Episode #123: 2016: Year in Review

Segment One

Ron and Ed discussed memorable guests and show topics they had on during 2016.

It’s nearly impossible to choose favorite guests, since they are all good! But we asked each other, so here are our choices for 2016, which encompass shows #74 through #122, including the link to the archived show:

Ron’s Choices

Ed’s Choices

  • Daniel Susskind, (#74)— because of the chain reaction his book kicked off, The Future of the Professions.

  • Mark Koziel, (#75), VP of Firm Services & Global Alliances at the AICPA, with his reaction to the Susskind’s book, and the state of the accounting profession.

  • Paul Kennedy, VeraSage Institute colleague, told his compelling OBK story (#84).

  • Rabbi Lapin (#86), our first two-time guest returned in 2016.

  • Doug Sleeter, (#96) + (#99), for being Bitcoin and Blockchain obsessed.

  • Gregory LaFollette, (#104), for his views on technology and the future of the accounting profession.

  • We also did our #100th show.

Favorite Show Topics

Ron: Trashing the Timesheet, #109

Ed: A Check for Everyone? The Basic Income Idea, (#95)

Thank You to Our Audience!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to our Audience! You are the reason we are here, and we will strive to continue to add value by bringing you leading edge guests and ideas.

Our Latest iTunes Review

LizCPAWriter on December 19, 2016 writes: “Always Though Provoking - I Always learn something new on this podcast. Ron and Ed bring in fascinating guests with interesting points of view. Yes, they are opinionated, but they are firmly committed to the survival of accounting and business advisory work as viable careers. The world is changing and so must we if we are to continue providing value.”

Thank you, Liz.

Click here to leave your own review.

Segment Two: Favorite Books from 2016

Ed’s selections

Ron’s selections

Ron’s Best Book of 2016

The Kingdom of Speech, Tom Wolfe. Here’s some thought-provoking excerpts:

  • “The most fundamental questions about the origins and evolution of our linguistic capacity remain as mysterious as ever”

  • “Speech is not one of man’s several unique attributes—speech is the attribute of all attributes!”

  • “One hundred and fifty years since the Theory of Evolution was announced, and they had learned…nothing…in that same century and a half, Einstein discovered the speed of light and the relativity of speed, time, and distance…Pasteur discovered that microorganisms, DNA, 150 years’ worth of linguists, biologists, anthropologists, discovered…nothing…about language.”

  • “Darwin had an even bigger problem: a huge gap in evidence when it came to language, which set humans far apart from any animal ancestors.”

  • “He couldn’t find one shred of solid evidence that human speech had evolved from animals…seemed to have just popped up into the mouths of human beings from out of nowhere.”

  • “Darwin had fallen into the trap of cosmogonism—the             compulsion to find the ever-elusive Theory of Everything…”

Ed mentioned research being done on evolution and consciousness, video interview with Donald Hoffman

Insert video interview with Donald Hoffman

Also, a speech by George Gilder at the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Discovery Institute: “Leap Before You Look: Reflections on the Mission and “Evolution” of Discovery Institute,” from December 2, 2016.

Segment Three: R.I.P.

  • First Lady Nancy Reagan

  • John Glenn

  • Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, from Monroeville, Alabama

  • Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

  • Thomas Hayden, 60s radical and former husband of Jane Fonda

  • Janet Reno

  • Arnold Palmer

  • Boxing champ Muhammad Ali

  • Florence Henderson

  • Robert Vaughn

  • Doris Roberts

  • Gene Wilder

  • Patty Duke

  • Abe Vigoda

  • Carrie Fisher

  • Debbie Reynolds

  • Garry Shandling , he was 66 (not in his 50s as Ron said)

  • George Michaels

  • David Bowie

  • Prince

  • Merle Haggard

  • Songwriters Leonard Cohen and Leon Russell

Article by economist Steven Horwitz predicting that we will see an acceleration of death of famous people, as the Baby Boom generation starts to age.

Special Mentions

Ed’s mentor’s mentor: Steven Geske is “Walking on.” We had Howard Hansen (Ed’s mentor) and Steven Geske on show (#11). They are the authors of a great book, Healing Leadership.

Fidel Castro, whose funeral car had to be pushed. There were some great Tweets about this, such as, “Even Hell is rejecting him,” and “Who says the embargo didn’t work.”

Ron mentioned a quote from the Talmud, but got it backwards. It is actually a celebration of those who have passed. Here it is:

In a harbor, two ships sailed: one setting forth on a voyage, the other coming home to port. Everyone cheered the ship going out, but the ship sailing in was scarcely noticed. To this, a wise man said: “Do not rejoice over a ship setting out to sea, for you cannot know what terrible storms it may encounter and what fearful dangers it may have to endure. Rejoice rather over the ship that has safely reached port and brings its passengers home in peace.

And this is the way of the world: When a child is born, all rejoice; when someone dies, all weep. We should do the opposite. For no one can tell what trials and travails await a newborn child, but when a mortal dies in peace, we should rejoice, for he has completed a long journey, and there is no greater boon than to leave this world with the imperishable crown of a good name.

–The Talmud

Segment Four: Miscellaneous

Ron’s topic

Hat tip to John Chisholm (our VeraSage colleague) and listener Bryce for passing along this excellent article from December 21, 2016, in The Guardian: “Why time management is ruining our lives,” by Oliver Burkeman.

Here are some interesting tidbits from the article, which we highly recommend:

  • Merlin Mann of “Inbox Zero” fame, which the New Yorker said was “halfway between Scientology and Zen,’ while the NY Post called it “Bullshit,” is discussed.

  • The better you get at time management, the less time you feel you have.

  • The article lays waste to Frederick Taylor, the founder of “Scientific Management,” which was also the theme of our very first show on The Soul of Enterprise.

  • Creativity requires more slack, says Tom DeMarco.

  • Time management and efficiency is really nothing more than the fear of death: to die with the sense of nothing left undone: it’s nothing less than the promise of immortality by other means.

  • But a gift of being alive is never to be done.

Ed’s topic

The new Star Wars movie, Rogue One, has a controversy. Peter Cushing has been dead since 1994, but another actor plays him, with Cushing’s face CGI’d on him, so who gets the royalty?