The fringe benefits of failure

Possibly the best short read of the week. In any case, surely the best speech for a class of university graduates I've ever happened onto. J.K. Rowling, the benefits of failure and, more than anything, the importance of imagination (You can also watch the video of the speech- if not loading, it is also on YouTube already, in several copies...).

(HT to Greg Mankiw).

And here's an advice from the the lecture above that my younger (and older...) friends would do well to retain (there are plenty others, so read the whole speech linked above very carefully); we'll have this one as quote of the week:

There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.

And I'll even add a second-best this week (though, ultimately, very likely my personal favourite from Rowling's speech)

Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.

(New) Dutch architecture or urbanism in three dimensions

Here's an excellent article in NYTimes about MVRDV, nowadays the (no reservations) top Dutch architects (here's their website, describing their projects etc.; here's a brief slideshow presentation of some of their work, accompanying the article above). And a contender for best quote this week, from the same article:

"The Dutch population is essentially antiurban,” de Vries says. “Therefore as architects in Holland we have a special responsibility to make living in cities and under dense circumstances not just habitable but preferable.”

Culmea pateticului pe saptamana curenta

Domnul Daianu, fost economist..., "ataca" din nou (vezi si isprava precedenta, comentata)... Introducerea textului din Dilema Veche uita sa precizeze ca nici un economist serios nu se afla intre semnatarii 'scrisorii', cu toate ca politicienii respectivi (unii dintre ei economisti ratati sau/si politicieni frustrati, altii simpli naivi) "aparţin unor grupări politice diferite [...] depăşirea barierelor ideologice adăugînd un plus de importanţă documentului." (sic!). Revin cu comentarii detaliate pe text cand voi avea mai mult timp. Pana una alta, mirati-va si singuri :-).

Catalin, merci pentru link!