who may have an insight but feel reluctant to push their viewpoint into a lively discussion between the extroverts in the room.


Full story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abilene_paradox

Our Amazing Universe: The Mandelbrot Set

While visiting with Dan Hansen a few months back I was introduced to the incredible concept of the Mandelbrot Set. It was a concept I was unfamiliar with, and in the event that you are as well here's how Wikipedia begins its explanation:

The Mandelbrot set is the set of complex numbers 'c' for which the sequence ( c, c² + c, (c²+c)² + c, ((c²+c)²+c)² + c, (((c²+c)²+c)²+c)² + c, ...) does not approach infinity. The set is closely related to Julia sets (which include similarly complex shapes) and is named after the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, who studied and popularized it. Mandelbrot set images are made by sampling complex numbers and determining for each whether the result tends towards infinity when a particular mathematical operation is iterated on it. Treating the real and imaginary parts of each number as image coordinates, pixels are colored according to how rapidly the sequence diverges, if at all.

After briefly detailing the rules regarding Mandelbrot sets, Wikipedia closes its intro with these statements.

Images of the Mandelbrot set display an elaborate boundary that reveals progressively ever-finer recursive detail at increasing magnifications. The "style" of this repeating detail depends on the region of the set being examined. The set's boundary also incorporates smaller versions of the main shape, so the fractal property of self-similarity applies to the entire set, and not just to its parts.

The Mandelbrot set has become popular outside mathematics both for its aesthetic appeal and as an example of a complex structure arising from the application of simple rules, and is one of the best-known examples of mathematical visualization.

Who says mathematics can't be fun? You can read the full explanation and history of this fractal at this page on Wikipedia.

It was the YouTube video that brought home how amazing the Mandelbrot set phenomenon really is. As you zoom in on one arm of the set you discover that the set is replicated within the set, ad infinitum.

While watching the above video (you can turn the sound off if you think the music is cheesy) I began to wonder again what one could discover by zooming in on atoms, the building blocks of our material world. Since my high school chemistry days we've made incredible advances in the exploration of smaller and smaller particles. How small does it go?

Of course on the other end of things, how big does it go? The universe, that is. How did this happen? And what does it all mean?

That's enough for a Monday morning, I think. It's awesome!

Postmodern Version of Milton Bradley's The Game Now Popular On Today's Campuses

One of my favorite games for a time when young was The Game of Life. Milton Bradley created and sold the famous board game in 1860 just before the outset of the Civil War. When introduced it was originally The Checkered Game of Life. I half wonder if it had been named that to encourage Checkers players to give it a try, or whether it was an early attempt at realism in a fallen world.

A modern version of the game, the one we played as kids, was introduced in 1960. People married, had children and careers, drove around in cars and all the rest. In 1984 Milton Bradley was taken over by Hasbro, who also absorbed Parker Brothers. As games have evolved so has our culture.

The postmodern version of Milton Bradley’s Game of Life is now simply called The Game and it has become the most popular game on campuses from coast to coast. Christmas sales in 2014 exceeded ten million copies.

The game had been updated 1998 as a result of dwindling sales in the once popular Game of Life, a newer version came with a whole new approach and a new set of rules more in keeping with the times. Despite moderately weak acceptance by the public initially, Hasbro persisted in promoting The Game in the belief that it would eventually catch on. It wasn't until the company gave it a post-modern spin in 2005 that sales began to take off. Sales have now exceeded one billion dollars.

The original 1998 version of The Game, a strategy game involving cards and a set of tiles with letters and symbols, was straightforward, logical and rational. Everything meant what it appeared to mean. The letter A was a letter A and the symbol for water was water. The rules were simple and clear, easily grasped and easy to follow.

The postmodern version of The Game is nuanced and ambiguous. The letters and symbols can each have numerous meanings, depending on the order in which they are played as well as context. Combinations of tiles that resulted in one person winning in the earlier version might result in two others winning in the new version. Even when tiles are played in identical formations in two games in a row, the outcomes can be different due to subtle complexities in the rules because tallies end up meaning the opposite of what they appear. “To casual observers the rules appear to be nonsense,” said Hasbro spokesperson Aaron Bennett. “Whereas the earlier Game was for children eight and up, this new version is clearly for older children and young adults, our target audience. Sales of The Game to older demographics have not been particularly brisk.” It is rumored that Parker Brothers is now working on a post-modern version of Monopoly. Avalon Hill is close to introducing a post-modern version of its classic strategy war game Stratego. And two video game manufacturers are in a bidding war to obtain rights to turn the classic war game Risk into an international karaoke challenge.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. If you're going to play, play to win.

EdNote: All trademarked names are the property of their respective owners.

Goin' Postal Summer Art Show Is Next Friday

What did you do last night? I finished this painting of Bob Dylan based on the cover photo from Blonde On Blonde. It will be displayed at the Goin' Postal Summer Art Show next week.

Many of the usual suspects will be sharing new work, and a number of new faces will again be on hand. You can find a list of artists who will have work on display by visiting the Facebook Event page. The food is always good, as is the music. I believe Mark Anderson will be back as well as Theft By Swindle. Could be we get a visit from Revolution Jones. Vamos a ver.

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Frequently I am asked what Dylan's best album is or what my favorite Dylan album is. Many people consider Blonde On Blonde to be worthy of this stature. It was the third of his trilogy of ground-breaking albums that altered the music world.

You can read more about this album -- its background, history and signficance -- on Wikipedia. 

Local Art Seen: Matthew Onan's Art of Symmetry

Last week I visited Matthew Onan's new gallery space opening. Onan is a local artist whom I met at the PROVE Gallery in 2012. He invited me to visit his home which was essentially an art project. He gave me a tour room by room and shared the ideas that lay behind each new view.

This year his small carport-sized garage has been converted into a gallery space where he can show his work in a less intrusive manner. The new space certainly has a few similarities to the home, chief of this being his interest in giving prominence to the colors red, blue, green and yellow. His title, reflected in many of the compositions as well as the gallery itself, is Species of Art. The prevailing motif in this installation is symmetry, both within the pieces themselves and in the layout of the room.

It's uncertain to me whether this will ever be shared more widely. I suspect it is more likely to be experienced by the few than the many. If you receive an invitation, you'll want to take advantage of the privilege.

Meantime, art goes on all around you, in the most surprising places and ways. Engage it.

New York Prison Escape Brings Back Memories. Plus, Insights from the Author of Ghost Burglar

From fall 1978 to summer of 1979 I was involved one day a week in prison visitation at the Bayamon Prison in Puerto Rico. The experiences I had inspired an idea for a novel that I never wrote, but there were many fascinating stories that came from the experience. The year before I arrived there was a successful prison escape that was somewhat humorous in its audacity. On another occasion there was a less amusing story in which two guards were shot. Both these stories came to mind when the news was first released regarding the well-publicized story of two convicted murderers who escaped this week from a New York penitentiary.

One feature of the story especially struck me, the confidence with which the police indicated that the escapees would be captured quickly. It brought to mind the book Ghost Burglar (Savage Press) which I reviewed a little over two years ago and my interview with the authors Jack Burch and James King.

Tonight I sent the authors a quick email to ask what their thoughts were on this story, and how what they learned from their own research would apply here.

EN: What lessons would you take away from the Bernard Welch story that apply to this news story?

James King: Ed, thanks for remembering the details of our book, Ghost Burglar. I had the same thoughts as you about the recent escape. I think what's powering this story is that the escape process was similar to the movie "Shawshank Redemption." Bernard Welch and his partner saw a flaw in Dannemora prison security and went over a fence during a prison ball game. Not quite as interesting as digging a tunnel, but equally effective.

Welch [ednote: the central character in Ghost Burglar] was free as an escapee for over five years. That was when he was active in the Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC areas. During that time he stole an estimated fifty million dollars in goods, raped several women and committed one and possibly two murders. He was arrested and sentenced to 147 years in an escape proof prison. He managed to escape by concocting a ruse that he was an informer about future planned escapes and was sent to the Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago. He and a partner managed to escape from the high rise prison by sliding down a buffer electric cord. It took several months for him to be recaptured near Pittsburgh, PA.

I believe the confidence of authorities in the capture of the two current escapees is to placate the public. The prison certainly has egg on its face because of the brazen way the escape occurred. I would bet that there will be some reassignments of personnel there in the near future. The only positive to the whole affair is the nation-wide media attention on the story. That will make the escapees' efforts to disappear very difficult. It should hasten their capture, but how long will it take? No one really knows. I only hope they do not harm any innocent people while they are on the run.

If you remember a couple of years ago two prisoners escaped from the Chicago Metropolitan Center in the same way as Welch did, but using bedsheets instead of an electric cord. I think this proves that lifer convicts will always try to escape. They have nothing to lose by trying. They are already serving a life sentence. What more can be done to them? The take-away from this is that long-term prisoners with a violent past have to be placed in truly escape proof facilities. That's why Alcatraz prison in the San Francisco Bay was so effective. A few made it over the wall, but did not survive the Bay waters.

The problem is that such high security prisons are expensive to operate. In tight financial times they become difficult to justify to the taxpayer. In high security prisons the inmates are usually held in small single cells for twenty-three hours a day for years. This creates a humanitarian concern. The problem is humanitarian concerns make prison security much more difficult. Desperate people will take advantage of any weakness they can exploit. This places prison administrators in a difficult position.

What's the answer? I don't truly know. History tells us there will always be escape attempts. Can they all be stopped? Probably not.

Dylan's Voice

It seems redundant to apply more adjectives to Bob Dylan's singing voice-- easily the most infamous rasp in American music, a cultivated tangle of disdain and nicotine and bad love-- but it remains the defining characteristic of his work, as essential to his legacy as vowels or the acoustic guitar.
~Pitchfork reviewer

It’s Dylan himself, whose voice today shares certain tonal qualities with Tom Waits’s, and certain others with sputtering lawn-mower engines.
~Jody Rosen, The New Yorker

If you're a Dylan fan, you know how it goes because you read the reviews. One of the most recurring themes in music literature must be the ongoing effort by reviewers to comment on Bob Dylan's voice in a new and creative way. Even when he was young he had some critics in that area, but it's been especially so in his more recent albums, especially Tempest and Christmas in the Heart. I vaguely recall one reviewer saying "he must gargle each morning with broken glass" to get a voice like that. Or something to that effect. Chris Richards of the Washington Post described his voice as "gutteral braying."

Here's one from Vulture.com:
Bob Dylan has never had to rely on the purity of his croon to get his vocal point across. But as the years have gone by, the grit in the great man’s voice has gone from fine to extra-coarse, to put things in sandpaper terms.
~Dan Reilly

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Yesterday I was listening to the Travelling Wilbury's, noticing how distinctive Bob's voice was, but that all the voices were distinctive there and when harmonizing it was a pretty fetching blend. In the evening, while mowing the yard, that observation began to congeal into this thought: A distinctive voice sets you apart from the herd. Dylan achieved it early and it's been a trademark of his.

Jimmy Stewart had a pretty distinctive voice. So does James Earl Jones. Likewise Clint Eastwood.

When Jimmy Stewart is in a movie you just enjoy being in his presence. I wouldn't call it a beautiful voice, and in some ways if you wanted to be critical, you might say it's even a bit odd.

And who isn't moved by the gravity of James Earl Jones's vocal resonance.

This led me to think about singers with distinctive voices. Neil Young was first to come to mind. Not sure how to describe that tenor-high whine on songs like Helpless, but for sure his vocal sound was lie no one else's. Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, the list is long. Johnny Cash's sonorous bass produces such pleasures that if he were to sing, or even read, the phone book aloud one could enjoy the experience. (That's a bit of hyperbole.)

So, returning to Dylan, I think many of those who have been lifelong fans are unaware that Dylan's voice might be a bit odd. Rather, we notice how evocative it can be at conveying various emotions from tenderness to despair. It's only when we bring a friend to a concert who is unfamiliar with the current material, whose only exposure to Dylan might be some of his Sixties albums, that we glimpse in their shocked expressions the first clue that we don't hear him in the same way.

So when he sings, "I went to the Big Apple // took a bite" I laugh. I like it. Bring it on.