Author Archive: Paul Epps

Expanding My Repertoire

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My piano teacher asks me if there are any pieces I want to learn . . . “How about . . . ?” and here I name a piece by Chopin. “This one?” she asks and starts to play it. “Yeah.” “It’s hard.” “Well, it sounds quite impressive but I think if you break it down it’s just arpeggios and thirds.” “No, it’s not just thirds,” she says and starts to play it again to show me. “And that’s with the left hand. Do you think you can play that with your left hand?” “My left hand’s not very good.” “I know.” “So that one is too hard.” “Yes.” “OK, how about . . . ?” and here I name another piece by Chopin. “That’s the only piece that’s harder than the first one.” “How about this?” I ask, and play a YouTube video on my phone. “What is that?”… Read more →

Forget About Female Leadership

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Everyone can shut up about “let’s get more women into leadership positions.” Because they don’t want leadership positions. Or they’d get them. Obviously. Women want to have time for their kids. And leaders – especially top-down leaders – dedicate their lives to their work. There won’t be female leadership and male leadership. There will be people who lead at home and people who lead at work. People will take ownership of outcomes for the areas of life they care most about. — Penelope Trunk Read more →

Childish Economics

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I have a very difficult time imagining the economic ‘theory’ that motivates proposals such as this one by Pres. Obama [to “streamline” the Fair Labor Standards Act so that more white-collar employees would be eligible for overtime pay]. The best that I can do is to imagine how a two-year-old child would respond if asked to propose a way to raise workers incomes. — Don Boudreaux Read more →

I Am the Bath Day Messenger

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My wife is preparing to give the dog a bath in the kitchen sink . . . I say, “Lightning says be sure to warm up the water before you start spraying him with it.” “I always do that.” “He says that in his experience, the water is sometimes too cold . . . I’m just telling you what he said. Don’t shoot the messenger.” Read more →

4 Links

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5 Design Techniques to Incite User Emotion (UX Movement) 5 Modern WordPress Alternatives to Keep an Eye On (Six Revisions) Kafka’s Joke Book (McSweeney’s) Yoonique Baby Names: 2014 Edition (STFU, Parents) Read more →

Death Row Headlines We’d Like to See

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I saw this headline on MSN News this morning: Texas Set to Execute Aspiring Rapper Here’s an undated photo of the musical murderer: The fact that he was an aspiring rapper seems comically irrelevant to the fact that he was convicted of slitting a man’s throat — which didn’t kill him — and then stabbing him — which did. Some future Death Row headlines we might expect to see from MSN: Texas Set to Execute Aspiring Comic with 37 Twitter Followers Texas Set to Execute Amateur Banjo Player Texas Set to Execute Man With Irritating Laugh Read more →

EppsNet at the Movies: City Lights

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Could there be a more perfect ending to a film? I’m a sap for a great ending, so I don’t even care that there were maybe a couple of moments where I caught myself thinking “This bit hasn’t really held up well over time.” Rating: City Lights Director: Charles Chaplin Cast: Charles Chaplin (as Charlie Chaplin) A Tramp, Virginia Cherrill A Blind Girl, Florence Lee Her Grandmother, Florence Lee The Blind Girl’s Grandmother IMDb rating: ( votes) Read more →

The kind of man who demands that government enforce his ideas is always the kind whose ideas are idiotic. — H. L. Mencken

The Best Advice I Got This Week

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I was watching a Paul Barton YouTube video about piano practice . . . he said that when someone asked Horowitz how he’s able to play so many difficult pieces, Horowitz replied, “You just got to really want to.” That seems like excellent advice. It’s short, just a few words . . . you can remember it without even trying to. And I think it could be applied to almost any endeavor. Imagine someone listening to Horowitz and thinking, “Wow, that’s great! I’d give anything to be able to play like that!” But he wouldn’t really give anything. He wants to play like Horowitz but he doesn’t really want to play like Horowitz. He doesn’t want to practice 20 hours a day and give up everything else in his life. In any endeavor, reaching a goal often requires more than someone is willing to give . . . not more… Read more →

Disappearing Planes: Another Reason I Prefer to Just Stay Home

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The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has left investigators, aviation experts and the authorities in several countries at a loss to explain what happened. . . . — NYTimes.com From an observer’s point of view, air travel is a magic trick: you disappear from one place and you reappear somewhere else . . . unless the trick doesn’t work and you never reappear anywhere ever again . . . Read more →

A Mega Millions Lottery Ticket is a Good Investment

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Mega Millions uses 75 numbers for the first five selections and 15 numbers for the Mega ball. The number of unique combinations of five numbers selected from a pool of 75 is \(\frac{75!}{5!(75-5)!} = 17,259,390\) Multiply that times 15 possibilities for the Mega ball and the odds of winning come out to 1 in 258,890,850. BUT THE CURRENT MEGA MILLIONS JACKPOT IS OVER $350 MILLION! Any time you can get 350 million to one odds on a 258 million to one bet, you’ve got to take it. Read more →

Risk = Cumulative Cost – Cumulative Value

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Henrik Kniberg has a presentation online called “What is Agile?” It includes a method of visualizing risk as the gap between cumulative cost and cumulative value, as well as methods of visualizing risk mitigation strategies. I found it valuable. Here are some representative slides: Read more →

Geoff Edwards, 1931-2014

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LOS ANGELES (AP) – Geoff Edwards, the hip-looking 1970s and ’80s host of TV game shows including “Jackpot!” and two incarnations of “Treasure Hunt” died Wednesday, his agent said. He was 83. “Geoff was one of the cleverest, funniest radio and television personalities I’ve worked with,” said fellow game show host Wink Martindale. The two were DJs at pop radio station KMPC in Los Angeles. — Game show host Geoff Edwards dies at 83 – MSN TV News Shocking, shocking news . . . Wink Martindale is still alive?! RIP Geoff Edwards Read more →

Spa Day at the Vet and Erica’s Departure

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I dropped Lightning off at the vet for grooming . . . “Make it like a spa day for him,” I said. “With lots of pampering. Don’t just put him in the sink and soak him down like we do at home. Make it free pampering though, nothing that will cause extra charges to accrue. By the way, where’s Erica?” Erica is usually at the desk on weekends but today there was a new girl. The new girl, Lauren, said that Erica is moving to Arizona and won’t be working there anymore. “She will be greatly missed,” Lauren said. She sure will. People are insane when it comes to their pets and Erica was always extremely patient and attentive — extremely. I wish I had the kind of personality that makes people miss me when I go away but oh well . . . I guess I have other qualities.… Read more →

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