Julio’s Musings Around Columbia County, New York

I love the juxtaposistion of man and nature in new York City. A summer like spring day in Bryant Park on 42nd Street not far away from “The Great White Way” induced me to take the picture. Frankly I was trying to take a picture of the large greenish behemoth on the right of the photo but the scrawny thing that passes for a tree was in the way. I figured it would add to the picture and I was too into my Witchcraft goat cheese sandwich I didn’t want to move to a different position anyway.

Success has many Fathers, where Failure is an orphan. One of my favorite sayings and one that is very noticeable in every area whether it is politics of a governing nature or office work politics which is where most of us experience it the most.

It is wired into us to gravitate to what appears to be working or turning out well and to retch from what is not. Also it is probably quite natural to blame what didn’t work right and prevents a success on someone else and to take a disproportionate sense of our own contribution to the successful endeavor.

In the field that I spend my time in (Technology development), it is probably a more observable manifestation though I also don’t believe by much. My experience has been that most of the reasons for success are clearly centered around a very small number of people. 2 or 3 bright, hard edged developers with a clear product focus and requisite skills to make ideas happen. They know writing code is not just an academic exercise. An executive with the confidence to confer considerable authority on the small group of developers and playing a balancing act of nudging the effort in a certain direction, giving more authority when needed and taking it back as the project reaches a stable point. Of course others on the team fill in the gaps that are necessary to purvey something which will be viewed as success but usually they are replaceable.

One of the risks is if something is a budding success, not quite there yet but viewed as having that potentiality too soon, then the “Fathers” mushroom and smoother the poor effort before it can be truly birthed.
Most budding successes eventually are deprived of the necessary oxygen to survive as those wanting to be part of the success jump on and smother the effort.

[tags]Julio Hernandez-Miyares[/tags]

How far from New York City does one need to go so that references to “the city” don’t mean it but some other self-described city? Probably not far, I haven’t actually done the experiment.
Is it a sense of self-importance as if it is the proper definition of what a city is and “the city” can only possibly be it , as opposed to say, Newark, or Philadelphia? or some others in-between.
No doubt the sense of itself as the City, the conceit and hubris is what apparently drives folks outside of New York to despise it. Well perhaps also that it is chock-full of a self-indulgent liberal community commonly referred to as the Liberal Elite
Now that it finds itself in the same predicament as the rest of the USA with falling (some would say collapsing) home prices, shedding of jobs especially of the high income variety, those that indulge in the wish-full thinking of New York’s demise are wringing their hands. Of course “The City” doesn’t help itself with it’s politicians both on the national and local stage thinking every problem can be solved with a tax-hike which can be usually viewed as a way to protect some civil service job. Now civil servants in “The City” as well as most places serve major or critical functions. They operate the subways, protect , teach pick up our garbage and countless other things without which it wouldn’t be worth living here. Regardless at least in “The City” they have arcane work rules and efficiency is viewed as sometime from another planet and heck, why should they ever be exposed to the same “job risk” as most people in the USA. Well, unless something really drastic happens, “The City” will be in for a period of economic austerity during the next few years. It appears unavoidable but as it has previous times before, it will rebound. It has to. Though one may find it unappealing at times, when someone thinks of “The City” at least when in the USA, what would we prefer come to mind? Endless ribbons of clogged highways, Box Stores, Strip mall after Strip Mall with every conceivable choice of Chain Food? Well admittedly “The City’s” highways are clogged but at least their is a Green alternative of the Subway albeit with some pretty weird denizens at all hours of the day.

The photo above is of Park Avenue looking south towards Grand Central Station from around 60th Street. The station is not visible as it is blocked by 2 large skyscrapers almost immediately on top of it.
[tags]New York City, Julio Hernandez-Miyares[/tags]

Well, an unfortunate event befell Rasputin this past week. He was run over by a bus on Benton Road while inexplicably chasing the bus. This was your typical school bus that passed by every school day around 3:30pm. It seems he had a habit of chasing cars that I was not aware of until his demise. Sadly this is a high probability event for our furry pets , squirrels and deer in this neck of the woods north of New York City. There is just no respect for those other animals made of metal and averaging two or more tons in weight.
The driver of the bus was considerate enough to stop and honk the horn to wake the owner from her stupor.
Rasputin was buried with full honors at the Miyares Farm. Not sure what happens to their souls or if they even have one. Maybe they come back as a Level 5 leader. Why would I associate a dog with that type of leader? Don’t know , but wouldn’t associate a cat , that is for sure.
What is a level 5 leader? Follow the link and review the book Good to Great.
[tags]Julio Hernandez-Miyares, Dogs, Columbia County[/tags]