I happen to be an engineer that believes in “portfolio theory“, also known as “don’t put all of your eggs in one basket”. In reality, portfolio theory is based on the financial principle of spreading risk by having a diversified mix of assets… There’s that word for which I was searching: diversified. I have extrapolated this concept of diversity to other areas of my working life such as the type of employees at my place of business, or the nature of the players on my basketball teams. No, I’m not searching for diversity in terms of having good and bad basketball players, but in terms of having a good point guard, a good post player, and a solid defensive specialist.
A writer for the Boston Globe writes an article entitled “The Downside of Diversity” where he cites interesting new results from a study on diversity. “Based on detailed interviews of nearly 30,000 people across America, he has concluded just the opposite… fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects. In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much…”
Hmm, I guess nothing in life is quite as it seems…