Baseball

Dave Hitz has written an autobiographical book primarily focusing on what prepared him to be a co-founder of NetApp and the challenges and successes NetApp had through its formative years.

I started at NetApp in January 1994, so I read a partial draft and the final copy from an inside viewpoint. I would observe that Dave has an engaging style that makes what is essentially a book on business readable.

It is with mixed feelings (which I didn't share with Dave) to see my name in close proximity to the word "chaotic" (and the single word separating "Brian" from "chaotic" is "is"). Dave does explain the Dungeons and Dragons reference (which was helpful to me) in the book. Because you see, this is a good thing.

I found a recent article in the NY Times about baseball player Rickey Henderson interesting and comforting. Realize I'm neither much into spectator sports nor sports analogies for business situations, but I am fascinated by nuanced strategy and balance of power. The book that really got me interested very late in life in baseball was George Will's extraordinarily detailed and well written book Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball. In many ways Rickey Henderson's style of playing is a strong expression of the skills Will identifies as needed to be a great player.

Tony La Russa labelled Henderson "dangerous" in a baseball sense. He had a strong hitting record and if he could get on base he could often flip that single into a move to second base and a clear sight to home. The opposing team knowing this had to adapt to Henderson - putting him in charge of the game dynamics everytime he stepped up to the plate.

The NY Times article went on "He [Henderson] also understood the value of getting on base and creating chaos."

I'll take comraderie and comfort where I find it. Maybe chaos is not a bad thing?

That said, I think maybe I better straighten up my office. My office mate John Edwards would probably appreciate it.