An old saw says that in Washington DC politics is in the water; if that’s true, than technology is in the water in and around Silicon Valley. I lived there from 1977 to 2003 and just as DC media focuses exhaustively on Federal politics our media delved into the technology world, especially at two ends of the spectrum—startups and iconic brands.

Hewlett Packard is beyond iconic—it’s legendary—and dissecting what was happening and why was a media constant.

That hasn’t changed since I left; the latest being the Hurd fiasco. I followed the stories from the original news flash, not all of them but enough to understand what happened and some analysis, but I still felt something was missing.

I kept thinking that if Hurd was really terminated for the reasons stated then he was terminated for cause, which would mean no 40-50 million dollar severance package, but instead he was allowed to resign.

Something didn’t smell right or maybe I was just suspicious because the little I knew about Hurd didn’t impress me, but, then, who am I to disagree with all the experts who raved about his turn around of HP.

A Joe Nocera’s column Friday in the NY Times offered up a more logical reason for his ouster; one that makes far more sense to me.

According to Anthony Bianco, author of The Big Lie: Spying, Scandal and Ethical Collapse at Hewlett-Packard, “There was a residue of mistrust because of the pretexting scandal. I conclude in the book that he lacks the moral character to be C.E.O.”

Then there were the company’s employees. The consensus in Silicon Valley is that Mr. Hurd was despised at H.P., not just by the rank and file, but even by H.P.’s top executives.

Worse, Hurd gutted R&D, selling HP’s future for the short-term gains that Wall Street loves.

In the final look, the people who must be trusted to do the right thing in the running of large companies is the Board, but HP’s Board has proven over and over that it lacks what it takes.

On the other hand, putting up dazzling short-term numbers that have the effect of enriching himself while robbing H.P.’s future — isn’t that what a C.E.O. should be fired for? Firing Mr. Hurd for that reason, however, would have taken courage, something that has always been in short supply on the H.P. board.

What do you think? Read the column, come back and share your thoughts.

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zedbee/103147140/

Whether you consider your boss, or yourself, a leader or a manager you should find today’s offerings of interest.

Most of you know that I firmly believe that good managers must also be leaders, and vice versa, in order to get the best from today’s uber-savvy workforce, but that doesn’t always happen. This interview with Randy Komisar, who has been launching startups for 25 years, both as an entrepreneur and a VC, talks about the difference and what needs to be done.

Next is an interview with Aaron Levie, co-founder and C.E.O. of Box.net. Levie talks about how he manages, leads, hires and his company’s culture.

Our third interview today is with executive coach Liz Wiseman, Co-author of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, discussing the difference between ‘multiplier’ and ‘diminishers’ (I sure hope you work for the former!)

In a great column, Bill Taylor, co-founder of Fast Company and co-author of Mavericks at Work, considers the idea of corporate heroes from a different point of view—not are there any left, but rather how do we recognize one in today’s business climate.

Finally another look at Mark Hurd—two, actually.

The first, from Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School professor and the author of Confidence and SuperCorp, considers a question we’ve all been asking: “How can very smart, accomplished people do such stupid things?” The second, from Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior and author of a new book, Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don’t, sees Hurd as a teaching moment on the subject of power.

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedroelcarvalho/2812091311/

I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of the amount of pure stupid going around.

Now it’s Mark Hurd, but he is just the latest in an epidemic of stupid.

I expect stupid from teens, after all, brain science has proved that teen brains are in a process of change and during that time the frontal cortex isn’t functioning.

Dr. Paul Thompson, UCLA School of Medicine: “As you get older, you don’t necessarily get more brain. The outer layer of the brain is actually thinning.”

Dr. Judy Rapaport, NIH: “You end up with a sort of leaner, meaner thinking machine by the time you’re an adult.”

But it seems that many aren’t thinking.

Call it Extreme Makeover: Career Edition and Ty Pennington just screamed, “Let’s do some demo!”

I think the brain research needs to be redone to account for regression after 40.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michiel/4348942883/