- RT @OCWeekly: OC Sheriff To Morons: Don't Fire Guns To Celebrate New Year – http://bit.ly/5SOwld #
- RT @capricecrane: I had that dream again where I was in school giving a report in class, naked. We really should've reported that teacher. #
- RT @KathySierra: Puppy pics enjoy a lifetime exemption from any and all so-called "rules" about stock photos and cliches. #
A Basic Fact of Team Sports
Revision Devil Dogs, my kid’s roller hockey team, won the AAU West Coast Winternationals 16U AA championship yesterday.
The Top Scorer award went to a boy from the second-place team who had 11 goals and one assist in the four round-robin games.
Eleven goals and one assist?! Pass the puck, Gretzky!
A basic fact of team sports is that a concern with individual stats interferes with winning.
High Noon
My wife and I watched High Noon last night. I asked her if someone was trying to shoot me, would she shoot him first, like Grace Kelly did in the movie?
(Oops, I forgot to say Spoiler Alert.)
She assured me that she’d gladly shoot anyone who even looked at me funny — and I believe her.
Twitter: 2009-12-23
- 50 Ways to Foster a Culture of Innovation: http://bit.ly/5Gmkfn #
- Moments of truth: http://sachachua.com/wp/p/6932 #
Tyler Enters Rehab
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler says he has entered a rehab clinic to treat an addiction to pain killers he has taken to cope with 10 years of performance injuries.
I hate to say I told you so . . . well, okay, I don’t hate it . . .
I Am So Angry With President Bush
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said in a televised press conference that Obama lied during the United Nations summit in Copenhagen and is making a habit of it after less than a year in office.
“He lies all the time, deceives with demagogic words, with profound cynicism,” Rodriguez told reporters.
“In this summit there was only an imperial, arrogant Obama who doesn’t listen, who imposes positions that even threaten developing countries,” he said.
Cuba joined Venezuela, Bolivia and and Nicaragua in opposing formal U.N. adoption of the deal which they and other developing nations saw as an imposition by powerful nations.
I AM SO ANGRY WITH GEORGE W BUSH ALEINATING FOREIGN LEDERS AND HARMING OUT INTERNATIONAL REPUTATION WITH HIS HIGH-HANDED TACITCIS TAHT I CANT EVEN THYPE
Wait — what? Oh okay, never mind . . .
— Lightning 
10 Ways to Recognize the Innovators in Your Organization
1. Innovators think there is a better way.
2. Innovators know that without passion there can be no innovation.
3. Innovators embrace change to a fault.
4. Innovators have a strong point of view but know that they are missing something.
5. Innovators know innovation is a team sport.
6. Innovators embrace constraints as opportunities.
7. Innovators celebrate their vulnerability.
8. Innovators openly share their ideas and passions, expecting to be challenged.
9. Innovators know that the best ideas are in the gray areas between silos.
10. Innovators know that a good story can change the world.
Twitter: 2009-12-21
- Never Say Never: http://bit.ly/75vYNw #
- r @eddiepepitone: my grandmother was such a beautiful woman, so beautiful, unfortunately she was killed by people I owe money to. #
Twitter: 2009-12-20
- r @Lileks: Dear retailers of America: the sooner you realize you don't need my home phone number, the happier we'll all be. #
A Good Hire
As my son and I were driving past South Coast Plaza, we saw a woman holding a cardboard sign that read “UNEMPLOYED AND DESTITUTE. Any Help is Appreciated.”
“She’s got a good vocabulary,” I said to the boy. “Someone should hire her.”
Drop an Assumption
What If They Cost Money?
David Brooks declares “we spend too much on health care” (on NPR) then demands “innovation” and “new technologies.” What if they cost money?
Advice for Teenage Boys
There are three things you need to be careful about: drugs, alcohol and girls. Especially girls.
I have so many things I could say to my own son about girls but after preparing my whole speech I realized it all boiled down to two main points:
- Don’t be stupid.
- Manage your own time.
Let me say a few words about the second point.
Anyone who cares about you will want you to follow your dreams, follow your goals. Any girl who objects to the time you put in to do that because it takes away from the time you spend with her, stay away from her. HUGE red flag.
The first point is explained in this video:
Twitter: 2009-12-18
- RT @capricecrane: "Twitter" was the most used word of 2009. Numbers two and three were "I'm" and "broke." #
- RT @Aimee_B_Loved: Sometimes I drive between lanes and pretend my car is Pacman gobbling up the dashed lines. #
- RT @FakeAPStylebook: Use "can of whup-ass" only, as whup-ass is not sold in jars, squeeze tubes or resealable bags. #
- RT @RogervonOech: Never state a problem to yourself in the same terms as it was brought to you. [More at:]
http://j.mp/cthirsh # - RT @HarvardBiz: Government Health Care: Like the Postal Service? http://bit.ly/4IzozI #
- RT @capricecrane: I don't know how your car got dented. Maybe it's God saying you shouldn't have cut me off for that parking space. Or me. #
- RT @diablocody: Eating a gingerbread house for breakfast. A new low. #
- RT @capricecrane: According to Billboard: "Nickelback: 'Band of the decade.'" That's all. Enjoy the apocalypse. #
- RT @TheOnion: "Why do all the girls I like think of me as just a friend? And why isn't there a term to describe that relationship?" -Plato #
I Am a Programmer
They were like spectators. You had a feeling they had just wandered in there themselves and somebody had handed them a wrench. There was no identification with the job. No saying, “I am a mechanic.” At 5 P.M. or whenever their eight hours were in, you knew they would cut it off and not have another thought about their work. They were already already trying not to have any thoughts about their work on the job.
We had a manager’s meeting today on the subject of employee recognition. The text we were given to read in preparation for the meeting was indistinguishable from a handbook on training your new puppy:
Behavior which is reinforced is usually repeated. . . . You risk extinguishing the positive behavior by not recognizing it. . . . Provide compliments in a timely fashion, as soon as possible after the event occurs.
That seems demeaning to me and it trivializes the work. I like to be recognized as a person who does good work but I also want to be recognized as someone who cares about his work. I know better than anyone when my work is good and when it isn’t. I’m not looking for pats on the head.
I said in the meeting that I’d rather try to motivate people by giving them the opportunity to do great work, to have some choices about what that work is, and to become the person they’ve always wanted to be.
I pointed out that we’re giving up our youth, our family — everything we hold dear — to come in to work every day, and if the work isn’t worth doing well for its own sake, then it’s a pretty poor exchange.
“We come to work to make money,” Manager A said, as though explaining something very obvious.
“We should sell off our lives one day at a time to the highest bidder?” I asked. “That seems like a good idea to you?”
“Do you really believe the things that come out of your mouth?” Manager B asked.
Manager C stated that in “the real world,” 99 percent of the people he knows are working their jobs for the money and, financial considerations aside, would rather be doing something else with their lives.
The highest-paying job I ever had — before or since — I quit after eight months. I didn’t have another job to go to; I just hated going in there in the morning and I couldn’t wait to go home in the afternoon. I never got a chance to do anything I enjoyed or anything I was good at.
I’m not doing this stuff to get rich. I am a programmer.
Thus spoke The Programmer.
Let Us Pray We Choose Wisely
President Obama told ABC News’ Charles Gibson in an interview that if Congress does not pass health care legislation that will bring down costs, the federal government “will go bankrupt.”
He failed to mention that if Congress does pass ObamaCare, the country will also go bankrupt, only faster . . .
Girls Will Mess You Up
Tiger Woods and Chris Henry are just the latest examples.
“Your role model,” I say to my son, “should be that guy in the Miller Lite commercial who saves his beer and lets his girlfriend drop off a cliff.”
DogPoopBags.com
“What kind of work do you do?” someone asks you.
“I’m a web developer,” you reply.
“How interesting! What site do you work on?”
“It’s just a small site. You wouldn’t have heard of it.”
“Oh I’m on the web a lot. I may have seen it. What’s it called?”
In a barely audible voice, halfway between a mumbling cough and a coughing mumble, you say, “DogPoopBags.com.”
“Ha ha ha — for a second there I thought you said DogPoopBags.com. I . . . uh . . . oh, sorry.”
A Project Management Question
Which is better:
A. Telling a project stakeholder that his good idea is never going to happen?
B. Letting him think it is going to happen when it isn’t?
Dad Is Not Nuts
As part of a family discussion, my mom names the three members of our extended family whom she considers to be nuts.
My sister adds two more people to the list, including my dad.
“No, Dad is not nuts,” my mom says, “although he gets along well with the nuts.”
My dad says to me, “That’s the best compliment I’ve ever had from this family.”
“That you’re not nuts?” I ask.
“That’s right.”