When Zen masters die we like to think they will say something very inspiring as they are about to bite the Big Emptiness, something like “Hi-ho Silver!” or “Remember to wake up” or “Life is everlasting.” Right before Suzuki Roshi’s death, Katagiri Roshi, an old friend, visited him. Katagiri stood by the bedside; Suzuki looked up and said, “I don’t want to die.” — Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones Read more →
Author Archive: Paul Epps
I Will Always Remember This Day
A manager in another department brought in pizza for the IT team today. Someday I’ll be telling my grandkids, “Of course I remember the Obama inauguration. I got free pizza that day! Unfortunately, that was pretty much the highlight of his entire presidency.” Read more →
Hockey Moms on the Road
My 15-year-old son and I were at the Embassy Suites happy hour having drinks (me) and snacks (him) with some of the other hockey parents and kids. One of the hockey moms was a really-hot-for-a-45-year-old redhead whose son plays for another team. “I haven’t seen your son in a while,” she whispered to me. “He looks so different.” “Yeah, he’s a lot taller,” I said. “Not just taller. He’s a gorgeous young man.” “Oh. Thanks.” She spent the next hour chatting him up, asking him about features on her iPhone, and so on . . . “Because she was drunk,” the boy said later. She was kinda drunk, but that wasn’t the only thing going on. Her husband was sitting a couple of chairs away the whole time, surfing the web on his Blackberry, and never even looked in her direction. I was talking to my son’s hockey coach… Read more →
Winternationals – Day 3
The Devil Dogs lost to the Quakes 1-0 in the semifinals. It was a great game all the way. The Quakes goalie made three or four unbelievable saves, including one in the last minute where a shot deflected off someone’s stick or skate right into his glove, instead of three inches higher and into the net. We’re going to check out now, save an extra night at the hotel, and head for home . . . Update: The Quakes beat the West Coast Warriors, a British Columbia team, 3-1 in the final. Read more →
Winternationals – Day 2
Round robin games are over. The Devil Dogs — my son’s team — are in the Bantam Gold semifinals tomorrow morning. If they win, they’ll play in the finals at 1 p.m. Unfortunately, they’re playing the Silicon Valley Quakes Black, the only team that beat them in the round robin. You’d have to say that the Quakes are the better team. They’re faster and they attack every second — even on defense. The Devil Dogs weren’t ready for them in the round robin game. They fell behind 3-0, but came back to lose by only 4-3. If the teams played 10 times, the Quakes would probably win 7 of them — but the Dogs still have a chance in a one-game do-or-die. Read more →
The Work is Its Own Reward
I’m playing hooky from our company meeting. The topic is how the organization calculates compensation, which I don’t care about because I truly feel that the work is its own reward. In fact, I don’t even accept a salary. Most people don’t know that because I keep it to myself . . . Read more →
EppsNet Movie Reviews: Slumdog Millionaire
Good story, good music, brilliant editing and cinematography. One of the things I don’t like about movies is that conflict, even in feel-good movies about love and destiny, is too often resolved with violence, whereas much of the dramatic tension in real life stems from the number of people you’d like to physically assault but can’t. Rating: Four stars (out of five). Read more →
The Learn’d Astronomer
When I heard the learn’d astronomer; When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me; When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them; When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick; Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars. — Walt Whitman My son has an assignment to read this poem and answer some questions about what Whitman was trying to say. The academic answer is that he was exploring the tension between romanticism and science in the late 19th century, and acknowledging sadly, based on “much applause in the lecture-room,” that the romantic worldview was dying out. But just between you and me, he was… Read more →
EppsNet Interview Tips
Willingness I been warped by the rain, driven by the snow I’m drunk and dirty don’t ya know, and I’m still willin’ — Little Feat, “Willin’” If you’re a genius like Mozart and you’ve got a 1000 IQ in music or whatever your specialty is, then you can distinguish yourself by doing things that other people are simply not capable of doing. Lucky you! On the other hand, if you’re a person of moderate intelligence like me, you’re going to have to distinguish yourself by doing more than other people are willing to do — not more than they’re capable of doing, but more than they’re willing to do. We were interviewing candidates this week for a web editor position. One of the candidates brought in some mockups he had made to illustrate how we could incorporate social networking elements into our web site. Were the ideas groundbreaking in any… Read more →
Presentation Zen
Originally uploaded by Zach Graham. I was watching a webinar this morning and like a lot of presentations, this one had way too many words on the slides. They weren’t as bad as this but you get the idea. This approach is lazy, it’s insulting to the audience, and it makes everyone stupider. For anyone who aspires to do better, the best site I know of on presentations is Presentation Zen. Here are some sample slides for inspiration. Bonus link: The Gettysburg PowerPoint Presentation Read more →
The Alfa Romeo Sloth
This is an Italian Alfa Romeo commercial. To look at it, you wouldn’t know it’s a car commercial because there’s no car in it, but in Italy there’s a series of these Alfa Romeo sloth commercials. The running gag is that the sloth is a lethargic, slow-moving creature — until he gets in his Alfa Romeo — but this one’s a little different, in a mesmerizing WTF kind of way . . . Read more →
EppsNet Book Review: Dig Your Job
Full disclosure: I got a free advance copy of this book because I know the author, G.L. Hoffman. The books I’ve read on business and career advice fall into three main categories: Academic theory (Quoting Dogbert) A bunch of obvious advice packaged with quotes from famous dead people A person who’s actually done something talks about what worked for them and what didn’t. Dig Your Job is in Category 3, like every other book I can think of to recommend to people. It’s a high-density book. Hoffman has done startups for 25 years and shares hundreds of ideas and observations about the workplace in blog-sized chunks. The style is conversational, easy to read — like having a career mentor you can consult whenever you want to. Hoffman is currently running excerpts from the book on his blog, so you can click over there for a free preview. Highly recommended! Read more →
The Legend of Cliff Young
I guarantee that this is the most inspirational story you’ll read today. Well done, sir! Read more →
Then Wear the Gold Hat
Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her; If you can bounce high, bounce for her too, Till she cry “Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, I must have you!” — Thomas Parke D’Invilliers This is the epigraph to The Great Gatsby, which my son is reading for school. So beautiful, so sad . . . (Thomas Parke D’Invilliers is a character in Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise, used by him here as a nom de plume.) Read more →
Preparing Kids for Success
As a music teacher I often ask myself if we are truly preparing our students for success. I am not just referring to how well we teach the students to play their instruments, but more importantly if the students will take with them lessons/knowledge/experiences that will prepare them to be strong contributing members of any challenging discipline, and to any organization, in music and other areas of interest. Approximately 70% of students in any youth orchestra will more than likely select a non-music related profession. Of the students who pursue music as a major in college, a strong percentage of them will end up pursuing a livelihood that is not centered around music. So then, what skills will the young person take with him if he does not become a professional musician? … I began coaching chamber ensembles how to communicate and lead from within the ensemble, and play without… Read more →
How to Answer Interview Questions in 3 Easy Steps
Listen to the question. Answer the question. Stop. Don’t forget Step 3. Read more →
Essence of Lean
From Alan Shalloway: Essence of Lean for People Doing Scrum Lots of concurrent tasks cause waste Focusing on removing delays will remove waste Adding value and getting feedback quickly is important If you make a mistake and don’t attend to why you made the mistake, it will likely repeat itself Minimizing work in process (WIP) is a way of improving efficiency and minimizing risk Read more →
Decline
From xkcd: Read more →
Art and Technology
We have artists with no scientific knowledge and scientists with no artistic knowledge and both with no spiritual sense of gravity at all, and the result is not just bad, it is ghastly. The time for a real reunification of art and technology is really long overdue. — Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Read more →
Ninja Cat
Click image for video: Read more →