There’s this pollyannish notion that the most important thing to do when working together is stay positive and get along, to not hurt anyone’s feelings,” she says, “Well, that’s just wrong. Maybe debate is going to be less pleasant, but it’s always going to be more productive. True creativity requires some trade-offs.
From the Article “Group Think” in this week’s New Yorker.
And let me add an “amen” to that.
Still reading quite a bit about the life of Christopher Hitchens. This profile from 2006 is pretty entertaining. I really love this paragraph:
At a dinner a few months ago in San Francisco with his wife, Carol Blue, and some others, Hitchens wore a pale jacket and a shirt unbuttoned far enough to hint at what one ex-girlfriend has called “the pelt of the Hitch.” Hitchens, who only recently gave up the habit of smoking in the shower, was working through a pack of cigarettes while talking to two women at his end of the table: a Stanford doctor in her early thirties whom he’d met once before, and a friend of hers, a librarian. He spoke with wit and eloquence about Iranian politics and what he saw as the unnecessary handsomeness of Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2006/10/16/061016fa_fact_parker#ixzz1gtGXBVbd
