Comments on: Death by Risk Aversion – A TTW Guest Post by Stephen Walker

By: Refuting Inertness or My Response to “Where Are the Others?” « The Unquiet Librarian

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:12:57 +0000

[...] who leads and advocates for your library program in the face of these challenges? Are you what Stephen Walker defines as an “A” librarian who innovates in spite of adversity? Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson remind us in The Hazards [...]

By: Grammar Fascist

Grammar Fascist — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:16:43 +0000

@Ruth, yeah i thought so. Whatever happened to our perfectly good non gendered forms like ‘They’. I think it would have done the job just as well. Not all communication has to be gendered you know

By: joshua m. neff

joshua m. neff — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:14:48 +0000

And this mythical, exalted “A” librarian, this lone voice of courage and creativity, fighting against a mass of timid bureaucracy and mediocrity…his name is John Galt, right?

By: Ruth

Ruth — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:44:05 +0000

Good post, but given that most librarians are female, defaulting to male pronouns seems an odd choice.

By: Dana Labrum

Dana Labrum — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:52:33 +0000

Most inspiring for me too. Rock that Library Boat! Rock your Life….

By: Are You an “A” Librarian? « The Unquiet Librarian

Are You an “A” Librarian? « The Unquiet Librarian — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 03:11:11 +0000

[...] most inspiring pieces of writing I have ever encountered just came into my Google Reader today: “Death by Risk Aversion – A TTW Guest Post by Stephen Walker” at Michael Stephens’ most excellent Tame the Web [...]

By: Beth Gallaway

Beth Gallaway — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:32:46 +0000

It’s not always fear of failure; sometimes, it’s fear of success — not being able to cope with unintended or unplanned for results — or fear of change.

I LOVE the idea that attempting IS accomplishment.

By: Peter Bromberg

Peter Bromberg — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:19:31 +0000

Thanks for the great post Stephen. I have a “Death By Risk Aversion” graphic hanging over my desk as a constant reminder. I first came across the idea over at the Creating Passionate Users blog (http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/01/death_by_riskav.html) authored by Kathy Sierra. Unfortunately Kathy stopped blogging in 2007, but if you like the idea of “Death by Risk Aversion” you might be interested in taking a look at the blog’s archive–the posts were consistently amazing.

By: Andy Burkhardt

Andy Burkhardt — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:45:14 +0000

The fear of failure and risk is a huge hindrance and something that we should all seek to overcome. Just because we have always done things a certain way does not mean that we should continue it.

Innovation starts with trying something new. Failure is a part of it, but also, like you said, vision. You need to get people on board with your vision and create the future.