Models of My Life

It was built around two interrelated ideas that have been at the core of my whole intellectual activity: (1) human beings are able to achieve only a very bounded rationality, and (2) as one consequence of their cognitive limitations, they are prone to identify with subgoals.

As long as I looked at the whole of Carnegie first, and its parts second, I could be useful. I think I have usually been able to do this, but I would be surprised if there have not been some lapses.

My training as an economist has been of help in one important way: It convinced me that the only information that is of value in a financial market is information that other people don’t have. This means that I don’t have to pay daily, or even monthly, attention to the stock market, since it tells me nothing about whether I should buy or sell. Henc

Organizational Golden Ages, whether in government, universities, or business firms, seldom endure beyond the generation of people who create them.

How does one age, gradually replacing action by reflection?

In retrospect it seems easy, but the road was not without buried mines that had to be detected and removed.

There has been no definable boundary between the sociability of work and of leisure.

Again it was obvious which branch of the maze I should follow.

The distinction between the scientific and the professional is largely a distinction between analysis and synthesis. Professionals not only analyze (understand) situations, they act on them after finding appropriate strategies (synthesis). In business, they design products and marketing channels, organize manufacturing processes, and find new finan