Hard Stuff is Sometimes Hard Stuff

Glen Alleman has a great little post about two ways to solve a problem (http://herdingcats.typepad.com/my_weblog/2016/10/making-hard-stuff-into-east-stuff.html)

The story about the mathematician who ‘reduced’ the problem to a known one is funny, and easily recognisable to software developers as well – solve part of the problem and hand the rest to a function library that knows how to solve the revised problem.  It is logically sound, even if impractical if taken to the extreme as in the story.

However, it may be too simplistic an example in the argument against #NoEstimates. If you were asked to estimate how long it would take to boil away a potful of water, you might think to revise the problem into looking up (or estimating) how long it would take to boil away a tablespoon of water, and then multiply that by the number of tablespoons of water contained in the pot. In this case, you have reduced the problem into multiple known ones.  All that’s left is to combine the results of the solved problem.  I don’t know for sure, but I suspect the actual time to vaporise the whole potful will take significantly longer than the sum.

Another thing that makes project estimating hard is the dissimilarity between projects (the ‘uniqueness’ of each project) -- it’s not always about boiling the same volume of water in the same pot. It’s boiling potentially a different volume of a different kind of liquid, using a different kind of pot, using a different kind of heat source, in an area with a different temperature and different air density, with different stakeholder requirements about governance and reporting of the progress.

Einstein–We Cannot Solve Problems With The Same Thinking…

When Einstein said “We cannot solve problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”, almost nobody takes this to mean that we need someone else to solve the problems created by another.

Book Notes: The Science of Success

The Science of Success: How Market-Based Management Built the World’s Largest Private Company by Charles G. Koch

Charles Koch, CEO of Koch Industries and son of Fred Koch, the founder of Koch Industries (originally Winkler-Koch), reflects on the principles and values embraced by Koch industries.  The author expounds on the strengths of the liberal approach to the market (liberal, as in ‘free market’, F.A. Hayek, von Mises, Milton Friedman).

This is a thoughtful reflection on how Koch developed and met its challenges. Not a lively read, brimming with common sense.

Some notes:

• The quotes at the beginning of each chapter is carefully selected and profound.  For example: “There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.”

Teamwork

Came across this advice.  From a systems perspective it makes sense.  The most team is not the one where everyone tries to be the best, but the one where everyone works well together.  The surest way to destroy a team is to rank the members.

To make the best team, make sure everyone is trying to be the best for the team, not the best on the team.

Except, people’s competitive nature will show up:

A: “I’m the best for the team!”

B: No, you’re not. I am!”

Two Corinthians and Trump

Some online commentators are sniggering at Trump for reading “2 Corinthians 3:17” as “Two Corinthians three seventeen”, instead of the more formal and conventional way of saying it as “Second Corinthians three seventeen”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EIgHsGZAmk

Krauthammer says of Trump: “ …thereby betraying a risible lack of familiarity with biblical language and usage.”

Except that “2 Corinthians”, whether you read it as “Two” or “Second” is not biblical language. Not one person in the Bible refers to this book by the name it’s now known. The title “2 Corinthians” was given outside of the Bible; we probably don’t even know who first coined it and when. 

It’s genuinely easy for people to refer to it as “Two Corinthians” because it is written as “2 Corinthians” rather than “2nd Corinthians”  But it’s such a minor gaffe, I don’t even think it merits criticism. Certainly it’s not ‘wrong’. (Although it’s very clear from the video Trump was not at all, or no longer is, familiar with reading scripture)

I bet many people refer to those books that have numbers in front of their names as “Two Chronicles”, or “Two Kings”, especially in informal settings.  I know I do, even though I am familiar enough and interested enough to have learned to read Koine Greek at some point.

Two Lions (Humour)

Two aging, hungry lions spot a zebra.  One of them starts putting on his Nikes.  The other asked, “What are you doing?  Even with running shoes on, you can’t outrun that zebra!”  The other replied, “I don’t have to outrun the zebra, I just have to outrun you!”

Creative CV

Came across this very creative CV on LinkedIn.  It’s a great reminder that a CV is a marketing tool. It’s not an epitaph, or a chronicle.

Here’s a link to the original higher resolution image: Link.