Lessons Learned

[JohnV]

Having just read that the White House has a guy who gets paid $106K a year and has the title "Director of Lessons Learned", I've decided to apply for the job on GCA.  If it pays $1.06 I figure I'm ahead.

So, I have to ask the architects here, what are the most important lessons you've learned over the years?

[Tom_Doak]

My lessons:

Be patient.  Good things come to those who wait.

There's no point in discussing future projects until they are under construction.  Until then, it's just wishful thinking in public.

Things are always changing.  You need to think about how the course is going to evolve, instead of just making it look perfect today and then watching it change once you leave.

Don't be afraid to take down trees that you know are in the way, and do it before the client falls in love with them.

Develop a friendly relationship with your client and the superintendent, because they are the ones who are going to take care of your baby.

Get the permitting agencies involved early, explain your goals, and try to find ways to achieve theirs.  It's amazing how much latitude they have to allow you to implement good ideas, IF they trust you.

P.S.  Has that guy in the White House ever met the President or Vice President?

[TEPaul]

I once asked a bunch of guys in the business the most important thing they've learned about architecture or perhaps what might pass as the best advice. Two of them, including Coore, came back with the same thing which I happen to think is probably the most accurate and enduring of all. It was;

"To always remember to know what you don't know."

[JohnV]

P.S.  Has that guy in the White House ever met the President or Vice President?

Thanks for the good items, I especially like the last one, working with people is much better than complaining and fighting them all the time.

I don't know if he has, but there are also 2 Ethics Advisors getting over $100K and a lady who is in charge of Fact Checking who makes 46,500.  All were picked as the four most overpaid White House staffers at this site: http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/11/four-most-overpaid-wh-staffers/

[TEPaul]

"I don't know if he has, but there are also 2 Ethics Advisors getting over $100K and a lady who is in charge of Fact Checking who makes 46,500.  All were picked as the four most overpaid White House staffers at this site: http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/11/four-most-overpaid-wh-staffers"

Overpaid or just ineffective. Take you pick.

But heh, America loves superlatives, right? Well, if that's true the country deserves the Little Shrub because there is no question at all he has to be the dumbest president we've ever had, and probably by a Texas Mile.  

[John Kavanaugh]

You gotta be proud of this country when you look at the expense and trouble we are going to to get our citizens out of the middle east.  I can't believe you can live anywhere in the world you choose and then when the slightest trouble arises the military will come and take you home.

I would guess we are spending no less than $50,000,000 to get these 25,000 people to safety.

[TEPaul]

JohnK:

That's ridiculous. I'd only be proud of the country if the military would go to the expense and time to come and take me safely home if and when I misjudged my wine. Otherwise the constant claim of this pea-head Bush that they're there to protect me is a bunch of garbage. This idiot and his henchmen have cost this country lives and trillions of dollars in Iraq when anybody knows he could've gotten the CIA to put 10,000 lb bombs in all Saddam Hussein's toilets for 1/10,000th of this cost.

[Gary Daughters]

Now we're on my home turf.

Would Lebanon be in this conundrum now had Reagan not cut and run in '83?

Speaking of pea-brain, yesterday's example is a vivid reminder that he promised to bring "dignity" back to the White House.  Did anyone catch the look on Blair's face?

[JohnV]

You gotta be proud of this country when you look at the expense and trouble we are going to to get our citizens out of the middle east.  I can't believe you can live anywhere in the world you choose and then when the slightest trouble arises the military will come and take you home.

I would guess we are spending no less than $50,000,000 to get these 25,000 people to safety.

John, I'm sure you'll be happy to know that the United States is the only country that will be billing its citizens for getting them out of Lebanon.

See: http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/07/15/lebanon.us.citizens/index.html