WSJ: “There are four basic types of meetings that managers should convene, Ms. King says. Learning meetings generate knowledge. Innovation meetings generate ideas. Commitment meetings generate decisions. And alignment meetings generate a road map. Each type has an objective, such as solving a specific problem or generating actionable ideas. A lot of bosses skip the first three types of meetings and spend most of their time convening big groups for alignment meetings that fail to produce the intended results. “Too many people get brought in, because the earlier steps have been skipped,” she says.”
Harvey Mansfield: “Liberal democracy means democracy with liberties. That means rights which are guaranteed against majority interference. The problem in a republic is not so much minority exploitation, as majority exploitation. “Faction” was the word which is used in the Federalist, or “tyranny of the majority,” in Tocqueville. I think those who best understand democracy fear its tendency to uproarious, overbearing majorities. That’s the main problem, and the reason it’s the main problem is that a majority tyranny looks like a majority justice, or even a majority view of the common good. Those two things need to be distinguished and made operable, and you make them operable with the usual devices of constitutionalism: separation of powers, bicameral legislature, federalism. Plus the Bill of Rights, which are amendments to the Constitution. Don’t forget the Constitution itself. All those things are, I think, still valuable and we shouldn’t endanger them, much less throw them away.”
Epictetus: “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
