4 ms·
Shackleton's Endurance Expedition
- eesmith 6y agoThis HBR link is a "35 minute interactive lesson", and I didn't want to interact with it, so I stopped when it asked "What is your top priority as leader of the expedition? What is the first thing you do?" About 25 years ago, Shackleton's Expedition was going around as a "this is how to do things right" just-so-stories that business people write. It feels like this is part of the same vein. "alleged newspaper ad written by Shackleton to" Despite much searching, no one has been able to find that alleged advertisement. I consider it a falsehood, akin to the made-up history that no one thought the world was round before Columbus. Now, Shackleton's Expedition was incredible. His book about it is thrilling. There's even film they took, which made it through the entire trip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqpITVsy2cU&list=PL914C98C136CB4A1F&index=4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqpITVsy2cU&list=PL914C98C13... . At the The Polar Museum, University of Cambridge, there's a full-scale model of the boat they used to get to St. George Island - this little tiny sailboat, across the South Atlantic, with the most basic of instruments. But knowing the history, I know that I cannot answer the questions "What is your top priority as leader of the expedition? What is the first thing you do?" - I simply don't have the training or experience. And it's not just leadership, but requires detailed knowledge of what the equipment of that era can and cannot do.