Librarian by day, aspiring science fiction and fantasy author by night. I also review books at epinions.com. Email at andyspackman@gmail.com
Five Favorite Fantasies (outside of Tolkien):
• Assassin’s Apprentice, by Robin Hobb
• The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold
• The Briar King, by Greg Keyes
• Red Prophet, by Orson Scott Card
• The Runelords: The Sum of All Men, by David Farland
I also quite like The One Kingdom, by Sean Russell, and Mistborn: The Final Empire, by Brandon Sanderson
Five Favorites in Science Fiction
• Dune, by Frank Herbert
• Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card
• A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
• The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Mote in God’s Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
I also quite like Startide Rising, by David Brin
Five Favorite Shorts
• “West,” by Orson Scott Card
• “Goddesses,” by Linda Nagata
• “Flowers for Algernon,” by Daniel Keyes
• “Lost Boys,” by Orson Scott Card
• “In the House of the Worm,” by George R. R. Martin
I also quite like “The Dragonbone Flute,” by Lois Tilton, and “The Thief With Two Deaths,” by Chris Willrich
Outside of speculative fiction? Mikhail Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time. I also like dark chocolate and egg nog. Just for the record.
About The Goal you write: “Reducing your organization’s efficiencies might lead to increased profitability? Tell me again why people say this is common sense?”
The give-away is in your use of the word efficiencies, as in “…your organization’s efficiencies.”
Each business has but a single primary system, and only the efficiency of the primary system must be optimized. All other efficiency-calculations are, neither, necessary nor appropriate. The message of The Goal is not to reduce efficiencies. The message of The Goal is to maximize the one, right efficiency alone.
Cordially,
Tony Rizzo
Thanks Tony, you’ve clarified it well.
I had in mind the irony illustrated in The Goal that by reducing non-primary efficiencies you can increase profitability, since maximizing those efficiencies the way traditional managerial accounting dictates can lead to a build-up of inventory at bottlenecks.
You’re quite correct that maximizing the “one, right” efficiency is the central message of The Goal.
-Andy