Action Figure Daniel

Author: Daniel

  • 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

  • “The Hedgehog, The Fox and the Magister’s Pox” by Stephen Jay Gould

    Gould discusses how the conflicts between science and the humanities (religion) are fabricated to put an illogical conflict that should not exist and only drags down both. Instead, science and the humanities should learn to work together. The humanities pride themselves on having one single tactic that works (the method of the hedgehog) while the sciences pride themselves on having a variety of tactics that work (the method of the fox) and that both should learn from each other in order to propel their respective studies into the future. The Magister’s Pox was the method of creating the conflict so that they could remain in control.

    Interesting tidbit: Gould argues an unusual point for a scientist: that the perfection of the earth and the biosphere should do more to prove that there is a God than anything short of actually seeing Him. Evolution has one of two possibilities: that nature figured out how to do things by its self or that God put things into such a perfect organization and alignment that He did not need to continually intervene.

  • 200th post!

    This is my 200th post! Not a huge bunch mark, but I like to think of my previous 199 post as a (mostly) healthy contribution to society in general.

    I was just going to leave this post at the above, but decided to post something a little extra:

  • “Time, Love, Memory” by Jonathan Weiner

    This book is a history of the fascinating evolution of the field of molecular biology, particularly the ground breaking work of Seymour Benzer. It was interesting to note that this field has been growing so quickly that few students in the field today have heard of Benzer or his fruit fly experiments.

    Interesting tidbit: all fruit flies, and most other animals, have a built in “rest” mechanism that tries to put them to sleep in the afternoon. They think this is to encourage us to survive the afternoon heat and thus be more productive in life.