Maria von Trapp, please meet David Letterman and Merriam-Webster.  You have often graced us with your uplifting song, “… these are a few of my favorite things.” May I share with you a top-ten list of my favorite words, each the embodiment of a profound concept I cherish in my life?

1. Life
2. Freedom
3. Light
4. Faith
5. Integrity
6. Infinity
7. Identity
8. Innovation 
9. Compassion
10. Redemption

As often is the case, I find brevity to be more difficult than verbosity.  I place high value on many more concepts, but for today’s few moments of personal introspection, here is my short list.  What’s yours?

The photo below is of the Blohm & Voss 141, a concept aircraft produced for the the German air force, or Luftwaffe, during World War II. Despite its several advantages for the tactical reconnaissance role for which it was commissioned, this airplane “didn’t make sense to the German High Command, possibly simply because of its appearance,” dooming the project.

Talk about trying to stuff square pegs into round holes!

Yesterday, after I posted about square pegs in round holes, my daughter sent me the classic “Think Different” quote embodied in this video:

Interestingly enough, the video talks of “round pegs in square holes,” not the other way around as the idiom was originally conceived. How apropos! Think different(ly)!

Did you ever wonder where the term “square peg in a round hole” came from?  According to Wikipedia, the term first appeared a book by British novelist Edward Bulwer Lytton his late 19th century book, Kenelm Chillingly, His Adventures and Opinions:

Kenelm Chillingly asks, “Does it not prove that no man, however wise, is a good judge of his own case? Now, your son’s case is really your case —- you see it through the medium of your likings and dislikings, and insist upon forcing a square peg into a round hole, because in a round hole you, being a round peg, feel tight and comfortable. Now I call that irrational.”

The farmer responded, “I don’t see why my son has any right to fancy himself a square peg … when his father, and his grandfather, and his great-grandfather, have been round pegs; and it is agin’ nature for any creature not to take after its own kind.”

As I see it, when square pegs and round holes meet, we have two options, both requiring significant change:

1. Carve the square peg into a cylinder.
2. Cut the round hole into a square.

If neither gives, a mismatch will persist.

Have you ever felt like that?

Earlier this week, just days before Facebook’s IPO would launch, GM announced that it was pulling its advertising campaigns from Facebook.  I was intrigued to learn today that GM is also dropping its Superbowl ads.  

I’m not an advertising expert by any means, but I applaud GM for not just following the herd. My post yesterday implied that too many of us, particularly in our use of social media, are just like lemmings, mindlessly following each other off the proverbial cliff.  It is refreshing to see a company, particularly one as big and stodgy as GM, defy the herd mentality and chart a separate course.

On the eve of Facebook’s big IPO, maybe this Nonsequitur view of things is appropriate …

Have you ever given a presentation and felt like this?

What about this don’t you understand?