John Winsor

A Rascal Moves On

A couple of weeks ago, artist and climber Steve Dieckhoff passed away from cancer. It was the end of an era for climbing in Boulder. While Steve love climbing and art (one of his comics is above) he wasn't too keen on the way the sport had changed. His passion turned into a sort of madness when he started taken matters into his own hands, taking out protection on many of the modern climbing routes that others had established creating a dangerous issue.

While Steve tactics seemed wrong his passion for the sport was inspiring. His life is a good reminder of the delicate balance between madness and brilliance, between holding on to traditions and letting go of antiquated ideas.

In every field, whether it be climbing or marketing, it's critical to know what to hold onto and what to let go of.  Holding on is easy. Letting go is hard.

The Tragedy of the Tour

Hamilton, Landis, Vino, Rasmussen. What the hell is happening to the sport of cycling? Everyone knows that to compete at this level you have to use drugs. Look at Bonds. To be the best you have to use the best training tools and, like it or not, that means performance enhancing drugs.

Not to long ago I was talking to a person who runs a health club in Boulder. When she asked me about my training I told her, jokingly, that after a couple of decades of competing the only way I'd get on a training program is that if I had access to all of the latest performance enhancing drugs. She responded by saying, "Let's call Todd. He's got the system down." Scary! Drugs are truly everywhere.

The problem with cycling is not the drugs it's the lying. Rasmussen tells everyone that he was training in Mexico when, in fact, he was in Italy. Then, David Millar, a rider who just came off a two-year drug suspension, becomes holier than thou talking about how drugs are ruining the sport.

Cycling has become a circus! I guess it's no different then when a company’s CEO lies about something. In both cases, a trust is broken and customers walk away. When will people in power learn that lies don't work?

Yeah, honesty can be painful, but it can also create more trust.

I'm still going to ride my bike, but I think I'll take the kids to the circus instead of watching anymore of the Tour.

What is Success?

Seth Godin has a very thoughtful post answering the question: What is Success? This words struck me the most:

A lot of organizational conflict comes from mismatched expecations of success. A lot of kids live unhappy lives because of unrealistic benchmarking from parents (as popular as that kid, as attractive as this one, as smart as the other one...).

StoryCorps is Not Flattered

I’ve been getting a lot of traffic from StoryCorps on my post about JetBlue. The Founder and Executive Director of the program, Dave Isay, is “Not Flattered” by JetBlue’s Story Booth. Here’s what Dave has to say:

We've been hearing from a number of you about the JetBlue "Story Booth" that launched a week ago from New York, traveling the country to collect stories about the airline for use in advertisements. We are aware that many of you who have participated in StoryCorps or have heard our weekly segments on public radio may be confused. Don't be. We are not affiliated with this undertaking in any way, shape, or form. We view it as a blatant rip-off of StoryCorps.

While I respect Dave’s point of view I was little surprised by his strong reaction. I felt more confused when I found this on the StoryCorps web site:

We've modeled StoryCorps—in spirit and in scope—after the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the 1930s, through which oral-history interviews with everyday Americans across the country were recorded.

As an outsider, it looks as if JetBlue modeled their program after StoryCorps. I can understand Dave’s surprise and disappointment. Maybe they should have given StoryCorps more credit. However, it does seem that the JetBlue Story Booth presented Dave with an interesting opportunity, as well. Since StoryCorps is a non-profit with, I’m sure, a lot of travel expenses, wouldn’t JetBlue be a great sponsor? Dave, instead of getting mad, why not get funded?

Rule #1: Always Be Honest

As an author and a journalist I have been watching the stories about plagiarism quite intently. I’ve had a hard time understanding how Kaavya Viswanathan, the Harvard sophomore and novelist becomes a national pariah, even though the likes of the William Morris Agency and Alloy Entertainment, her book packager, helped her develop the book, for pagers. While, at the same, time the CEO of Raytheon, Bill Swenson gets a slap on the wrist from his board by getting his compensation package reduced.

The idea of anyone stealing credit for intellectual work it seems to set an especially bad cultural precedent for a CEO to plagiarize, and then lie about it. When a CEO is stealing by taking credit for other’s work what does it say to the company’s customers? How can they believe that the company acts with integrity and can be trusted?

In my search for understanding, I really liked David Leonhardt’s analysis.

Where is the Line?

Last night I was listening to NPR when an American Radioworks special called Logging On and Losing Out came on the radio. Billed as;

From TV tournaments to the World Wide Web, the poker revolution is sweeping America. Thanks to its glitzy presentation on television, and the millions in prize money, it's the pastime of choice for high school and college kids.

Mark Alden and James Silver do a masterful job of investigative reporting, diving into the connection online gambling companies are making at colleges and high schools to recruit new customers to their sites. The most fascinating part of the show was the disconnect between the rhetoric from the company executives, especially surrounding the ease of access for kids on to their sites, and the reality as discovered by Alden and Silver.

While I fully support the freedom of adults to gamble there is an ethical line that gets crossed when gambling games, like poker, are intentionally promoted to kids. However, there is a line that responsible marketers should not cross.

But, in this era of free market capitalism, where is the line?