Studies in Administration, after C. Northcote Parkinson (1909-1993)

Essays on career and project management. Some of the following items were scanned from faded copies; please report presumed scanning errors to validlab AT validlab.com.

• FilboidStudge.com , 1911. Saki (1870-1916) knew about marketing ".com" even before Ed Zander verbed ".com".
• Doing a Job Hyman Rickover, 5 November 1981. ADM Rickover (1900-1986) knew about technology management even before Al Gore invented the internet. More about Rickover.
• The Case Against Professionalism - How We Have Managed Industry Almost to Death, by Robert X. Cringely.
• The Successful Technocrat, by Archibald Putt, from Research/Development magazine, 1976-1977, the complete series scanned in by Bob Moriarty. Archibald Putt is the pseudonym (for obvious reasons) of a person with long experience in observing and analyzing the always intricate - and often paradoxical - interplay of personalities in the R&D hierarchy.

  But note this latebreaking news: Putt Lives and Writes Today!

  Sections I scanned earlier:

  • 1-3: The Laws of Crises and the Law of Failure. Where to find the Missing Pages of Putt.
  • 4: The S-curve law. Having told how to manage projects to best advantage (yours) Putt now discloses the secret of selecting the best project (for you) and how to foresee the best time to get out of it.
  • 5: Laws governing values. Your hierarchical position can be enhanced if you draw on the abilities of others - but only if they are of equal or higher rank. Putt provides the postulational principles to prove it.
  • 6: Three laws of advice. Some readers may be familiar with the First Law of Advice, but the Second and Third Laws are neither so well-known nor so obvious, so our expert provides two illustrative examples to show how they work.
  • 7: The consultant's law. If you've ever dreamed of becoming a consultant, read this advice from our expert on the hierarchiology of technology; two examples show how the Consultant's Law works and why you can't ignore it.
• The Fall Guy, Garrison Keillor, 10 January 1998. Especially apt for Covey fans.
  • RealAudio requires a RealAudio plugin.
  • 6 MB .au audio file works on SPARCstations with audiotool and no plugins, but download takes three minutes if you can use all my bandwidth, otherwise more.
  • Or just read the script.
• Silicon Valley Tarot, Thomas Scoville, 1998.

"A leader is best when people barely know he exists. Less good when people obey and acclaim him. Worse when they fear and despise him. Fail to honor people, and they will fail to honor you. But of a good leader, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will all say: 'We did this ourselves'." (Lao-Tsu c.604-531 B.C.)