Leadership and Judgement

Date: 4/6/14
Distance: 5.66mi
Location: Carrboro, NC
Catalyst: Disc 2 of Game of Thrones, Song of Ice and Fire

There is no frickin' way I can follow this stupid book while doing anything else. There are too many characters and relationships. Plus at any given point, the narrator has a 60% chance of being in the middle of describing someone's clothing. Seriously. High velvet collars and soft sable cloaks and black ringmail and black leather gloves and oh yes where was I? How am I supposed to tune in and out of an audiobook and follow it all when half the time it sounds like a 13th century QVC pitch?

But here's one thing that got me riffing: Kings. We revere independent people who have leadership skills. When people have a vision, we generally accept that as a good thing. Self-doubt and contemplation are vices that can cripple an effective person; real strong leaders "just do it" and "the tough get going" and all that.

But what if leadership skill and self-confidence are just human qualities given in some measure to each of us like height or eye color. Some have less and some more according to the great genetic dice roll. In that case, the clarity of vision doesn't inspire leadership, it's the other way around. A leader's gonna lead no matter which direction he's facing. And if charisma and confidence draw us to them, then any foolish idea the tallest leaders have will end up defining a good deal of the human endeavor.

The Egyptian pyramids were probably a good idea in some ways, but that's an awful lot of work for some fancy piles of bricks. Maybe some of that effort could have been useful for something less geometric?

I don't know. Maybe it's just sour grapes.

On on.