Slow Down with Hummingbirds

Hey, how’s your week been? Anything interesting happening?

A few years back when I was a publisher, I remember someone joking that the primary beneficiaries of Plan S were publishing consultants. Now as a consultant in the wake of the recent OSTP Memo, I see the double-edged sword in that remark — there’s so much thinking and hard work to be done to help societies, publishers, and journals best support their communities in response to these policies that I suspect very few of us will see much downtime for the next few years.

So today, let’s slow down for a few minutes and take a deep breath. Find your moment of zen below with some stunning super slow motion footage of hummingbirds. Things may feel like a blur, but that blur is made up of smaller, precise motions. Don’t lose sight of the details as you accelerate forward.

David Crotty

@davidacrotty

David Crotty is a Senior Consultant at Clarke & Esposito, a boutique management consulting firm focused on strategic issues related to professional and academic publishing and information services. Previously, David was the Editorial Director, Journals Policy for Oxford University Press. He oversaw journal policy across OUP’s journals program, drove technological innovation, and served as an information officer. David acquired and managed a suite of research society-owned journals with OUP, and before that was the Executive Editor for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, where he created and edited new science books and journals, along with serving as a journal Editor-in-Chief. He has served on the Board of Directors for the STM Association, the Society for Scholarly Publishing and CHOR, Inc., as well as The AAP-PSP Executive Council. David received his PhD in Genetics from Columbia University and did developmental neuroscience research at Caltech before moving from the bench to publishing.

Discussion

3 Thoughts on "Slow Down with Hummingbirds"

So, this is so funny. This morning I went outside to clear my head before the day started and I saw this bird just hanging out eating something. It didn’t fly away when I walked past it – just kept doing its thing. It seemed calm and focused. I started thinking about how we approach our work and was actually inspired by this little guy. Then I came in and saw this. A good omen 🙂

Happy Friday!

By Ann Michael
Sep 2, 2022, 8:51 AM

Gorgeous! September 1 is the expected time for hummingbirds in our area to begin their migration journey, so I am also making a point to appreciate their still showing up on feeders, as I will soon be missing them until spring. Thank you for sharing this, David.