Brad Rourke

Brad Rourke’s Blog

  • The Social Media Backlash And What I Had For Lunch

    Yesterday an article titled “How Facebook Ruins Friendships” predictably made the rounds of social media as people debated its pros and cons. The article’s argument hinges on three points: 1) that people say inappropriate things on social sites; 2) that much of it is trivia; and 3) this is annoying because no one wants to…

  • How To Be A Nice Person Online

    Humans are social beasts. They are driven to form groups. Every group has its own set of rules — its etiquette. Social media is no exception. A stable set of norms is emerging that governs online behavior. Some of it is adopted from the etiquette of early online environments — like DON’T USE ALL CAPS…

  • The Value Of Focusing On Something Else

    Last night, on vacation with extended family, a few of us stayed up late playing Risk. As players of this game know, these episodes can go on for hours and hours. We laughed harder than I had laughed in a long time. As I went to bed (of course the game is not finished, it…

  • Cash For Clunkers: When Paces Collide

    The White House has announced that it will divulge details shortly about how it will wind down the seemingly successful Cash for Clunkers program. As of July, car dealers nationwide had done $1.8 billion in deals under the program, and are on track to exhaust the $3 billion available for the program. The initiative has…

  • I Least Expect It!

    One of my children used to love to be tickled, surprised, pounced upon, – still does. Back in the toddler days, it would be a repeated request. “Tickle me! Get me!” Eventually, the tickling and surprising doesn’t work and Daddy gets tired. “I’ll surprise you when you least expect it,” I would promise. The reply…

  • Management Lesson From The Boy Scouts: What Looks Simple From The Inside May Be Complex From The Outside

    For the past few days I have been helping in a small way on a large crowd control effort. My son’s Boy Scout troop parks cars at the local county fair every summer. The boys plan and execute it each year. This is a huge undertaking, as tens of thousands attend the fair. It’s one…

  • Are You Playing Restaurant?

    When I was about eleven, I learned how to make my favorite cheese sandwich: white bread, mayonnaise, American cheese. Yes, I grew up in the midwest. Shortly after I learned this special skill, I developed a fun game to pass the time: I would play “restaurant.” More precisely, I would play short order cook. I…

  • How Can Government Work With Philanthropy?

    In a recent discussion with a number of Michigan based foundation heads and staffers, respected Brookings Institution scholar Bruce Katz discussed the tough economic conditions and what government responses to it can look like. The notes from his conversation suggest that it was wide ranging. Katz, who runs the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings, was…