Greatness
exploring the foundations of quality and the currents that fight against mediocrity
sari and
Greatness
Human scale institutions strive for optimum scale. Not mega scale. The point at which maximum quality can be attained. Their purpose is not to maximize profitability. It is to maximize well-being. Whose? Everyone’s.
umair haque • Why We Need to Build Human-Scale Organizations
Rick Rubin on turning Metallica around
It’s always better to think and work backwards from great than it is to work forward from good
Walter Isaacson on the link between suffering and greatness and those with happy childhoods:
“We grow up with fewer demons but we grow up with less drive. We end being Boswell and not Johnson. We end up being the observer and not the doer. Respect those who are in the arena…”
A few... See more
The human species was given this tremendous gift of neuroplasticity, the ability to change ourselves and be better in deliberate ways. My definition of greatness is anyone that’s making that effort, even in a tiny way, just to take this incredible machinery that we were given—our nervous system—and to leverage it toward being better, feeling
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Quality is so rare generally that people are often surprised by it.
Quality rarely happens as an accident, it usually means someone is willing to go further building something that necessarily. At least, someone has to be motivated and allowed to do it, not forced to solely focus on some measurements.
Quality, brand and culture are some of those... See more
Quality rarely happens as an accident, it usually means someone is willing to go further building something that necessarily. At least, someone has to be motivated and allowed to do it, not forced to solely focus on some measurements.
Quality, brand and culture are some of those... See more
Karri Saarinen • Tweet
sari and
I’ve always been a freak for the zealous pursuit of the better, especially where culture is concerned. I love the story of it, and also the motive. So that, too, is what this book is—a celebration of the art that happens when instinct meets rigor.
Adam Moss • The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing
From Christopher Alexander foreword to Richard Gabriel's "Patterns Of Software":
In my life as an architect, I find that the single thing which inhibits young professionals, new students most severely, is their acceptance of standards that are too low. If I ask a student whether her design is as good as Chartres, she... See more