How a Five-Letter Word Built a 104-Year-Old Company | At the Smithsonian

How Think Built IBM | At the Smithsonian | Smithsonian.

For our word feature this Wednesday, we post something from the Smithsonian website yesterday (August 3, 2015). And from the heading you will see why this item caught my attention and became the content of our word feature today.

What’s the word? And which is the company? And who came up with the idea? Read on!

Last year, the daughter of an executive at J. Schoeneman Inc., one of the first garment manufacturers to buy an IBM computer, donated a seemingly modest item to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History: a 4.5-by-3-inch paper notepad with the word THINK embossed on its leather cover.

Small enough to fit into the breast pocket of a dress shirt, the notepad, according to Smithsonian curator Peter Liebhold, was a gift to the executive from his IBM salesman. This would have been in the 1960s, Liebhold says, when all IBM employees carried THINK notepads and business cards and worked beneath THINK signs.

The campaign was parodied in MAD Magazine, the subject of New Yorker and Look cartoons, and IBM was “deluged with requests from the public” for THINK paraphernalia, according to company archives. By 1960, IBM was distributing “about 250,000” THINK notepads annually to non-IBMers like the Schoeneman executive. THINK fascinated people because its pervasiveness represented something so new: a consciously created company culture.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-five-letter-word-built-104-year-old-company

Confessions of a Bibliophile – Keith Mathison

Confessions of a Bibliophile by Keith Mathison | Ligonier Ministries Blog.

And here is another perspective on the value of being a lover of books and reading – only this time from a distinctive Christian perspective. I am grateful for Mathison’s clear voice concerning why we ought to be readers of good books.

For the full article (originally printed in Tabletalk magazine), visit the Ligonier link above. Here are Mathison’s closing paragraphs, which contain the heart of this thoughts.

Our God is a God who has revealed Himself in a book, in words. We learn about God and His will, therefore, by reading. We learn by reading and reflecting on His Word. We also learn by reading and thinking with the church. This means we read and reflect on the insights of our brethren, those who are still with us and those who have gone on before us. We may also learn by reading with discernment the works of those who have spent time “reading” God’s general revelation. This includes works of science, philosophy, history, poetry, and literature.

If I might offer a word of advice and encouragement to my fellow bibliophiles, it is this: As Ecclesiastes reminds us, “Of making many books there is no end” (12:12). Millions of books have been published, and thousands more are published every year. We cannot read them all, so it is best to read the good ones. If you don’t know which books are the good ones, seek the advice of mature Christians. Find recommended reading lists by churches and ministries you trust.

Finally, while we read to learn about our God and His works of creation and redemption, we must not allow a love of reading to supplant our love for Christ. If we do, our books, even our Christian books, become nothing more than idols. All the reading in the world, if it does not ultimately promote our love of Christ and our brethren, is nothing but futility.