Author: Ezra S F


  • In discussion with coworkers, the idea came up of putting the PeopleMap type on one’s name badge. My contribution was to make it color coded: Red for Leader because people associate red with the Power Tie. Blue for Task because people associate that color with cool, collected, logical. Green for People because (RGB and green is…

  • We implement software solutions to help us become more productive. These pieces of code allow us to do more through creating efficiencies. Bad software hinders our ability to do the work. Normally I would call this unproductive, but I had a weird thought fighting a human resources program this morning. Unproductive software is both disruptive and…

  • I work to integrate systems. So, when I learn about things, I guess my mind drifts into how would we use it. And then into how would tie together this with other things we have to make them better. Last week news dropped about Microsoft (MSFT) buying LinkedIn (LNKD). The big deal people seem to…

  • Sometimes I feel preachy when advising people to carbon-copy (CC) emails. Lots of good email etiquette advises to avoid using “reply all” with emails. I think the matter is a bit more nuanced. Thinking of the perspective of a small team… The more eyes that see discussions about work decision history, rationale, and possibility the…

  • I am a fan of Jonathan Haidt. In running across this, I think it helps me understand where social conservatives are coming from. He talks about three dimensions: Solidarity: how close we are to something. Family are close. Strangers are far. Hierarchy: who is above and below. Divinity: closeness to a deity. Disgust originated as a…

  • Seems like something call “Reader’s Choice Awards” ought to have more than one choice for their categories. A few did, but in most cases there was ONE choice with the option to write-in. There were more categories with NO CHOICES and only write-in than categories with multiple choices. And even then there would be a…

  • I gladly embrace being called a nerd. Not always. There was a time when I solely thought of myself as a geek and distanced myself from nerds. A jock-y coworker professes to hate nerds. Even as he works with computers all day, enjoys checks, and spends hours figuring out how to improve his strength numbers.…

  • Unknown Knowns

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    Yesterday’s post mentioned unknown unknowns. When I heard this matrix, it pained me that one of the quadrants was missing. Over the years, I have thought about that missing one and what it might mean. Donald Rumsfeld in 2002 talking about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq a year before the invasion: Reports that say…

  • Zoran Perkov is one of the heroes portrayed in Flash Boys. Someone liked my review of the book, which made me re-read the review and setup a Google alert on him. This video was one of the first hits on a search for him. His thing is: Failure is feature of complex systems. Basically when you…