Archive for the ‘Cultures’ Category

Ranking America

Monday, March 8th, 2010

The United States of America enjoys many riches, inherent capabilities and positive attributes, as well as shortcomings, unresolved issues and a converging set of existential threats. The challenge is to be aware of the upsides of the United States without becoming defiantly hostile to any discussion of specific shortcomings or ways ...

A Perfect Storm

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

  “…our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.  Now we are … testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” – Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address ******* The United States ...

The Nature of Change

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

More than 9 out of 10 patients do not change their lifestyles in response to their doctor’s recommendations. More than 70 percent of corporate change efforts fail. Humans hate change. It’s a simple fact of life. There isn’t any easy way around it. In general, humans hate change. That rule extends beyond individuals into ...

Show Me Your Budget

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

In my book, How The World Works, entry 512 is Priorities vs. Budgets. It reads: “As a business management consultant I heard a lot about priorities. In the introductory meeting and group management team interviews, senior executives would drone on endlessly about the organization’s priorities. Top priority this and critical priority that; it ...

The Seekers – 2009

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Back in 2004 I wrote a holiday message about our Christmas tree titled The Seekers. It turned out to be one of the most popular essays of that era.  We put up a Christmas tree last week for the first time since then. It was amazing to realize it had been five years since we'd either ...

My World View

Monday, December 21st, 2009

This essay is available in PDF form here: http://www.hackneys.com/docs/myworldview.pdf   “Your world view is, well, wrong.” Those were the last words I ever heard from a guy I’d been friends with for more than 30 years. That was back in late 2004. At the time, I was sitting in Beijing, China, and had recently ...

The Stadium

Sunday, December 6th, 2009

In traveling through 43 countries across six continents, we’ve seen quite a few ancient stadiums. From Rome’s definitive Coliseum to lesser known examples scattered around the world, we’ve explored many. All share a sense of grandeur that matches the contests staged there, and as you wander about the stones, if you ...

Sobering Facts

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

  Adult Americans Between 1989 and 2007 Americans knowledge of current events dropped by 8.3% 93% know Arnold Schwarzenegger while 36% know Vladimir Putin 32% know Sunni and Shia as two branches of Islam 41% know the name Muslims use to refer to God and the name of Islam's sacred text 33% believe that Iraq carried ...

It’s a Small World After All

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

  Americans don’t get out much. That should come as no surprise considering that, according to the U.S. State Department, only 27 percent of Americans hold a valid passport. That means that 73 percent of Americans couldn’t get out to see the rest of the world even if they wanted to; even ...

The Old Ways

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

Reentering the grid is a challenging experience when planned and voluntary. When unexpected, arbitrary and not of your own making, it is doubly so. At times, the pragmatic aspects are overwhelming in their breadth, requiring an entire life to be reconstructed and assembled out of sometimes moving parts. But those challenges ...