Hal Stern's thoughts on the economy, software, services, technology, and snowmen. Hal Stern: The Morning Snowman

Thursday Mar 13, 2008

Clearly, not Eliot Spitzer, or perhaps he'd still be governor of the Empire State.

Postrel pretty much called this one five years ago in her blog, when Spitzer was gaining in prominence and power. I ran into that entry when Googling for other references to the so-called Antarctica Liberation Front and found an old classmate had the same funny memories I did of Spitzer's over-the-top self-importance being completely deflated by a bunch of really funny, really smart (and in one case, really short) guys with nice dramatic effect. There's an even more detailed description of the 1980 dismantling of Spitzer-dom, followed a few months later by the true story of why I continue to crack up, 28 years later, genesis of "Daniel P Arovas Hall".

I've tried really, really hard not to devolve into politics here, because my views are my own, and because they tend to be a bit stilted. But I think there's an HR object lesson in all of this: if you're going to be tough, be tough consistently (and not selective in your enforcement); if you're going to claim morality; be consistently moral. But most of all, don't ever, ever get so serious that you forget to have fun.