People From Baltimore

"Lack of confidence leads us into the dark waters of envy. We see men are functioning without hang-ups—and like girls who envy the unfettered freedom of older brothers, we find it easier to focus on how "lucky" the men are and how "unlucky" we are. Sequestered in an unfair situation, we don't have to do anything about achieving the competence and self-esteem we so admire in others."

"The woman who has sprung free has emotional mobility. She is able to move toward the things that are satisfying to her and away from those that are not. She is free, also, to succeed."

"[The Cinderella Complex] used to hit girls of sixteen or seventeen, preventing them, often, from going to college, hastening them into early marriages. Now it tends to hit women after college—after they've been out in the world awhile. When the first thrill of freedom subsides and anxiety rises to take its place, they begin to be tugged by that old yearning for safety: the wish to be saved."

"If girls could do nothing else in this world, they were supposed to be able to keep their blood from showing."

"[Women] were not trained for freedom at all, but for its categorical opposite—dependency."

"Males are educated for independence from the day they are born."

"Female physical frailty is not a reality but a myth with an agenda."

"We have only one real shot at "liberation," and that is to emancipate ourselves from within. It is the thesis of this book that personal, psychological dependency—the deep wish to be taken care of by others—is the chief force holding women down today. I call this "The Cinderella Complex"—a network of largely repressed attitudes and fears that keeps women in a kind of half-light, retreating from the full use of their minds and creativity. Like Cinderella, women today are still waiting for something external to "transform their lives"."

"The gratification of one desire only makes way for another still more exacting."

"No substance in nature, as far as yet known, has, when it reaches the brain, such power to induce mental and moral changes of a disastrous character as alcohol. Its transforming power is marvelous, and often appalling. It seems to open a way of entrance into the soul for all classes of foolish, insane or malignant spirits, who, so long as it remains in contact with the brain, are able to hold possession."

"How vastly important is it, then, for mothers to have a higher regard for their duties—to feel deeply the immense responsibilities that rest upon them! It is through their ministrations that the world grows worse or better."

"Like concepts such as national energy policy or war on drugs, competitiveness covers a lot of territory"

"In a city where buzzwords and catch phrases have a half-life of perhaps six months to a year, the term and the concept of "competitiveness" have lasted much longer; there is every sign we'll hear it for many years to come."

"The pressure to generate the ideas and methods attributed to Systems Engineering stems directly from the needs of 20th century society. As our frontiers have disappeared, man has turned to technology to furnish the "good life" in a rapidly shrinking, crowded world. Our interdependence upon one another has increased in direct proportion to the population increase. The race to maintain or improve the operating efficiency of society has required that the systems and mechanisms that serve the society also become increasingly complex and interdependent. Goode and Machal have provided statistics to illustrate the above. They note that the world population increased from 800 million in 1750, to 1200 million in 1850, and 2400 million in 1950. Maximum transportation speeds went from 40 mph in 1850, and 100 mph in 1900, to commercial transport speed of 350 mph in 1950 and supersonic transport planes of over 1200 mph in the 1960's. Our communication systems are a good indication of increasing complexity. U.S. telephones jumped from 350,000 in 1900, to 55 million in 1955."

"Within the past ten years there have appeared with increasing frequency books, articles, conferences, and monograms dealing with system engineering, system analysis, system design, the systems approach, the design of systems, system theory, and problems of systems engineering. The number of publications and the stature of their authors does not allow the dismissal of the subject as a passing fad. The breadth of engineering activity involved in even a cursory examination of recent publications is of interest... It is therefore obvious that whatever Systems Engineering may or may not be, it is non-sectarian and encompasses activities that are of concern in all phases of engineering. On the other hand undergraduate college offerings akin to Systems Engineering are rather limited and even graduate programs are not extensive."

"[Allen Rosenstein was a principal investigator with a Reports Group from the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of California, Los Angeles.] A first step in the UCLA project was to determine how designs are actually carried out. The group under Allen Rosenstein, was charged with investigating design. They interviewed some forty designers; people from all kinds of industries, petroleum, aeronautical, construction, electronics, etc. It was found that individuals who did design tended to follow a certain pattern, but they did not do it consciously."

"While Peggy and I lived in Los Angeles, we made some interesting friends [after 1944]... There was also Allen Rosenstein, a young professor of electrical engineering from UCLA who belonged to a group associated with the American Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.... My association with Allen Rosenstein, professor of electrical engineering at UCLA and president of Pioneer Magnetics, led me in 1985 to a USAID project in the Caribbean and to a two-and-a-half-year consulting role with Coopers & Lybrand as a part of President Reagan's Caribbean initiative."

"For generation accustomed to thinking of the United States as the world's leading industrial power, something was lost when the U.S, became the world's largest debtor."

"Superb relationships are at the heart of success. Kindness is the core of superb relationships."

"In the age of advancing AI, humans’ advantage is diversity—twists and turns and acts of customer love and amazement that the algorithms can’t match!"

"People first!"

"Machines can automate a lot of things, but design is something humans do best."

"Tennis or finance or engineering or bartending … this ‘simple’ lesson bears repeating. … Study! Study! Study!"

"A blizzard of small steps and memorable touches are more important than ‘breakthrough’ attempts. So, take those constant small steps forward into the unknown."

"A career is a portfolio of projects that teach you new skills, gain you new expertise, develop new capabilities, grow your colleague set and constantly reinvent you as a brand."

"Everybody loves being recognized, in any way, large or small. ... Appreciation, applause, approval, respect—we all love it!"

"Hire for all jobs based on empathy. Employ people who care about people; everything else can be trained."

"Professional success requires ... drive, initiative, commitment, involvement, and—above all—enthusiasm."

"An organization, no matter how ‘technologically transformed,’ is at the end of the day no more/no less than: PEOPLE SERVING PEOPLE. (And as leader, your job is: SERVE THE PEOPLE WHO SERVE THE PEOPLE.) (One last thing: The people we serve are our Customers AND our Communities.)"

"Most important things take lots of time. Peerless quality. Relationship building. Developing people. Superb design. EXCELLENCE."

"Design that matters infuses HR and Purchasing and Finance as much as product development."

"Brains are in; heavy lifting is out. That's the essential nature of the new knowledge-based economy. Therefore, the development of knowledge is close to job No. 1 for corporations."

"Punctuality at meetings influences culture of punctuality, i.e., promise-keeping in general, on-time deliveries, etc."

"Passionate servant leaders, determined to create a legacy of earthshaking transformation in their domain create/must necessarily create organizations which are ... no less than Cathedrals in which the full and awesome power of the Imagination and Spirit and native Entrepreneurial flair of diverse individuals is unleashed ... In passionate pursuit of jointly perceived soaring purpose and personal and community and client service Excellence."

"Organizations exist only to serve. Leaders exist only to serve."

"R&D/good times and bad times. R&D may have to take its lumps in tough times ... But beware of cutting too much muscle."

"No such thing as a 'non-leader.' Every day offers every one of us scads of leadership opportunities."

"Design, writ large, is increasingly the route to product or service differentiation."

"In the private or public sector, in big business or small, we observe that there are only two ways to create and sustain superior performance over the long haul. First, take exceptional care of your customers ... via superior service and superior quality. Second, constantly innovate. That’s it."

"someone with whom I have an intimate relationship"

"A ‘Client’ is ..."

"in it with me for the long haul"

"Training in listening, in statistical techniques and problem cause-and-effect analysis, in group problem solving, in sophisticated financial analysis (for everyone)—and then constant retraining, for upgrading and learning new skills—simply must become the norm, for realtor, banker, or high-tech wizard."

"Read deep! Read often! Out-READ the 'Competition'!!!"

"The most important personal ‘core competence’ by far is a rich set of relationships."

"Make the collective, professional pursuit of listening skills per se a keystone of corporate 'culture'."

"The well-served customer...is an appreciating asset. Every small act on her or his behalf ups the odds of repeat business, add-on business, and priceless word-of-mouth referral."

"The ... moral responsibility ... of every leader is staggering—an opportunity to be of service to (literally) civilization. Or not."

"Success is about executing what you are doing today with unquestionable, breathtaking excellence."

"Ask! Interviewing/information extraction is an (exceptionally important) ‘art’ that must be mastered!"