2008年8月30日 星期六

Technology That Outthinks Us


紐約時報這篇報導 可能是Simon 在60年前的極端看法--當時根本無法見容於"學界"--那 "人"的尊嚴安在

Technology That Outthinks Us: A Partner or a Master?

Vernor Vinge has been urging his fellow humans to get smarter by collaborating with computers.

2008年8月20日 星期三

Administrative Man Faces the Quality Transformation: Comparing the Ideas of Herbert A. Simon and W. Edwards Deming

這篇有空該瞧一瞧

The American Review of Public Administration, Vol. 24, No. 1, 67-84 (1994)
DOI: 10.1177/027507409402400104

Administrative Man Faces the Quality Transformation: Comparing the Ideas of Herbert A. Simon and W. Edwards Deming

John H. Little

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Is Deming's quality management just another management fad? Examination of its philosophical underpinnings shows that it is based in a new theoretical framework that places it at a cross-roads for organization theory and design that is as momentous as Simon's development and application of decision theory and positivistic science. Failure to understand Deming's "system of profound knowledge" has meant an undervaluing of his major contribution to the theory of organizations.

2008年8月19日 星期二

一場"天安門革命"

讀 廣告 "上海至瑞士的直達航班﹐現已開闢。一周七天﹐每日航班任選﹐更利於您從瑞士轉機前往超過42個歐洲目的地。"

想六四 (1989) Simon 從德國直飛北京
去體會一場"天安門革命"

這段經歷是出身政治學的Simon 千載難逢的
所以回憶陸 Models of My Life 約5頁記之

大陸當然"刪之"
我向 Simon說
這種政權....

2008年8月15日 星期五

昔日對於統計數字的無知

"...In 2007, Japan's average life expectancy again hit a new record. For the last 23 years, Japanese women have had the longest life span in the world. The figure now stands at 85.99 years. Japanese men rank third in the world, at 79.19 years...."--Lesson in longevity from the summer life cycle

統計數字適合於全體,無法預測個人的實際情況。
這樣簡單的道理,還是要有機會自行體會才行。

2000我可能查過美國預後統計值,說如果Simon80歲,至少可活約86歲。….所以後來我從The Economist 知道 Simon去世(約2周後),頗震驚。`我當時投 Learning Organization/ LO 討論文章之末尾,都附Simon之名引言來紀念他,可惜這些都沒留底。2008.8.15

2008年8月14日 星期四

Herbert Simon 青春鄉野之旅

Herbert Simon 晚年接到我讚美他回憶錄中一章
講他年青時的鄉野之旅
實在像史詩般 為一傑作
他說 要再讀讀
重溫舊夢



The Young Man and the Lakes

By JOHN J. MILLER
August 14, 2008; Page D7

Seney, Mich.

When Ernest Hemingway was a young writer in the 1920s, he pinned a map of northern Michigan to the wall of his room in Paris. It probably came in handy as he wrote his first batch of short stories. Although he was born and raised in Oak Park, Ill., Hemingway spent the summers of his boyhood in the woods and lakes of what Michiganders call "Up North." They provide the settings for most of his early tales.

[photo]
The Granger Collection
Ernest Hemingway fishing in Michigan in 1920.

One of these yarns, however, has traditionally puzzled anyone who reads it and then checks a map. "Big Two-Hearted River" is probably Hemingway's first great contribution to literature, an example of nature writing at its finest and perhaps America's best fishing story, especially for readers who remember that Moby Dick didn't have gills.

The narrative begins with Nick Adams, Hemingway's protagonist and alter-ego, having just gotten off the train in Seney, a town in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. He hikes into the wilderness and fishes for trout. The problem is that the Two-Hearted River lies about 20 miles north of Seney and flows into Lake Superior. On foot, it's virtually impossible to get there with Nick's apparent speed. The Fox River -- a perfectly good stream for brook trout -- runs right through the town, on its way to Lake Michigan.

Hemingway visited Seney with a couple of friends in 1919. Wouldn't he have just fished the Fox?

On the East Coast, every hamlet that can claim "Washington slept here" eagerly does so, for both patriotic and commercial reasons. In parts of Michigan, there's a Hemingway corollary: He slept here (at the family cottage on Walloon Lake), ate here (at Jesperson's Restaurant in Petoskey), and fished here (lots of places).

Michigan is so proud of its ties to Hemingway that the state humanities council has just wrapped up the Great Michigan Read, a literacy initiative that used "The Nick Adams Stories" as its focal point. For the past year, schools and libraries have sponsored discussion groups, a traveling exhibit, and even a Hemingway look-alike contest.

In Seney, a small historical museum includes a display with the gear Nick is described as having brought on his journey, such as a can of pork and beans and a can of spaghetti that he mixes together for a meal. Last month, the museum acquired a rowboat that Hemingway is said to have used. "Some days we won't get a soul in here, and the next day we might get 15," says Candace Blume, the curator.

In a letter to Gertrude Stein, Hemingway described "Big Two-Hearted River" as a story in which "nothing happens." Nick Adams walks out of Seney, makes camp, and goes fishing. Beneath this mundane surface, however, swims a potent personal drama.

Something bothers Nick. The text doesn't say what. As an author, Hemingway routinely withheld what would seem to be key information; his stories are often exercises in decipherment. A close reading of "Big Two-Hearted River" reveals that Nick's trek into the backwoods of Michigan is about much more than hooking trout.

Hemingway was famous for short declarative sentences, and "Big Two-Hearted River" is full of them: "It had been a hard trip. He was very tired. That was done. He had made his camp. He was settled. Nothing could touch him. It was a good place to camp. He was there, in the good place. He was in his home where he had made it."

Nothing could touch him? The good place? Clearly, Nick has issues.

The standard interpretation is that Nick is a shell-shocked military veteran who has returned from the grinding combat of World War I. Kenneth Lynn, one of Hemingway's biographers, has suggested that the author was disturbed by a quarrel with his mother.

The ultimate source of Nick's troubles hardly matters. The interest lies in how he tries to tame them through ritualistic activities: Step by step, Hemingway portrays him pitching a tent, brewing coffee, and collecting grasshoppers for bait.

Anyone who wants to discover precisely where Nick went fishing won't find a conclusive answer in "Big Two-Hearted River." In Seney, however, Don Reed is happy to help with a few ideas. He's the township supervisor and owner of the Fox River Motel. About once a week during the summer, he says, someone calls or drops by and wants to fish where Hemingway did.

"Trout fishermen don't like to reveal their best spots," he says. "Maybe that's why Hemingway named his story after the Two-Hearted. Everyone around here knows he fished the Fox."

That's the local lore. The truth is that in 1919 Hemingway didn't need a fishing license -- and years later he confessed to using literary license: "The change of name was made purposely, not from ignorance or carelessness but because Big Two-Hearted River is poetry."

Opinions still vary about whether he fished the Fox itself, a swampy branch to the east, or both. "All we can do is approximate," says Mr. Reed.

Hemingway once boasted that on his actual trip to Seney, he and his friends reeled in 200 trout. It would be tough to repeat their catch today, given Michigan's daily limit of five keepers. Yet the fishing may have improved: The riverbanks continue to recover from an era of mass logging, and new tree canopies shade the water. The planet may be warming, but the Fox is possibly cooling -- and trout prefer cool water.

Almost a century later, Hemingway's good place arguably has become a better place. Just don't expect a trout fisherman to tell you that.

Mr. Miller writes for National Review.

2008年8月10日 星期日

從 Alfred Dupont Chandler 想起

今天找德國公司ghh資料時
發現故 Alfred Dupont Chandler教授的著作 Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism 已成為 Google Books 一本

我與Simon談到企業史時曾熱情預言 他可能獲諾貝爾獎 哈佛
Simon當然不置可否 甚至於暗示不太可能

主要談論出發點是: Simon將經濟史寫成科學

Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism - Google Books Result

by Alfred Dupont Chandler, Takashi Hikino - 1990 - Business & Economics - 860 pages
... many firms in its Konzern in much the same manner as did GHH and Klb'ckner. ... During the war the German producers lost their overseas markets to other ...

2008年寫此短筆 不禁為我們在business history落後美國百年而慨嘆

2008年8月5日 星期二

說說Carnegie" School"

HC:「James March 寫過兩本以上談大學教育之問題-----因為想要找確實的書,才發現Wikipedia之介紹(著作列得太少 連與Simon合著的 Organizations都沒):

比較有趣的是提到 "Carnegie School" 這必須談論一下 這用在"心理學"更多

Simon 評論過所有管理學各派 最後當然否定所謂"school" 如果是"科學" 就沒有所謂school--它只用來說魚類...

我提醒過Simon 別人是看他們為Carnegie School的
同時 我認為他對哈佛大學的大心理學家不公--因為根據他的回憶錄 他要是要搞 "行為學派" 他的許多"安插各大學之相關人事"的做法 就不一樣了...


一句話 沒有Carnegie School
Simon多年合作老友晚年最後一本著作是自己幹 交 哈佛大學出版社出版--Simon 多由MIT出版



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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James G. March is Professor Emeritus at Stanford University, best known for his research on organizations and organizational decision making.

March is highly respected for his broad theoretical perspective which combined theories from psychology and other behavioural sciences. As a core member of the Carnegie School, he collaborated with the cognitive psychologist Herbert Simon on several works on organization theory. March is also known for his seminal work on the behavioural perspective on the theory of the firm along with Richard Cyert (1963). In 1972, March worked together with Olsen and Cohen on the systemic-anarchic perspective of organizational decision making known as the Garbage Can Model.

James G March is the father of four children and the grandfather of nine. Since 1953, he has served on the faculties of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, the University of California, Irvine, and (since 1970) Stanford University. He has been elected to the National Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Education, and has been a member of the National Science Board.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Publications

March wrote several books:

大學經營者之難題 For Leaders, Colleges Turn to Business

For Leaders, Colleges Turn to Business

Historically, academia and business have mixed like oil and water.

Herbert Sim0n討論過 數理經濟和管理學等 如油與水 無法相融的難題 mixed like oil and water.
他也談過商場轉入學界難成為一流學者之問題
Simon 是CMU多年的校董事....

麻煩的是 台灣約有160所 日本約有640所

James March 寫過兩本以上談大學教育之問題
不過 它真的是片變遷中的難題 要不斷地討論

---

【經濟日報╱▉官如玉】 2008.08.17 03:02 am

在高等教育經營難度升高下,愈來愈多的美國學校向企業界借將。

學術界延攬企業經營高手,首先可以歸因於高等教育經營模式改變迅速,尤其是公立大學的政府補助一再縮水,為了籌措預算編列的經費,這些學校只好另闢財源,在許多狀況下,這代表和企業界建立合作關係。

其次,現今的大學開始走向企業化結構。麻省理工學院史隆管學院教授奧斯特曼說:「大學營運很複雜,需要稱職的人力資源、資訊管理、營造部門,以及總管這些部門的人。要管這些事,必須具有企業經營管理的背景。」

以往,企業界和學術井水不犯河水。近來,學校陸續延聘企業經營者擔任校長、院長這些通常由教授掌管的職位。

Sprint-Nextel前執行長弗希(Gary Forsee)去年秋天接任密蘇里大學校長,他深知讓教職員和自己站在同一陣線是當務之急。他在就任前就花了45天的時間,拜訪四個校區,會見教職員、校 友組織,說明自己的目標,尋求他人的協助。弗希說:「我知道自己的學習曲線很陡。我希望讓大家了解,我會為他們爭取最大的權益。」

即使高等學府張臂歡迎企業經營高手,但對轉戰學術界的企業人士來說,如何讓教職員心服口服是一大挑戰。哈佛大學高等教育學程主任麥勞夫林(Judith McLaughlin)說:「他們必須將自己熟悉的那一套,移植到一個自己很陌生的世界,他們必須找到一個行得通的方法。」

柏克萊加州大學校長伯傑諾(Robert J. Birgeneau)明知轉換跑道風險很大,還是樂意嘗試。他宣稱,擔任校長四年來,已讓學校的教職員「專業化」。他表示,大學是個極其複雜的組織,除了 要懂得運用大部分職涯都待在學術圈的人,還需要經營大型企業不可或缺的各種專業。

上個月,他延聘花旗集團的高層主管伊里(Frank D.Yeary )擔任副校長,肩負起確保校方財務穩定的重任。伯傑諾說:「我們希望建立一個財務模式,讓政府補助變動的衝擊降到最低。」這對今年預算高達17億美元、資金來源多元化的柏克萊說,並非易事。

哈佛日前也延攬高盛高層主管弗斯特(Edward C. Forst),擔任新設的執行副總裁職位,負責財務、行政和人資,直屬於校長。

對哈佛來說,執行副總裁是新設職位,但在不少長春藤名校,這個職位存在多年,哥倫比亞、普林斯頓、麻省理工學院早就延聘企業人士擔任後勤單位職位。

費城大學校長史畢內里(Steve Spinelli)認為,企業經營高手轉戰學術界的趨勢會持續下去,尤其在學術界努力尋找兩者間最佳的協調狀況之下。

(取材自美國《商業周刊》)

2008年8月1日 星期五

e-learnibg 專業發展

當然 H. S. Simon 還有新的研究 並不是只是但開風氣
關於 Expert 找 harvard business review 還有他唯一在該刊的一篇合寫之論文
在e-learnibg 話就多了
學習方面 我們還出過專刊


"認知學派:源自Newell Simon五六O年代起始的Problem Sovling研究、以及能電腦模擬解決問題策略的GPS、根基GPS再發展的人工智慧或專家知識模擬,以及其後資訊與教育科技領域以script為專家心智單位而開發的Virtual Learning CourseWare (Schank, 2002)

10. Schank, R. C. 2002. Designing World-Class E-Learning : How IBM, GE, Harvard Business School, And Columbia University Are Succeeding At E-Learning, McGrew-Hill. 【專業發展】授課大綱 "