(Community Matters) Vanity Fair: Obama’s Way
An excellent article. Walking through the decision making process on Libya and the story of Taylor Stark, I think will make any American proud (R & D). Reading several books & articles over the last few weeks, I’m moved by the attention to the deliberateness of decision making and preserving one’s energy for that decision making. Below, just a few of the lines from the VF article that jumped out at me – probably not so helpful out of context but meant to provide me with bookmarks for passages I want to discuss with Steven and others.
“The controversy machine is bigger than the reality machine.”
cites research that shows the simple act of making decisions degrades one’s ability to make further decisions, thus opting for as many routines as possible
oddest relationship to the news of any human being on the planet
its [the job of president] bizarre emotional demands
the incentives for politicians to cooperate don’t function the way they used to
is not a public-relations problem but an endless string of decisions
Obama structures meetings so that they’re not debates,” says one participant. “They’re mini-speeches. He likes to make decisions by having his mind occupying the various positions. He likes to imagine holding the view
The people who operate the machinery have their own ideas of what the president should decide, and their advice is pitched accordingly
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