Thought of the Day - Theory X Vs Theory Y

In management there are two theories of employee motivation; Theory X posits that employees don't like work, will avoid it where possible and must be driven to it. Theory Y on the other hand is based on the assumption that work can be satisfying and employees will be self-motivated to work. While it initially appears that these theories are all to do with employees internal motivation, it has also been suggested that whether a boss manages to Theory X or Theory Y determines how the employees behave. I tend to subscribe to the latter idea, if you manage your employees as if they will do everything in their power to avoid work that is how they will behave. If on the other hand you manage your employees by giving them responsibility and trusting them that is how they will behave.

It is interesting to see how people behave when managers aren't around, while not being able to control for things like; workload, task allocation and clarity of goals, how employees behave in a management vacuum should indicate whether the culture of a company is Theory X or Y. If the employees have a; "while they cat's away" attitude and avoid work you can safely guess that there is a Theory X culture. If on the other hand the employees treat it as; "business as usual" and work as they would if the manager was there you can assume it is a Theory Y workplace.

This is another reason that i think ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) is the way forward. Under that culture it doesn't matter where the manager (or infact the employee) physically is, there is work to be done and it either gets done or it doesn't. People won't come into the office just to show up, they aren't just there to look busy while the manager is there and slack off when he/she isn't. In ROWE on the other hand there are specific tasks that get done, the manager can monitor them in or out of the office, the employee can complete them in or out of the office.

In the end, i think seeing how employees behave when they aren't around is an interesting insight that most managers are unlikely to see. Unless of course they resort to spying, in which case it would be safe to assume they are Theory X.

Thought of the Day - Career In Reverse

I just had an epiphany, my career so far has been in reverse. Not reverse in the normal meaning; going backwards in terms of money or responsibility, but reverse in the progression of job titles.

For most people: Engineering Degree > Mechanical Engineer > Process Improvement Specialist > Leadership Development Program > Project Manager, would be a logical progression of jobs. And yet somehow i have gone in completely the opposite direction. I don't know whether this is a bad thing or a good thing or in fact what it means, it just struck me as an interesting observation.

I suppose my next job either needs to be an internship or back to university ...

Thought of the Day - Complex Decision Making

I just read an article in the 'Boss' supplement from The Australian Financial Review which was a reprint from the Harvard Business Review (June 2006). It concerns something that i have given a fair amount of thought to but never really considered from this angle; how to get a group to decide between many options.

In the past i have largely focused on tools like; the Pugh Matrix, Analytic Hierarchy Process, Impact-Effort Matrix and simple voting. While these techniques result in a decision, what i failed to consider is that just because an option is selected doesn't mean that there is broad agreement with the decision. The article focused on the CEO/Leader as a deadlock breaker and the negative aspect that they become a 'dictator by default' and while i suspect that is a frequent occurrence, the problem is equally valid in groups of peers.

The crux of the problem is summed up in this quote; "majority wishes can clash when a group of three or more people attempt to set priorities among three or more items ... different subsets of the group can generate conflicting majorities for all possible alternatives". E.g. Persons 1 and 2 agree on option A but persons 2 and 3 also agree on option C, by selecting option A you satisfy 1 and 2 but C would have been an equally valid choice as you satisfy 2 and 3.

Once you accept that point, it suggests that it is impossible to resolve this conflict. However this assumes that there are only fixed options, the article advises that you carry out the following steps to come to a better solution:
1) Articulate clearly what outcome you are seeking - Classic problem solving, you can't solve a problem until there is a common understanding of what the problem is.
2) Provide a range of options for achieving the outcome - Again classic problem solving, brainstorm as many solutions as possible.
3) Surface preferences early - There is no point wasting time on options that no-one has any interest in, by eliminating them you don't waste time on pointless debate. This step can be done through voting, possibly weighted, or other techniques.
4) State each option's pros and cons - See the good and bad on both sides, in the article it is recommended for someone to present the pros and another person to present the cons, one may have to play devils advocate.
5) Devise new options with the best features of existing ones - Again classic problem solving technique, synthesize new options by combing the best parts of old ones.

While these steps don't solve the decision making dilemma they will help. I think most important of all is to acknowledge that this problem exists, preferably within the group making the decision, so that you know the pitfalls while you are making the choice.

Book Notes - The Adventures of Johnny Bunko

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko by Daniel Pink [2008]

Summary:

1) There is no plan
There are two types of decision; instrumental and fundamental. You make a decision for instrumental reasons if you are prepared to put up with the present because you think it will lead somewhere. You make a decision for fundamental reasons when your not sure where it will lead but it seems interesting. The former rarely work out and the latter may not get you where you thought you wanted to go but normally lead somewhere interesting.

2) Think strengths, not weaknesses
Steer around your weaknesses and focus on your strengths. You will be more motivated, more enthusiastic and more successful if you do what you are good at.
See: Now Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham

3) Its not about you
Focus your energy outward not inward. Unless you are a starving artist it isn't about what you want, you have a client, a customer or someone else who you need to satisfy so apply your strengths to that.

4) Persistence trumps talent
"The people who achieve the most are often the ones who stick with it when others don't"
You need to show up, practice, practice and practice some more, perfect your art whether that art be painting, music or engineering. Talent only gets you so far, sticking with it and persisting make you successful.

5) Make excellent mistakes
If you aren't making mistakes you aren't trying hard enough. Make mistakes for the right reasons, pushing the boundaries, trying something new, trying to make a difference. If it does all blow up then you need to learn from those mistakes so you don't make the same mistake again. Try to: "Make a mistake from which the benefits of what you've learned exceed the costs of the screwup."

6) Leave an imprint
Try to make a difference, leave things better than they were and be proud of what you do.


Quotes:
"Is this mind-numbingly repetitive? or repetitive mind-numbing?"

Thought of the Day - Online To Do List Roundup

A while back i blogged about my love of To Do Lists and at the time i was enamoured with Ta-da Lists by 37 Signals. While it is beautifully simple and totally fulfils their vision of; "competing with a Post-It note", i started to yearn for something with more control and flexibility. So over the last couple of months i have been moving between various webapps for capturing To Do's. I don't think i have yet found the ideal webapp (and it might not exist) but i thought i would share my experience with each of the sites so hopefully other people can find the perfect To Do List for them.

Ta-da Lists
Despite my quest to find the perfect mix of features, i still use this on a fairly regular basis, its great for short ad hoc lists and capturing things to be done quickly. I even sometimes transfer To Do's from other sites into this for the satisfaction of ticking them. Superb for short ad hoc lists, not so good for more complicated projects.
Pro's: Beautifully simple, replaces Post It notes, quick and intuitive to use, satisfying animation when tasks are complete.
Con's: Can't arrange your high level lists, no support for rearranging tasks between lists, not hierarchical, does not support; tagging, reminders, due dates, searching.

Remember The Milk
So from Ta-da Lists i briefly moved on to Remember The Milk after reading a great article on how to use RTM with Getting Things Done. It has support for tagging, reminders, multiple categories of lists and even setting locations with google maps. I think in principle it could be great but i find there are some interfaces niggles that annoy me.
Pro's: Very clean looking interface, works offline with google gears, support for; tagging, reminders, due dates, prioritisation and reordering of tasks, physical locations for tasks.
Con's: Can't reorder your high level lists, not hierarchical, interface doesn't quite work for me (rollovers don't stick), clicking anywhere on a task marks it as complete, slightly silly name.

Treedolist
I had a few annoyances with the user interface of RTM and it didn't offer what i really wanted; a hierarchical task list. I worked in project management for a bit so i like the idea of having subtasks that all contribute to a high level task and i hadn't found that in any of the other webapps. While it is possible to do this in Ta-da and RTM it is only to one level i.e. you have a list composed of tasks, but you can't have subtasks within each task. A google search for "hierarchical to do list" lead me Treedolist which is specifically designed to be hierarchical (like a tree).
Pro's: Hierarchical, intelligent search bar, support for; notes, links, due dates, virtual tagging (if combined with search), changing font sizes.
Con's: Visually it is rather ugly, the interface is quite clunky (old fashioned and unintuitive), you can't reorder tasks other than to the top of the list or to become subtasks, there are some inconsistencies with keyboard shortcuts and actions (sometimes they work sometimes they don't).

Backpack
I had looked at Backpack a while back but i dismissed it as some sorta weird replacement for a company intranet, but after reading Getting Real (great book - notes to follow) it seemed like it might do what i wanted too. Overall there are a raft of features that i have no need for (newsroom, writeboard, journal etc) but the Pages (and if i paid for it, the Calendar too) are excellent. The Pages in particular are really flexible, not only can you have multiple lists on each page, you can split them with dividers, add notes sections and even writeboards. Alas you are limited to 5 pages on the free account which is workable but not ideal.
Pro's: Great interface, easy to move tasks between pages/lists, best visual layout method i've seen (lists, dividers, notes, writeboards etc), the same satisfying animation as TaDa Lists when you complete a task.
Con's: Can't reorder pages (only alphabetically), very limited number of pages on free account, no support for; due dates, task level tagging, assigning notes/links to individual tasks.

Todoist
I literally just stumbled on this tool while writing this post during random googling for links and it seems to be just what i'm looking for. If it works out i will do a longer review of it later, but here are some initial observations.
Pro's: Great interface, hierarchical tasks AND projects, ability to reorder tasks and projects, due dates, multiple projects, easy to move tasks within lists and between projects, prioritisation/reordering of projects.
Con's: Slightly strange query system (it might search?), the page is too wide for my 7" EEE, i haven't used it in anger yet.

Some other resources:
Top 10 Web To Do Lists
LifeHacker Poll Of Top 10 Web To Do Lists
LifeHacker To Do List Tips
Information on the 'Getting Things Done' System

I should start a new trend; Blogging As A Problem Solving Tool, by researching and writing about your problem you may find a solution to it. Alas i have been here before, i think all of the above To Do Lists have seemed like the answer to my prayers at one stage or another and after extended use i have found little annoying niggles with them. So hopefully Todoist will work as well as it seems to, but time will tell.

Thought of the Day - Heat

I have come to the conclusion that must have been an Inuit in a past life. I love the cold too much and hate the heat. Anything over 20C and i start to get uncomfortable and i would much rather be too cold than too hot. It is currently 28.8C in my flat and it is uncomfortable just sitting still and yet i know people who's idea of bliss is temperatures like this and hotter. You would think coming from a cold and wet area (Scotland) that i would be looking for heat, infact i would rather live somewhere even colder.

Alas what with global warming, i suspect there are few places that would be consistently cold enough for my tastes ... short of Antarctica.

Thought of the Day - Traffic Management Idea

Last week i was sitting waiting in a traffic jam caused by road works and it occurred to me that traffic management is not run in the most efficient way.

If you consider the bottleneck in the process to be the physical bottleneck in the road and the number of vehicles passing as throughput, then it is clear that the bottleneck is grossly underutilised. As the traffic is running in opposite directions, it is clear that the bottleneck can never be fully exploited as you must wait for the last car in one direction before you can move in the opposite direction. However i think there are still significant improvements that could be made.

Firstly as soon as the last car clears the obstruction in one direction the next car should be moving in the opposite direction. Secondly the speed of the cars should be maximized past the obstruction to increase throughput. Finally the time taken for the cars to move off when the light goes green should be minimised.


So what might my traffic management system look like? I would set the lights back from the obstruction by the same length as the obstruction and have the lights change in the reverse direction based on when the last car leaves in the forward direction. This would allow the cars moving in the reverse direction to move off and get up to speed before the obstruction maximising throughput and minimising wasted time. This eliminates the lag in the system for the cars to move off, it also maximises speed through the obstruction meaning the bottleneck is maximally exploited.

There are 3 issues i can see with this system:
The first is if you get a boy racer at the start of the second set of traffic who screams past the lights and then has to jam on the brakes to avoid the oncoming traffic. This would disrupt the traffic behind and impair the throughput.
The second is if you had a very slow vehicle (crane, lorry or little old lady) they would act as a further bottleneck that would reduce the throughput. Unfortunately almost every traffic management system would retain this problem and by giving the vehicle time to accelerate before the obstruction the problem is minimised.
The final problem is that you cannot always see the full length of the obstruction, in this instance if there was a very slow vehicle passing the obstruction the two traffic flows could meet in the middle and come to a stalemate causing chaos. Unfortunately it is not possible to have good visibility on all roadworks so this may limit the locations where this system could be applied. It would also be possible to have an 'emergency stop' sign just prior to the obstruction to prevent this from happening if all of the traffic had not cleared the obstruction.

All of the above issues could be somewhat mitigated through public eduction either via signs or media sources and completely removed if you introduced two convoy vehicles to pace and control the traffic. While the latter option would greatly increase the cost of traffic management it could be used in high profile or high volume situations where throughput was critical.


While i'm sure every motorist would love spending less time in traffic jams and technically they are the end customer. In reality they don't control the cheque books and the cost of the additional equipment might discourage companies from using it. After all the because the motorists aren't paying, best case is that the company gets less complaints. But as with the Heroes Vs Planners debate they are unlikely to get positive feedback, there will still be a delay and the motorist won't know how bad the delay could have been if the system was not used.

Thought of the Day - Injinji Socks

I love my Injinji socks, sure they may have worked out being the most expensive socks ever, after shipping and import duty (don't ask how much they cost me per pair) but damn they are good.

Not only do they work perfectly with my Five Fingers but they are also really comfortable with my other shoes too. My feet definitely feel cooler in them (great in the summer but might not be ideal in the winter) and my circulation seems better (my feet used to get numb if my laces were too tight) so all in all a good investment.

Now my only worry is how to get more, 5 pairs is fine in my current circumstances but i will need more if i go on holiday or things change. I just have to hope they get a UK supplier soon ... or go on holiday somewhere i can buy them.

30 Day Trial - Minimalism Of Posessions - Day 11 - The End

Alas it would appear my first 30-Day Trial has failed miserably.

While i did make a post saying timing would never be perfect it has been the opposite of that so far. I think i need to postpone the trial, failure is not a bad thing as long as you learn from it. In this case i have learned not to start a trial while feeling a bit down and with a wedding to go to within the first week.

I will come back to it when i have suitable motivation, this might be internal or external, but it is definitely still something i want to do.

Thought of the Day - Economics Books

I was at the airport last Friday and i noticed in the business section there were a glut of new economics books which i would suggest are probably a result of the success of Freakonomics. Whether these are new books written because of Freakonomics or whether they are old and have just been made more popular by the success of Freakonomics i'm not sure.

Within these books there seemed to be 3 distinct categories:
1 – Economics can predict the future well – I did have an example however i can't remember the title or author, just that the cover was orange.
2 – Economics can explain the past (in an interesting way) – Freakonomics by Stephen J Dubner or The Economic Naturalist by Robert H Frank
3 – Economics can't predict anything well – Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

To be honest i am rather cynical about the first group, they argue that if you have a good enough model and enough computing power you can predict anything. I would argue that there is far to much randomness to come up with anything better than a guess. The only situation where these models are likely to be accurate are when they are self-fulfilling prophecies; i.e. the models predict a recession, the economists preach a recession, so sure enough there is a recession when there might not have been one otherwise.

For the second group, just about anyone can explain things retroactively, but i will admit that economists do have some interesting explanations.

The third group on the other hand have a lot of valid points, no matter how good the model is you can never be certain. We live in a Quantum not Newtonian world, everything in life is probabilities.

Thought of the Day - Mismatch Problems

Anyone who has felt like they had to jump through pointless hoops at an assessment centre for a job (i would imagine just about everyone these days), can now rest assured that they are infact a complete waste of time. At least according to best selling author Malcolm Gladwell.

In the video of a presentation he made, he argues that most assessments used to determine peoples suitability for jobs are fundamentally flawed. That the entry to careers ranging from ice hockey player to lawyer, are based on tests that have no bearing on actual ability to perform the duties of a job. Moreover he argues that they only thing that indicates if someone will perform well at a job is if they actually do the job.

I suppose the question is how can you tell if someone can do a job without incurring large costs in terms of time or money?

The mismatch problem is only a concern to you and me if people believe that tests and interview questions are doing anything more than weeding out the blatantly unsuitable candidates. And more to the point, accept that the candidates that do well at the tests may be useless at the job.

Idea From: http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/conference/2008/gladwell

Thought of the Day - Vibram Five Fingers at 2 Months

Well it has been 2 months since i started wearing my Vibram Five Fingers and as mentioned in my previous posts both the theory and practice of wearing them has proved sound. So i thought i would do a bit of a roundup of observations so far:

1) They are really really comfortable.
The biggest leap of faith for most people is understanding that padding is not comfort. Almost everyone i talk to about them asks if it is sore walking on tarmac and concrete because they are hard, or rough pointy stones.
I will tackle hard surfaces first because they are what i walk on 90% of the time. Once you modify your walking style (which happens naturally) you land more softly on your feet and therefore they hurt much less than in padded shoes. Even standing on concrete all day (when i am delivering training) doesn't bother me anymore. With trainers or shoes my feet would get sore after a couple of hours, now i barely notice it at all. Pointy stones are a different matter, i grant you i don't have a huge amount of experience at the moment, but from what i have there are two things to keep in mind. Pointy stones are uncomfortable, but it is only discomfort and it does not linger. Also because there is less padding between your feet and the ground you have more of a tactile sense of it and are therefore more careful where you put your feet.
I would recommend Vibram Five Fingers or Vivo Barefoot shoes unreservedly to anyone who experiences discomfort in their feet.

2) Be prepared for questions.
You would think that having five separated toes (just like your feet) wouldn't cause much of a stir. But everyone is so used to traditional shoes that people are genuinely surprised when they realise you are wearing shoes and they have separate toes. The inital shock (and occasional laughter) is quickly followed by a barrage of questions from; what is the deal with those shoes? to why are you wearing them? to do you wear them inside regular shoes? to what happens if you walk on broken glass? Personally having put a lot of thought into it i really don't mind answering questions but if you are shy or bothered by people being strangely interested in your feet, these shoes may not be for you.
The black Classics i have are a blessing and a curse; the blessing is that they are less obvious, in peripheral vision they are just a black shoe, however when people do notice them they look like gorilla feet ;-)

3) Socks
After a period of time you can see a realisation dawning on the persons face and they ask the final question; "hey wait a minute, don't you have to have special socks for those?". The answer is yes you do, mine are from a company called Injinji. I suspect i spent more on 5 pairs of these socks than i have on socks in my previous 26 years. They are expensive to start with, i then had to pay the same price again for shipping 5 pairs from the states and the same price again in import duty. But they are essential, firstly because without socks the Classics look like ladies pumps, second they add a bit of warmth, third they are great with other shoes too and finally (see the next point) they prevent blisters. My biggest concern with the socks is that they already seem to be wearing after around a month of light daily use and at the price i paid that is not a good sign.

4) Blisters
The only problem i have had so far with the shoes was some blisters at the front of my foot when walking downhill without socks. It is a bit strange and may be because my Classics are a little on the large side but unfortunately the blisters were really painful and in an awkward position i have a habit of standing on.

5) Workwear

In my current job i can wear the Five Fingers most of the time (occasionally i need to wear steel toed shoes), however in an office that is a bit more formal they might not be suitable. So if i moved jobs i guess i would need to look at something a bit more normal but still close to barefoot like Terra Plana Mercury or Vivo Barefoot Aqua Sport.

6) The Future
So what does the future hold for me and my Five Fingers? Firstly i suspect i will need to buy some Flow's for the winter, the Classic and KSO versions have no insulation at all and i can imagine them being very cold if wet. I'm not 100% sure the neoprene wet-suit effect is ideal in terms of your feet being damp all day but at least they should be warm.

I also want to try them out offroad some more, maybe some gentle walks on paths to start with, moving up to more rugged terrain and possibly even paintballing.

Finally i really want to start jogging in them and they do have the effect of making me want to jog, but i need to lose some more weight so that i don't destroy my joints.

Props to www.fivefingers.co.uk who have supplied both my Classics and KSO's, they have great service and kept me up-to-date with how things were progressing.

No props to www.injinji.com as their general inquiry e-mail address rejected my question as the mail box was full and when i resent it to a more specific address no-one bothered to get back to me or even acknowledge the mail.

Thought of the Day - Timing

Well the timing for my first 30-day trial sucks, the first 4 days i have been too tired, bored and apathetic to do anything. For the next 4 days i am up in Scotland for my cousins wedding so other than maybe a bit of planning i'm not likely to get anything done.

Most people will agree there is never a perfect time to start something and rarely a good time, so you might as well just get on with it. I suspect when i get back from Scotland i will have to get my butt in gear and start actually doing something.

Thought of the Day - Apathy

I am so tired, bored and apathetic at the moment that i can barely even be bothered to type. Looking back i think i often used to feel this way and the fact that it seems strange could be seen as a good thing or a bad thing. At the moment it seems like a bad thing, i need some way to break out of it, to get back to how i was. Unfortunately i don't know how so i guess i need to figure it out.

30 Day Trial - Minimalism Of Posessions - Day 1

Well today i have accomplished pretty much hee haw. I have mentally segregated stuff into categories and what i'll do with each category but i really need to actually write them down, make sure i haven't forgotten anything and do something about it.

I'm just too tired and bored and apathetic but i guess i'll have to cope.

Have to be up at 5am tomorrow so maybe will get something done before work.

End Date - Wednesday the 12th August 2008 - 29 Days Left

30 Day Trial - Minimalism Of Posessions - Day 0

To mark the 100th post to this blog i have decided to launch my first blogged 30-day trial.

As discussed in my Life Simplification post a while back i am looking to simplify the number and volume of possessions i have. This was brought into focus with recent interest from an Australian company in employing me, i wondered what i would take with me if i moved. Sure i could ship everything over, but it would take months on the sea and by the time it arrived i would have learned to live without it anyway. So while it seems unlikely anything will come of this situation, it does make me wonder why i have this much junk even if i am just staying in the uk.

As with the show 30 Days i am going to set some ground rules to focus my mind a little:

Rules:
1) By the end of the 30 days all of my possessions must fit in to the boot of my car (excluding furniture and possessions that are in the process of being sold but have not been collected).
2) A target income from the downsizing will be set to replace larger items with smaller but functional alternatives (eg desktop computer replaced with laptop).
3) I will update the blog with a minimum of weekly updates on progress.

End Date - Wednesday the 12th August 2008 - 30 Days Left

Thought of the Day - Spit Shining Shoes

According to a body language book i read, two things that almost everyone judges you on at a job interview are; how shiny your shoes are and how big your watch is.

The latter is to do with a big watch being associated with power and class, the shoes i'm not so sure about. Fortunately it isn't something i've ever had to worry about, i don't remember how old i was but my granda taught me to spit-shine shoes and it has stood me in good stead ever since. My granda was in the police for a long time so i guess he picked up some good tips. So today i am going to share with you the best way to spit-shine your shoes (and secure any job you interview for):

1. Put your index finger in clingfilm or a plastic bag and take a fair dollop of shoe polish (i would recommend Kiwi Parade Gloss) and apply it liberally to your shoe, massaging it in. There should be enough polish that you are really just spreading it around.
2. Leave for 5 minutes (normally the amount of time it takes you to do the second shoe) and then remove most of the polish with a dry cloth or soft brush.
3. Take a fresh cloth (i recommend a yellow duster), wrap it tightly around a finger tip, dampen the tip and apply a tiny amount of shoe polish to it.
4. Gently apply the polish in small circles to the shoe, you are aiming for a light haze. Then repeat on the other shoe.
5. Move to a fresh part of the cloth and dampen the tip again (or spit on the shoe) and gently rub small circles to shine the haze but don't remove much of the polish.
6. Apply a little polish to the tip and rub gently onto the shoe again aiming for a light haze. Then repeat on the other shoe.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 moving from shoe to shoe until the surface is smooth. This can take a long time, particularly if this is the first time they have been polished but you want to build up lots of very thin layers of polish to smooth the leather and allow a really deep mirror shine.
8. Once the surface is smooth, take a dry section of cloth and rub the shoes more vigorously (not too hard) to create the shine. If they are shiny enough great! If not go back to step 5 and repeat until they are.

While very repetitive i find it strangely relaxing in a zen-like way, it is also quite satisfying when you get a really deep mirror finish.

Thought of the Day - Good TV

If i had to cut down my TV watching to just one show it would be Morgan Spurlock's 30 Days. I can't think of a single episode from the 18 i have seen that hasn't challenged my thinking and emotionally affected me.

Frankly it is just damn good TV; it is challenging, its entertaining and normally it is uplifting. The basic premise is that someone spends 30 days doing something they would not normally do ... It is presented as a documentary so effectively it is reality TV for smart people.

A lot of the time it boils down to; "i'm crazy, you have to respect my right to be crazy and my crazy views, but my crazyness means i don't have to respect your views." Most of the time the people realise that their crazyness is not the be all and end all of the situation, even if they don't end up fully assimilating the views they at least respect and understand them.

In only one episode (S03E04) has the person has not budged one iota in their beliefs. That even after spending time with people who try to rationally present their views and have been immersed in the views, that they can't even see the other persons point of view, never mind empathise with their situation.


In some ways it worries me that people are so set in their beliefs, yet if you weren't set in your ways do you really have belief? And possibly more to the point what does that say about having beliefs?

Thought of the Day - Wasted Time

I really don't use my time as efficiently as i could, this afternoon and evening for example i have done heehaw. I've just felt too tired to do anything worth doing, even writing this blog about it seems like too much effort. I know i shouldn't be tired, i had plenty sleep and felt rested when i woke up and yet around 2pm i just started to feel really tired.

I suppose it might have something to do with not eating between 7am and 5pm.

Thought of the Day - Energy Levels pt2

Yet again this morning woke up feeling crap, but i think i have worked out why.

In my previous post on Sleep Optimization I suggested that it took me 1 hour to get to sleep and while that may have been true in the past i have noticed it getting shorter and shorter the last couple of weeks to the extent that if it takes me more than 30 minutes i would be very surprised. The consequence of this is that instead of getting up between sleep cycles i am now probably getting up 30 minutes into my next sleep cycle and the interruption is what is making me tired.

So from tonight i think i will set my alarm for 6.5 hours in advance instead of 7 and see if there is any improvement.

Thought of the Day - Energy Levels

The last couple of days my energy levels have been really low, i'm not sure why. I'm eating the same things i have been for the last 6 months, i haven't been doing anything particularly different compared to the last 6 months so what has changed?

First possibility is that it has been dark when i have woken up due to the rain and the lack of sunlight is affecting me. Though it has been dark and rainy in the past without this effect.

Second possibility is just that i've been feeling a bit down recently. Though am i feeling down because i'm tired and have no energy, or am i tired and have no energy because i am down?

Who knows, hopefully i will feel a bit more energetic in the next couple of days or i will have to look into some further changes.

Thought of the Day - Perception and Reality

I know people who vehemently believe that perception is reality and some who are convinced reality is an absolute. I on the other hand fall somewhere in between.

I think there are some things where reality is absolute; scientific facts, the nature of matter at a macroscopic level, physical objects.

On the other hand anything that is artificially constructed by people is skewed by the perception of the person and other observers. Money for example is a human construct, it has no value other than that which we assign it. Therefore the amount of money you think you have is based on perception, on comparing it with the amount of money you think other people have. If you feel rich compared to those around you then you are, if you feel poor then you are. In this instance perception isn't the full story though, just by believing you are rich does not make it so in the eyes of others, you can't buy a Lamborghini on belief alone.

So perception determines how you feel but what about how you live your life? I think in this instance perception is even more relevant. If you think you are a lucky person, in your mind you are, no disagreement with other peoples perceptions will change that, the same if you think you are healthy. Now i know there are those who argue that believing you are lucky or healthy manifests that as reality in your life, i'm not sure if i believe that. But i do think that as long as you believe it then that is all that matters.

Anyway enough amateur philosophy for the evening.

Thought of the Day - 05:00 pt2

Way back in the day when i first started this blog i posted about trying to get up at 5am, it was more of a question really and i think i might have answered it.

The question was, whether i could find a reason to get up at 5am during the week and the weekend. Alas i haven't found a single reason, but i have found another way. I have started recording reasons to get up early the night before in my to do lists. Sometimes the reason is really obvious (when i have to prepare something before work) sometimes it is a bit wooly (well i could get up and read before work) but just having at least a slightly specific item seems to help.

For two weeks i have managed to get up before 5am during the week which i think is a fair achievement. I know i managed more at the start of the year but then i had external motivation, now it is all internal. I am still also having issues at the weekend, i have a hard deadline of starting work during the week but weekends there is no time constraint.

Overall though i am fairly happy, it is a work in progress so hopefully it will get better.

Thought of the Day - What Do Fonts Say About You?

So what does the font you use say about you? Well according to an academic paper i came across yesterday, in my case (Century Gothic) nothing, the font i use all the time is associated with literally nothing.

You can take that one of two ways;
1) The font is so bland and generic people don't associate it with anything.
2) The font is so unique that people can't label it.

In reality i guess it could be either of the above, or it might depend on the person. But on the plus side for me i know it isn't over-exposed and at least somewhat unique. I use Century Gothic so much that it is almost like my hand writing and it freaks me out when other people use it, its like i wrote it and then forgot.


Idea from: http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/81/PersonalityofFonts.asp

Thought of The Day - Heroes and Planners pt2

I just watched an interesting documentary which reinforced my thoughts on the Heroes Vs Planners debate. It was about a raid in world war two where Commandos destroyed a dry-dock to prevent the use of the most powerful battleship ever built. It was an unquestionable success, the dry docks were destroyed, the Germans were unable to use the ship in the Atlantic and it was eventually sunk in a Norwegian fjord having never sunk any other ship. Ok so it is impossible to say what might have happened if it had been able to operate in the Atlantic; maybe it would have been destroyed some other way or maybe it would have decimated the British navy. The real benefits of that act of planning will never be known and therein lies the rub.

The men who planned and executed that raid were heroes by any way you would care to measure and yet the only memorial is a small plaque on a small rock in a harbour. The problem was because the battleship had never been involved in a battle, because no lives had been lost to it yet, because the threat it posed had never been proven it was an act of planning to render it useless.

This is not to belittle other heroic acts that are remembered because they were in spite of serious fuckups. Just to highlight that even people who are heroes might not be recognised because they planned and prevented the fuckup in the first place.

Thought of the Day - Barefoot Shoes

Ok the title sounds like an oxymoron, how can you have bare feet and shoes at the same time? You can't, but you can come close and now that i have, i would never go back.

It has now been 1.5 months since i bought my Vibram Five Fingers shoes and i still think they are great. On Tuesday i had to wear regular shoes for a lot of the day and i was surprised by: 1) how much my feet hurt, 2) how narrow the shoes felt, 3) that not only did my feet hurt but so did my lower back. I must admit i was a little bit sceptical at first, but the more i read and thought about it, the more the theory made sense. Now after some experience the practice makes sense too.

My biggest worry now is if in a few years time, what i can't find barefoot shoes?

Thought of the Day - Missed Day

Curses, yesterday was my first missed day in quite a while. My pre-preparation of posts has been working quite well however i encountered a new problem; no internet connection :-(

I arrived at my hotel last night to find out that the wifi was down and that an engineer had to be sent out ... the following morning. So not only had i paid the ridiculous amount for hotel wifi the day before for a shoddy service, now there was no service at all.

So how do i handle the possible lack of internet connection, should i buffer the pre-prepared posts and have them automatically post if i don't change it? Then the problem becomes remembering which posts are automatic and cancelling them if i post something else. Also how long in advance should i have this automated buffer? I suppose the real question is how long could i be incommunicado from the internet, one day? a week? I suspect this needs more thought ...

Thought of the Day - Tasks I Achieve Flow In

This morning i read an article on how to achieve flow (link at bottom of post) and i realised that i really don't experience it in work a lot.

Some things in life i find it easy to achieve flow in, most notably; reading (both books and articles), researching a topic online and coding websites. At work it is much more rare, if i get some peace and quiet i can achieve it doing data analysis or creating a presentation. Unfortunately to achieve flow i normally need music on in the background, so it doesn't help that we aren't allowed to use headphones. One other area i think i might achieve flow in is delivering training, i must admit i haven't really thought about it but when i get going it does feel effortless, maybe something to look at in the future.

So if flow is an optimal state of working and i don't experience it in my job very often then am i in the right job?


Idea from: http://zenhabits.net/2008/06/guide-to-achieving-flow-and-happiness-in-your-work/

Thought of the Day - Ready, Fire, Aim

Sometimes a theory or and idea keeps coming up over and over again and in those situations it is hard to ignore. Recently i kept reading about the benefits of the "Ready, Fire, Aim" approach, it was in books, on websites and in podcasts and it made sense.

Most people use the "Ready, Aim, Fire" approach. Only it normally turns into "Ready, Aim, Aim, Aim ... maybe Fire", too much planning and not enough action. On the other hand "Read, Fire, Aim" relies on action straight away, the results of which can be used to improve your accuracy. It is like firing a gun for the first time, you don't know whether the sights are set correctly or if the barrel is straight, therefore until you fire the aiming might not matter at all.


Something i have been meaning to take action on for a long time (like since 2004) is updating my WebCV into the modern age. It was originally built like a site from 1996; a pain to update, not very modern looking and rubbish for search engine optimisation, frankly it was an embarrassment. At various times since then i have bought and read books about web design, i have felt guilty for not updating it and once or twice i have even started to put something together. But it never quite got done, i spent too long planning and worrying about how difficult it would be and how long it would take to get it perfect. Even the most recent time i made a start in March i had a big elaborate plan, it was gantt charted out over 3 or 4 months but of course after a week i lost interest and nothing ever came of it.

On Friday evening i was listening to a podcast from SXSW where various entrepreneurs who were renowned for being 'fast' were speaking on the topic. These were people who had built the likes of Twitter, Blogger etc which are rather complicated pieces of software and the timescales they were talking about from picking a concept to first release were ridiculously short, months if not weeks. At this stage i began to feel rather embarrassed, my WebCV really isn't that complicated, i have most of the skills to update it, so how come they can launch huge brands in a few months and i can't even build a website?

The answer is simple; they set a short timescale to get something out there, it may not be complete, it may not be perfect, but it is something that they can then build on going forward. Programmers call this "release early, release often". It is better to get something out and get real customer feedback about what needs changed than it is to spend years building what you think customers want only to find it isn't actually what they want or the opportunity has passed.


With this in mind i decided that 12 hours was a reasonable amount of time to build a website. I set key tasks that had to be done and decided if something was taking too long that i would accept something that was ok, rather than taking longer and getting something that was perfect. It was difficult, first off it is the weekend so it was hard to avoid distractions and secondly i had forgotten most of the CSS i used to know. But after 11 hours of work i updated my WebCV and uploaded to the site.

I would be grateful if anyone who reads this could go and have a look at my WebCV and provide any feedback they can think of through the contact link. So far my list of things to do includes:

• Validate the xHTML and CSS against the W3C standards
• Improve consistency across browsers (IE7 and Firefox 3 are ok but i suspect it needs work on IE6, Firefox 2 and IE8)
  
• Sort out the padding and margins to get the spacing between the headings and text right
• Make a better header (the current one will do but its not great)
• Make the navigation tabs a bit less bland and angular
• Think of some ways to make it more visually appealing without being tacky

At least i have something out there, a base to build on. It is a much less daunting task to make lots of small improvements than it is to come up with something brand new and perfect first time. So remember; if you are procrastinating, if a project seems to big to know where to start, set a tight timescale and "Ready, Fire, Aim".


Idea from: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/05/29/the-art-of-speed-conversations-with-monster-makers/#more-362

Thought of the Day - RSS Feeds

For supposedly being a tech-savy guy i can't believe i haven't made use of RSS Feeds properly until now.

I say properly because i have used them before, i played with Firefox's RSS reader and Google Reader a while back but it never really stuck. I think it was because i was subscribing to feeds that had a stupid number of updates a day (unfiltered news sites etc) so i was just getting overwhelmed with junk. I guess i assumed that all RSS feeds were like that until this morning when i realised that a lot of the sites i have open in Firefox and refresh on a regular basis are sporadically updated. I was just going through checking for updates, not finding any and thought "surely there is a better way" and then i noticed a pattern ... lots and lots of little orange buttons. So i fired up Google Reader, deleted all of the high volume feeds i was subscribed to (but never looked at) and added all of the blogs and other sites with sporadically updated content. So now not only have i saved on memory footprint in Firefox, i only have to refresh one page to get updates, everything is in a nice chronological order and i don't have to worry about missing anything.

In all honesty it hasn't cut down my number of Firefox tabs that much (maybe lost 10 tabs overall) but combined with moving the tabs i keep open 'for reference' to Google Bookmarks and i should get down to one window.

Thought of the Day - Life Simplification - Possessions

Something i have been thinking about for quite a while is simplifying my life, mostly in terms of possessions but partly in terms of repetitive tasks i have to do.

In terms of possessions i have an unfortunate habit of accumulating things; i might need them at some point and if i do, i want to have my own stuff. A prime example is ice skates, i haven't been ice skating in over a year and the next most recent time was like 5 years ago. But i can't bring myself to chuck out or sell my skates, the thing is i wouldn't want to go ice skating without my own skates because frankly hire skates suck. That is only the tip of the iceberg; i do the same with bikes, paintball stuff, computer stuff and hoard various other things too. The biggest problem i have is that most of my stuff is worth next to nothing if i sold it, but could be useful to me so it feels like it is worth more to me than it is to sell.

Having said the above, if i flogged all the stuff i don't really need i could probably afford to buy anything i did end up needing when i needed it. Then the problem becomes the effort required to flog all the stuff being much more than it is worth to me in terms of time. I would be happy to accept 50% less than the actual value if someone else would just take it all off my hands and sell it themselves. The problem with that is traditional 'house clearers' focus on old furniture, pictures, kitchenware etc rather than the more modern things i have.

Then the option becomes storage, but it is just such a waste that i can't justify it. Its an ongoing cost to hold on to junk that i will probably never use again, i would be better donating everything to charity and setting aside the money i would have spent on storage to buy new stuff.

So i feel like i'm stuck between a rock, a piece of steel and a hard place; selling my stuff is too much effort, giving it away just seems wrong and storing it is such a waste. What to do?

Thought of the Day - Did The British Invent 5S?

I heard an interesting story, that it wasn't the Japaneses but the British who invented 5S, the Japanese just gave it a name and applied it in factories. Hah! you may say, look at how bad the 5S is in most British manufacturing companies, did we invent it and forget?

Alas no, it was just invented and still used somewhere that most people never see - on boats in the Navy. Only in the Navy it is called being 'ship shape'. I'm sure you have all seen war films, sailors out scrubbing the decks etc. If you think about it what happens on a boat conforms to 5S;
Sort - there is nothing on the boat that doesn't need to be, space and weight are at a premium.
Set In Order - because the boat will move in the seas everything needs to be secured and hence in the right place.
Shine - things are cleaned on a very regular basis, you want to find any problems as soon as possible.
Standardize - The captain or senior officers make it clear what needs to be done and how regularly.
Sustain - The sailors get a bollocking if the previous 4 steps are not done.

In retrospect the best 5S implementation i have ever seen was onboard a nuclear submarine. Not only is space at a serious premium ensuring Sort has to be right, but you want to minimise the noise so the enemy can't detect you so your Set In Order has to be perfect (and noiseless) too.

To be honest i haven't done any fact checking about which Navy first coined the term 'ship shape' or that the Japanese didn't invent 5S thousands of years ago, but it is an interesting thought.

Thought of the Day - Process Improvements I Love To Hate

There is one process improvement in particular that i love to hate.

Anyone who has stayed in a Travel Inn or similar budget hotel recently has probably noticed the increase in Lux Shower Gel/Shampoo bottles in place of traditional soap and shampoo. If you weren't a process engineer you might wonder why. The simple reason is cost reduction, how many barely used bars of soap and mini-bottles of shampoo do you think are thrown out each year? So something that you don't have to replace after every guest is quite a big saving, huge infact, probably millions of pounds a year, especially for a hotel chain as big as Travel Inn. It is also good for the environment, the waste generated from individually packaged soap and shampoo must be orders of magnitude more than large bottles of Lux. Finally who wants to steal a huge bottle of shower gel that only fits in a mounted holder, so there must be a significant reduction in theft too.

Unfortunately i really really hate shower gel, i always feel greasy after i use it and never quite feel clean. So on a personal level i hate it but on a technical level its is a great process improvement and i only wish i had thought of it first.

Thought of the Day - UK Hotel Wifi

I'm staying at the Travel Inn (not Lodge) at Manchester Airport and it is damn near perfect; clean room, minimalist, flat screen TV, comfy bed, quiet and bliss of bliss it even has aircon.

But the one thing that kills it all is the woefully slow wifi ... it can't even save this blog post as i go along and my Tada Lists (the simplest web pages known to man) are taking >10 minutes to open. What i want to know is how on earth can this be the case? If it was free (as is the case in most of north america) i could live with it but i'm paying £10 a day for the privilege, if i was charged this rate at home i'd have a dedicated fibre line right to my flat. I'm not even going to be able to use it for the whole 24 hours; arrive 4pm leave 7am and 8 hours sleep inbetween leaves a maximum of 7 hours surfing. Worse still i'm not even doing heavy web browsing (downloading attachments or uploading anything), i'm loading some text based web pages and it is taking forever.

To anyone who runs a hotel in the UK; either stop gouging your customers for the slowest internet connection since 33.6kbps dial-up or provide a decent service for the exorbitant fee you charge.

Thought of the Day - Longest Day pt 2

Well the longest day has been and gone and i must say i have grown rather fond of light streaming in my windows at 5am. While it is a bit depressing knowing that the day length is only going to get shorter and shorter for the next 6 months a more immediate concern is how easy it will be to build the habit of getting up at 5am going forward.

At the moment it is relatively easy to get up early; it is bright, it is warm and sometimes even sunny outside. On the other hand it is infinitely harder to wake up early when it is dark, cold and raining. Given that i can't even manage to get up now i think it is time for a different technique.

I'm now getting to the stage that i am considering using Steve Pavlina's conditioned response method of getting up. I had shunned it in the past because it seemed too extreme, but as it turns out i have no willpower so i need to turn my alarm clock going off into an ingrained imperative that i must get out of bed.

Thought of the Day - Life As A Laboratory

Something a lot of people seem to find strange about me is that i experiment with things, not only that but i actually call them experiments. I don't just buy a new pair of shoes, i experiment with near-barefoot walking. I don't become a Vegan, i experiment with my diet. I don't wake up early, i experiment with my sleep.

To me life is a laboratory, all parts of my life can be optimised, improved and if necessary changed wholesale. On the other hand i think a lot of people get into a (un)happy rut and don't see the need to change, to try new things. While i am sure that i am guilty of that in some areas of my life it doesn't stop me looking to change in others. The great thing about experimenting is that if it doesn't work out you aren't committed to the path, you were just trying it out. It also doesn't preclude the possibility of future improvements or changes. For me one of the most reassuring things about science is that scientists can admit when they were not exactly right or even outright wrong. There are no absolutes, it only takes one exception to break the rules and set you looking for new rules.

I'm sure other people experiment with things and maybe it is because my experiments tend to be a little more extreme, but most people i discuss my experiments see me as strange or at best eccentric. What convinces me that i am on the right path is a lot of the most interesting people that i've met and authors who's books i've read have had a similar attitude to experimentation.

Book Notes - Why Work Sucks

Why Work Sucks by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson [2008]

Summary:
Judge people on results, not the amount of time they spend in the office. A simple and some would say common sense statement, however 99% of the world is managed in completely the opposite way. This book provides a great argument against the prevailing management methods and also what they should be changed to.

Definitions:
Presenteeism - Being physically but not mentally present in your job. (page 17)
Sludge – The negative commentary that occurs in the workplace based on the erroneous beliefs on page 23. (page 30)
Sludge Anticipation – Mental preparation you go through if you are expecting sludge, wasted time and energy. (page 49)
Sludge Justification – The time and energy taken to present your excuse to the sludger, not only wasting your time but the person sludging too. (page 51)
Black Sludge – Sludging people behind their back in groups of 2 or more people. (page 52)
ROWE – Each person is free to do whatever they want, whenever they want as long as the work gets done. (page 66)

Notes:
Page 13: The core problem with work is the theory that Time + Physical Presence = Results, when infact it is very easy to put in a lot of time and physical presence but not accomplish anything.
Page 15: Random Thought: If you are working in an ROWE and can accomplish your job in say 20 hours per week, what happens if your boss wants you to do more, do you get a pay rise or do you just get more to do?
Page 19: Presenteeism isn’t the employees fault it is the fault of the system, of the judges of performance. Show me how you measure me and i will show you how i behave.
Page 23: List of erroneous assumptions we currently have for work. My favourite is “if people get their work done in less time they should get more work”.
Page 24: Random Thought: I wonder how much the above statement has to do with problems in project management, one of the big things in Critical Chain is that “finish early” is never passed on to the next step, one of the reasons for this is that there is no incentive to do so, you will just get more work or be expected to do future work in less time.
Page 33: Paragraph two goes on to say that almost all companies are the same, even young ‘progressive’ ones because the people working there have the same assumptions.
Page 34: If you have a high level of demands (stuff to do) and a high level of control (you get to prioritise and manage the work) it may be hectic but it is not so stressful. However if you have high demands and low control (someone else decides what you do when) life becomes unbearable.
Page 41: Flexitime is not the answer, it is considered a perk, the company will do anything within their power to put you off doing it and you will likely be ‘sludged’ for not being committed.
Page 54: Random Thought: Is Sludge the 8th lean waste?
Page 61: Black Belt pointing out that it isn’t all about fluff bunnies and spending more time with the kids, it is about focusing on what really matters to the company and eliminating waste.
Page 66: The irony is most people go from a ROWE (college/university) into jobs that are all about how much time you spend at your desk. You go from an environment where you are completely free to select and prioritise your work (within a certain framework) to being told what to do and treated like a child. Is it any wonder that there is a serious adjustment period for graduates?
Page 82: The perception is that ROWE is a win-lose situation (employees win, employers lose) this could not be further from the truth. How can the employer lose if the employees have a focus on business results, are more committed to achieving those results because they want to keep working in an ROWE and are generally happier and more productive?
Page 85: Random Thought: Consultants and freelancers already live in an ROWE world, all ROWE is doing is bringing that ethic to companies. Maybe this is how Charles Handy’s view of the future will happen, rather than everyone becoming freelance and being bought into a company, ROWE will allow similar flexibility and benefits without the hassle of coordinating hundreds of independent workers.
Page 89: The 13 Guideposts:
1. People at all levels stop doing any activity that is a waste of their time, the customers time or the company’s time.
2. Employees have the freedom to work any way they want.
3. Every day feels like Saturday.
4. People have an unlimited amount of “paid time off” as long as the work gets done.
5. Work isn’t a place you go – it’s something you do.
6. Arriving at the workplace at 2:00pm is not considered coming in late. Leaving the workplace at 2:00pm is not considered leaving early.
7. Nobody talks about how many hours they work.
8. Every meeting is optional.
9. It’s ok to grocery shop on a Wednesday morning, catch a movie on a Tuesday afternoon, or take a nap on a Thursday afternoon.
10. There are no work schedules.
11. Nobody feels guilty, overworked, or stressed out.
12. There aren’t any last minute fire-drills.
13. There is no judgement about how you spend your time.
Page 125: The side effect of “Every meeting is optional” is that people are much more focused on why they are having the meeting, who they want to attend and why and if people don’t turn up it probably saying you got it wrong.
Page 144: Random Thought: An ROWE would eliminate the need for project reviews, it would be up to the project leaders to schedule time for coaching, mentoring and questions.

Quotes:
Page22 : “Perception is reality”
Page 29: “We have this weird permission to be shitty to one another at work.”

Thought of the Day - Results-Only Work Environment

99% of people are paid for their time and not their results. Which do you think is better for the company and the individual? Unsurprisingly for anyone with half a brain, the results method is better for both.

I really should have posted this when i came across the concept on Tuesday but i wanted to read the book (Why Work Sucks) first to make sure i really understood what i was talking about. The books notes will be up very shortly after this post but i wanted to offer some comentary that wouldn't have been appropriate in the notes.


Having just read the book it feels like the culmination of thoughts that i have been having in my career up until now. It really ties together; behavioural management, self-directed companies (Maverick, Open Minds etc), process improvement (Six Sigma, metrics etc) and even the more recent lifestyle design (4-Hour Work Week).

It also finally puts a name to something i have expereinced first hand, i am a morning person when it comes to work, i like getting up early and making a start on work. I tend to be in the office before everyone else (~7am), i don't take lunch or breaks and i know that after 3pm i'm not really at my best but i have to hang around until at least 5pm because it is expected, because people will call me a slacker if i don't. It doesn't matter if i don't accomplish anything in those 2 hours, as long as i am at my desk people assume i am being productive.
In my first job after grduating from university i took the approach of doing my contacted hours, i'd start early and finish early. The hour before my colleages arrived tended to be my most productive, so i thought logically it was good for the company. However it wasn't long before my boss took me aside and said that he didn't care if i was in early, he wasn't there so he didn't know if i was working or not and leaving before 5pm was showing a lack of comitment. Which sent the clear message to me that he didn't care if i worked or not, just that i was at my desk. It also prompted me to start recording my hours so that if he ever said i wasn't comitted again i could throw my regular >50 hour weeks in his face.
That conversation has stuck with me for the last 4 years and i still record my hours for the same reason. After reading the book it strikes me that it is a huge waste of time. A waste of the companies time because i do it in work time. A waste of my energy because i worry about how it might be perceived if my average hours drop below 45 despite the fact i am only contracted for 38. It also provides zero incentive to improve, if i know i have 2 hours of reduced productivity why not stretch things out to fill them time, the only outcome of working faster is getting more work to do in my least productive time.

I suspect this will be a recurring theme in this blog, so i have given it a tag "ROWE" if you want to group all of the posts together.


Idea from: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/05/21/no-schedules-no-meetings-enter-best-buys-rowe-part-1/

Thought of the Day - Sleep Optimization Pt 2

Well day 4 of the Sleep Optimization is not quite going to plan. I got up but it was a real struggle, i almost talked myself into going back to sleep for 1.5 hours.

But on the plus side i think i know why i almost talked myself into going back to bed. If i don't have a really clear idea of what i'm going to do or why i'm going to get up it is very easy to postpone, it also doesn't help if what i am planning to do could be done at another time. Yesterday i knew i wanted to get up early to watch 30 Days s03e02 before work, sure enough i got up. This morning i didn't have as clear a reason and therefore it was easier for me to talk myself into going back to bed.

So as a further refinement, before i go to bed each night i need to write down what i plan to do first thing in the morning, preferably something that can be done at no other time.

Thought of the Day - Sleep Optimization

Well first time i've blogged on sleeping in a couple of months, but i'm trying another experiment so figured it would be worth doing.

Previously i've gone for the 'Steve Pavlina' method of sleep optimization; pick a time to wake up (normally 5am), get up then come rain or shine, go to sleep when you are tired. The problem is that i can't always get to sleep when i'm tired and then in the morning i don't feel rested enough to get up, its a motivation thing.

Now i'm trying the 'Tim Ferris' method of sleep optimization; work out how long it takes you to get to sleep (in my case 1 hour), add that to 6 hours (4 sleep cycles of 1.5 hours) and set your alarm. So far (3 days) it is working pretty well, i certainly feel less tired through the day than i did previously (normally with more sleep) and i have more time in the mornings. There are a couple of problems i foresee; what will the effect be if i have to get up before the whole 6 hours of sleep (if i go to bed late and have to get up for work)? and will the effect last because it still requires motivation to get up?

Well we shall see how it goes, if it works i'll be happy with reducing my time in bed to 7 hours a day, if not i think it will be worth investing time in a little psychological response conditioning ...

Thought of the Day - To Do Lists

First off i will admit i love To Do Lists, normally on Post Its or on paper at home but at work if Outlook didn't remind me to do tasks they would surely be forgotten. I have a memory like a sieve so if i don't write down something i need to do then i am almost guaranteed to forget to do it.

One of the problems i had was coordinating tasks between home and work. At work i have Outlook and at home i have bits of paper, but frequently i think of something i need to do at home when i'm at work and vice versa. Previously i used the To Do List function in Basecamp (project management web-app) to manage a web-to-do-list, but it was overkill, i always forgot the web address to access it and there was too much complexity to get to the To Do List. Fortunately i recently discovered that the people who made Basecamp (37 Signals) have also made a really simple To Do List application.

Its called Tada and it is perfect! Very basic To Do List functionality, but so simple and effective you can't fault it. It is web based so you can access it from anywhere, you can create multiple lists (To Do At Work, To Do At Home etc) and prioritise the tasks within them. Sure there is no support for setting completion dates and reminders or creating sub-lists but if you wanted that you could use Basecamp, overall a superb little web-application that i would highly recommend.

Thought of the Day - Personal Crest

I came across an interesting site today, it has a flash based system to create your own personal crest:
Scion Personal Crest Creator

While it is a little tacky and random it got me thinking, what would sum me up, my values, my interests etc. I came up with the crest below:


At the top i went for a 'grease monkey' to represent my background in engineering. The circuit motif on either side represents electronics and computers which tie everything in my life together. In the middle i went for my interests; books, rock music, snow/cold and TV. Overall i'm quite happy with it, was interesting to have to only pick the 4 interests that summed me up.

Thought of the Day - Metrics

I read an interesting article about metrics, specifically it was about metrics for software projects but the main rules are applicable to all projects.

A metric should be:
1) Informative (and ideally Predictive) - It should give relevant useful information.
2) Objective - It should not matter who is determining the metric.
3) Automated - The more work it takes to generate the metric the less likely it is to get used or recorded accurately.

Idea From: http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/IT-Management/Lies-Damned-Lies-and-Project-Metrics-Part-1/

Thought of the Day - Job Acceptance

Something that I noted down from Go Put Your Strengths To Work by Marcus Buckingham:

Before accepting a job ask yourself 3 things:
Purpose - What is the purpose of the job? Does it fit with your values?
People - Who will you be working with? Do you think you will get on with them?
Activities - What will you actually be doing? Does it fit with your strengths?

He suggests that the the top is the least important, getting more important as you go down. I would agree, if you don't like what you are doing day to day you would have to be working with some very special people or have a very strong purpose before it would be bearable. On the other hand if you love what you are actually doing the other two are easy to put up with if they aren't right.

Thought of the Day - ToC For Traffic

I just finished reading Rant by Chuck Palahniuk. First off a great book and yet again i wonder why i have left a Chuck Palahniuk book sitting on my shelf for more than a year before i read it.

Secondly i had an interesting thought about one of the concepts in the book. I could be totally wrong but the way i understand it, in the book the government split the population into day people and night people so that the roads would be less gridlocked and accidents would have less of an effect on traffic. But it is an interesting point, even the busiest, most clogged of roads tend to be just about empty between midnight and 6am. So many of the problems that we face with traffic are because we shock-load the roads at certain times of the day. The overall capacity of the roads compared to the total journeys is probably adequate but because everyone is trying to go places at the same time.

In the book the unintended side-effect of the split was that the night people became an underclass that resented the day people but i can't help but think there must be another way to better balance the flow of traffic on the roads. Every time i drive on motorways my mind drifts (more on that in the book too) to Theory of Constraints, i still haven't come up with a way to apply ToC to the roads without a massive overhaul of technology but there must be something that can be done. Strangely leveling the flow across the day hadn't occurred to me before but it would be a great way to remove the need for rigid rules and a drum-beat to pace traffic. Then the question is how to incentivize travel outside of the rush hours to balance the flow without becoming even more nanny-state like.

On the downside if the flow was leveled my 7pm to 3am drives up north would be much less effective.

Thought of the Day - Hydrofoils

Why do you only see hydrofoils in russia? I'm sure other places must have them, there must be big benefits from the reduction in drag, so why don't you see them all over the place?

Thought of the Day - Cycling

A few observations since getting back on the bike for the first time in like 4 years:

1) Don't get cocky when you haven't used SPD's before. I always used to laugh at people who couldn't clip out and fell over onto their sides because they were attached to the bike. Sadly this happened to me, i'd been out on the bike a couple of times with no problems, so i thought i would bump up on the kerb at my flat, stop and then unclip. What i hadn't banked on was the difficulty of trying to clip out while stationary, the movement of trying to clip out meant i lost balance and slowly keeled over onto my side. All very embarrassing but a learning experience.

2) I've still got it when it comes to maintenance. I fitted a whole new groupset to my bike while i was home at the end of May with no problems. I guess fixing a bike is like riding a bike.

3) Damn i am unfit, i remember going out on my bike before i went to uni and doing rides with greater than 1000ft climbing and being fine. Now i go out and a short ride with 350ft of climbing just about kills me.

4) The reason i know the above is because there is a free tool called Bikely that allows you to input a route on google maps and it tells you the distance and gives you an elevation profile. Totally awesome for someone as geeky as me.

Thought of the Day - Habits Vs Willpower

Well there was rather a large gap in my posts (almost a month), which proves one thing; i have no willpower. I can build a habit, but if that habit is disturbed i am screwed, which leads me to think that i need to ensure my habits aren't disturbed.

So to celebrate getting this habit back on track i have prepared a buffer of 5 posts so that even if i don't have a thought every day i can still make a post, the trick will be periodically replenishing this buffer when i have further inspiration.

Thought of The Day - Heroes and Planners

As has been pointed out by many people, everyone loves a hero and no-one notices a planner. By definition if you avoid a bad event happening no-one notices, the bad event didn't happen and because it didn't happen then maybe it wasn't possible for it to happen.

To borrow from The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb; imagine if in 2000 someone had made locked bulletproof doors on airlines mandatory, 9/11 would have never happened. Would that person have been given awards, recognition and admiration? No, instead he probably would have, at best been ignored, at worst been reviled by pilots and airlines for implementing a 'pointless' security feature.

This leaves me in an interesting quandary, i know it is better for the companies i work for to be a planner, however the incentives at work are all set up for hero's. Is the way forward to identify catastrophes before they happen, plan for what you can do when they do happen and then let them happen? I suppose the problem, even with delayed planning, is the full magnitude of the fuck-up is never realised so no-one knows how bad it could have been.

Thinking about it from the other side, how could you incentivise planning? How do you quantify what could have been and how likely it was to occur, even if it doesn't?

Thought of the Day - Hacking

I love the spirit of hacking (the traditional rather than computer definition of the word), taking something and making it fit your needs. Alas i there are limitations to my hacking ability: computers, electronics, mechanical things; sure, more traditional craft things; not so much.

I bought a pair of Vibram Five Fingers shoes and while they are very comfortable i can't really use them everywhere without socks. Normal socks won't stretch and separate enough around my toes, so i thought i could hack them (literally) into shape. Alas my sewing skills are not quite up to par, after an hour i had neatly sewed lines in so i could cut toe sized slots in the socks. While i did manage to get 5 pockets, unfortunately only 3 of them were large enough to accommodate my toes ... Doh!

The moral of the story is while £60 seems a lot for socks, the time and effort (and socks) i would have wasted perfecting this hack would be better spent on other things. Fortunately Injinji make some lovely high performance socks that fit my needs perfectly, so time to bite the financial bullet.

Book Notes - The Art Of War For Managers

The Art Of War For Managers by Gerald A Michaelson [2001]

Summary:
“Know the enemy and know yourself and you will never be defeated.”
Interplay of strategy and tactics; strategy is the plan, tactics are the implementation.
Information and speed are the key to winning.
Attacking head-on is rarely the best approach, find your niche and expand from there.

Notes:
Page 3: A plan that is not written down is no plan at all, a simple written plan is best.
Page 4: Unlike Tzu’s constant factors for the battlefield in business they are much simpler, you must study:
1. The ‘mission’ of the company.
2. The outside factors (industry/economic trends etc).
3. The marketplace.
4. The leaders.
5. The guiding principles.
Page 13: It is important to for start-ups to have sufficient reserves to ride-out downturns and to tide them over between launch and profitability. As they say; “Profit is king, but cash rules” you can survive without profit but you can’t survive without cash.
Page 27: Have two types of edict; instructions and orders. Instructions are issued as guidelines, to be followed if practical. Orders are to be followed immediately and to the letter but can only be given by someone on the ground in the situation. This prevents stupid decisions being made above.
Page 29: Fundamental principles of business:
1. Organize Intelligence
2. Maintain Objectives
3. Establish A Secure Position
4. Keep On The Offensive
5. Plan Surprise
6. Think Manoeuvre
7. Concentrate Resources
8. Practice Economy Of Force
9. Keep It Simple
Page 31: Strategy always comes before tactics, while a good strategy might succeed even with poor tactical execution, a poor strategy even with superlative tactics will almost never succeed. It is therefore important to make sure that you are heading in the right strategic direction before you determine tactics.
Page 32: “Boil the ocean” appears to be a reference to one strategist’s suggestion for how to get rid of German u-boats in the second world war.
Page 38: Customer input is a vital operational measure, it is key to improved performance and winning. Use of balanced scorecard suggested to keep track of financial and non-financial, lagging and leading measures.
Page 44: The use of extraordinary force to ensure victory, this can be applied on a macro level; a company focusing all efforts to ensure that they take a market or on the micro level; a person focusing all of their effort on a particular task.
Page 51: Keep your products secret until the last minute, it removes the ability of your competitors to plan a response. Apple does this particularly well.
Page 63: Reference to Tyco going from $2b to $30b in 6 years, ironically it was under the CEO who ended up in jail. Book probably written before those events.
Page 67: The rule of three: never make more than 3 points in any one communication, if you make more some of the points are likely to be forgotten. Keep it simple and direct.
Page 77: 5 faults of leadership:
1. Recklessness, which leads to destruction,
2. Cowardice, which leads to capture,
3. A hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults,
4. A delicacy of honour, which is sensitive to shame,
5. Over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him to worry and trouble.
Page 91: Acknowledging the role of known standards of performance so that the leader can be perceived as impartial and can set discipline to achieve standards.
Page 93: The importance of going to the gemba for managers to inform their intuition and knowledge of the real situation.
Page 95: It is important to have direct communication with the people on the ground, often information is filtered as it goes up the chain which means you might not be getting all pertinent information. Create relationships with a select few people further down the chain so that you can get direct information.
Page 110: Information on personal survival and career paths.
Page 169: Summary of key concepts.

Quotes:
Page 6: “If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything will look like a nail.”
Page 14: “While we have heard of stupid haste in war, we have not yet seen a clever operation that was prolonged.”
Page 22: “To subdue the enemy without fighting is supreme excellence.”
Page 39: “Where everyone decides everything, no one decides anything.”
Page 65: “Do not do what your enemy wants, if for no other reason than he wants it.”
Page 72: “The key to success is what the customer wants, not what you can do.”
Page 78: “When was the last time anyone said; ‘I wish I had waited 6 months longer to fire that guy’” – Jack Welch
Page 81: “Logic sounds most convincing to the presenter; it is in the emotions of the receiver that positions are changed.”
Page 101: “Know the enemy and know yourself and you will never be defeated.”
Page 112: “Too often, the absence of conflict is not harmony, it’s apathy.”
Page 116: “When you can win and retain good relationships, only then can you become strong.”