Continual Improvement

As someone who has performed in various leadership roles over the years, one career killer remains evident year after year: The Specialization Ambush. When did this fundamental requirement for capitalism become obsolete you may be asking yourself. As someone who has spent years learning about computers and software, I would have argued a strong case for learning every bit and byte there is to know, but now, I propose a different position.

The Specialization Ambush is a trap that workers of all occupations are lured into by exploiting existing skills at the cost of learning new skills for the future, and doing so will likely result in major distress at some point in time. Triggers for detecting too much specialization are the thoughts: “that’s not my job” or “I’m not trained for that”. As employers look for employees to do more with less, it’s worthwhile to consider learning more about other parts of the business, even if little bits at a time, because today’s craft is tomorrow’s bygone.

• ZoomInfo
  “….delivers fresh, comprehensive information on over 33 million business professionals and 2 million companies across virtually every industry.” - It interesting that the first 5-6 Google entries return me, but this search never did. Worth signing up
  (tags: career search zoominfo namesearch people reference)

As a lifetime dog owner, I recently sat down to investigate the answers to a couple of questions that rose during a conversation with some good friends, who are also long time dog owners. During the conversation, a lively debate ensued over whether it made sense to have leash laws. While the various stances taken on this subject are interesting (and quite intense as I found out), I thought I would instead set out to research some of the sticking points which surfaced during the conversation.

What do dogs and kids have in common? One answer that could be given is they are both typically shorter than most adults and can be behave impulsively at times. Actually, the real question was whether friendly dogs could and have bitten children. The really hard part in answering this question was defining the subjective “friendly” aspect. While there’s little debate that very few people die from dog attacks in the US, there appears to be a number of dog bite claims in any given year. While most of the statistics I could find pointed to the majority (> 60%) of dog bites occurring to children, it was hard to determine how many of the bites occurred from the teeth of a friendly dog, otherwise known as a dog with a responsible owner. So, while the ultimate question can’t be certified with statistics per say, the bottom line seems to be each reader’s belief in whether the opening question and subsequent answer is truly fact or fiction.

What is the safest thing to do when running past an unleashed dog? As a devoted runner, I have a vested interest in knowing what the experts recommend, and while the first question left some grey area to be explored, I was unable to find much variance while researching this question on the Internet. The unanimous suggestion by runners and dog owners alike all pointed to slowing down to a walk or stopping, if pursued by a dog while running. Most articles on this subject suggest doing things to make the dog uninterested if the pursuit continues or becomes aggressive, such as looking away and rolling up into a ball on the ground.

Leaving the original debate for the local representatives to hash out, the research resulted in some fascinating information on this subject, and knowing that many of the regular subscribers of this blog are dog owners, I’m curious to see if any comments surface on this subject. As for me, I’ll be sleeping sound knowing the king (or just Joe, as we like to call him) is protecting the house.

If you ever watched a NASCAR race, one question quickly comes to mind: Was this sport created by car enthusiasts or by brilliant marketers? This is the only sport (and I use the term loosely) where the souvenirs and even the sport itself represent the sponsors more than the people involved in the sport.

To my knowledge, this the only sport where people would actually purchase an orange $500 leather jacket covered with Home Depot logos, while the term “NASCAR” is hidden on the inside tag. The sponsors of this sport have an ulterior motive in selling this paraphernalia than say the average Fortune 500 company buying a sign out in center field. The NASCAR sponsors are literally “allowing” people to pay to become walking billboards. In fact, it’s no wonder the drivers are awarded points for being in first place the most laps. Guess which car, I mean logo, is shown on TV the most?!

Why haven’t companies pushed other professional sports onto this strategy and to this extent? While the target audience might seem restricted to some, it’s actually quite diverse. I can’t speak for all readers out there, but I can’t wait to start wearing my Southwest Airlines blazer to the next family dinner.

• Chess Sets - Wholesale Chess
  Wholesale Chess has chess sets and combos of boards, pieces, and bags for a complete chess set!
  (tags: chess games)

• Mike Lunt - In a van down by the waterfall
  I recently wrote a blog post about the reality of dependent events in the software life-cycle.
  (tags: agile dependent-events software process)

• On leadership (in software)
  A nice write up on what’s missing in leadership/management, especially the software industry.
  (tags: leadership management career software)

• Mike Lunt - Automation Test Tools for Agile
  Some research on free automation tools to use with Agile.
  (tags: agile software testing quality automation open-source mikelunt)

While running cables through the wall for my new TV, the decision about which cables to buy came up again. Every time I hook up any new audio/video equipment, there is always this moment at the electronics store trying to decide if a $200 Monster Cable will really make a difference. First it was the optical fiber, then came the component video, and now the all-inclusive HDMI cable.

Thanks to my good friend Brandon, I subscribed to the online version of Consumer Reports (CR) more than a year ago, which provides all the information from the magazines in a searchable online format. As luck would have it, CR had an article titled “HDMI: the new jack on the box”, and in the article, they strongly recommended against purchasing “premium-grade” cables for hundreds of dollars. Good to know, I thought and headed to local bricks-and-mortar electronics store not wanting to wait for the cables to be shipped.

At ~$200/cable and needing 2-3 cables, the premium grade cables were going to add quite a bit to the project, so I asked the friendly sales rep at Best Buy what he suggested. As you might have guessed, this guy knew more A/V acronyms than I know computer acronyms, and that’s saying a lot. I mentioned the CR recommendation, and he bluntly said that CR was dead wrong. He explained a bunch of experiences with interference and how the TV actually becomes an antenna, attracting even more imperfections for that perfect high definition picture.

Knowing that rewiring all of this was not worth the effort, I caved and bought a fancy HDMI cable and went middle-of-the-road for the other cables. Everything looks great, but I wonder if I was taken or if I got lucky. Thoughts?