About McGee’s Musings

How do we become more competent and effective at doing knowledge work? That’s the fundamental question I ask and try to answer on this blog. It’s a deliberately broad question for several reasons. One, specialization is overrated; the challenges that matter don’t come neatly wrapped with instructions. Two, my own interests are catholic. I’m interested in design, learning, knowledge, organizations, strategy, and technology among other things. Three, curiosity has gotten a bad rap, especially within large organizations; it needs to be celebrated and encouraged. Finally, more and more of the work we are called on to do is knowledge work; we all need to get better at doing it and we can use all the help we can get.

I started McGee’s Musings in October of 2001 when I was on the faculty at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management as a way to share thoughts with my students. While they sometimes struggled with the notion that I often had more questions than answers, that seemed to cause less concern to those who came here. It’s become the primary place where I work out ideas for myself. Sharing them helps my own thinking immensely and seems to be useful to my readers.

No one pays me to write this blog or to say particular things on it. I pay webhosting and bandwidth costs for this blog out of my own pocket. I do not run ads here and do not expect to.

My day job is as a consultant helping clients on issues related to the management and use of technology. I do not identify clients by name or in any way that would make them identifiable unless I have their explicit permission (and generally not even then).

I’ve been an entrepreneur and I’ve been around the technology world for a while. I believe, and I have found, that transparency is a good thing. If I encounter a situation where my previous connections or other circumstances bear on what I write here, I disclose the pertinent details or find something else to talk about instead.

As David Weinberger suggests in his blog disclosure (which I cribbed from for this disclosure), I use my judgment. I choose to err in the direction of assuming that anyone reading here is also capable of exercising judgment.

If you have questions or concerns, feel free to contact me.