Who Fascinates You?

[Lucky]

In my time I have been around many judges, and they all seem to see themselves as fascinating people. We were expected to gather around and be all ears when they spoke, especially laughing at their jokes. Judges, after all, are lawyers, and lawyers are never as interesting as they think they are.

But twice when I was upgraded on a cross country flight I got to sit next to Stanford professors. The conversations I had with them were truly fascinating. They, too, are used to having students gather at their feet, and surely the students must laugh at their jokes. But is an advantage for professors that they are well-educated and specialists in their fields, whilst judges are often hacks.

So, while it is true that the professors did more talking than I did, I didn't mind at all. They have learned how to speak as teachers, and knowing that I was a lawyer seemed to give them the opportunity to be less magisterial and more collegial, something I didn't see much as a student.

There was a professor posting at Hooboy's site for a while, and I did meet him and found him just as fascinating. But I think he tired of us after a while.

Now I know that one can be fascinated with people who have accomplished something. We saw last week the admiration for Steve Jobs, but I couldn't get past all of the personality flaws he had. Maybe if I knew these professors on a more personal level I might be less fascinated. But, for a few hours...

[Guest hitoallusa]

People like Brian Greene (a physicist and best selling author). He is hosting an amazing program on NOVA and I was thrilled to learn the current interpretation of Black Hole by scientists from the show. As for Brian Greene, he is my type. Lucky I think you will enjoy the program. They made it fun and entertaining.

http://video.pbs.org/video/2163057527#

[Guest FourAces]

Lucky I think this is a interesting topic. I look forward to see the replies from others.

Steve Jobs is someone who does fascinate me. Maybe some of his character traits were extreme and maybe some blown out of proportion over the years. But how his vision actually changed the way people do things totally grabs my attention.

Jobs changed the way we use computers, the way we listen to and purchase music, the way we use a mobile phone ... and keep in mind just because you might not have a iPod or iPhone does not mean you have not been affected. Maybe you use a Android device ... well if so thank Steve Jobs. Maybe you buy music on Amazon and listen to it on a MP3 player well if so thank Steve Jobs .. oh do you use a mouse if so thank Steve Jobs.

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I actually have a second fascination. That is with the secret service. I absolutely love watching them as they protect the president. I am amazed with there willingness to give up their life intentionally at a moments notice. But that aside just watching them and the big and little things they do fascinates me.

[Guest gcursor]

Walt Disney. He was a visionary. I am always fascinated by his personality and his painstaking attention to detail coupled with his constant child-like wonder. He was the person who said,"I want to make a full-length animated feature" People at the time told Walt he was nuts and he was going to ruin himself. Walt didn't care and put every penny he had into Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Walt was somebody who never believed that anything was impossible and was always pushing his employees to take things to the next level. He was the first person who came up with the "spoke park design" that many amusement parks now use when he opened Disneyland. Of course, people thought he was completely insane when he told them he wanted to open an AMUSEMENT PARK for kids and adults...Walt didn't care and did it anyway.

Walt was a dreamer but he also kept track of the park operations. He knew every detail of every building of every ride. He would inspect them down to the last little finishing touches. Walt would make sure the horse hitching posts in Frontierland (that are there for show) would get repainted every night and then scuff marks would intentionally be put into them to make them look like horses had been hitched up during the day. Did patrons notice it? Not so much. But THIS level of detail is what Walt brought to everything he did and what has made Walt Disney and their parks a recognized leader in amusement parks world-wide.

Another thing you probably don't know is that Walt was very adamant about making sure attractions took into account the perspective of young children when the park was designed. Because of this, Walt would frequently stoop down while looking at a building or structure to take into account how smaller people would see things. As an example of this, there is a small fountain of Cinderella behind the castle. It has a mural of Cinderella behind it and the mural has a crown on it. When you look at it as an adult, it looks like a crown in mid-air. However if you "bow" down and look from a child's perspective, look up and the crown is sitting on Cinderella's head.

so the next time people ask, can something be done? remember that Walt would say"if you can dream it, you can do it"