Orbiting the Giant Hairball
I read
Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie yesterday. It’s a very quick read. MacKenzie was an employee of Hallmark for 30 years. During his time there he held a number of positions, in many cases making his own positions.
The idea behind the book is that corporations are really Giant Hairballs, where the hairs are all of the processes and practices gnarled over time. According to MacKenzie we’re all part of the Hairball, and we’ll always be, but there are opportunities to step outside of it for a while and “orbit” so that you can see it for what it is and work outside of it.
The are plenty of margin drawings (he started out as a sketch artist at Hallmark) in the text and full page drawings in between chapters so the 225 pages are not nearly that.
Plenty of great anecdotes and thoughtful storytelling. If you’re interested in helping ignite a bit of a creative spark, I’d recommend it.
One chapter really stood out, partially because it was only one sentence long:
“Orville Wright didn’t have a pilot’s license”
beav said,
May 23, 2006 @ 9:19 pm
do they say anything about the short and curly ones?
I love your book recommendations by the way. I shall read this one.