April 24, 2007
The Art of Showing Pure Incompetence at an Unwanted Task
From Jared Sandberg at the Wall Street Journal: "The Art of Showing Pure Incompetence at an Unwanted Task"
(FYI - As my colleagues can attest to, I don't know how to make coffee or fix the printers. And I plan to keep it that way!)
Posted by PJ at 04:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackFebruary 19, 2007
The Dictionary and The Google
Erin McKean, the editor and lexicographer for the New Oxford American Dictionary, speaks at Google about 10 things she wishes people knew about the dictionary. It's about 54 minutes long, and well worth watching.
Posted by PJ at 01:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackFebruary 02, 2007
Never Forget - 1-31-07
November 28, 2006
The Complaints Choir of Helsinki
The ask you for your complaints. And then they sing them. They are the Complaints Choir of Helsinki.
Posted by PJ at 08:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackOctober 24, 2006
American Politics: A Summary
CNN has been able to sum up American politics in a single paragraph (perhaps the best thing they've ever put on their website, by the way):
"Porn star gives up candidacy to be with sick mom"
LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Porn star Mary Carey said Monday she was dropping out of the California governor's race to be with her ailing mother, who has been hospitalized in Florida since jumping off a four-story building last month.Posted by PJ at 06:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
[...]
October 23, 2006
It looks so small!
Here's a cool one. Photos of the space shuttle launch, taken from the International Space Station.
October 03, 2006
"We've been hit."
In a corporate jet flying 37,000 feet above the Amazon rainforest, I heard the three words I will never forget: "We’ve been hit."
Posted by PJ at 08:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackOctober 02, 2006
On a Wing and a Prayer...
An Israeli military training mission gone bad. A mid-air collision during a simulated dogfight. An A-4 Skyhawk goes down, and an F-15 Eagle decides to try and make it the 10 miles back to base. When the pilot lands, he finds out that he has definitively answered the question, Can this aircraft fly on just one wing?
Posted by PJ at 11:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackSeptember 29, 2006
MCM Forward
I can't decide if this is insane, or awesome. I think it's both.
August 7, 2006Posted by PJ at 07:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Marine Corps Marathon to Run in Iraq
MCM Forward offers deployed military members chance to earn coveted title of MCM Finisher
QUANTICO, VA- The Marine Corps Marathon, in conjunction with the Marines of the Multi National Force West, announced today the first-ever satellite running of the annual event. Touted as the Marine Corps Marathon Forward, service members from throughout Iraq will gather to participate in the 26.2 mile test of endurance in 80 degree temperatures. More than 6,000 miles from the Arlington, VA finish line, the deployed Marines will earn their place as a MCM finisher by completing the event in the Al Anbar province.
“More than 22,000 Marines are deployed to the area of operations, and even more from other branches,” said Rick Nealis, MCM Race Director. “Even during lengthy and sometimes stressful deployments, they continue to embody the values of physical excellence and fitness. The MCM Forward offers them a training goal at no cost to the individual runner, to keep motivated while proudly serving our country far from home.”
More than just lending its name, the MCM is contributing to the operation of MCM Forward. The MCM will provide event guidance and logistical support including race bibs, t-shirts, medals, awards and patches. Official finishers of the MCM Forward will receive a medal upon their completion, plus a certificate and finisher CD. MCM sponsors have also pledged to support the event by sending Jelly Belly Sport Beans, ZonePerfect bars, Tylenol 8 hour and USAA finisher coins to the race.
For more information Marines deployed to the region should contact their local MWR or the Multi National Force – West Public Affairs Officer in Iraq, Major Megan McClung at megan.mcclung@cemnf-wiraq.usmc.mil. Media interested in covering the event should contact Beth Cline, MCM Public Relations Coordinator at elizabeth.cline@usmc.mil.
Voted “Best Marathon for Families” by HerSports Magazine, the Marine Corps Marathon continues a combined tradition of dedication, sportsmanship and patriotism. Since its inception, over 300,000 civilian and military runners from all walks of life have participated, deservingly earning the event its nickname “The People’s Marathon.” The 31st Marine Corps Marathon will be held on October 29, 2006.
Visit marinemarathon.com for more information. For media information, contact Beth Cline, Marine Corps Marathon Public Relations Coordinator at (703) 432-1165, or Elizabeth.Cline@usmc.mil. No federal or Marine Corps endorsement implied.
September 26, 2006
IBM Gets Funny
From an article in Slate:
The white-collar temple IBM is usually not a source of pop-cultural memes. But this reputation may be receding, thanks to a trio of comedic videos topping the charts on YouTube. Shot in the mock-doc style of The Office, these parodies of internal training videos feature a group of sales executives as they pump themselves up with canned corporate wisdom and hawk million-dollar servers by cold-calling random names from the phone book. In other words, they make fun of IBM at its stodgy core. And while Steve Carell's job is probably safe, what is interesting about these shorts is that they were made by IBM using actual company executives, not paid actors or comedians.
Lesson One:
Lesson Two:
Lesson Three:
Posted by PJ at 12:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackSeptember 22, 2006
Cavalry Broadswords Of The Largest Size
The duel that could have changed the nation: 164 years ago this morning, a young state senator from Illinois named Abe Lincoln crossed the Mississippi River to the aptly-named Bloody Island to duel James Shields, the State Auditor. Lincoln and others (including Mary Todd), under assumed names, had written a number of harsh letters to the editor of Sangamo Journal criticizing Shields, as well as calling into question his abilities with the ladies. When Shields found out who was behind the letters, and Lincoln refused an immediate retraction, Shields called for the duel. It was to be held in a pit 10 feet wide and 12 feet deep. A plank was to separate the pit in the middle, and neither man was allowed to cross to the other side. The weapon to be used? "Cavalry Broadswords of the largest size."
Word had spread of the duel, and hundreds of people swarmed the banks of the river that morning to be among the first to learn who had fallen. When it was all over, "a crowd of anxious people awaited on the banks of the river to find out what had happened. Several people screamed and one woman fainted when they spotted a corpse in one of the boats..."
Posted by PJ at 05:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackSeptember 19, 2006
"Lobotomized by a candy-ass broadcast network"
*snicker*
How come the most honest thing ever said on TV comes not from the News Division of NBC, but from the Entertainment Division?
Lorne Michaels, I hope you paid attention. If you ever did that, it would finally make SNL worth watching. Think about it--finally, showing something that didn't have a punch line of "he's gay," "she's a lesbian," "he's on drugs," or "she's retarded." Did you know you could do that? Have you ever watched any old episodes when the actors actually acted, the writers had brains, and you didn't treat your audience like idiots?
Posted by PJ at 07:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackSeptember 13, 2006
Tea Partay
What a brilliant advertisement. It's funny, it's creative, and people are seeking it out. What more could a company want? It apparently cost about $200K to make, and has been downloaded over a million times. That's pretty cost effective...
Posted by PJ at 10:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackSeptember 11, 2006
Don't You Dare Forget
July 21, 2006
One *GIANT* Leap for Mankind
“That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” [Audio] On 21 July 1969, four days after taking off from Cape Canaveral, and six and a half hours after landing Apollo 11 on the Sea of Tranquility, Neil Armstrong became the first human to step foot on the moon.
Without a doubt, the moon landing is one of the greatest accomplishments of mankind. For those who were alive thirty-seven years ago, the sight of Armstrong’s “small step” is one of the most iconic images of their lifetime.
Two interesting bits:
First, Mike Collins, the astronaut circling the moon in the second half of their ship, suggested the following to Armstrong: "If you had any balls, you'd say 'Oh, my God, what is that thing?' then scream and cut your mic." (Now THAT would have been an iconic image for all mankind!)
Second, another aspect that's quite interesting to think about is the risk they took. They had no idea what would happen when they stepped onto the moon. I've read about parents who refused to let their children watch because of what might happen. A decade and a half later, this took place:
Carter [an astronaut who was investigating the Challenger loss] next informed everybody that the flight surgeon's office was going to archive a clip of our hair and a footprint to facilitate our identification in the event of a future shuttle loss. That comment suggested how difficult identification of the Challenger crew remains had been. Even dental records hadn't been enough. [Astronaut] John Young sagely observed, "When extranordinary methods are being taken to make sure you can be identified after you're dead, everybody ought to think twice about the job they're in." He was right.
(From "Riding Rockets" by Mike Mullane, page 247)
Nixon even recognized this, and had a speech prepared in the event something happened to Apollo 11 and they couldn't save them:
Nixon Had Speech if Moon Trip FailedPosted by PJ at 11:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack.c The Associated Press
By CALVIN WOODWARD
WASHINGTON (AP) - When man first landed on the moon 30 years ago, President Nixon had a speech all ready in case man could not get off again.
A contingency statement was prepared for Nixon, an eerie, poignant tribute that he would deliver while the astronauts were still alive but when there was no longer any hope for them.
"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace,' says the statement, incorporated in a memo entitled "In Event of Moon Disaster.'
The memo is dated July 18, 1969, two days before the moon landing.
Nixon never had to act on it. Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin made it safely off the moon, back into the command module with Michael Collins, and home. The words were drafted by William Safire, then a Nixon speechwriter and now a columnist for The New York Times.
The memo ended up in the National Archives and was reported this week by the Los Angeles Times. Safire did not return a phone call.
According to the memo, in the event of disaster Nixon was advised to call each of the "widows-to-be' before reading the statement to the nation.
Then NASA would cut off communication with the stranded astronauts and a clergyman would "adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea, commending their souls to 'the deepest of the deep,' concluding with the Lord's Prayer.'
It has long been rumored that astronauts landing on the moon carried suicide capsules in case their return became impossible.
The Apollo XI astronauts spent more than 21 hours on the moon, watched by millions around the world on TV. Nixon had the happy duty of putting in a phone call to them while they stood on the dusty lunar surface.
But had something gone terribly wrong, these words were prepared:
"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
"These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
"These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.
"They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
"In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.
"In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
"Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.
"For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind."
May 17, 2006
If Banks Were Bands
If Banks Were Musicians, Citigroup Would Be Ozzy
May 12 (Bloomberg) -- Investment banks have personalities that are reflected in how they go about their business and how their peers view them. Bands express their character traits through the music they make and the company they keep. What happens when you match banks with musicians?
Before you click on the link, play a guessing game. Try and match up the bands listed below with the banks listed below:
BANKS:
Barclays Capital
Citigroup
Commerzbank
Deutsche Bank
Goldman Sachs
HSBC
JPMorgan
Merrill Lynch
Morgan Stanley
UBS
BANDS:
[Any Boyband]
Coldplay
David Hasselhoff
Fleetwood Mac
Madonna
Oasis
Ozzy Osbourne
Phil Collins
Radiohead
Rolling Stones
May 10, 2006
(Re)build It, And They Will Come
Pat Gillick has a winning formula: (Re)build it, and they will come:
Character counts (really). "When I'm scouting, I take character over physical ability every time," says Gillick. "If we get to the play-offs, we'll play more than 200 games. Over the course of seven months, you've got to have people who get along with each other, who have a common goal. We look for players who put team goals above personal goals."Posted by PJ at 10:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Chemistry counts too. "Chemistry is unbelievably critical," Gillick says. "If you come into a workplace, and there is inconsistency, there are disruptive employees, or you don't know what to expect, then you won't be a motivated employee." The Mariners' quest for a happy clubhouse includes paying close attention to the wives and kids of the players. Gillick meets with wives early in the season to work out everything from ticketing to security to the potentially inflammatory problem of who sits where (which involves a careful ranking based on hubby's tenure in the majors). "There can be a lot of one-upmanship with the ladies," he says.
Invest in a balanced portfolio. "Our philosophy is to balance the payroll. If we have $25 million to spend, we'd rather have five guys making $5 million than one guy making $25 million," Gillick says. "We also make every attempt to have a salary structure where the best player is also the highest paid. Otherwise, there will be resentment. The most important salary structure is the one within your own club."
Everybody's on the team. "When I came to Seattle, we instituted a bonus program for all of our employees," Gillick says. "For the past two years, every employee -- from the minor leagues through top management -- has set goals. And for the past two years, we've met them. In that type of scenario, everybody stands to win. Now people are seeking us out, looking to work for the Mariners. Treat your assets well, and it will come back to you in spades."
Winning is fun-damental. "When I got here, I told our guys that our goal was to have fun, and the best way to have fun is to go home happy at least 100 times during the season. Our first year, we won 91 games. Last year, we won 116. So that's the key: Be positive, be upbeat, be supportive."
May 03, 2006
The Five Lies of Business
From Fast Company, "The Five Most Common Lies in Business":
1. "People are our most important asset."Posted by PJ at 10:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
2. "This was a rational decision."
3. "We judge people by their performance."
4. "This is business, it isn't personal."
5. "The customer comes first."
May 02, 2006
Update...
Sorry, fell off the wagon for a bit last week. I was at a fantastic conference organized by Rob Cross at the University of Virginia, and passed on the blogging. I'm getting back into the groove now...
Posted by PJ at 05:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackApril 21, 2006
Getting There
From the New Yorker magazine, "Getting There: The Science of Driving Directions" by Nick Paumgarten:
In the fifteenth century, Henry the Navigator, a Portuguese prince, presided over a court in Sagres that became a center for cartographers, instrument-makers, and explorers, whose expeditions he sponsored. Seafarers returning to Sagres from the west coast of Africa reported their discoveries, and new maps were produced, extending the reaches of the known world, which in those days did not go much beyond Cape Verde. These maps became very valuable, owing to their utility in trade, war, and soul-saving, and were jealously guarded as state secrets.Posted by PJ at 02:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The latter-day equivalent is a company called Navteq. It is the leading provider of geographic data to the Internet mapping sites and the personal-navigation industry—the boiler room of the where-you-are-and-what-to-do business. Its only real competitor is a Belgian company called Tele Atlas. Most of the Web sites, car manufacturers, and gizmo-makers—anyone involved in what are known as intelligent transportation systems—get the bulk of their raw material from these two companies. The clients differ mainly in how they choose to present the data. This allows civilians to have preferences.
April 12, 2006
Loving The Brand
Fast Company sat down and talked with four people who handle marketing for brands with passionate owners. The article is here, and here's some of what they have to say:
Chris Parsons at Guinness:
Years ago, when I first started drinking Guinness, I think I was a little intimidated by it. A lot of people are. It's black when other beers are yellow. It's got a creamy head when other beers have a fizzy head. When it pours, you see it surge and settle in the glass. When you first see that, you think, "That's not what I'm used to drinking." And the tendency is to sip, but it doesn't really taste as good as when you have a proper mouthful of Guinness. A brewmaster once told me, "Guinness awakens the taste buds in your mouth. It's alive."
Lisa Kilgore at Netflix:
More than 90% of our customers tell us they evangelize the service to friends and family. The biggest impact we've seen is people spending a lot of time talking about what's in their queue of movies they want shipped to them next. Some even use Netflix as a verb, as in, "Whale Rider? I Netflixed it."
Lee Ann Daly at ESPN:
Although ESPN has grown into 40 different businesses [25 television networks globally, a radio network, a magazine, ownership of the professional bass-fishing and extreme-sports tourneys, a chain of sports bar/restaurants, etc.], what hasn't changed is our conversation with fans. It's almost like a club. So all of these extensions of the original ESPN must serve our relationship with each fan. When we expand, the most important thing to me is whether we can transform the business that we go into by better serving the fan. If it doesn't, you'll make money for 10 minutes, and then the fan will be disappointed and you won't be making any more money.
Yana Kushner at Luna Bar:
In the beginning, a lot of our business was built by word of mouth -- women telling each other about Luna bars, sharing them with their sisters, mothers, girlfriends. My favorite Luna story is from a woman working in an ad agency, in a fast-paced, stressful environment. Her boss, also a woman, would pull the younger, female, more-junior workers into her office during times of stress, sit them down, open up her bottom drawer, pull out some Luna bars, take a deep breath, and have what she called a "Luna moment."
Joanne Bischmann at Harley-Davidson:
We have a lot of people call us who want the manual on how to keep customers passionate. There's no manual. And there are so many ways to screw this up. In the '90s, we couldn't satisfy demand, so people had to wait up to two years for a bike. When we would place ads, I'd personally get letters saying, "Tell me where this product is. I've been looking at 10 dealers, and they don't have it." That was really frustrating. We tried to bottle demand and show customers other opportunities to experience Harley -- through the clothing, through events we hold. Don't give up the dream. Just give us a little time. Everyone's thinking we've got the best job because the product was basically sold out, but what marketing really had to do was keep relationships going.Posted by PJ at 07:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 06, 2006
Easier to Solve Than to Manage
Malcolm Gladwell on problems that are easier to solve than to manage, in Million Dollar Murray:
Culhane then put together a database—the first of its kind—to track who was coming in and out of the shelter system. What he discovered profoundly changed the way homelessness is understood. Homelessness doesn't have a normal distribution, it turned out. It has a power-law distribution. "We found that eighty per cent of the homeless were in and out really quickly," he said. "In Philadelphia, the most common length of time that someone is homeless is one day. And the second most common length is two days. And they never come back. Anyone who ever has to stay in a shelter involuntarily knows that all you think about is how to make sure you never come back."Posted by PJ at 08:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The next ten per cent were what Culhane calls episodic users. They would come for three weeks at a time, and return periodically, particularly in the winter. They were quite young, and they were often heavy drug users. It was the last ten per cent—the group at the farthest edge of the curve—that interested Culhane the most. They were the chronically homeless, who lived in the shelters, sometimes for years at a time. They were older. Many were mentally ill or physically disabled, and when we think about homelessness as a social problem—the people sleeping on the sidewalk, aggressively panhandling, lying drunk in doorways, huddled on subway grates and under bridges—it's this group that we have in mind. In the early nineteen-nineties, Culhane's database suggested that New York City had a quarter of a million people who were homeless at some point in the previous half decade —which was a surprisingly high number. But only about twenty-five hundred were chronically homeless.
April 04, 2006
Hard Ball for Hard Times
Came across a really great article from a faculty research publication at the University of Ohio called Perspectives. The article, Hard Ball for Hard Times, looks at the “golden years” for professional baseball and asks if we’ll ever be there again:
Now that we’re comfy, and our national pastime is Shopping, baseball is simply too hard. It is too hard for our kids, who, if they dared to be players — players, that is, by the standards of 1930s America or today’s Dominican Republic — would unplug the earphones and turn off the tube. Would hustle on down to the sandlot or pasture or schoolyard and play for the pleasure of playing the game. Play the skin off their knees and the covers off their baseballs. Play until every last inkling of twilight had sunk from the sky. [...] We do. We need it. Baseball isn’t the Web or the spa or the mall. Baseball is Main Street. Baseball is so American that the French refuse to play it. Baseball is ours.
Upon reading it, one of my colleagues remarked that:
One of the things that I love about baseball is that it accommodates the nerds, freaks, techies, bloggers, lonely guys still living in their parents’ basements, etc. All of the folks have no place in football, hockey, or basketball fandom. In baseball, though, the weirdoes not only have a place, they have status.Posted by PJ at 12:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Somehow, I equate the good-ol-days, skinned knees perspective with disdain for the baseball fringe. I love the fringe. I also love the drunk Sox fan from Southie who thinks Johnny Damon’s long hair made him look a ‘little queeah.’ So, yeah, long live the sinned knees and the sandlot and the good ol days and all the tough guy baseball stuff. But, also, long live the statistical validity of PECOTA and taking your computer print-outs (dot matrix?) to Fenway, and working on your blog (The Tao of Manny) until 3:00 AM too. There is room for just about all of us in this great game.
March 29, 2006
Seth Godin at Google
Seth Godin's (Wikipedia/Blog) presentation to Google, All Marketers Are Liars, is available here, and well worth watching.
Posted by PJ at 07:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackMarch 24, 2006
Stressful Days: The White House Advance Office
There are few jobs in the world more stressful that the one done by the people in the White House Advance Office:
A presidential trip [...] is not a casual sojourn: it is a massive expedition, its every mile planned ahead, its every minute preprogrammed. The surge of cheering thousands must stop just short of a moving cocoon of security; curtained behind each VIP receiving line is the military aide with the "doomsday briefcase." Except for the military aide with the "satchel," all of the first lady's travel presents similar requirements for minute care and advance attention.
These massive expeditions are the responsibility of the White House Advance Office. How large a job is this? In seven years in office, President Clinton made some 2,500 appearances in over eight hundred foreign or domestic cities or destinations, plus some 450 appearances at public events in the Washington area. The pace of the work in the Advance Office was nothing short of breathtaking.
American President provides a fantastic overview of the White House Advance Office and the work they do.
Setup can be hectic, and lead time doesn't always exist...
I was walking into an afternoon meeting in the deputy chief of staff's office that I thought was supposed to be about the first family's vacation . . . and the deputy turns to me and says, "By the way, we are thinking of the President going to New York at nine o'clock to meet with the TWA Flight 800 families." I said, "Nine o'clock when?" And she said, "Nine o'clock tomorrow morning," about eighteen hours from now. I said, "I didn't bring my top hat, I didn't bring my cane, and I don't have any rabbits to pull out today. . . . Let's stop thinking about this; there is a 5:30 p.m. flight to Kennedy; I can get people on that flight. I can actually get something set up if the decision is made in the next hour." In the end, sometimes those things are easier than normal events, because there isn't time for people to start picking them apart and making changes.
...but the rewards can be unmatched:
"You look at each and every situation you become involved in, and try to figure out what are all the worst things that could happen in that situation, and then develop your own little mental plan as to how you would deal with each one of those problems, before you were faced with it, so that, before an event ever took place, you could try and resolve them all." The words are those of a professional, and the Advance Office is a professional place. Devoted as each staffer is, to Nixon or Reagan or Bush or Clinton, in a larger sense there lies in every one a dedication to a goal beyond mere partisanship -- a commitment to excellence. Take away the political names and labels: the commitment endures.
The very words of the Nixon Advance Manual, while Republican in origin, speak to a profession that is both within and beyond politics: "This is the advance-person's reward: the challenge of the task, and the knowledge that only a few -- but a very unique few -- will give credit where due. Those who look for public praise and gratitude should look elsewhere for their challenges. The true advance-person settles -- indeed thrives -- on a quiet kind of satisfaction, and a private kind of pride."
Thought your typical day in the office was stressful and difficult? Think again.
Posted by PJ at 07:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackMarch 14, 2006
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Flow
"I... have a naive trust in the universe –– that at some level it all makes sense, and we can get glimpses of that sense if we try."
I've started reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Flow, and it's really fantastic. I've been trying to sum it up in a blog-sized bit and failing, so don't mind me while I take directly from Wikipedia:
As Csikszentmihalyi sees it, there are components of an experience of flow that can be specifically enumerated; he presents eight:
1. Clear goals (expectations and rules are discernable).
2. Concentrating and focusing, a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it).
3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness.
4. Distorted sense of time - our subjective experience of time is altered.
5. Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed).
6. Balance between ability level and challenge (the activity is not too easy or too difficult).
7. A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.
8. The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action.
Not all of these components are needed for flow to be experienced.
Csikszentmihalyi suggests several ways in which a group could work together so that each individual member could achieve flow. The characteristics of such a group include:
1. Creative spatial arrangements: Chairs, pin walls, charts, however no tables, therefore primarily work in standing and moving.
2. Playground design: Charts for information inputs, flow graphs, project summary, craziness (here also craziness has a place), safe place (here all may say what is otherwise only thought), result wall, open topics
3. Parallel, organized working
4. Target group focus
5. Advancement of existing one (prototyping)
6. Efficiency increase by visualization
7. Difference of the participants is a chance
For more info:
"The Art of Work" (Fast Company, August 2005)
Faculty Page, Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management, Claremont Graduate University
Quality of Life Research Center at CGU
Brain Channels Thinker of the Year profile (2000)
American Psychological Association article (July 1998)
Posted by PJ at 09:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackMarch 09, 2006
FORTUNE's History of the Cube
It wasn't born evil. Heck, it wasn't even born square. But evil and square are exactly what most people think of when the think of cubicle dwelling:
Robert Oppenheimer agonized over building the A-bomb. Alfred Nobel got queasy about creating dynamite. Robert Propst invented nothing so destructive. Yet before he died in 2000, he lamented his unwitting contribution to what he called "monolithic insanity."Posted by PJ at 01:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Propst is the father of the cubicle. More than 30 years after he unleashed it on the world, we are still trying to get out of the box. The cubicle has been called many things in its long and terrible reign. But what it has lacked in beauty and amenity, it has made up for in crabgrass-like persistence.
February 26, 2006
A Day of Work, Years of Planning, £50m Payoff
London's Independent newspaper ran an exceptionally detailed article on Saturday looking into the £50m bank robbery that took place a week ago in the UK. The Tonbridge Heist shows the huge amount of planning and detail work that goes in to something of this scale. You don't just get up in the morning, decide to rob a bank over beakfast, and look around for a ski mask. The work takes months, and the details can kill you. An excerpt from the article:
Dumping the money was the smartest thing the robbers could have done. When police found bank notes worth up to £15m in the back of an abandoned white van on Friday, it was easy to imagine that the gang responsible for the Tonbridge heist had left the money after panicking or being disturbed. But as police made two arrests yesterday, and an emotional statement was read out on behalf of the family kidnapped in the raid, another theory emerged.Posted by PJ at 11:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Three highly professional south London gangs are now the main suspects and, money-laundering experts believe, leaving some of the loot behind may be another example of the robbers' meticulous attention to detail.
If the notes discovered in the van had been newly printed, they would be very hard to get rid of. "It would be very foolish to try to spend them or deposit them in a bank account in this country," said Prem Sikka, professor of accounting at Essex University. "The serial numbers would make them easy to trace."
Far better to abandon them and carry off only used ones that had been in circulation already and would be untraceable - and which may have been worth up to £35m on their own.
February 18, 2006
When Marketing Goes Bad
BMW seems to be striking out with their most recent marketing tactic: "BMW Magazine," a $20-year, quarterly magazine that just launched their first issue. While I certainly laud them for the attempt, they're completely failing in the balance between blatant propaganda marketing and common interest pieces. Take for instance the closing paragraph of an article on the architect Tom Kundig:
Success brought a flood of commissions. Although he makes a typical, West Coast, laid-back impression, Kundig is currently working on 20 projects at once. "It's the most I can manage," he confesses. What would Tom Kundig really like to do? Does he have a dream project? He doesn't need to think long about the answer. "I'd like to build a quiet place, a house for meditation and reflection. A chapel, maybe a monastery." And to accompany him on a long drive in his M3, he would like to have Stephen Hawking, the physicist as a passenger.
What also concerns me is that BMW has also launched a audio books program. Can you imagine some of the potential content?
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore except my BMW M5 with 10 year, 100,000 mile warranty, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.
or
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean,
They were smart enough to be willing,
To buy their BMW sight unseen.
or even
The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or never looked THROUGH them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for "style," not service--she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well. She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but still loud enough for the furniture to hear:
"Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll-- I'll-- I'll take away your 325xi for a week!
(PS-Apologies to Melville, Shakespeare, and Twain)
(PPS-Apologies to BMW. I love you guys. Really. If my mad old lady took away my 325 for a week, I'd cry. Hard.)
Posted by PJ at 09:18 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBackFebruary 06, 2006
"Bring Out Your Dead..."
Millions of people fly on thousands of airplanes every day. Over time, those airplanes need to be replaced. But what do you do with the old ones? You send them to an airplane graveyard in Southern California.
Anyone looking to start an airforce?
Posted by PJ at 08:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackTitle IX Didn't Make It Here...
Ever wonder how much college sports coaches are paid? And the difference between male and female? If so, here is some fascinating reading for you: Women's Basketball Coaches Association Division 1 Women's Basketball Coaches Survey Report 2000-2001. Table Three is very interesting, looking at salary information:
1994/1995
Male Coach Salary: $88,626
Female Couch Salary: $55,828
Difference: $32,798
1997/1998
Male Coach Salary: $98,800
Female Couch Salary: $69,600
Difference: $29,200
1999/2000
Male Coach Salary: $118,276
Female Couch Salary: $87,714
Difference: $30,562
2000/2001
Male Coach Salary: $115,586
Female Couch Salary: $86,119
Difference: $29,467
...as is Table 9, operating budgets:
1994/1995
Men’s: $186,000
Women’s: $123,000
Difference: $63,000
1997/1998
Men’s: $187,000
Women’s: $152,000
Difference: $35,000
1999/2000
Men’s: $204,809
Women’s: $173,162
Difference: $31,647
2000/2001
Men’s: $193,299
Women’s: $163,769
Difference: $29,540
Some other interesting data points, not listed in the report:
1. Joe Paterno, the coach at Penn State, makes about $500,000. President Spanier makes about the same.
2. Pat Summitt, the head women's basketball coach at Tennessee, makes $824,500 base salary. She is the second highest paid women's coach in the US (by only $500)... but only the third highest paid coach at Tennessee.
3. University of Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder made $370,055 in FY04. Her assistant coach, Jennifer Fitzgerald, made $88,535. The men's head coach, Steve Alford, made $946,175. His assistant coach, Greg Lansing, made $103,143. The Governor? He made $107,482.
4. Geno Auriemma, the UConn women's coach, is the highest paid in the country at $825,000. Jim Calhoun, the men’s coach at UConn, makes $1,400,000.
February 01, 2006
Whoops.
The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, a Mass. newspaper which shares a computer system with the Boston Globe (both of whom are owned by the New York Times), has inadvertently released close to 240,000 Globe and T&G subscriber credit card and bank routing records. The records, accidently printed by employees on two separate occasions, were apparently placed into the recycling bin at the T&R, which then used that paper to bundle the Sunday edition prior to distribution.
Posted by PJ at 10:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackSeptember 08, 2005
Andy Kessler on Philly Telco
Andy Kessler has a good piece on the battle for free Wi-Fi in Philly over here. Well worth reading:
Now I can’t decide who to root against, bureaucrats or monopolists. But someone is missing. Where are the entrepreneurs? Why aren’t venture capitalists spreading wireless Internet all over Philadelphia or Pennsylvania or the entire country? Is this a profitless pit? Sort of.Posted by PJ at 01:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 11, 2005
GTD Report From The Field
"Tugger," a member of the 43 Folders Google Group, wrote up an interesting One Year report on his use of Getting Things Done. It's an interesting (or motivating!) read, and can be found here.
Posted by PJ at 11:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackJuly 29, 2005
No Comment...
BOOK PUBLICITY GIMMICK. Looking for a professional businessman to run throughout downtown D.C., Dupont Circle and Georgetown with a toilet seat on his head, preferably during hot weather. Job entails dressing professionally and handing out toilet paper to interested residents. Job will pay 35 dollars, or 7 dollars an hour, for one afternoon's worth of work.
To apply, send your cover letter and resume to toiletthenovel@aol.com.
For more info on the job visit: http://www.toiletthenovel.com/ (Site may still be shut down). See http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/wri/86904307.html
Posted by PJ at 11:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackJuly 22, 2005
Great Old David Allen Article
Was digging through my Favorites this afternoon (what can I say, it's a slow Friday afternoon) and came across this article on David Allen from Fast Company Magazine (You Can Do Anything, But Not Everything).
Posted by PJ at 03:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackJuly 14, 2005
New Technorati Profile
Just a quick FYI: We've now got a Technorati Profile. Feel free to track us there!
Posted by PJ at 02:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackJuly 08, 2005
It's Aliiiiiiiiiiiive!
Welcome to the new blog. A bit new and improved over the last CSS hack fest that was my blog, but with similar intent...
Posted by PJ at 06:58 PM | Comments (0)
