Random thoughts and learning

Over the past year I have learned many important things I think are worth sharing.  Hopefully these tidbits will be worth something to others as well.

It takes exactly eight minutes to warm a bottle of homo (3.5%) milk.  Young parents have a whole new set of stresses to deal with but also a whole range of new assisting technology available too.  Automatic bottle warmers, network enabled video monitoring, and Internet help forums are only a few of the things I had wish I had twenty years ago. On the other hand, Internet bullies, social network predators, and infinite access to global information make guidance and parenting much more difficult.

School is overrated. When I entered my first round of post-secondary education nearly thirty years ago (*cringe*) the accepted and proven way to get ahead was to 1) get a degree, 2) get a good job with it and then 3) earn your way to the top through promotions in the classic way.  Boomers institutionalized that process, gen x accepted it, gen y rebelled against it and Millennials just bulldoze past it.  Today, the Internet and all its connected facilities make it possible for bright young entrepreneurs to bypass that old process.  They get an idea, then learn it, master it, and build a business out of it… often while they are still in high school.  The number of C-level executives in their twenties is impressive.  Note to Boomers and Gen X… the rules have changed.

It’s always a good day for a tutu. Seriously, life is too short to fill it with unfulfilling activities and stress.  Play.  Enjoy. Revel in life. Work does not have to be boring and oppressive. The most productive and successful people I know do not see their work as ‘work' at all.  When making a living is consuming your entire life, it is time for a change.

Power is shifting.  There is a global revolution going on through several fronts. The planet’s youth are all connected in spite of the establishment efforts to control communications.  The Internet cannot be contained – that ship has sailed, genie is out of the bottle.  Citizens in Beijing and London and Toronto and Kiev and Cape Town can share ideas, form alliances, and rebel in amazingly coordinated ways.  When companies do bad things they are no longer buried by corrupt media and governments.  The information is in the blogosphere within seconds and replicated instantly.  World governments, you no longer control the masses.   Individuals now have all the information, and information is power.

I’m only dancing.  Entire concepts of relationships have been shattered and re-imagined. You could put all kinds of labels on it but the fact is that labels are irrelevant to most of the twenty-something people I know.  They are much more focused on the concept of loving who you love and ignoring what the rest of the world wants to call it.  That level of free and open respect may take a while to catch on, but it is here and it is real.

The world is tiny and your friends are only a click away.  I thought I was progressive when I knew I had several on-line friends in other countries.  That is now old news.  Your teen aged children and a whole generation of ‘Millennials’ have friends all over the globe and don’t even know where they actually live.  Country borders are irrelevant and there is no real difference between on-line and off-line friends. 

Those are the highlights as I ramble out a stream of consciousness.  They may seem like random and disjointed thoughts but that is the other thing I have discovered… information happens in blobs, not streams.

Situational Awareness

The furnace guy was here yesterday.  Nice guy.  
Fixed up a few things and did a tune up.  No worries.  
Handed me a bill for $100 or so and all is good.

Then he says "Your ohms are a little high.  I read 4.3 and we normally like to see that under 4"

"... Um... ok... what does that mean to me?" I asked.  "Is that a bad thing?"

He looked at me like I was asking him to explain quantum mechanics.  Clearly we were already having a communication issue.  He seemed to be gathering up some patience to explain to me in simple words what that really meant and then said  "The resistance in the thermocouple in the furnace, it is a bit high so you should consider replacing it."

"Okay, thanks" I said " I still have no idea what that means.  Should I get you guys to replace it at the next service then?"

He smiled a bit, obviously happy he had gotten that through my thick skull.  "Yes, that would be good"

"Ah, okay then."  It seemed we were communicating in english again.

He finished up the credit card paperwork and as he was heading for the door he said "Oh, and the AFUE was at around .9 and I was able to get it up to .95 so that should help out a bit"

His proud smile did not change the fact that I had no clue what that meant.

"Great, I think.  What exactly does that mean?"  I was trying not to sound completely ignorant, but it was clear now that I was completely incompetent in the realm of the furnace repair gods.

"You should save about $20 a month in gas" he said, having finally stooped to my level, needing to reply in tiny words I could relate to.

"Oh, thanks, I appreciate it"



The lesson here is that people who work in a technical field tend to assume everyone knows their terminology and what it all means.  I have been working in the computer/software/electronics industry for a very long time and have seen this over and over and over everywhere I go.  One of the hardest things for a technically oriented person to do is translate complex concepts into terms that are consumable by people who are not so deeply involved in technical details.  This is what makes a good Sales Engineer very valuable to a sales organization. 

Translating complex technical concepts into business needs and strategic goals is a difficult skill to hone, but Project Managers, Implementation Engineers and Sales Engineers need to be very good at that in order to make sure the client has a clear understanding of what the technology will do for them as opposed to how it works under the hood.

In a former life, I made it a periodic exercise to have my engineering team watch out for this kind of thing in their daily personal interactions and it is amazing how much it happens.  The roofing guy assumes you know everything about the benefits of asphalt shingles over clay.  The car mechanic assumes you know the difference between "Dot-3" and "Dot-5".  The mortgage person assumes you know why GDS and TDS are different and how to calculate both.

When talking to your own customers it is no different.  The fact that a customer has been successful in business does not immediately imply that they have any clue *why*.  I have personally spoken with customers who have surprised me by not knowing some important technical details of how their business runs, but that is okay if they understand the business value it can bring them.  Trying to inject technical jargon into a conversation about business goals can be dangerous and inappropriate so it is important to always gauge the situation and the audience.

I have no idea how my furnace works, but "the furnace guy" did *something* to save me $20 a month and I am warm so I am also happy.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Ok, enough of that.  Lets get down to business.

I am going to agree wholeheartedly with a number of my friends in asserting the sentiment "don't just wish for a happy new year, make it happen".  Be the change you want to see, proactively engage, change the universe from your small corner of it.  Forward!

I'll start with this blog and focus more on the type of content I put in it as well as the audience it serves.  For the past several years, I have used this as a random outlet, but clearly readers are interested in helpful tidbits like Fixing my Keurig B60 coffee maker (22,800 hits) and  Nerf Gun Meeting Control (50,100 hits) so I will be posting much more of that type of content here.  If I can help people be more effective and self sufficient, I'll call that a win.

Next on this list is just to "live".  Going through the motions, earning a living, paying the mortgage is not enough.  Not for me, not for anyone.  I envy so many of the young people in my life who were raised in a time that was not entirely focused on "grow up, get a job, work hard, then die".  We all must play more.  Focus this year is on improving my golf game.

Another big focus this year will be to continue work supporting social change and the efforts of people in developing countries.  North Americans spend far too much time whining about first world problems when there are entire populations who need clean drinking water.  Forget the 1%... What can the 99% do to help each other?

I am planting a stake in the ground and marking this as a year of revolutionary change.  I see that on business, personal and social levels.  I will be a catalyst for change and societal norms will not get in my way.

As we say in Calgary, its time to Cowboy Up.  Hope you all come along for the ride.

A Christmas Story

Yusef ben Ya'akov was a carpenter in Natz'rat near the sea of Galilee.  He was a good man and a fine carpenter.  He was working when he first heard the decree from Rome that all citizens were to return to their family home to be counted.  For Yusef, that meant traveling to Bet Leḥem, the ancestral city of David.  It meant leaving his home in Natz'rat with his betrothed wife Miriam and walking to the city he had left a few years earlier far to the south.  Miriam, at the time was quite heavy with child and due to deliver in only a few weeks.

Miriam, daughter of Joachim left her home in Natz'rat with her betrothed husband shortly after the degree. Emperor Augustus required all citizens to return to their traditional family homes and since Miriam and Yusef were both of the house of David, they both needed to return to Bet Leḥem in Judea.  Traveling at this time would prove difficult as she was only weeks away from giving birth.

Yusef and Miriam could not make the long journey on foot so Yusef enlisted the donkey he had used for work to carry Miriam.  It was near the end of harvest now and in a few more weeks the weather would grow colder, so now was the best time to move. There was hostile land on the direct path, so they chose to take a safer route to the east, but that also took longer, even with one of them on the back of the donkey. It took a good 10 days of travel to reach Bet Leḥem, and they were glad to be done with the travel.

On their arrival, Yusef was able to locate a very small room to stay in.  It was tiny, and adjacent to the stable, where some shepherds had been staying at night. He was also able to find work to keep them fed while they waited for the census counters to mark them counted.  In the time that followed, Miriam gave birth to a son and they named him Yeshua as they had both been instructed in dreams.

One clear night several days after the Miriam gave birth, Yusef picked up the child from his bed of straw.  The days were getting colder and the stars we shining with a crisper edge.  He looked deep into Yeshua's eyes and whispered "You will be a strong boy and I will teach you to be a fine carpenter. You will build and mend, and you will be kind to all you meet."

How could he know, looking down at this tiny child, that hundreds of generations from now, in a land he had never heard of, people would call this child not Yeshua ben Yusef but  King of Kings, Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.


Merry Christmas.

Kickstart a Revolution

My love affair with KickStarter [http://www.kickstarter.com] began in early 2012 and was followed closely by a dive into IndieGoGo [http://www.indiegogo.com].  Both are revolutionary crowd funding resources with slightly different models and both are changing the world in ways you may not be aware of if you have not been following along.

Kickstarter is a business resource that is fantastic for new startups that would otherwise not have a chance at survival.  If you have an interesting idea that has an actual business plan and a solid product idea, but want to avoid venture capital, then Kickstarter nay be a good option.  Unlike traditional investment, funders do not normally get any ownership rights in the company or project.  Instead a kickstarter funder may get a t-shirt, or a special edition of the finished product and the satisfaction of knowing they helped get a new company off the ground.  In the past eighteen months, I have helped kickstart several projects including the following.

HackEDA
Unfortunately this project was one of the few that was not funded.  This would have been great for inventors and hardware hackers who need a circuit but don't want to deal with original design.  The core of the project is still located here [http://www.hackeda.com].

The ARKYD space telescope
This is one of my favourites.  Funders raised 50% more than the required amount to place a publicly accessible telescope in orbit.  Since I would not have a clue what to do with the time I paid for, I donated it all to the University of Calgary to assist the Astrophysics program.

Game Stick
Love my GameStick.  Yes this was funded and yes I got one of the Funder Edition models.  This may change gaming in big ways if it gets traction.  More than fifty six hundred funders raised over SIX TIMES the required $100,000 needed to launch the project.  Seriously, you have to go look at the Kickstarter page for this one [HERE].  A very powerful game console with cloud storage, online sales and it all fits in your pocket for about $80. Yes you heard correctly.  Go buy one.  [https://www.gamestick.tv]

Mine Kafon
Countries like Afghanistan are dotted with hidden minefields that have been left behind and pose a serious risk to people trying to reclaim the land.  The Mine Kafton saves lives as it blows around on wind power looking for old mines to explode.

PRONG - (AKA JuiceTank)
The JuiceTank combines an iPhone charger and a rugged case into one very handy accessory for your iPhone.  Got one and love it.

IndieGoGO is a little different.  If you have an idea, or some great cause, or generally anything you want to raise money for, IndieGoGo can help you get there.  Unlike Kickstarter, there are not the same strict rules or timelines on funding.  You can assist with typhoon relief, or help support an author writing a book.

One of my favourites, one I helped to fund, and the largest ever Indiegogo project is the Tesla Museum at Wardenclyffe.  In this project, Matthew Inman of "The Oatmeal" fame, raised nearly double the $850,000 goal to fund this project to build a museum dedicated to Nikola Tesla's life and work at the location of the Tesla Tower at Wardenclyffe.

Both of these crowdfund sources and the numerous lesser known ones, are fueling a revolution. Crowdfunding allows individuals with little personal power or political weight to raise awareness, get funding, and generate tremendous support for new ideas that would otherwise have been buried or forgotten.  Without Matthew Inman and the Indiegogo vehicle, the Wardenclyffe property may have fallen into the hands of developers and been turned into a mini-mall.  Without Massoud Hassani and Kickstarter, the Mine Kafton may have never been built.

Got an idea?  Maybe you don't need the massive investment capital you thought you needed.  Maybe crowdfunding can help fuel your revolution.

A boy and his dog

I picked up our dog's ashes from the cremation service today.  Just another chore on my Saturday "to-do" list.  A matter of process and procedure, right?  It's just a dog, right?

Asking for the box at the front counter was easy.  Filling out the paperwork was a piece of cake.  It's all just standard process, paperwork, payment.  Just another chore.  I carried her box of ashes out to my truck and put her on the back seat - and then it hit me.  I was putting her in the back seat of the truck for the last time ever.  It took at least 10 minutes to regain my composure so I could actually drive.

What's the big deal you say?  Why shell out another $200 for a cremation services after spending thousands in vet bills for years already?  It's just a dog right?  We can always get another one, right?

Lets put this into perspective for a minute, and there will be many people who can relate closely to this, I know I am not alone here.  Our Jersey Girl, this dog who was now ashes in a box in the back seat, had been part of our family for fourteen and a half years.  She was an old girl, and it was her time, and she went peacefully, but none of that rationale makes this any easier.  My wife and I have been married for nearly 30 years, and we have spent literally half that time with her in our family.  She spent more time sleeping in our bed than we did.  She helped care for a half dozen children who at one time or another called our house "home".  When a new puppy came into our lives a few years ago, she instantly adopted him and taught him how to be a good dog.  She was a teacher, a companion, a protector, and a friend.

Jersey was really my son's dog, and they both knew it to the end.  I cannot tell you how many times I walked out of the house and just before I closed the door, said to her, "Good dog, guard the house, protect the boy", and she did it so very well.  When he would go away for too long, she would curl up at his door or on his bed to make sure he was ok when he came home.

Protector, friend, companion, confidant, helper, and travel mate.  Pay $200 for cremation service to respectfully send her off?  Absolutely - without question.  So I put the box of ashes in the back seat and our Jersey Girl got to take one last ride in the truck - one of her favourite things to do.  

I will miss those truck rides.

Lean into fear

We all tend to avoid doing things because they seem too hard or too scary or too big.  In order to get anywhere, you need to lean into the fear and just start doing.  Toddlers learn to walk by first falling, they catch themselves falling and find they move forward.  Before you know it they are walking all over the place, one saved fall at a time.  They learn quickly to lean into the fear of falling, realizing they can catch themselves and turn it into a forward walk.  They turn failure into progress natively.  

That natural ability to lean into fear is beaten out of us through successive levels of schooling.  We are taught to follow the established rules for fear of punishment.  We are taught to draw inside the lines for fear of ridicule.  The society we have built is so entangled in the process of blindly accepting what we are taught that by the time we are old enough to venture out and become creative adult contributors, most of that unbound exploratory behaviour is deeply buried under rules, structure and fear.

The power entrepreneurs we adore all know this.  Gates and Jobs and Wozniak, Branson and Musk and Bezos and Benioff - these familiar names are in our homes and our lives because they ignored the commonly held paradigms around them and created something unusual and controversial - things that everyone said were crazy and would fail.  But not only they did not fail, their creations became the new norm.  These great thinkers were brave enough to lean into their fear, swim against the flow and power through with what they believed to be the right path regardless of what others said was "right" or "accepted".

The next time someone tells you your idea is too crazy or too unusual to succeed, lean into the fear and just do it.  You may possibly fail, but at least you will do so on your own terms and odds are that if you truly believe in something, it will succeed no matter how crazy everyone else says it is.