Action Figure Daniel

Author: Daniel

  • “The Man Who Lied to His Laptop” by Clifford Nass

    This book is an impressive collection of insights and studies gleaned by a consultant and professor over a long, long time. Most of the studies use some sort technological interaction to explore a human relational question (computers are a lot easier to control that people). For example, one studied compared how well happy or sad people worked with computers that were happy or sad (happy people prefer working with the happy computers while sad people prefer working with sad computers). Much like “The Shallows” by Nicholas Carr and “Switch” by Chip and Dan Heath, this books is a good read and then good again for reference because there are so many good studies presented.

    Interesting tidbit: negative experiences cause “retroactive interference” to our memories; we have a hard time remembering what happened immediately before the bad experience. After the negative experience, however, our memories are increased beyond normal clarity. This is why often survivors of a bad accident cannot remember what caused it but can tell you, in great detail, everything that happened immediately after it.

     
     
     

    Reading notes

    • Evaluation is a natural state of the human brain
      • We are wired to constantly evaluate other
      • We interpret most things we are told as judgement
    • We typically perceive neutral to be a negative
      • Think NPS, being promoted is a success everything else is a degree of failure
    • People generally get joy from flattery even when they know it is not genuine
    • We tend to disregard criticism that we do not agree with, but still obsess over it for days
    • Ideally, you can present a few negative items then a long list of positive items so they end up feeling good and remembering well
    • Effective feedback is accepted feedback, not necessarily accurate feedback.
    • How to criticize effectively:
      • When criticized, we enter an action oriented state: fight, flight, or, ideally, guidance to improve.
      • Give specific details rather than broad advice
      • Break the bad news, let them ask some questions, then take a short break before talking again; This will let them gather their thoughts
    • Telling someone something should be easy for them tends to cheapen their experience
    • Praise for taking on challenges and addressing criticism helps foster a growth mindset
    • Sharing an evaluation of someone tilts everyone else’s perception in the same direction, even if they know you are biased
    • Negativity is perceived as smart, profound, and genuine where positivity is seen as superficial

  • “Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell

    As things begin building, they come to a point where a small extra effort pushes it over the brink. He uses a series of examples to show how three things come together to create a tipping point, for example: Connectors, Mavens and Salespeople. The Connectors keep in contact with a broad variety of people. They do not necessarily know much nor are they really good at convincing people to do things, but they can connect a people from very different walks of life. The Mavens stockpile information. Where the Connector works to stay in contact with people, the Mavens gather information so they can share it with other people. Salespeople do what the Mavens cannot do, convince people. When things reach the tipping point, these three types of people get together. The Connectors are able to connect a Maven (who knows stuff) with Salespeople (who can convince people to ‘buy’ the Mavens ‘product’, whatever it be) and things can take off.

    Interesting tidbit: William Dawes rode on the same mission as Paul Revere, but because he was not a good Connector, Dawes was only able to arouse the two individuals he was assigned to where Revere was able to awaken the whole countryside.

  • Whoever was working on Australia got lazy

    I was reading A Fragile Balance by Christopher Dickman and Rosemary Woodford Gany–okay, reading is a bit of a stretch… I was looking at the pictures in  A Fragile Balance and started to realize that Australia has a lot of animals that look like kangaroos. I have known for several years that Australia has kangaroos and wallaby, but never realized that they also have wallaroo, potoroo bettong, pademelon, dorcopsis and quokka all of which look like close friends of the kangaroo. It is almost as if who ever was in charge of animals in Australia got lazy just tweaked the kangaroo frame over and over again.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallaby
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallaroo
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potoroo
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bettong
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pademelon
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorcopsis
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quokka

  • IF(CHECK == RUN_DATE)

    I have been writing a lot of scripts for Google Docs at work lately, mostly because I have finally learned how to do more advanced scripting than I had done previously. The Admin office had requested a script that ran once a month, towards the end of the month, to notify them of the upcoming birthdays and insurance eligibility. The script itself was very similar to one I wrote for the Customer Service office so this one was not too hard. The bigger challenge, oddly enough, was not the script but the timer. They only wanted it ran once a month but Google only has built in timers for Minute, Hour, Day and Week. I wrote the script and puzzled over how I was going to get it  to run monthly. Then it struck me: No one cared how often the script ran as long as it only sent out emails once a month. With this in mind the solution was simple: IF(CHECK_DATE == RUN_DATE)–in other words: if today’s date happens to be the 26th then run the script. I set the script to run daily and now it runs for a second to compare dates and 29 days a month (actually, 30 some months and 27 or 28 for one month depending on the year) the script does nothing. But on that one special day it works its magic.

    Where was I going with this? Oh, I remember. Sometimes I get so focused on the vision of how I think things should work that I forget that the how (in most cases) is far less important than the accomplished end goal. In Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink he talks about how the military used to write incredibly articulated orders that were intended to cover every action to be taken by the soldiers. They found that these orders were nearly useless once the fighting started. The military phased out these verbose orders and replaced them with what they call the “Command Intent” (CI). The CI tells every level of the command structure, in short concise language, the single most important goal. Note that the CI is ONE goal, not several goals. This is because as soon as you start interlacing various objectives you water down the entire purpose of the CI: your soldiers no longer have a singular focus. Coupled with the CI there may be additional orders that clarify and flesh out the CI with additional goals and preferred outcomes but the CI removes all ambiguity as to what success looks like. Something like:

    Command Intent: Build a bridge to move tanks across the river.

    Additional Information: We would prefer that the bridge be a far north as possible and in a location that will allow for quick access to roads on both the east and the west sides while providing a strong defense position.

    Note how the preferences do not cloud the CI (by the way, I made up those commands just as an example, Gladwell includes better examples in his book). The CI tells us that the commanders will be happy if there is a bridge that support tanks. They would be elated if the other conditions were also met, but they will be happy with the bridge. The magic of this type of ordering is that the soldiers who are actually running the bridging equipment and playing in the forests with the enemy can work out where the most effective position will be instead of a commander in a distant office. In the end, the commander really does not care where the bridge is as long as he can get his tanks across. Another advantage is that everyone knows what the overall objective is and if the see one group struggling, they can quickly step in and assist. Before it was “our orders are to stay here and guard nothingness” and now it is “we need to get the bridge built, what can we do to help”. This creates a more efficient use of resources, one that can quickly adapt to environmental changes (like ants in an ant nest as in
    Quorum Sensing (or Natural Leadership Vetting).

    In the context of this script, I was too focused on the mechanics of running a script monthly instead of the Command Intent of monthly emails. After realizing that the intent was to get monthly emails and that it did not matter how often the script ran, the needed course of action seemed obvious.

    Sometimes express direction is needed, and indeed critical, but I am finding it more often that such directions only cloud the judgement and creativity of the individuals by forcing them to do it my way instead of allowing them to learn and grow by doing it there way.

  • “The Shallows” by Nicholas Carr

    A thorough examination of the topic: “What is the Internet doing to our brains?” Carr pulls together a broad range of experiences, reports and research studies to evaluate, though not necessarily draw conclusions, of how our use of computers, and particularly our use of the internet, is literally reshaping our brains. There is a lot of good material in this book, including some ideas on how to enhance your brain.

    Interesting tidbit: when reading off of a paper, our eyes are drawn line by line, row to row in a zig-zag fashion (left to right, top to bottom). When reading off an electronic display (e.g. computer, phone, tablet, etc.) our eyes are drawn across the first line of the page, down the left side until the half way point, across the half way point and then down the left side to the bottom of the page (in an “F” shaped pattern). This means, as proved in numerous studies, that students learn and retain more from an actual book than from electronic books. Which is almost ironic to consider how hard schools are pushing ebooks on their students that will inherently result in slower, more difficult learning.


    (Note: these patterns are for the Latin-based world, which is English, French, German, etc. Arabic and other language bases have their own distinct patterns that the eyes follow.)

    Detailed notes

    • Technology literally changes our thinking over time
    • Technology can extend our strength, extend our senses, reshape the world, and extend our or alter our thinking
    • Clichés were designed to ease memory
    • New media always reallocates old medium
    • Using the internet starts rewiring the brain within a few hours of use
      • This is helped in part because computers are, almost, a full-body experience for reward-response engagement
      • Browsing the internet can help old minds stay intact
    • We literally pause, for the briefest moment, every time we come across a link to determine if we should click or not
    • We build long-term memory schemas through experience
    • Unique events live in isolation but become connected overtime with similar events
    • Book reading provides a slow, steady drip of information, letting us move the information from working-memory to long-term memory with ease
    • Videogame playing increasing one’s abilities to shift eye focus and identify object in a field of view
    • IQ scores have been rising over time (basically since tests were created) however, this is more likely because things we think are “intelligent” began to permeate society; we think in ways better aligned with the test
      • Other “smart” results have been dropping (for example math and language skills)
    • The cheaper information is, the more we can afford to accumulate, the more money Google makes through ads
    • Removing thoughts from the context of their books is to dismantle comprehensive thought
    • Memorizing strengthens our mental skills
    • The connecting of memories is thinking
    • “We shape our tools but thereafter they shape us.”
    • Tools alienate us from the portion of nature that they enhance