- Whether to mention a pregnancy in a job interview
- A possible meeting protocol
- What are an end-user's responsibilities?
- Another take on opening PCs, or not
- Getting some process going
- Selling a more open environment to management
- Running an effective meeting
- Licensing rules for virtual machines
- The ROI of metrics
- Legal challenges to virtual machines
March 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)
More about the pioneering spirit
Dear Bob ...
In your posting about Metropolis vs the Frontier ("A Pioneer collides with Metropolis," Advice Line, 2/28/2007) uou forgot to mention that in the American frontier during the 1600s-1800s, the European settlers would often have conflicts with the native Americans who typically only had bows and arrows.
Hence the reference to the pioneers having been pierced with arrows.
- Etymologist
Dear Etymologist ...
It occurs to me that there's a missing half to this aphorism: While Pioneers do get the arrows, they also, notoriously, are the cause of severe lead poisoning among those who oppose them.
It also occurs to me that if we really want to explore the implications of this metaphor (not always a very fruitful way to spend a rainy afternoon, by the way), it's worth noting that what the European Pioneers considered to be a frontier was, from the perspective of the Native Americans of the time, not a frontier at all. It was well-explored and entirely settled territory.
- Bob
Posted by Bob Lewis on March 17, 2007 07:50 AM
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