Invent Radium or I'll Pull Your Hair

by Doris Drucker

Amazon link: Invent Radium or I'll Pull Your Hair: A Memoir

The daughter of "German non-Jewish Jews," Drucker was three when WWI began.

Growing up in Germany, war was always around her, as were fierce left-right political battles.

A university student by the time Hitler came to power, she figured—like other "assimilated" Jews—that she should keep "a low profile until the Nazi tornado had passed over."

In this memoir, too, Drucker lays low politically, focusing on the story of her childhood under her mother's severe rule.

Drucker's mother hoped Drucker would become a scientist, and once shouted this memoir's titular phrase at her.

Drucker and her siblings weren't allowed opinions on anything, from whether they were hungry to what their doll's name might be to what courses they'd take at the university.

Although she'd studied abroad, Drucker only really left Germany in 1932, and not because she herself was worried, but thanks to a visiting Dutch relative who was appalled by Nazi street riots.

She found work in London, where she ran into her old flame, Austrian journalist Peter Drucker (who later became a management guru).

They married and emigrated to the U.S., where they've both had careers for the past 60 years.

Drucker, who went on to become a successful businesswoman, is in her 90s now, but her taste for irony is still sharp.

She recalls the gruesome stories—Grimm's fairy tales, the Nibelung saga—they read as kids, which they simply accepted as "part of our European heritage"; she reminds readers that the knights in armor they romanticized were "the original teenage gangbangers."

A feisty read!

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“The greatest danger

in times of turbulence

is not turbulence;

it is to act

with yesterday’s logic”.

— Peter Drucker

The shift from manual workers
who do as they are being told —
either by the task or by the boss —

TO knowledge workers

who have to

manage themselves ↓

profoundly challenges social structure …

“Managing Oneself (PDF) is a REVOLUTION in human affairs.” …



“It also requires an almost 180-degree change in the knowledge workers’ thoughts and actions from what most of us—even of the younger generation—still take for granted as the way to think and the way to act.” …



… “Managing Oneself is based on the very opposite realities:


Workers are likely to outlive organizations
(and therefore, employers can’t be depended on for designing your life),

and the knowledge worker has mobility.” ← in a context

“More than anything else,

the individual
has to take more responsibility
for himself or herself,
rather than depend on the company.”
continue ↓

“Making a living is no longer enough
‘Work’ has to make a life .” continue

… finding and selecting the pieces of the puzzle

The Second Curve

These pages are attention directing tools

for navigating changing worldS — worldS relentlessly

moving toward unimagined futures.

What’s the next effective action on the road ahead

It’s up to you to figure out what to harvest and calendarize
— working something out in time (1915, 1940, 1970 … 2040 … the outer limit of your concern) — nobody is going to do it for you.

It may be a step forward to actively reject something (rather than just passively ignoring) and then working out a plan for coping with what you’ve rejected.

Your future is between your ears and our future is between our collective ears — it can’t be otherwise.

A site exploration: The memo THEY don't want you to see

What needs doing?

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Examples ↑ can be found through web searches, Wikipedia,
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Some ecological and time awareness ↓ → Ken Burns films

Larger view thinking canvas

The Über Mentor

The Drucker Lectures:
Essential Lessons on
Management, Society, and Economy

A Year with Peter Drucker:
52 Weeks of Coaching
for Leadership Effectiveness

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