"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." –John 16:33

Day: August 21, 2008

Is it better to be smart or disciplined?

There must be something in the water up there in Canada that turns conservative journalists into humorous, intelligent, writing machines. Or maybe it is just that they work really hard at it. Denyse O’Leary is joining Mark Steyn as one of our very favorite writers. She is prolific, funny, and a grandma to boot. I do not know how she finds all the stuff she finds, but it is interesting and written with such good humor that it is sometimes hard to tell that she is at war with the materialist left. Mindful Hack and Post-Darwinist are two of her blogs that we read. She is also a contributor at Uncommon Descent and she writes books.

I think she wrote this recent post on Mindful Hack with our little family in mind. We work very hard, sometimes successfully, at avoiding some of the pitfalls common to many homeschoolers. Some of us tend to believe our children are smarter than other children, but we think it is OK to believe that because we are so humble about it. It turns out that ability to perform well on those things that measure academic success are probably more attributable to hard work than to raw intelligence. Grandma was right all along, smart may help, but hard work and discipline are essential.

Going back into work on Wednesday night

When I returned home from work last night, I read some to the kids in our book on worldviews, we ate dinner, and were getting ready to go to our Wednesday night bible study when I got a call from my boss. We are getting ready for the launch of our flagship product. My work is integral to the proper function of the machine. We are in the middle of that age old battle between marketing, engineering, and the bean counters. So, I did something I really hate to do. I sent Lorena and the kids on to the bible study, then went back into work. Many on the engineering team are very tired and maybe a little discouraged, but we made a big breakthrough on my part of the equipment last night. Our product is great. This is one of those good kinds of products that will make a real contribution to society if we execute our jobs well and the product works as planned. It is of general interest, so I will describe it in some detail along with a little bit about my contribution to it when it is released. As an exercise in the modeling of responsibility and the joy of work–I really do love my job–it was probably not a bad exercise to go into work last night, but I very much hate to miss meeting.

May 10, 2004 – Depoe Bay Photos
May 11, 2004 – Pinhole cameras

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