Author Archives:

Ineluctable, Word of the Day

Posted on by Four Hewes

I found “ineluctable” today while reading Frank Bruni‘s Op-Ed piece, “Sexism’s Puzzling Stamina“.

I love the word, but in his use, was not certain of it’s meaning. I decided it would be today’s word:

We’re listening to Saxby Chambliss, a senator from Georgia, attribute sexual abuse in the military to the ineluctable “hormone level” of virile young men in proximity to nubile young women.

I thought it shared it’s roots with “elocution”, from the latin “eloqui” meaning “speak out” (as “eloquence” does). Ah ha! No, its another species, also latin, from “eluctari” or “struggle out.”

 

From Webster’s New American Dictionary

  • ineluctable
    • ˌiniˈləktəbəl
      • adjective
      • unable to be resisted or avoided; inescapable : the ineluctable facts of history.
      • DERIVATIVES
        • ineluctability |-ˌləktəˈbilitē
          • noun
        • ineluctably |-blē
          • adverb
      • ORIGIN
        • early 17th cent.: from Latin ineluctabilis,
        • from in- ‘not’ + eluctari ‘struggle out.’
  • elocution
    • ˌeləˈkyoō sh ən|
      • noun
      • the skill of clear and expressive speech, esp. of distinct pronunciation and articulation.
      • a particular style of speaking.
    • DERIVATIVES
      • elocutionary
        • -ˌnerē|
        • adjective
      • elocutionist |-ist
        • noun
    • ORIGIN
      • late Middle English (denoting oratorical or literary style):
      • from Latin elocutio(n-),
      • from eloqui ‘speak out’ (see eloquence).
  • eloquence
    • ˈeləkwəns|
    • noun
    • fluent or persuasive speaking or writing : a preacher of great power and eloquence.
    • the art or manner of such speech or writing.
    • ORIGIN
      • late Middle English: via Old French
      • from Latin eloquentia,
      • from eloqui ‘speak out,’
      • from e- (variant of ex-) ‘out’ + loqui ‘speak.’

Chauncey Wilson’s new book on (corporate) group ideation

Posted on by Four Hewes

The inimitable Chauncey Wilson has a new book on ideation: ”Brainstorming and Beyond: A User-Centered Design Method” ($30).

How has your team come by its favoriate ideation techniques?

How does your organization’s culture influence the viability, the validity of proven – and approved – ideation techniques?

 

From the publisher’s precis:
Brainstorming and Beyond describes the techniques for generating ideas verbally, in writing, or through sketches. … brainstorming, the foundation method for ideation … a complex social process that is often flawed in ways that are not self-evident. … Brainwriting … which each person writes ideas down on paper and then passes the paper to a new person who reads the first set of ideas and adds new ones. …. Brainwriting is useful when time is limited, groups are hostile, or you are dealing with a culture where shouting out wild or divergent ideas might be difficult. Finally, … Braindrawing, a method of visual brainstorming that helps practitioners generate ideas for icons, other graphics, user interface layouts, or Web page designs. Each of these methods provides readers with ways to generate, present, and evaluate ideas so they can begin building a strong foundation for product success.
ISBN-10: 0124071570
ISBN-13: 978-0124071575
Publication date: February, 2013

Great word: echelon

Posted on by Four Hewes

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

|ech·e·lon|

Noun

\ˈe-shə-ˌlän\

  1. a (1) : an arrangement of a body of troops with its units each somewhat to the left or right of the one in the rear like a series of steps (2) : a formation of units or individuals resembling such an echelon <geese flying in echelon> (3) : a flight formation in which each airplane flies at a certain elevation above or below and at a certain distance behind and to the right or left of the airplane ahead
    b : any of several military units in echelon formation; also : any unit or group acting in a disciplined or organized manner <served in a combat echelon>
  2. a : one of a series of levels or grades in an organization or field of activity <involved employees at every echelon>
    b : a group of individuals at a particular level or grade in an organization <the upper echelons of the bureaucracy>

EXAMPLES

the lower echelons of the bureaucracy

We heard stories of corruption in the upper echelons of the firm.

ORIGIN

French échelon, literally, rung of a ladder, from Old French eschelon, from eschele ladder, from Late Latin scala

First Known Use: 1796

To design quickly, design openly

Posted on by Four Hewes

Ryan Singer‘s SVN post, “Designing in the open“, from 2011 is still relevant.

He is right: designing “in secret” is unproductive.

The valuable remark*: “Instead of asking for 10 changes and waiting a week, you can ask for 1 change and wait 15 minutes.”

As with so much improvement, design leadership can be a powerful, simple catalyist:

Whoever is managing the project or directing it can ask for smaller, more frequent steps.

Instead of asking for 10 changes and waiting a week, you can ask for 1 change and wait 15 minutes.

…the set of constraints and motivating concerns is smaller. The design is easier to talk about because there are a fewer factors involved.

This is much the same attitude as SaleForce’s George Hu expressed in his New York Times Corner Office interview this week.

Q. What behavior do you have a low tolerance for?

A. I call it “going into your cave.” I might say to somebody: “I’d like you to assess whether this idea makes sense, but don’t go into a cave.” And what I mean is, don’t go off for three months and work on this detailed analysis. Because that’s not how things get done. … We’ll make much more progress that way, and it will be a lot more fun, too.

Outside of espionage or surprise, there is no inherent reason to work in secret.

Design which perennially hampered by it’s popular reputation as a magical, “creative” act, is especially susceptible to this treatment.

*However, I completely disagree with the author’s pop psychology touchy-feely approach. It’s just not that deep. It’s simply about the production process. Smaller steps move along the design toward done (or final approval) faster. By cloaking his idea is mumbo jumbo about confidence, maturiaty, shame and power, he distracts from productive process, which is enough reason to change one’s design approach.

Citations
“Designing in the open”, by Ryan Singer, 37signals, May 25th, 2011

http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2928-designing-in-the-open

“Using Just One Word, Try to Describe Your Career DNA”, By Adam Bryant, New York Times, April 18th, 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/business/salesforcecom-executive-on-seeking-out-challenges.html

In one word, what is your career?

Posted on by Four Hewes

Today, The New York Times’s Adam Bryant interviewed George Hu, COO, Salesforce, for their column, Corner Office.

Hu asks job applicants, “How would you describe who you are, in the core of your DNA, in one word?”. (His own answers are below.)

Great question! Can you distill your work identity to a single word? My answer: “leader”. Earlier in my career my answers would have been, “Designer”, “Problem-solver”, “Translator”. While I still am those. In the last two years I have recognized that most people I work with (both clients and my team) do not feel comfortable having overall responsibility.

At the same time, I recognized that I, on the otherhand, am most engaged in my work when I take on responsibility for more than my own work. It bring out my best resources and motivates me to work hard and keep my eye on the ball.

~~~~~~~

With friends and family we often start our day’s conversation by asking, “what is the caption?” as a way of getting the other person to drop the minutea of their day and share the pith.

The one-word format intrigues me. In today’s “Brand You” career culture we talk often go on and on about ourselves in great depth, making sure to mention every aspect of our skills and accomplishments. What’s the caption?

Hu asks, “who are you?” What can we learn by answering, “what do you make?”

My question, “How would you describe what you do, in the core of your DNA, in one word?”

For me, it’s, “Products”.

For you?

And if you had two words to encapsulate your career?

~~~~~~~

Using Just One Word, Try to Describe Your Career DNA, by Adam Bryant, New York Times, Thursday, April 18th, 2013

Interview Questions

  • You worked your way up from intern to chief operating officer at Salesforce in a decade. Where did you get your drive?
    • My parents gave me a lot of freedom, which actually allowed me to find myself.
    • One early trait: I always tried to do the thing that people said I couldn’t do, or was off-limits.
  • How did you start your rise up the ranks at Salesforce?
    • The Salesforce C.E.O. wrote, “We’re having some problems in Europe.” I talked to 20 people, did an analysis and sent it to him. He said, “I want you to tell me what’s wrong with the company.”
    • My advice: Don’t solve the problem that your manager or your boss tells you to solve. Solve the problem that either they don’t know they have, or solve the problem they know they have but nobody is solving.
  • That was a bold move.
    • If I think I have a good idea, I just can’t help sharing
  • What do you do to spur innovation?
    • We sort and filter up great ideas and execute the really good ones.
  • What are some unusual things about Salesforce’s culture?
    • On internal social network employees can rant about anything.
  • What else?
    • We ensure we are always communicating and aligning.
    • Every year, the management presents the business plan to every employee worldwide: The values and the 10 most important things we’re going to do
    • This is V2MOM (vision, values, methods, obstacles and measures).
    • Any employee can see what I’m supposed to get done that year.
  • How do you hire?
    • I ask “why” a lot, to learn what motivated people to make the decisions they made throughout their career.
    • A bias toward people in an organization for more than five or six years.
    • I force people to prioritize things
  • What behavior do you have a low tolerance for?
    • Responding to a request with a three month-long detailed analysis
  • What other career advice do you give people?
    • Answer “the core of your DNA, in one word?”
    • Know who you are, and really understand what you’re exceptional at.
  • How would you answer that question?
    • “Analyst,” then “Problem-solver.” Today, “Leader.”

Teaching children how to find justice by speaking with empathy and frank honesty.

Posted on by Four Hewes

An article in this week’s NYT reports on an Oakland, California public high school’s restorative justice program.

It shows reflection and dialogue given a place in the public school culture of rules, control, punishment, telling (not listening), and proscribed relationships of each type of actor: student, administrator, child, adult, and so on.

The approach taking root in 21 Oakland schools, and in Chicago, Denver and Portland, Ore., tries to nip problems and violence in the bud by forging closer, franker relationships among students, teachers and administrators.

It challenges young people ”to develop empathy for one another”.

Very much like Quaker elementary school education.

Opening Up, Students Transform a Vicious Circle

By Patricia Leigh Brown, New York Times, April 3rd, 2013

Ten Slides:  Defusing Conflict in Schools

Ooomf looks interesting

Posted on by Four Hewes

I just came across Ooomf, a marketplace for short software projects who’s participants are invited.

Looks promising:

Connecting awesome mobile & web projects withhandpicked developers, designers, & copywriters.

They claim an average of 5 leads per project.

• You’ll reach 500+ handpicked developers, designers, and copywriters.

• Manually curated projects

• An average project budget of $3900

• Projects last 3 weeks or less

From the Ooomf Manifesto:

What’s wrong with the current systems is they tend to pit independent professionals against one another, ultimately landing on price as the determining factor for who wins a contract. This teaches the wrong behavior – that driving the price of a project down is good, so long as you can find someone that get’s the job done, nothing more. This doesn’t necessarily lead to innovation in the resulting products, but rather, mediocrity.
Follow them (@ooomf) for more news and details.

Engineering & Endurance Running

Posted on by Four Hewes

What is the place of engineering in endurance sports? In running?

This past week I registered for this year’s Mount Washington Road Race. “Only one hill” they like to say!

So, I have some training in front of me. Until now I haven’t put any 2013 races on my calendar. There are great races locally and elsewhere, of course. In the past I’ve entered races that I could run with friends and that were available.

Anticipating this season I’ve held off because I’ve been re-thinking my approach to races – and to training. Any race is a good race, I have no hesitation to race. And any trail race is even better! This year I want to define more direction for my racing, so, what direction? Where do I want to go? So far I know this: long and up. My love of ultras remains strong. I have also decided that I need to spend more time on mountains.

In the past few years worked on some mountains and skied down some mountains. I have not climbed many, however. I need to do that.

Now that I have to run up the tallest mountain in the Northeast United States, its time to put my ideas into action. So, the questions: “how to race?” and “how to train?” are on my mind more acutely.

Time for an answer!

~~~ ~ ~~~

Last June Audi won the 2012 24 Hours of  Le Mans victory, it’s tenth victory in this French sportscar endurance classic.

Recently I watched the film “Truth in 24: every second counts” about Audi’s victory there. The film portrays the thrill of the race and the people of the Audi Sport team. I was struck by the breadth of expertise teams bring to the endurace racing endeavor. This is not just a race car driver and some mechanics.

The Mount Washington race isn’t twenty-four hours long, but does demand four thousand, six hundred and fifty feet of elevation gain over seven-point-six miles.

In the midst of thinking about racing I reflected more on the Le Mans race story and the Audi team. One role intrigued me: Race Engineer.

I’m not a motorsports fan, so this is a role that is new to me. For a race like Le Mans, a entrant campaigns more than one car. Audi campaigned three R18 e-tron quattros. So, the car =  team formula doesn’t hold. Each car has a team including drivers, and pit crew and this team is part of Audi’s whole race team. It turns out that the Race Engineer is really the leader of a car’s team. Audi Sport’s Race Engineer Leena Gade:

“I am responsible for the entire crew, mechanics, background engineers, assistant engineer. I’m in charge of that,” Gade said.

“Then you’ve got the drivers, the set-up of the car and the strategy side of things. I’m responsible for the final decisions on the race car. If a part on the car moves, changes temperature or changes pressure, I’m logging it. The collected information is then used by me to give instructions over a radio to the driver to help him maintain tires or maximise the engine performance for example. I’m the main contact to the driver.”…

Gade confirms what I saw in the film: the driver and the racecar are both guided by engineering. Yes, the design of the R18 is determined by engineering, of course. What struck me was how race decisions, both tactical and strategic, were by and large engineered.

~~~ ~ ~~~

Last week I had the rare opportunity to glimpse into another endurance sport: singlehanded ocean racing. I was invited to hear American solo ocean racer Bruce Schawb talk about his 2002-2003 Around Alone and 2008 Vendee Globe campaign. He, too, had a pit crew who monitored his boat, his route, weather, sails, hull performance.

Looking back to his story after seeing the account of Audi’s Le Mans campaign and thinking about preparation for my own upcoming races, I wonder if endurance runners could approach racing this way – assessing performance and guiding the their race decisions with engineering principles across the duration of the race.

Other questions arise from this idea:

  • Do any runners do this?
  • Is there an endurance race in which this is the common approach?
  • Is there competitive advantage to be gained from this approach?
  • From what companies would the money to fund a technical team come?
  • Do well-funded racing teams consider this? Nike? Salomon? Montrail? Any universities? Orienteering teams?
  • What engineering disciplines would be relevant? Gait? Nutrition? Biomechanics? Navigation?
  • Do racing rules allow live monitoring of racers? By voice, telecom or observation?
  • What factors might be candidates for engineering improvement and optimization?

I don’t yet have a picture of this. I will explore further.

 

And it occurred to me:

Only one hill

Posted on by Four Hewes

Seven and six tenths miles to the top.

Four thousand, six hundred and fifty feet of elevation gained…

 

—————————- Original Message —————————-

Subject: Mount Washington Road Race – Individual Invitational

From: confirmation@gorun.org

Date: Sun, March 17, 2013 10:37 pm

————————————————————————–

… Thank you for joining the Northeast Delta Dental Mount Washington Road Race. You will receive additional information and updates in your email as our event date nears.  … Updates will also be available at http://www.mountwashingtonroadrace.com

Got the HN shirt

Posted on by Four Hewes

I don’t pay daily attention to most of the twitter accounts I follow.

Yesterday I was busy and I didn’t see the latest post from @paulg until I hitting the hay: “Official Hacker News t-shirt (proceeds to @watsi_org)”. So this morning I made my order first thing.

I don’t wear t-shirts some much these days, who would take me seriously in a Hacker News polo!

I’m looking forward to my new threads!