Adam Buchwald //
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Institutional memory and reverse smuggling
Institutional memory comes in two forms: people and documentation. People remember how things work and why. Sometimes they write it down and store that information somewhere. Institutional amnesia works similarly. The people leave and the documents disappear, rot, or just become forgotten (as it were). I worked for several decades at a large petrochemical company. In the early 1980s, we designed and built a plant that refines some hydrocarbon type stuff into other hydrocarbon type stuff. Over the next thirty years, institutional memory of this plant faded to a dim recollection. Oh, it still operates, and still makes money for the firm. Day to day maintenance is performed, and the skilled local crew is familiar with the controls, valves, safety systems, and other such. But the company has forgotten how it really works.
This is a pretty interesting story - the gist of it that facebook realized an entire country was collecting passwords and some of how they responded. What struck me is the challenge/response of your friends pictures. So what happens on those days when everyone changes to a celebrity? Or puts up a picture of their dog, or kids. I knew many of these people over 20 years ago, I can barely remember their name let alone what they look like now!
Read on for the details...
As hundreds of thousands of students rush to fill out college applications to meet end-of-the-year deadlines, it might be worth asking them: Is where you spend the next four years of your life that important?
Some interesting comments on elite schools opposed to larger, or lesser known ones. I like that they address that aptitude may end up playing a large role in life, and the elite schools simply load up on kids that have potential, hence the good results.
