Christopher Lydon interviewed Scott Heiferman recently.#

Robert Putnam's book Bowling Alone, about the shredding ties of affiliation in America through the television age, was "a major inspiration and challenge" to Heiferman & Co., partly because they couldn't quite believe the bad news as Putnam presented it. "I think it is natural Human 101 stuff--that people want to connect with a bunch of neighbors who share a common interest... I don't think the desire to connect ever went away," Heiferman says. "Face-to-face is kind of woven into our species." And then he read the slogan that Douglas Rushkoff lifted from the late Timothy Leary: "Find the Others," whatever that meant. To himself Heiferman remembers saying: "Allright, Mr. Rushkoff, I'm going to build Meetup.com to help people Find the Others locally and let them organize a gathering."

Scott thinks that the Internet and it's power in politics and society is actually incredibly UNDER hyped. Awesome.

After Scott Heiferman had his company acquired by agency.com, he decided to work at McDonalds for 6 months and he wrote about the experience.

3. i was never told to treat customers well. correction: i was never told by management to treat customers well. before i started the job, i had read on the mcdonald's website that "our crewmembers make each customer feel like a welcomed guest." i had even noticed a few months before that mcdonald's even went so far as to change their logo & tagline to feature the message "we love to see you smile." i expected to be specifically, officially instructed to smile and make customers feel like a welcomed guest. well, as any patron of a manhattan mcdonald's knows, there ain't much feel-good from the counter staff. my co-workers were downright rude to customers. i got funny looks from my co-workers when i was friendly with customers. they must not have seen the logo or tagline or website.

4. nobody thanked me. i worked hard. i got paid peanuts. i even ate mcdonald's food during my break (deducted from my pay). it was intense: the cash register was complex, people want their food NOW, the lines get deep, the mcflurry must be made just right. i was trying hard and i was doing an ok job. now, i've been the leader/manager for most of my life. i've had plenty of crap jobs, but i've been the boss for the past few years. i faithfully read my fast company magazine and my harvard business review. i've been taught countless times the value of a leader/manager showing appreciation for people's effort. however, my instinct has often been that showing appreciation really isn't too necessary for good people. they just take pride in a job well done --- and, anyway, they can read my mind and see the appreciation. well, from day 1 at mcdonald's, i was yearning for someone there to say "thanks". even a "you're doing ok" would suffice. but, no. neither management experience -- nor reading about management --- teaches this lesson as well as being an under-appreciated employee.

Razib at Gene Expression links to a Lisa Kudrow interview. It's very interesting, she's a smart woman.#

Jim Moore links to "an illuminating piece" about Leo Strauss' influence on the current administration.#

Leo Strauss was a great believer in the efficacy and usefulness of lies in politics. Public support for the Iraq war rested on lies about Iraq posing an imminent threat to the United States — the business about weapons of mass destruction and a fictitious alliance between al-Qaida and the Iraqi regime. Now that the lies have been exposed, Paul Wolfowitz and others in the war party are denying that these were the real reasons for the war.

[...]

In Plato's dialogues, everyone assumes that Socrates is Plato's mouthpiece. But Strauss argues in his book The City and Man (pp. 74-5, 77, 83-4, 97, 100, 111) that Thrasymachus is Plato's real mouthpiece (on this point, see also M.F. Burnyeat, "Sphinx without a Secret", New York Review of Books, 30 May 1985 [paid-for only]). So, we must surmise that Strauss shares the insights of the wise Plato (alias Thrasymachus) that justice is merely the interest of the stronger; that those in power make the rules in their own interests and call it justice.

[...]

In Reflections of a Neoconservative (p. xiii), Kristol wrote that:

"patriotism springs from love of the nation's past; nationalism arises out of hope for the nation's future, distinctive greatness…. Neoconservatives believe… that the goals of American foreign policy must go well beyond a narrow, too literal definition of 'national security'. It is the national interest of a world power, as this is defined by a sense of national destiny … not a myopic national security".