Five things I learned from Red Burns

1.  Nobody Knows.  As in, where is technology going?  Since nobody knows, keep asking questions, keep experimenting, keep moving in the same step-by-step direction known to all good entrepreneurs.  The solutions — rarely obvious — will emerge.

2.  Technology doesn’t matter, people do.  Technology is always in service of human needs, like services for the disabled. Like learning.  Like the thrill of divine design.

3.  Vision is overrated.  See #1.

4.  A Bubbe is a beautiful thing.  I was thinking of John Irving’s The World According to Garp when Red’s granddaughter talked about how her indomitable, brave, been-everywhere-done-everything bubbe warned her every time about going in the water.  Remember “Beware the undertoad?”

5.  Work should be magic.  It can bring you the best of friends, the stimulation of important projects, the inspiration of a mission that matters.  Don’t settle for anything less.

Here’s a wonderful memorial essay from one of her former students, RED BURNS WAS AN ORACLE.