On the return from ohio

So, my flight back was mostly uneventful. Slept part of the way, read “Leadership Without Easy Answers” during the rest. Good book. Recommended to our commendable new elected official to the north, , I think you might enjoy it.

One thought from looking out the windows, another from the book.

1) Flying into phoenix, I thought the rock outcroppings were really cool and the city looked kinda neat. But looking at the organization of the urban fabric, the pervasive “suburban style housing pod, pool at the center, one way out for the car, with occasional big box/huge parking lot commercial entities” stuff, I could tell from the air that I’d probably be very sad living there.

2) In the book, he makes a huge distinction between influence and leadership. Influence is accomplishing what one desires. Leadership is guiding people to confront and manage their fundamental conflicts. It’s a very interesting book thus far, and I strongly recommend it to everyone, but especially Aaron. It has a great section briefly discussing primate behavior patterns, dominance, deference, and what not. Thinking about it made me wonder how my own reactions to influence worked. I think I still have some of the reflexive envy/anger/fear reaction to the “popular people”. That’s a bit of a problem there, makes for unsmooth interactions with such.

When I got back, I started chatting with another phoenix resident, lj-er, former roommate to , , , etc, oh yeah, and me, Brandon, *yay* =)