Reinke Faces Life

http://www.safecastle.blogspot.com

Refuge

Find peace of mind in quiet observation and prudent, methodical readiness planning. Through preparedness, the resilient core of our nation enhances our national collective strength and security. We encourage such resolve and endurance within the “Refuge.”

Friday, July 13, 2007
How to Survive (Almost) Anything

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For example, in May 1989, Lynn Hill, the winner of more than 30 international rock-climbing titles, was preparing to climb what she called a “relatively easy” route in Buoux, France. She threaded her rope through her harness, but then, instead of tying her knot, she stopped to put on her shoes. While she was tying them, she talked with another climber, then returned to climb the rock face. “The thought occurred to me that there was something I needed to do before climbing,” she later recalled, but, “I dismissed this thought.” She climbed the wall, and when she leaned back to rappel to the ground, she fell 72 feet (22 meters), her life narrowly saved by tree branches. In her case, more training would not have helped. In fact, experience contributed to her accident. She had created a very efficient model for tying her rope to her harness. She could do it without thinking. So the act of tying her shoes may have been similar enough to tying her rope that it allowed her to reach the unconscious conclusion that her rope was tied, even while leaving a slight residue of doubt.

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PPPPPP!

SOP?

The reason to have an Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is to prevent blunders. I had an Engineering Professor (Brother Austin Barry) who used to rant: “A mistake is putting mustard on your hamburger; an error comes about in any measurement; a blunder is when you make a dumb mistake.”

How true!

An SOP allows one to repeat the same steps in sequence so as to prevent blunders. Mistakes and Errors will happen. How your SOP allows you to catch them before those things kill or maim you is the key point.

Productivity is ensured when you have and use SOPs.

imho

(I think Brother Barry would agree saying “finally you listened four decades later”!)

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http://www.survivalblog.com/2007/07/survival_planningmore_than_jus.html

Survival Planning–More Than Just Gear and a “To Do” List, by Ray

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Decision making is critical in determining what actions to take to move you closer to a particular sub-objective or your ultimate goal. All decisions are based on the probability of a favorable outcome, but that probability is rarely, if ever, 100%. Even a slam-dunk, no-brainer decision has some slight chance of failure. The validity of a choice can be measured as those choices with the highest probability of a positive outcome, but even those have a tangible risk of turning out badly, and thus not being ultimately “correct.” Poker players call it getting “cracked”, when a strong, high probability hand is still beaten by the luck of the draw. A decision maker should understand that no decision is guaranteed to produce a positive result. Setting the expectation for yourself that even well thought-out decisions will be 100% successful is the road to disappointment and frustration. This is because decisions have variable dimensions, most of which are beyond the average person’s ability to control or even be fully aware of. The validity of a given choice is a function of the available data, context, and time. A valid decision is the best one you can make, right now, with the available information. Five minutes (heck, 30 seconds) from now a different choice may be better. But realize you will never have perfect, complete, and timely data, and that’s assuming that no one else is actively interacting with the situation, changing it and invalidating your information, or actively generating/feeding disinformation in some form. You will bring some level of bias to you we interpret the given dataset, as do your information sources; this works against our being able to form the proper context for a decision. And all factors are in flux, changing constantly; and implementing a choice once made takes some measure of time, making the clock an enemy. A good decision making process has to exist in the here and now, and be forward looking. You must avoid self recrimination and the tendency to doubt after something bad has happened; past choices are in the past, and useful only for how they inform future decisions. Focus on your goal, and how you get from your present location/situation (the here and now) to there (your future goal.)

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Take wisdom where ever you find it.

I urge you to use the waterline standard. Above the water line, fail quickly. Below the waterline, take your time and make the best decision possible.

Now we have an additional meme here: A “good” decision is the best one you can make, right now, with the available information.

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FROM MLPF

http://jayderagon.com/blog/?p=94

The Attention Factor
Author: Jay Deragon
07 28th, 2007

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My response…”Without your commitment to spend the time planning and thinking about hundreds of related issues and interactions what your asking for it is impossible. His response was I can give you no more than an hour a day and he said the other executive on the phone could also give about an hour a day. They simply don’t get it! They suffer from The Attention Factor and what I will label as “Continuous Partial Attention” or CPA.

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I see a ton of this these days. Recently I gave a presentation where of the 18 people “listening”, only 3 were paying attention. Some didn’t even pretend to be attentive. I’m used to dealing with people who are day dreaming when I talk to them. Guess I’m boring them. So when I see the eyes glaze over, I stop. What does one do with today’s executives? Nothing imho. Don’t waste your time. I guess that’s why at work, people seem to want my opinion. When someone comes and says gave I talk to you, I say “sure, one sec”, and I close the laptop and give them my undivided attention. It’s a matter of respect. Sigh, so I didn’t get it in my recent presentation, but that’s OK, they are “senior leadership”. What were they leading, surely not me.

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http://www.clairewolfe.com/wolfesblog/00002632.html

07/26/2007 Entry: “Quote from “Crazy Time” (definition of sanity)”

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Sanity was being firm with clients and telling them there was self-esteem in standing on an assembly line all day putting a gidget in a gadget; and it was putting the damn gidget in the damn gadget and asking someone else to confirm that it was all right to do that.

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No checking the checkers!

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Why I Do Not Do Link Exchanges
Des Walsh
Posted in July 17th, 2007

http://www.thinkinghomebusiness.com/2007/07/17/why-i-dont-do-link-exchanges

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There must still be some courses or e-books where people new to blogging are told to email other bloggers and suggest or request an exchange of links. I don’t know what other explanation there would be for the emails I get on a fairly regular basis, out of the blue, from people I don’t know, wanting me to exchange links.

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me2

“I wouldn’t be a member of any club that would have me as a member” Groucho Marx

I don’t do Link Exchanges.

(No one has ever asked me!)

;-)

Just seems … … so conspiratorial … … so yucky.

I put sites in my rolls that I think are worth your time.

Now, if some one would send me a stack of hundreds, then I’d link to them. Never said I couldn’t be bought. But, I’ve never made a dime blogging. I just do it for the sense of moral superiority. :-) (As Rooster C. Leghorn cartoon character of my yuth says “That’s a joke, son.”)

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From an email to a fellow alum

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>i changed my email address

Sigh, I’ve ranted about having your own email address in your own domain.

http://tinyurl.com/2huxna

What happens if people don’t get the message of the shift.

I’ve even suggested for those, that want their email at their ISP account, that they should still use their own domain and just forward the email where ever they want it.

For one particularly clueless soul, I set up his domain (and this is all sanitized so as not to embarrass anyone) as “clueless.com” with an email address of “soul @ clueless.com”. That was forwarded to “clueless soul @ gmail.com” for backup ‘n’ recovery purposes as well as their excellent spam filters. The gmail account was forwarded to the ISP where he wanted it. The return address on the gmail and the ISP account were set to his domain. So his “email address” never changes no matter how many times he changes ISPs. If he accidently deletes a message he has the gmail account to recover it from. If his ISP goes off line or their email stops working, he can fall back to gmail. And, if his ISP is bought by someone else and he is forced to change his ISP email address, it’s no big deal. Another benefit I just thought of his that he can use gmail’s filters to squelch someone.

And, he never has to worry about someone having an old email address.

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In my mind, it’s impossible to communicate the change to everyone who has your old email address. It may have been given to them by someone else.

Here’s my little scenario, like the economist’s island. Jane has Mary’s email address written in Jane’s address book. Jane give it to Marge who puts it in her address book. Mary changes her address and updates Jane. Marge runs into Jane’s bestest friend in college Sue who has lost touch with Mary but would love to get in touch. Marge gives Mary’s old address to Sue who sends an email that bounces. Silly? Yes!

You don’t know all the people who have your old email addresses. And, yes, there may be ways around it.

Manhattan College gave all alumni a “lifetime” email address. But, after a few years, a few changes in vendors, guess what? Yup, you should have asked who’s life time!

You can have your own domain and email for $12/year. If you’re not strapped for money, you can have your website that includes the domain and email, for $50/year.

Your ISP’s email is a trap to lock you in to their service. It can leave you high and dry at the most inopportune times. And, you can be forced to change if they get bought out or go out. Why risk it?

Your employer’s should never be used for personal purposes. Aside from morality, there are practical reasons. The average employee changes jobs every five years. In some industries, in some types of jobs, the average is 30 months. You should have your own email address for even quasi-business purposes like LinkedIn or external connections.

For example, I use a different formation of my name @ my domain for my outside business uses and forward that to my employer’s email address. It permits quick screening so that it doesn’t get lost in the morass of inside mail. I use yet another formulation for the quasi business uses. And, I assign different names to different purposes.

It just gives you a ton of flexibility at a very modest cost.

Seem obvious to me!

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One of my older relatives was driving to a party where they had been before last year. For a variety of reasons, they didn’t have the address or their usual tools. And, got confused and got lost. They drove around looking for my car. After a while they got really confused.

So went to a relative’s house, where a young whippersnapper, looked up the name on the net, mapquested it, and led them over. Great save.

Why they didn’t have my cell phone I forgot to ask. Calling Frau’s cellphone is a waste of effort. She hates it. (Yes, I made her get it.)

Lessons: Put a family phone book in the glove box of every elder driver’s car. That way, when they are in the car, they always have the [hone book with them.

Lesson: Have my cell phone on the public net. So if you know my shore house address. Divide these three numbers by the address and you’ll have my cell. 46,308 10,659 184,875l

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http://www.dailywritingtips.com/

Daily Writing Tips

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Whether you are an attorney, manager, student or blogger, writing skills are essential for your success. Considering the rise of the information age, they are even more important, as people are surrounded by e-mails, wikis, social networks and so on.

It can be difficult to hone one’s writing skills within this fast paced environment. To solve this problem we decided to create Daily Writing Tips, a blog where you will find simple yet effective tips to improve your writing.

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A great daily refresher to write better. … or gooderer (in the injineer’s dialect).

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http://changethis.com/35.05.Presentation
http://changethis.com/pdf/35.05.Presentation.pdf

Presentation Revolution: Changing the Way the World Does Presentations
By Scott B. Schwertly

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Today we live in a business culture that abuses the art and science of public speaking. We power up our PCs and present dull presentations to audiences who want to be inspired but never get fulfilled. Schwertly believes an effective presentation can change the world.

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Powerpoint in the Pentegon! Bad news. Power point in your pc prevents persuasion.

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http://changethis.com/35.04.Brainstorming
http://changethis.com/pdf/35.04.Brainstorming.pdf

10 Guidelines for Effective Brainstorming
By Randah Taher

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Brainstorming is a powerful tool, if used correctly, but just like any power tool, you must read the manual, follow instructions and use the thing correctly…or you’re wasting time. Randah Taher presents 10 guidelines to optimizing the power of brainstorming.

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You have love it. But do you REALLY WANT disruptive ideas?

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