Alan See

Beloit College recently released their Mindset List for the class of 2015.  This year’s list contains 75 items that provide a look at the cultural touchstones that have shaped the lives of this fall’s entering class.  Most of this year’s freshmen were born in 1993, just for fun; take a look at the world through their eyes:

• There has always been an Internet ramp onto the information highway.

• States and Velcro parents have always been requiring that they wear their bike helmets.

• The only significant labor disputes in their lifetimes have been...

Somewhere in America, a business leader is standing in front of an audience prepared to use the phrase “Our most important asset is our people.” Do you think they really mean it? What about other key assets, for example:

1. Real estate

2. Rights to natural resources like oil and gas

3. Cash reserves

4. Patents

5. The corporate brand

OK, that’s not really a fair question because people are not something that’s owned by the company. Your “people” do walk out the doors of your business every night though. What would happen if they didn’t come back to work the next day? That could create a big mess, because for some organizations when you lose people you lose income. But still, nobody likes to be thought of as an object of production. So does the phrase “people are our competitive advantage” set a little better with you? That one is not so great if you are a not-for profit organization. After...

Bell Telephone developed the first automatic switchboard in 1910 after projections indicated that by 1925 every adult woman in America would be needed to staff the manual switchboards that were in place.

Do you think the new innovative automatic system was an immediate hit with telephone customers and the industry experts?  Well, probably not with everyone:

“The experts are convinced that the young woman operator – that is, a human brain and set of fingers (and the young woman is found to possess the best combination for the purpose) – is a necessary feature to cope with the great range of selection required in the telephone service.  The automatic telephone exchange does not meet the conditions under which the telephone service has to be operated today.”

“Give it to me in plain English.” My children are grown now; but when they were teenagers I can still remember a few conversations that started with that phrase.  As a parent, I just wanted a straight explanation.  Come to think of it, as a public citizen and consumer I welcome communications that are clear, simple and jargon-free.  That’s why I find it interesting that the federal government is rolling out the Plain Writing Act.  The term ‘plain writing’ means writing that the intended audience can readily understand and use because that writing is clear, concise and well-organized.  It takes full effect in October, when federal agencies must start writing plainly in all new or substantially revised documents produced for the public.

“Federal writers are not supposed to be...