# 01 Oct 2006, 10:09AM: Difficulty:
A Malcolm Gladwell blog entry reminds me that domain expertise changes one's perspective mightily.
Yesterday I visited the Wired NEXTfest. I stopped by the Pfizer booth because their exhibit on using RFID to secure the supply chain reminded me of an article I'm reading for class (Gillette is figuring out a similar problem).
I asked a lot of questions. What sort of products don't take well to RFID tagging? Water-based liquids require HF frequencies (instead of UHF), or an air gap between the tags and the liquids. If you're tagging boxes that have metal in them (e.g. the Benadryl blister-packs), you need to air-gap the boxes. If you slap the tags on the sides of the boxes that show outward on the pallet, and you have to arrange the boxes and tags to stop liquids and metals from messing things up, doesn't that slow down the packing? Maybe, yes. Do retailers and shippers have to choose between HF and UHF RFID tags and readers? No, you can get machines that do both. We discussed handheld vs. stationary scanners, barcodes, false negatives and false positives, and a tiny bit of the chicken-and-egg problem in getting this infrastructure into the shipping channels.
One of the Pfizer guys asked if I were an expert. Knowing what questions to ask might be the hallmark of an expert. I had a tiny bit of domain knowledge, which helped. But a journalist or scholar worth her salt would also learn the trick of asking the right questions, intuiting which paths lead to interesting insights.
Here's a question that usually gets an interesting answer: "Where's the bottleneck? What problem do you wish someone would solve for you?" The three robotics scientists at the robot entertainment panel had three different answers. Dr. Kosuge said that physical components (processors, batteries, etc.) are getting better all the time, but that the cycle of communication between a robot and its environment is his fundamental problem. A robot needs to understand and respond to stimuli appropriately, and boy is that hard. Jan Zappe, who makes big ol' crane-looking bots that draw and play music, has a hard time getting them to walk. And the guy from the Ensemble project (a Python user!) said that he wishes computers would do what he wants them to do, not what he tells them to do.
The first and the third engineers are facing what seems to me a really tough bottleneck: getting a machine to spontaneously act like an expert. Then again, it can be mindbogglingly tough to teach myself to act in constructive ways, or even stop doing self-destructive things, despite crystal-clear signals from my environment.
Once upon a time, ten years ago, my sister and I had to do some boring family thing, like spend all day at a Hindu temple where we knew no one while my parents performed incomprehensible rituals. I complained aloud. My sister said, quite reasonably, that since my complaints wouldn't make any difference, why didn't I just accept the situation and make the best of it?
I paused, considered, and replied, "That is not my way."
We still laugh about that. I hope it is my way, now.
A geologist at Green Bay wrote about thar, the honor motif in many Earth cultures. In thar cultures, "that is not our way" is the end of the argument.
If you believe that your identity is bound up in acting precisely as you act, how can you ever learn? What if the essence of being human is learning, reacting intelligently to your environment? If you think the main facts of your life are immutable, then there's no point in changing, but you have to change if you're going to cope with change in the world. And if you're going to thrive, you have to cope first.
There are people to whom adjusting to change does not seem difficult, at least to this outside observer. Talk about envy. Envy is "I want that and can't have it." Admire is "I want that and I'm working to get it." How path-dependent is my life, anyway? I have the most domain expertise and the least perspective.
Music: "Mandelbrot Set"
P.S. That was about as long as one of my weekly columns. It's way easier to write longer pieces when I can link, allude, and use two-bit words as much as I like.
# 01 Oct 2006, 12:50PM: Perspective:
We Can't Be Equal While reminded me:
Once I was at a party with a lot of tech folk, and talked a bit with a woman, and one of the things we talked about was that we were both in a tiny female minority at our jobs. I happened to mention this while talking about the party with some work people, and Tyler asked, "Does that conversation ever get old?"
At the time, I said, "Sure, if you're talking to a boring person," but in retrospect it's a pretty shocking question. John and I spent a few minutes at the start of our acquaintance establishing that we were the only geeks on our twenty-person Russia trip. US kids who speak Spanish better than English probably swap tips and stories. Immigrants, women in tech, outsiders and minorities of all sorts get a lot out of connecting with the rare people like us.
If I ever work in a tech environment where women are a third or more of my colleagues, the hello-fellow-stranger conversation would lose relevance. If I had it with the same person over and over, it would get old.
The overwhelming male majority in tech, like climate, stupid customers, and lunch, got old decades ago. But that's what we have.
# 01 Oct 2006, 02:14PM: Vacation:
I took a break from the column to get my bearings with the Master's program. It'll be back next week. My obsession this weekend spilled over into blog posts and into the column.
# 01 Oct 2006, 05:29PM: Textbook Example:
"When developing a business model, do not forget to think about how this model will generate revenue."
-Information Technology: Strategic Decision Making for Managers by Henry C. Lucas, Jr.
# 02 Oct 2006, 08:28PM: You Know You're In A Business Class If:
I read about the Dominion's polaron beams and the ease with which DS9 learned to defend against them, and thought, "what was the net present value of that technology investment?"
# 03 Oct 2006, 12:14AM: Whooo, Sorkin:
Okay, if Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip will consistently be at least this good, I'll watch. At least, Sorkin.
# 05 Oct 2006, 07:26AM: RSS Aggregation:
I used to use Feed On Feeds, but was uncomfortable with the web app. So I dropped out of the RSS scene. Last night I downloaded NetNewsWire, which all the Mac people lurve, and I'm also lurving it. Keyboard shortcuts, fast response time, all the stuff that's hard to do in a web app. Also, if I know I'll be catching up on my blogs when I'm at home, I won't surf as much at work. Prediction: time saved and productivity boosted.
# 05 Oct 2006, 11:30AM: Seen Today:
An IKEA lamp set out with the trash on the curb.
# 05 Oct 2006, 11:47AM: Missing Frances:
I miss Frances every day. Today I read a few of her old weblog entries.
A student today said she can tell that I like the class. I'm glad she thinks so. I'm glad she can't tell that I go beat my head against the wall after I leave them. Thank goodness it looks like I like them.
And I reread her "On Being a Single Parent", which isn't about that so much as it is about how to thrive.
I basically had to start over at CSUB because I didn't have enough units in any one subject to do anything with. One of my uncles and one of my brothers helped me, I started a Mary Kay business, and between those financial sources and part time teaching at CSUB and then at BC, I eventually acquired enough units to qualify for a credential. This was a very difficult thing to do and I am very proud of myself that I accomplished it during a time I had small children, a terminally ill husband, when I was living in a city where I was a stranger and considered an outsider not only by his family but also by members of the church. I learned during this experience that if I can go back to school and graduate, I can do anything, and in my opinion, so can anyone else.
I am so lucky to have had her in my life. I try not to think about her scrapbooks because it just makes me ache more. At least we have her blog.
# 05 Oct 2006, 03:40PM: Productivity Subverted:
By The Daily WTF archives and the Memory Alpha Star Trek wiki. Jeffrey Combs + anything = crazy delicious.
# 05 Oct 2006, 05:09PM: Julia Sweeney Coming Back:
Julia Sweeney's amazing show "Letting Go of God" is returning to Ars Nova starting Oct. 19th. It closes on Oct. 29th. I'd love to see it again.
Filed under:
Comedy Religion
# 07 Oct 2006, 04:47PM: Milquetoast Mainframe Japery:
How IBM Trains Its Mainframe Sales Force. Found when I finally realized, "Hey, instead of trying to guess from context what this particular author means by 'mainframe,' I can look up the generally accepted definition and derive stuff from there."
# 08 Oct 2006, 02:08AM: "How do you remember a truth that will cause clinical depression?":
Are these the lessons of Auschwitz? What else must I be sure to recognize?
Our moral hearts, like our physical ones, are weak and prone to disease. If we acknowledge this and determine to exercise them, we have a chance to live. If we deny it and insist our hearts are failure-proof, we let the disease in at the door.
Like fragments of a hologram, each of us contains an image of the whole of our species; each of us participates in all of the beauty and all the evil of being human. We all participate in the music of Mozart and the murderousness of Mengele. If, in the morning, you look in the mirror and you say, "I have the face of a murderer," you have placed yourself in a position to begin the work that needs to be done.
# 08 Oct 2006, 02:20AM: A Public Service Announcement:
From Henry Chesbrough's Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology (Harvard Business School Press, 2006):
The term business model is often used, but not often clearly defined. My colleague Richard Rosenbloom and I have developed a specific and useful working definition.
The functions of a business model are as follows:
- To articulate the value proposition, that is, the value created for users by the offering based on the technology
- To identify a market segment, that is, the users to whom the technology is useful and the purpose for which it will be used
- To define the structure of the firm's value chain, which is required to create and distribute the offering, and to determine the complementary assets needed to support the firm's position in this chain
- To specify the revenue generation mechanism(s) for the firm, and estimate the cost structure and target margins of producing the offering, given the value proposition and value chain structure chosen
- To describe the position of the firm within the value network linking suppliers and customers, including identification of potential complementary firms and competitors
- To formulate the competitive strategy by which the innovating firm will gain and hold advantage over rivals
When I've seen the derogatory "What's your business model?" question, it's been in regard to #4, revenue generation. They all look important. #5 looks the least fun.
Business models are important!
# 09 Oct 2006, 07:51AM: MC Masala on Practice and Skill:
Judo, writing, and Carnegie Hall.
There is this thing called kindness, and it includes not eating a Snickers bar in front of a hungry person, and it includes not bragging about your skills in front of people who are trying valiantly to accomplish what you attained, especially if you got there without much effort.
There are comments on the ANG site now. Huh.
# 09 Oct 2006, 11:19PM: Wanted:
An eruv for free speech zones.
Filed under:
Comedy Religion
# 22 Oct 2006, 10:20PM: Testin':
We got a test entry here. I'm beginning to post interesting links on Leonard's del.icio.us feed so you can check that out.
# 22 Oct 2006, 10:33PM: MC Masala Roundup:
My recent columns: nutty inventions and October memories. Neither sucks, I believe, but they're both listy. And the latter borrows from some old blog entries.
As you may have noticed, the Open Computing Facility's web and email were down for a bit. They are back up now, thanks to the volunteers, students and alumni both, who run the OCF. Thanks.
# (3) 24 Oct 2006, 09:14AM: Rebellion:
Yesterday Jacob and I joked about mild-mannered acts of rebellion and destructiveness. Examples: staying out past your curfew to play Dance Dance Revolution, only giving your cats the medication they need once a day instead of the recommended twice. Comments are open on this post - ideas?
# 26 Oct 2006, 12:42PM: Quote of the Day:
"There, there. It's ok. There's no baby Nixon."
# 26 Oct 2006, 02:54PM: Awesomeness v. Drags:
I got acquainted with Stuart Sierra via the NY Tech Meetup and/or Lisp NYC, both of which I can't attend these days because I have class on Tuesday nights. Anyway, he's the coder behind Project Posner, which has lots of cases arranged for your perusal. I suggest doing a query on a profanity to find some interesting ones.
But many cases of sexual harassment involve hostility to female coworkers because they are female. Sometimes it is because the men feel that their macho workplace has been "invaded" by women, whose presence damages the self-esteem that the men derive from thinking they are doing work that only men can do.
Or you could check out the readymade links to interesting cases.
# 27 Oct 2006, 01:46PM: Quizzified:
A US woman has the last name as a pretty durn famous US theologian, and has never heard of him.
# 29 Oct 2006, 09:38AM: The Intriguing Darcy Burner:
Alexandra Starr's NYT article today called to my attention the race for the House seat in Washington's Eighth District. Darcy Burner is the Democratic challenger.
Some interesting facts about Burner:
- She was adopted.
- As she wrote, "I expect I may be the first member of Congress to have written code for Unix C and C++ compilers and interpreters."
- She used to be a product manager at Microsoft.
- She bought and installed her campaign's PBX system.
- She plays drums, piano, guitar, and bass.
- She has at least a decent grasp of positioning.
But in order to tell that story, we have to choose. We cannot tell the story of every possible use of a fork. We cannot talk about all of the cool features of the fork ("See how the stainless steel gleams in the light!") in the absence of their direct applicability to something people might do with the fork.
As far as I can tell, even Maria "RealNetworks" Cantwell isn't as techie a politician as Burner is. I'll be keeping an eye on Darcy Burner.
# 29 Oct 2006, 09:43AM: MC Masala on Diabetes:
Why I was wrong when I jested about diabetes a couple of weeks ago.
You see, obesity is a risk factor for diabetes, but just Type II, the type where your body starts resisting insulin. Not only might your body not make enough, but your cells also stop using it effectively.
Did I mention that Type I diabetes is most often diagnosed in children? And that obesity can cause Type II diabetes, but not Type I, and that the overwhelming majority of diabetics in the United States are Type II?
So you can understand why parents wrote me many unhappy letters about my column. I was conflating their children, who had done nothing to deserve their illness, with people like my parents, who have Type II diabetes.
# 30 Oct 2006, 06:05PM: Greenback-Colored Glasses:
The business-y reports we have to write for my Corporate Finance class got to me when I was rereading P. Larkin's "This Be The Verse". The first two lines are "Executive Summary," the second half of the first stanza is "Analysis in Detail," the second stanza is "Historical Considerations," the next two lines are "Summary," and the last two are "Recommendations."
Filed under:
Comedy Reading
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