September 13, 2026

What is a committee? A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the unnecessary.

Richard Harkness (1907 – 1977), American journalist, quoted in the New York Herald Tribune (1960), in The Cynic’s Lexicon, Jonathon Green, ed. (London: 1986), p. 93

MEDITATION: When you are appointed to some committee, do you jump to the task with interest, or do you fake interest, or just resent the appointment altogether?

COMMENTARY: The quotation is cute, but need not be true. To prove you are willing, fit to the task, and capable of discovering what no one previously noticed needed doing, dig in and find the means to shake up the things whoever appointed you thought you’d never see. That will impress! Maybe even distress!