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Coming of Age, Recursive Adaptation
"Harvey was a very adaptable person, with a keen eye and ear for every face and tone about him." Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous This essay can be accessed here on my jgcii substack: Coming of Age, Recursive Adaptation - by John Chambers
Aug 71 min read
Whose Culpability
Scapegoats make life’s explanations and worry less uncomfortable. Unraveling the threads, attempting to detangle the spools of risk is disconcerting work. But if one target can be identified, the explanation is a neat fit; no need to go deeper. The bad guy is caught. But for those building ships or creating minds in machines, depth is a mandate, an expectation on which humanity depends.
Jul 311 min read
Talent Conveyance, Humanity's Edge
“Why do you want to join the force?” “To protect the property and citizenry of –" “Ah, don't waste my time with that bull----” Characters, Jim Malone and Giuseppi Petri, The Untouchables (1987) This article can be read at SubStack here: Talent Conveyance, Humanity's Edge - by John Chambers
Jun 121 min read
Nexus of Familiar to Unfamiliar
"If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That's why it's your path." Joseph Campbell* This article was moved to Substack here: https://jgcii.substack.com/p/nexus-of-familiar-to-unfamiliar
Dec 21, 20251 min read
The Day of the Dead; Remembrance of Acquaintance
Dia de los Muertos. The Day of the Dead. We arrive there after Halloween blows out its candle at midnight, after we shuddered in fear and...
Oct 30, 20204 min read
Problem-Solving: The Sleuth, the Scribe, and the Dog
“I am conscious myself of a weight at my heart and a feeling of impending danger—ever present danger, which is the more terrible because...
Apr 5, 20196 min read
Enterprise Changers -- from Weakness to Strength
"An arch consists of two weaknesses which, leaning one against the other, make a strength.” Leonardo Da Vinci I would never characterize...
Mar 26, 20196 min read
We're Number One!
My New Year’s resolution was to recover from televised, American football addiction. So tonight’s college championship is just the last...
Jan 7, 20194 min read
Classes of Impossible
For those who celebrate Chanukah, the miracle of the lights is a reflection, of tradition, survival and hope. It is a remembrance of Maccabean Jews and a civil war, a rededication of the temple, and an astounding observation of candlelight. The time is a reflection of history -- teaching and embracing, holding together a faith and way of life. I like to imagine the Jewish elders of two millennia ago, keepers of the temple, seeing the scant amount of pure oil, then making t
Dec 2, 20185 min read
"Fast Paced Mayhem"
“Are the Nazis chasing you?” my mother would ask me, sensing my anxiety and nerves before a recital, or a homework deadline, or track meet. “Relax, and you’ll be at peace and more likable. Relax and things work out.” A little girl during the second world war, she nevertheless lived an ordinary life in the U.S. as distant from the Nazi threat as anyone. But maybe having seen her older brother join the service, and perhaps thinking of him while she watched The Mortal Stor
May 6, 20185 min read
