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 ...