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Bill @ MindPrep

Bill Welter

Four careers over 50+ years. USMC, engineering, consulting, education. Past twenty years have focused on helping leaders become and remain relevant during times of change.

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MindPrep 254 – A philosopher, a scientist, a magician, and …. your Tesla?

Hi Reader, DALL-E version of Descartes Common ground? Rene Descartes was a philosopher who was trying to set a foundation for scientific knowledge and his method included “radical doubt.” Richard Feynman was a theoretical physicist who advocated for the importance of doubt in the scientific process. James Randi was a magician who was famous for challenging paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. All were skeptics. And you? Are you a skeptic or a sucker? Skepticism and skeptical inquiry....

2 days ago • 2 min read

Hi Reader, OK, I’m old enough to remember Paul Winchell and his ventriloquist dummy, Knucklehead Smiff from the early 1950s. I also remember my Uncle Ollie referring to some of our political leaders as “knuckleheads.” So, as I started to draft this issue of MindPrep Reflections about critical thinking I had knuckleheads in mind. Why? Because the basic definition of a knucklehead is “a stupid, bumbling, inept person,” the opposite of a critical thinker. But where did the term originate? Well,...

6 days ago • 3 min read

Hi Reader, Bombsights, cybernetics, and Walgreens?? So, if the question is “What might these have in common?”, then an answer is systems thinking. Let me start by showing the historical connections. Connecting some historical dots Norton bombsight WW II Bombsights: Bomber aircraft needed advanced bombsights to improve accuracy. These devices used gyroscopes and feedback mechanisms to stabilize the sighting system, allowing bombers to maintain consistent aim even during turbulent flight...

16 days ago • 3 min read

Hi Reader, Three Assumptions and a Conclusion I’ve been in “the world of work” for well over a half-century and have seen a lot of change resulting in successes, failures, trends, and fads. Some examples include: The very definition of “quality” morphed in the 1980s. Trucking became logistics and when combined with warehousing, they grew into supply-chain. “Shareholder value” was invented to urge senior leaders to take a long-term view but that idea was quickly gamed, and some members of the...

20 days ago • 3 min read

Hi, Reader As some of you know, I like to read (mostly nonfiction) and I try to keep notes relating to some of the stuff I’ve read. Why? Because I think all of us need to learn from the past. There are lessons to be learned. Here are three stories from the past that just might give us some insights for today and into the future. We’ve been down this road before. In the nineteenth century there were no televisions, airplanes, computers, or spacecraft. Nor were there antibiotics, credit cards,...

30 days ago • 2 min read

Reader The phrase, translated as “if you want peace, prepare for war” is found in the late 4th century writings of the Roman Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus. I came across it while reading a fascinating book, Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe by the historian Niall Ferguson. At one point along his journey through history he was explaining England’s political reaction to war following the end of World War I. It’s not that they prepared for another war; it’s that they didn’t. Because of...

about 1 month ago • 3 min read

Reader AI fever has infected many companies. And the rush to implement AI is akin to the gold rush of 1849. “Put it in! Show your customers that you are smart and worthy of their money! Do it NOW!” Not sure what to do? Find an AI consulting firm (LOTS of them already), give them a contract, and get going! Whoa! Slow down a bit and take some advice from the late Karl Popper, one of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science. His advice, found in the title of his book All Life...

about 2 months ago • 3 min read

Reader Here are a dozen questions to consider as you think about the future. First, orient yourself to your four futures. After, I’ll comment on five different ways to think about the future. (BTW, I’ll dig into these ways of thinking about Ozempic & Wegovy in the February 15th Directed Dialogues session. It’s at 12:00 CT, will last 40 minutes, and can be joined https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84381397493.) Four futures All of us are faced with four futures. Known: This future is understood by...

3 months ago • 5 min read

Reader Can we predict the future? No. Can we anticipate the future? We’d better. The late management thinker, Peter Drucker, wrote about considering the “futurity of present decisions” to anticipate changes that will come about because of decisions we are making today. We are in the early stages of “the electric vehicle” age. EV cars, EV bicycles, EV scooters, and EV aircraft all have one thing in common – batteries. Let me start by reproducing an old MindPrep article. MindPrep 3/17/13: An...

3 months ago • 3 min read

Reader OK, here’s a softball question. What do the following four items have in common? An “explicit” photo of Taylor Swift posing at a Kansas City Chiefs game. George Carlin released a new standup comedy special. Joe Biden called people throughout New Hampshire and urged them not to vote in the primary. A video of Hamas downing an Israeli combat helicopter over Gaza. THEY ARE ALL FAKE! And here is the BIG downside of artificial intelligence. They looked or sounded genuine. Yep, your eyes and...

4 months ago • 2 min read
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