TITLE: Humility and Aspiration
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: January 17, 2010  7:50 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
Time to blog has been scarce, with the beginning of
an unusual semester.  I am
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2010-01.html#e2010-01-11T20_41_31.htm">
   teaching two courses</A>
instead of one, and administrative surprises seem
to be arriving daily, both inside the department
and out.  Teaching gives me energy, but most days
I leave for home feeling a little humbler than I
started -- or a little less satisfied with state
of affairs.

Perhaps this is why a particular passage from an
<A HREF="http://www.urbanophile.com/2009/02/07/the-logic-of-failure/">
   entry on urban planning policy</A>
at The Urbanophile keeps coming to mind.  It offers
a lesson for urban policy based on the author's
 reading of Dietrich D&ouml;rner's <EM>The Logic
of Failure</EM> (a new addition to my must-read
list):

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
The first [lesson] is simply to approach urban policy
and urban planning with humility and rich understanding
of the limits of what we can accomplish.  This I think
is desperately needed.  There are so many policies out
there that are promoted with almost messianic zeal by
their advocates.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

One person's messianic zeal, unfettered from reality,
is a dangerous force.  It can wear out even a resolute
team; when coupled with
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2010-01.html#e2010-01-08T16_34_07.htm">
   normal human frailty</A>,
the results can destroy opportunities for progress.

Another passage from the same blog has had a more
personal hold on me of late:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
People with talent, with big dreams and ambitions,
want to live in a place where the civic aspiration
matches their personal aspirations.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sense of place and sense of self are hard to separate.
This is true for cities -- the great ones capitalize
on the coalescence of individual and communal aspiration
-- and for academic departments.
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