Western Electric Plant. Cicero, IL.
Western Electric was the captive equipment arm of the Bell System and produced the majority of the telephones and related equipment used in the U.S. for almost 100 years.
Microblog
Nantucket Sleigh Ride. John Stobart.
A Chapel in the High Mountains. Hugo Hodiener.
The Flood. Paul Merwart, 1889.
βThey died to make the desert bloomβ
Hoover Dam bas relief.
Bell Labs Holmdel Complex. New Jersey.
Winged Figures of the Republic. By Oskar Hansen at Hoover Dam, 1937.
Where You Work Shapes How You Work β
Our levels of productivity, creativity, and inspiration have an intimate, hard-to-articulate connection to our environments. And we all have different predilections β quiet vs. noisy, calm vs. bustling, light vs. dark. Each quality creates a climate that pulls something different out of us.
Our surroundings shape how we work, yet we also have the power to choose and to mold them ourselves.
Fantasy Landscape with Buildings by a Lagoon. Francesco GuardΓ, 1790.
Map of the Bell Telephone System , 1909.
Bird absolutely locked in. Charlie Parker and Tommy Potter, 1947.
The Count and the Duke. Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
The dome of Sta Maria Della Salute. Venice.
Bernini in marble.
Canyon de Chelly. Edgar Alwin Payne, c. 1916.
Cotopaxi. Frederic Edwin Church, 1862.
Nature's Barbell Strategy β
Evolution has generated two opposed modes for organisms to find fitness:
r-selection is about speed: rapid reproduction, fast growth, many offspring
K-selection is about carrying capacity: slow development, robust fitness, few offspring
What can we learn to harness both approaches in work and life?
The Colossi of Memnon in a Sandstorm. Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach, 1896.
Gratitude and Resilience β
Gratitude is how we maintain the fragile, critical systems of relationships that come to our rescue when things go bad. Strong institutions get that way through the effortful work of the grateful to nurture them on.
Shah-i-Zinda Mausoleum in Samarkand. Vasily Vereshchagin, 1869.