Humor

"In an ideal world, your job as a manager would include setting goals and acquiring the resources to achieve them. But you don't live in an ideal world, largely because there are people like you in it."

- From Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook by Scott Adams

This imaginary letter, penned after attending a Quality Initiative meeting, is fictional today, but I suspect something like it will appear in the near future and be sadly common within five years.

“And God created the organization and gave it dominion over man.“

(attributed to Peter Townsend)

“And God created the organization and gave it dominion over man.“

(attributed to Peter Townsend)

Every physician has a few stories of things that are funny or amazing, in retrospect, but were less so at the time. Many of these are of questionable taste. This is one of those stories. Read on at your own risk – you were warned.

Every experienced backpacker has a collection of newbie stories suitable for teaching and humor. One of my favorites involves a young couple looking for romantic adventure.

I’m not sure where this came from. I found it among some notes and writing fragments. If someone can help me source it, I would love to add a citation. For now, it stands as a tribute to those who have gone before, and a nod to those yet to come…

First you can’t wait to grow up so you can move out. Then you move out and discover you have to grow up.

Then you can’t wait to be a couple so you can start a family, and suddenly you yearn for the days you did things your own way, without a thought.

It was our first summer in Maine, and we were feeling the pressure of time.

Rudiger Dorbusch, a German economist who spent much of his career at MIT, famously said:

“Things always take longer to happen than you expect – but once they happen, events unfold more quickly than you’d ever have imagined.”