Originally uploaded by Dunechaser.
Four Questions to Ask a Hiring Manager
I’m rereading parts of The Psychology of Computer Programming and I notice that several of Weinberg’s “food for thought” questions at the end of each chapter would be good questions to pose to a hiring manager:
- How long have you been in charge of your present group? How many of the original people remain? How many people have left and what were the reasons for their departure? What sort of provisions do you make for this kind of turnover?
- Describe the sequence of work planned for your current project. Is the actual work proceeding according to the original plan? Do you expect it to continue in this manner?
- How close is your progress reporting scheme to the reality of the work that goes on? What checks do you have to find out if it corresponds to reality?
- What is your impression of what motivates your staff? Is it the same for all of them?
How Did Peopleware Become a Best-Seller?
I don’t know how Peopleware became a best-seller. . . . I hardly run into any managers who read about their industry, management theory, or psychology, period. I used to believe that they were overloaded with information regarding the specifics of their job, but frankly, managers still aren’t trained, or do not educate themselves, to do their jobs.
Mozart for Muslims
A German opera house announced that it would cancel its staging of Mozart’s “Idomeneo” because Berlin police concluded that staging the opera — which includes a scene in which Jesus, Buddha, Poseidon and Muhammad are beheaded — would pose an “incalculable security risk” from jihadists. Germany, recall, proudly opposed the Iraq war — but still narrowly missed a Spain-style terrorist attack on its rail system this summer.
A leading Muslim spokesman in Germany explained that he was all for free speech, as long as it didn’t offend Muslims. The Germans’ all-too-typical appeasement of terrorism no doubt makes them “safer” and “creates” fewer terrorists.
And all it cost them — for now — is Mozart.
Lucasfilm Donates $175 Million to USC
Gift continues filmmaker George Lucas’ long-standing support of educational initiatives at his alma mater.
The Poster Boy for Self-Aggrandizement
Sweet Jesus, I followed a link to another Tom Peters e-paper this afternoon: The “PSF” is Everything (or: Making the Professional Service Firm a “Lovemark” in an Age of “Managed Asset Reflation”)
After reading the title alone, I’d already overdosed on the trademark Peters abbreviations, coinages, scare quotes and extraneous punctuation. BUT . . . I have to admit I was curious about Managed Asset Reflation. What is that?
Here’s how Peters introduces the term in his Tourette’s-inspired style:
Hence the story that I read on 4 March 2004: Thailand’s Prime Minister, a businessman, Thaksin Shinawatra, on the day before had just opened “Bangkok Fashion City.” It’s a monster facility that aims to help make Thailand “cool” … to create Thai … LEADERSHIP IN FASHION! (Fashion = Cool = Value Added.) Economists have a way of sterilizing everything. And they managed to sterilize this one, too. The PM’s new economic approach (dubbed
“Thaksinomics,” after “Reaganomics”) amounted to what the local economists dubbed … “MANAGED ASSET REFLATION.”
Peters’ take on managed asset reflation?
(SCS.) (Seriously Cool Shit.)
To give you an idea of how out of touch Peters is with his surroundings: Thaksin took political corruption to new levels even by Thai standards, and last week was ousted in a military coup, thus bringing to an end the Seriously Cool Shit of Thaksinomics.
What the paper is really about, though, is what all of Peters’ work is about: Tom Peters.
He uses the word “I” 386 times, “me” 93 times, “my” 120 times, the phrase “Tom Peters” 11 times, and the neologism “Tom-message” once.
The poster boy for self-aggrandizement.
How NOT to Do a PowerPoint Presentation
Click on the photo to enlarge and feel the full horror.
Originally uploaded by Zach Graham.
Timeouts Considered Harmful
Mike Shanahan never calls a timeout to ice the kicker because Jason Elam let him in on a little secret among the kicking fraternity: most of them like the extra time to check out the conditions.
The article goes on to quote several other kickers who say the timeout gives them a chance to get out on the field, go through their whole routine, fix up the field if they need to, and generally improves their chances of making the kick.
Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell says that coaches fear being second-guessed if they don’t try to ice the kicker: “So I think a lot of coaches do that just for that reason, to clear their conscience on using all the timeouts.”
This confirms a theory of mine, that a lot of things coaches — in any sport — do during a game are just for the sake of being seen to have done something, are not only not helpful, but probably harmful.
Nelson Algren Goes to Hollywood
From a 1955 interview with Nelson Algren in The Paris Review:
INTERVIEWER: How about this movie, The Man with the Golden Arm?
ALGREN: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: Did you have anything to do with the script?
ALGREN: No. No, I didn’t last long. I went out there for a thousand a week. and I worked Monday, and I got fired Wednesday. The guy that hired me was out of town Tuesday.
Unrequited Love
I fell in love with a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel at the Irvine dog park last night. I kept showing off, trying to get her to play with me, but she just wanted to sit by her owner. When they left, I sat and stared out at the parking lot for a while . . .
P.S. I’m over it now though.
— Lightning 
The Overachiever
We’re celebrating my dad’s 70th birthday at Buca di Beppo in Brea.
“How’s Casey doing in school?” my dad asks. “Is he a 4.0 student?”
The boy, who’s sitting right there, says, “I’m a lot higher than that.”
“How can you be higher than 4.0?” I ask him.
“I’m an overachiever,” he says.
“You’re an overachiever?” my dad says.
“Yes, sir.”
The Greatest Golf Photo Ever
The facial expression on the guy in the back is priceless.
Tequila!
Danny Flores, composer of “Tequila,” a huge hit for the Champs in 1958, has died. He was 77.
Flores died in Westminster, about 20 miles from where I live in Irvine. He had been suffering for years from Parkinson’s disease.
He made about $70,000 a year from the European rights to “Tequila” but in one of those “seemed like a good idea at the time” moves that you kick yourself for later, he had long since signed away the rights to U.S. royalties, an error in judgment that the Register attributed to the fact that Flores was — wait for it — a heavy drinker in the early days of the band.
Boo Hoo! The President Made My Income Go Down
Under Mr. Bush and the Republican Congress, incomes today are $1,000 less for the typical household than during Bill Clinton’s final year in office; incomes for the typical working-age household have declined every year since the president took office.
BOO HOO HOO! The President made my income go down.
I’ve never understood the mechanism behind the president or Congress making my income go up or down. Can someone explain that to me?
You know who I think makes my income go up or down? ME! I’ve made decisions that made my income go UP, and I’ve made decisions that made my income go DOWN.
Who is the target audience for this tripe? People who want to believe they have no control over their own lives? People who need to blame all their problems on others?
It’s always someone else’s fault. It’s my boss’s fault, it’s my spouse’s fault, it’s the president’s fault . . .
Look in the mirror, you schlubs!
What a dismal vision of America. Elect some Democrats, you sorry losers! Oh, and we won’t be fighting terrorists in Iraq anymore. We’ll be fighting them in the streets of major American cities.
He’s not exactly Winston Churchill, is he?
Never Give In
Never give in. Never give in; never, never, never, never. In matters great or small, large or petty, give in only to convictions of honor and good sense.
Systematic Suppression of Creative Genius
How many artists are there in the room? Would you please raise your hands.
FIRST GRADE: En mass the children leapt from their seats, arms waving. Every child was an artist. SECOND GRADE: About half the kids raised their hands, shoulder high, no higher. The hands were still. THIRD GRADE: At best, 10 kids out of 30 would raise a hand, tentatively, self-consciously. By the time I reached SIXTH GRADE, no more than one or two kids raised their hands, and then ever so slightly, betraying a fear of being identified by the group as a ‘closet artist.’ The point is: Every school I visited was participating in the systematic suppression of creative genius.
Two People Sorry They Bet on Baseball
Barbie Speaks
I’m listening to an online interview with Kent Beck, Cynthia Andres and Tom DeMarco. My son hears Andres’ voice and says, “You’ve got a woman teaching you about technology?!”
“What a sexist you are,” I say.
“I’m just repeating what you always say: ‘Oh, women don’t know anything about computers.'”
“When did I ever say that?”
“You say it all the time. ‘Men are a lot smarter than women.'”
I deny this vehemently, and not just because my wife is sitting across the room.
Meanwhile, Andres is saying something: Blah blah blah Kent blah blah blah . . .
“Ken!?” the boy says. “Who’s advising you? Barbie?”
The Age of Cynicism
I bought a bagel this morning from the company cafeteria, as I often do.
“$1.08,” the woman at the register said.
I noticed she had a new haircut. Not to hit on her or anything, but I thought it looked good and said so.
“It’s still $1.08,” she said.
There’s entirely too much cynicism in the world . . .
The Favor of Ending
[S]tories hold power because they convey the illusion that life has purpose and direction. Where God is absent from the lives of all but the most blessed, the writer, of all people, replaces that ordering principle. Stories make sense when so much around us is senseless, and perhaps what makes them most comforting is that, while life goes on and pain goes on, stories do us the favor of ending.