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Not Darwin

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” The line is often attributed to Charles Darwin. Darwin did not write it. The Darwin Correspondence Project traces it to an American business professor.

The professor was Leon C. Megginson, at Louisiana State University. In a speech to the Southwestern Social Science Association in San Antonio on April 12, 1963, he summarized Darwin in his own words: “the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment.” Later writers shortened his words and gave them to Darwin.

Retool Yourself

In February 2016, AT&T’s chief executive Randall Stephenson told The New York Times what he expected of his employees as the company moved to new technology. “There is a need to retool yourself, and you should not expect to stop.”

Employees who did not spend five to ten hours a week learning online, he said, “will obsolete themselves with technology.”

Drinking From a Fire Hose

A saying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology goes: “Getting an education from MIT is like taking a drink from a firehose.” In December 1991, MIT hackers made it real. They connected a fire hydrant and a fire hose to a drinking fountain in Building 16.

The hydrant is now in the MIT Museum. Americans use the phrase for any start where far too much arrives at once.

Twelve Percent

In 2018, Gallup reported a figure about onboarding. “Only 12% of employees strongly agree that their organization does a great job of onboarding.”

Commencement

Americans call the graduation ceremony commencement. The word means a beginning.

The ceremony marks the end of school, but its name points to what comes next. Commencement speakers usually talk to the graduates about the future.

Kindergarten Graduation

In 2010, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on preschool and kindergarten graduations in the Atlanta area. Children as young as four wore caps and gowns. Some schools also held proms and a “senior week.” At one school, parents paid “senior fees” of $110 that covered the caps and gowns, a trip, a diploma and a gift bag.

“These kids are the ‘seniors’ of the school, it’s a milestone for them,” said Cathy Brown of the Crème de la Crème schools. Peter Pizzolongo of the National Association for the Education of Young Children was less sure: “What you do at 4 is not likely to have an affect on a child 14 years later.”

Hello There

On July 17, 2014, the Microsoft executive Stephen Elop sent a memo to his staff. It began “Hello there.” In the eleventh paragraph it said that the plan “would result in an estimated reduction of 12,500 factory direct and professional employees.”

Kevin Roose of New York magazine wrote that the memo “takes 11 paragraphs to get to the point.” In the Financial Times, Lucy Kellaway called it “a case study in how not to write, how not to think, and how not to lead a business.”

Our Incredible Journey

When a large company buys a small tech company, it often shuts down the small company’s product. The announcement often sounds like a celebration, and it thanks the users “for joining us on our incredible journey.”

In 2013 Phil Gyford started a blog that collected these announcements. He called it Our Incredible Journey. One description of the blog sums up the pattern: “A company gets bought, its staff are excited (publicly, anyway) about their new home.”

The Luckiest Man

In June 1939, doctors at the Mayo Clinic found that Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. On July 4, 1939, the Yankees held a ceremony for him at Yankee Stadium, between the games of a doubleheader.

Gehrig spoke to the crowd. “Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

Morning Again in America

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan ran for a second term with a television ad called “Prouder, Stronger, Better.” Its first words are “It’s morning again in America.”

The ad was written and narrated by Hal Riney. It is commonly known as “Morning in America.”