"Indifference is the invincible giant of the world." Ouida

"To make the common marvelous is the test of genius." James R. Lowell

"Towers are measured by their shadows, and men of merit by those who are envious of them." Chinese proverb

Today's image: me by willvastine.com - Wonderful. Thank you for sharing.

"I don't know"

Working on a talk for next week. Draft #5 or is it #6. No matter. A good measure of my talk is about leadership and adult learning. In my experience, the best three word lesson in learning may be found in having the courage to say "I don't know." Here's what Wurman said...

"...the most essential prerequisite to understanding is to be able to admit when you don't understand something. Being able to admit that you don't know is liberating. Giving yourself permission not to know everything will make you relax, which is the ideal frame of mind to receive new information. You must be comfortable to really listen, to really hear new information. When you can admit to ignorance, you will realize that if ignorance isn't exactly bliss, it is an ideal state from which to learn. The fewer preconceptions you have about the material, and the more relaxed you feel about not knowing, the more you will increase your ability to understand and learn."

Repeat after me, I don't know. Take that attitude, add curiosity, mix with discipline, voila!

No business like show business: Radio programming and marketing ace Lee Arnold continues his series, serving up Rocket Surgery Pt 3 here.

Midtown buzz: David Barrett, Susan Lyne, Judy McGrath, CBS

Misc cool apps of the moment: Twitter + FriendFeed = Plurk. Planning tool, Center'd. Read webpages later on your phone, LaterLoop

Congrats & cheers: Kim Johnson hires on at Tribune as SVP, Local Sales.

Closed circuit to CBS AOL Radio player team: Check the date on the Duffy ad. "Release 5/13 Pre-order now!" Is no one looking at this stuff? A Duffy offer on an HD2 Oldies channel? This is easy to fix and why use the inventory for a dated offer?

"I have learned that it pays to fight for concepts and causes that may appear unpopular at the moment, rather than following the course of quick and easy agreement." Leo Burnett

Great to catch up with Dennis Lyle, President & CEO of Illinois Broadcasters. Illinois will join Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio in staging a super-sized summer conference. July 8-10 at French Lick, Indiana. Great idea!

Congrats & cheers: Ira Glass and his This American Life crew win a Peabody. Todd Cavanah VP/PD for Chicago's WBBM-FM adds oversight of co-owned Jack FM. (My thanks to Robert Feder for both tips here. Good to have you back Robert.)

Complete list 2006 Peabody winners: Kudos to HBO, Ugly Betty, The Office, StoryCorps, CBS News, our favorite Food Network dude Alton Brown and all the winners. Winners list here.

Ready for his closeup: The Man Who Would Change Microsoft: Ray Ozzie's Vision for Connected Software via Knowledge@Wharton here:

"What we as an industry need to deliver are seamless experiences -- however those things are accomplished -- to do the appropriate thing in the browser and the appropriate thing on a laptop or on a device to solve that problem.

So the way I view it is, first generation 'software as a service' really just meant browser. Second generation means weave together hardware, software and services to accomplish a specific solution.

The iPod is a great example of that. You have hardware, the embedded software on the device and an associated [online] service. The BlackBerry is another great example [of the combination of] hardware, software and service. The Xbox is a terrific example -- you've got amazing software in the games, hardware to support it and Xbox Live as a service."

"Is it difficult to compete with somebody who has executed as well in search as Google? Absolutely. We've spent the last few years putting some amazing people on it and the core relevance of search has increased progressively.

But I think you will find that Microsoft will take a different approach toward search than simply trying to copy Google's success. History has shown that any time you have a fairly significant market leader, the best way of competing is not to just simply take the same approach. You have to find your own unique approach. And Microsoft has a number of different ways that we could do that because of the different touch points we have with the market and how people use our products."

The emphasis and boldface above is mine. To count Microsoft out would be a significant error. Ozzie is driving things forward and doing so with the right attitude - they have to develop their own unique approach.

Survey says: Fred Jacobs is blogging about his firm's latest research - Tech Survey III. 25,000 rock radio listeners weigh in on all things tech. When asked to select the most important new feature they wanted in an MP3 player 33% of respondents said FM tuner. Read more here. Bravos and thanks to Fred and his Jacobs Media team for sharing the findings and for taking a leadership role in fielding the research.

Bonus: Steve Safran shares his "Things Viewers Never, Ever Say" to wit: "The police want MY help in solving this crime. Cool." Part One here. Part Two here. Steve's update, "Things Web Viewsers Never, Ever Say" here. Bravo Steve! Very well done.

"I don't know" Sam Zell. Now there's the sign of one very smart guy. He has the courage to admit, to say out loud "I don't know." Read the Sam Zell - Tribune interview here.

Which reminds me of something said by one of my heroes, Richard Saul Wurman...

"Perhaps the three principles closest to my heart - and the most radical - are learning to accept your ignorance, paying more attention to the question than to the answer, and never being afraid to go in an opposite direction to find a solution."

Nothing but a guess dept: What if? Should Tribune be required to spin broadcast. Here is one happy ending...TV to Randy Michaels accretive to his NYT portfolio. WGN Radio and Cubs to Emmis. WGN Radio would also be accretive to the portfolios of Dan Mason's CBS and Farid Suleman's Citadel/ABC. Of course the dark horse bet would be ESPN. Please allow me to mark 30 saying "I don't know."