Story 1: When Little Ronnie reached the appropriate age, his mom enrolled him in first grade, and when the big first day came she dropped him off at school. She was therefore shocked at mid-day to find him perched on a chair in the kitchen, munching on a sandwich he'd made for himself. "Why aren't you in school?" she asked. "Yeah, I tried it," he replied, "but it wasn't for me." This is, I'm quite certain, the roots of Ronnie's famous No Assholes Rule, which says never waste time around people who make you unhappy (and he never did). I didn't fully embrace the rule till I was about 50, and it took a long chat with Ronnie for me to finally get it. Prior to that, I spent a lot of years trying to hobnob and curry favor with obnoxious people who happened to be famous/accomplished, which never left me feeling happy. Once I embraced the Rule, professional life became a lot more fun.

 

Story 2: ABAI was in Chicago and Ronnie and I were hanging out by the big statue of -- a lion I think it is? -- at the top of some stairs near the lobby in the Palmer House. I had my daughter, aged about 5 at the time, in tow, and Ronnie, with this huge confab of brilliant people swirling around him, struck up a conversation with her that he continued for a good hour or more. When you had Ronnie's attention, you had ALL of his attention (and you felt like the most important person in the world). The key to this story is how you GOT Ronnie's attention in the first place. I remember realizing: Here's a guy who doesn't care who you are, in the Life Accomplishment sense, as long as there's good conversation to be had. Even with a 5-year old. Since then it's been fun to observe with whom Ronnie surrounded himself. At a conference, for instance, he might spend an entire poster session talking to a graduate student that everyone else had ignored. When Ronnie came into a financial windfall, he used it, not to buy a Ferrari or something like that, but rather to help establish the Wing Institute for Evidence-Based Education, which served in part to get cool people together in the same room to talk about really big problems. The flip side of this is that Ronnie has never wasted a moment in a room with scoundrels and fools (see Story 1, above). His circle is a wildly eclectic cadre of icons and under-the-radar good eggs with all kinds of backgrounds, but sharing one key feature: An approach to the meeting of minds that emphasizes "a rising tide lifts all boats." That circle is something rare, a meritocracy so pure even a 5-year-old could join it. That this is the case makes me feel extra honored to have been part of it.