This past week I attended a conference called the World Business Forum in which about 8 or 9 well-known business leaders (Jack Welch, Rudy Guiliani, Michael Porter, Barry Diller, Lou Gerstner, etc.) are brought together for two days. Each one does a talk, some are interviewed, some take questions from the 1700-person audience. Although all of them spoke on different topics, the single common theme was to hire good people. Hire people who are smarter than you. As a leader, you should be the dumbest one at the table. While I fully subscribe to this ideal and am fortunate that I have a set of exceptional people working for me, this means that I paid a lot of money, flew across the country and spent 2 days of my time listening to some of the dumbest people in the world. Somehow I don't think the World Business Forum people should center their marketing around this concept.

My regimen at the new gym has started. I've had two sessions with a trainer (young enough to be my son, naturally) with another one set for a couple of weeks from now. Next Saturday I start a Pilates class on a machine called a "Reformer" which brings to mind all sorts of evil contortions and punishments. My primary motivation stems from having paid for a year in advance and needing to derive value from the investment. Again, probably not the primary message of their marketing plan (although I'm sure it's in many members' minds).

As I age, I need to make more noises when doing tasks that require minimal exertion. Hefting my briefcase onto the counter in order to extract the laptop requires a mild grunt. Getting out the car calls for a more pronounced groan. Bending over to pick up anything from the floor produces a rumble of frustration that something would dared to have landed on the floor in my line of sight and require up-picking. Real effort induces a variety of grumbles and noises that are vaguely rude. I remember my grandparents producing growls like these, but they must have been in their 60s when this need to exhale violently overtook them. Now if I can just creak along into bed without groaning too loudly...