The New Greatest Generation
Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are bring home a new set of leadership skills which are sorely needed here at home. Construction experience aided two veterans in starting Purple Heart Homes, a project which added wheelchair ramps and extensions to homes used by disabled veterans. Mentoring programs, motivational speaking, employment agencies for veterans, budding politicians and graduate programs are on the rise with advocates who are disciplined and serious about their work. Their qualities are needed now – decisionmaking, rigor, optimism, entrepreneurial creativity, a sense of purpose and patriotism. They have been exposed to experiences that are totally unique. In the service, the commander would tell the troops what needed to be done and it was then up to them to figure out how to do it. Action plans were a necessity before every round of duty. The military acronym SMESC was used – Situation, Mission, Execution, Support, Command. The men carried this plan home and use it in civilian situations. Altruism continues even after their military service has ended. No amount of pressure placed upon them will equal the pressures they have already experienced. They share a common language and know how to organize themselves to work efficiently. They did not learn it at Harvard Business School; they learned it in the service of their country.
Autism – A New Theory
Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge in England came to believe that people who focus on systems and how they work (which he calls systemizing) have math, science and technical skills and have similar traits to autistic persons. Brian Hughes, an MIT alumni, wrote an article which raised the question of whether the abnormal condition of Asperger’s syndrome is remarkably similar to the normal functioning of an engineer’s mind. Baron-Cohen calls autism a manifestation of an extreme male brain – one that is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems – as opposed to the female brain which is predominantly hard-wired for empathy. Assortative mating is a concept which plays a role in how people choose their marriage partners. Birds of a feather flock together. With the movement of women into math and science professions, future parents with similar talents and temperaments, not just like-minded but like-brained, began getting together more than ever before. Baron-Cohen, however, finds it profoundly offensive that some people should not get together because of the potential for autism in their children. Baron-Cohen happens to be a first cousin of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.
Source: Time Magazine’s Issue of August 29, 2011