Two Thoughts For The Holiday

Today is a national holiday in the United States which commemorates the life of civil rights leader (Martin Luther King, Jr.)  who sought to bring “equality under law” to all citizens of our country.  One of the ways he sought to do this was by bringing dignity and equality to ALL work – not just for the well educated or the well paid – but for all who work their best and make our nation a better society for it.  The pursuit of excellence (“doing your best”) in any endeavor uplifts us all.  The following are two quotes expressing this idea:
All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
—     Martin Luther King, Jr.
If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.  He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.
—     Martin Luther King, Jr.
.
On This Day In:
2022	What Do You See?
2021	Lite It Up
	Some Day
2020	No Answers Yet
	120 Day Health / Weight Update (Jan 2020)
2019	Stationary Target
2018	And Firmly
2017	Nearer My Goal To Thee
2016	Relatively Simple Actions
2015	And Yet, You Did
2014	Difficult Learning
2013	Four Things To do
2012	When I Was Young…
	Emergence

Read Full Post »

Five Down, Two To Go

To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life.  The money is the gravy.
—    Bette Davis
[It normally takes seven to seven and a half years of retirement for the average American to “recover” all of the funds paid into their Social Security retirement funds during their forty odd years of work.  I’m well over half-way there and looking forward to the gravy!    —    kmab]
.
On This Day In:
2021	Four Down, Three To Go
	It Still Ain’t
	Boosted
2020	Three Down, Four To Go
	Twenty-Four ‘Til You
2019	Two Down, Five To Go
2018	Year One, Done!
2017	First Day Of Retirement!
2016	Revere And Criticize
2015	Global Climate Change May Test This Statement
2014	Adaptability Won
2013	Disappeared
2012	Fuller
	Life On The Range
	More Classics
2011	Stoned Again?
2010	Insubordination… And That’s Why I Love Her!
	Losing – Week One

Read Full Post »

I Want His Job

Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions…, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work.
—     Teresa Amabile
I’m just paid to do whatever I want to do.  Some of the time it’s development, and some of the time it’s just goofing off.
—    Larry Wall
.
On This Day In:
2021	I Better
	The Way I Will
2020	Necessary Events
2019	I May Have Started Too Soon
2018	But Me
2017	A Little More, Please
2016	In Full Vigor
2015	A Good Lad
2014	Who Dare Not Speak
2013	I Love Beer
2012	Trial By Jury
2011	First Class
	Got Knowledge?

Read Full Post »

Stumbled On This Memory (Of High Notes)

Memory Lane
Lyrics:
I stumbled on this photograph,
It kinda made me laugh
It took me way back,
Back down memory lane
I see the happiness,
I see the pain
Where am I?
Back down memory lane
I see us standing there,
Such a happy, happy pair
Love beyond compare,
Look-a-there, look-a-there
The way you held me,
No one could tell me that love would die
Ohh, why did I have to find this photograph,
Thought I had forgot the past
And now I’m slippin’ fast,
Oh, back down memory lane
I feel the happiness,
I feel the pain
Here am I,
Back down memory lane
I’m in the sunshine,
I’m in the rain
Thought it was over,
Here I go again
The way you held me,
No one could tell me
That love would die
I don’t wanna go traveling down
Faster than the speed of sound
Back down memory lane
Be still my foolish heart
Don’t let this feelin’ start
Back down memory lane
I don’t wanna go
Back down memory lane
Save me,
Save me
Back down memory lane
Save me
Save me
Save me
Save me
Save me
Back down memory lane
Performed by:  Minnie Riperton
Written by:  Richard Rudolph, Gene Dozier, Minnie Riperton, Keni St. Lewis
.
On This Day In:
2021	A Chance Meeting Finds A Way
	Over 50 Years Ago!
2020	The Magnitude Of The Challenge
2019	Still Tearing, Still Being Rewarded
2018	Nothing More, Nothing Less
2017	Memorial Day – 2017
	No Wonder I’m Smiling
2016	Thinking Science Fictional
2015	Dawn Is Coming
2014	Back When I Was A Firebrand
2013	Pen In Hand
	Word Up!
2012	Disturbing
	Trying To Keep Up
2011	Unreliable And Selective
2010	Adult-Onset Athlete

Read Full Post »

The 99% Solution == 10,000 Hours

If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.
—     Michelangelo
Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.
—    Thomas Edison
.
On This Day In:
2021	A Chance Meeting Finds A Way
	Over 50 Years Ago!
2020	The Magnitude Of The Challenge
2019	Still Tearing, Still Being Rewarded
2018	Nothing More, Nothing Less
2017	Memorial Day – 2017
	No Wonder I’m Smiling
2016	Thinking Science Fictional
2015	Dawn Is Coming
2014	Back When I Was A Firebrand
2013	Pen In Hand
	Word Up!
2012	Disturbing
	Trying To Keep Up
2011	Unreliable And Selective
2010	Adult-Onset Athlete

Read Full Post »

Learning And Teaching

Feynman Learning Technique:
1)  Take a piece of paper and write the concept’s name at the top.
2)  Explain the concept using simple language (show examples to demonstrate you know how the concept works)
3)  Identify problem areas in your explanation or examples and then go back to the sources to review the material / concept
4)  Pinpoint any complicated terms and challenge yourself to simplify them.
Several days ago, I posted a quote and made a comment about excellence in teaching.  (Why We Have So Few Personal Favorites )  Basically, my proposition was that it is extremely difficult to evaluate the competence and productivity of a teacher because of the number of variables and an inability to control them to a point sufficient to determine what are the tools we could provide the “most effective” teachers to make them better (or any teachers for that matter).
I never gave much thought about teaching until I joined the Army and they insisted I learn, participate in and practice “Performance Oriented Training” (POTs training) when I attended the NCO Academy in Frankfurt, Germany.  Essentially, POTs stipulates that until the student can perform the task, the training has not been effective.  There were three elements:  1)  the instructor demonstrates the task to be performed / explaining the objective of the task, the reason for the task, and each step necessary to complete the task;  2)  the instructor then walks / talks the student through each step as they (the student) follows along with each step;  and, 3)  the instructor asks the student to perform the task independently.  If the student fails in performance (step 3), the instructor must return to element 2.  Re-cycle through elements 2 and 3 until 3 can be accomplished independently.  At that point, the student can perform the task and the training has been effective.  (Of course long term retention of the knowledge / skill is a different matter.)
This training methodology served me very well during my working life / career as I was frequently called upon to instruct on topics in the military, and then as a civilian:  from credit card fraud prevention, to correspondent banking, to numerous Information Technology topics (basic trouble-shooting, using spreadsheets, using word processing applications, server and network administration, setting up databases, conducting data analysis and creating web pages to display the analysis / data).
Rather late in my career, I “discovered” (i.e. read about) Dr Richard P. Feynman (PhD) and his personal learning methodology.  Post-employment (i.e. in retirement), I’ve now watched bits and pieces of Professor Feynman’s lectures (on YouTube) and I believe his methodology is a civilian / academic equivalent of personal POTs training.  That is:  how we should expect to teach ourselves and verify our own knowledge / competency in a subject.  I shudder to think of the number of lectures / classes / training sessions I’ve attended where the instructor either did not have this level of personal expertise or expect the student to demonstrate understanding at the end of the session.  Which, (again) is why we remember our few “great” teachers over our lifetimes.
Disclaimer:  The list of four steps above are available in several books and on the web and the exact wording is neither mine nor exclusive to any specific source so I have not bothered to cite any “original” source.  I apologize in advance if anyone reading this feels I have used their exact language describing Dr. Feynman’s technique.
.
On This Day In:
2021	Learning And Teaching
	Two Loves
2020	Does Anyone Else Look Forward To The Last Lawn Mowing ‘Til Spring?
	Only For You
2019	10,000 Tries
2018	Keep America Great – Vote This Tuesday
2017	Old Style Ear Candy
2016	Next Tuesday
2015	Wanna Trade?
2014	Brothers And Friends
2013	So Suddenly
2012	At The Center
2011	Live Long And Thinner
	Got Health?
2010	SF Giants – 2010 World Series Champions!!!
	52 – 54 – 56 – 58
2009	Diet Update
	Pictures from Chicago Trip…

Read Full Post »

I Never Could Keep A Secret

The secret of success is making your vocation your vacation.
—    Mark Twain
.
On This Day In:
2020	Facing The Truth
2019	How Much Is Your Education Worth?
	Is America Ready: Mayor Pete – 2020!!
2018	Disruptive Definition
2017	A History Of Small Insights
2016	Be Uncommon
2015	Ooops!
2014	What Price Freedom?
2013	Remembering Val
2012	Good-bye, Val
	Survival Value
2011	Traitors In Our Midst
	Life Ain’t Easy

Read Full Post »

No Crumbs

Aside from a moral obligation to treat workers well and pay them a living wage, there’s nothing to prevent more companies from jettisoning full-time employees and shifting to lower-paid gig workers.
They’d just be following what has been happening for decades in other fields.  Just as manufacturing shifted overseas for cheaper labor and as gig economy apps drove down wages for taxi and delivery drivers, the pandemic has hastened the gig-ification of white-collar jobs.  The gig economy might have been a crowded space before COVID-19, but the booming economy masked its workers’ struggles because many of them could find other jobs to supplement their income.  Now, that extra work has dried up, and their desperation is more evident than ever.  When gig work is the only pie that’s available to millions of people, sharing it means that some don’t even get crumbs.
—    Alana Semuels
In her article:  “As the gig economy grows, its workers’ paychecks shrink“
In:  Time Magazine, dtd:  1-8 June 2020
This article also appears online with a different title:  “‘It’s a Race to the Bottom.’ The Coronavirus is Cutting Into Gig Worker Incomes as the Newly Jobless Flood Apps“
The specific link is:  https://time.com/5836868/gig-economy-coronavirus/
You may have to go through a paywall to view the online article.
.
On This Day In:
2021	Momentary Offering
	Happy Noise
2020	No Crumbs
	Too Many Detectives On This Case
	A New Day Is Coming
2019	Or In This Case – What’s Wrong
2018	Just Passing Through
2017	True Torture
	Happy Thanksgiving – 2017 !!
2016	Overtaken
2015	Alone Praying
2014	A Full Man
2013	Off Defending The Universe
	Taking Precautions
2012	Never, Never, Never
2011	Testing 1, 2, 3

Read Full Post »

When I Grow Up I Want To…

Cleaning Windows
The “original” LP version…
And a “live” version…
Comment(s):
When my son was young (pre-teen) and we were living in Liverpool, his mum and I used to ask him what he wanted to grow up to be.  He always replied:  “I want to clean windows.”  We always assumed he’d grow out of this “job” answer, but he kept saying it for several years.
One day I asked him why he wanted to clean windows.  He replied:  “Because when you’re up on the ladder, you don’t have a boss constantly looking over your shoulder and watching you work and you get your money in hand after each house.”  I asked him why that was important.  He replied:  “Because the tax man will never know how much you earned, so you can diddle him dead easy.“
I used to chuckle about that conversation every time I heard this song.  Nowadays, I think:  “Someday my son could turn out to be a Republican candidate for the Presidency.“
.
On This Day In:
2021	Better To Lie, Get Rich And Destroy Your Country
	Love Is All There Is
2020	You Remind Me Of Someone
	When I Grow Up I Want To…
2019	Running History, But I Don’t Expect Many To Match It…
	It’s Probably Easier When You Live Alone
2018	25 Days Until The November Election
	Old And Young
2017	Universal Soul Sounds
2016	Not Rivals
2015	Dead Sure
2014	Are You Educated?
2013	For Myself
2012	And When I’m Gone…
2011	Complete Conviction

Read Full Post »

Works For Me

If I didn’t make it in baseball, I won’t have made it workin’.  I didn’t like to work.
—    Yogi Berra
.
On This Day In:
2019	Better To Do
	News: Drunken Party Girl Saves Seoul
2018	Keep Moving
2017	Fighting Good
2016	Size Matters
2015	Maybe The Best Thing
2014	Ready To Be Fried?
2013	A Real Lover
2012	Winning Wars
2011	A Different Lesson

Read Full Post »

I Hope So

One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.
—    Sigmund Freud
.
On This Day In:
2018	Painted Into
2017	Prayers, Miracles And Lottery Tickets
	Roman View
2016	Dignity And Grace
2015	Is It Warm Enough For You
2014	What The Right STILL Wants
2013	Embrace Serendipity
2012	Your Order, Please
2011	Well Enough Anyway

Read Full Post »

I Don’t Think We’ll Be Serving Them Cake

…
Capitalism, however, has been here before.  One of its great historic strengths has been its ability to reform and change shape as social needs and democratic demands shift.  In the late 19th century, parties of the right in Europe brought in a wave of progressive reforms to suit the times, from expanded union rights to the social insurance that began the creation of the modern welfare state.  In these cases, there was a pragmatic and also a moral imperative at work to improve the lives of ordinary citizens.
Yet today, politicians and thinkers have largely stopped making the case for capitalism as a moral good.  What we have instead are abstract ideas about the supremacy of markets.  At the same time, the surges in inequality seen in country after country are corroding the moral principles that underpin capitalism.  The ethical basis for capitalism must be that it offers better life chances for a majority of citizens.  If it is failing to do that, what is the justification for its dominance as an economic system?  Little wonder that a Gallup poll found only 45% of U.S. young adults view capitalism positively, a 12-point decline in just two years.
…
Artificial intelligence has the potential to alter our lives to an even greater extent.  AI is best understood not as an upgrade of our existing structures but as a general-purpose technology (GPT), like electricity or the steam engine.  GPTs are transformative in their social and economic impacts, reaching into every aspect of life.  “Some people believe that it’s going to be on the scale of the Industrial Revolution,” says Demis Hassabis, the AI expert who co-founded the pioneering machine-learning company DeepMind.  “Other people believe it’s going to be the class of its own above that.”
The crucial factor for managing these changes is time.  In 1900, the proportion of the U.S. population who worked in agriculture was 38% and the proportion who worked in factories was 25%.  Today only 1.5% of the population works in agriculture and 7.9% in factories.  So there’s been a catastrophe of unemployment?  Absolutely not: the losses were more than made up for by growth in other sectors of the economy, which went from providing 24 million jobs in 1900 to some 150 million today.  Most of the new varieties of work simply didn’t exist at the dawn of the last century.  Given time, we know from experience that a society can manage this kind of transition.  The question is, do we have that time?
…Think about what the working life will be of a person who can expect to live for a full century.  What can we say about the likely span of her economic and political life?  The only absolute certainty is that it will involve change.  It will not be static.  It will not involve doing the same thing in the same place over and over again.  Unless we are all prepared for change, we are not prepared for the coming world of work.
At the individual level, the prescription for what we should do to prepare for this new landscape is relatively straightforward.  For a life of multiple careers and skills, people need an education that prepares them for a lifelong process of training and retraining.  They will need, more than anything else, to learn how to learn.  Flexibility and resilience will be crucial.  It won’t be easy, but at least we can see it clearly.  At the level of society it is harder.  Let’s be honest:  this is a vision of insecurity, projected across a working life.  It is a clear principle of economic and political history — one we’re relearning today — that humans hate insecurity.
What we need is to rethink the relationship between the individual, the corporate sector and the state.  In recent decades, we have seen a “great risk shift” — to borrow the term of the Yale social scientist Jacob Hacker.  Individuals in temporary, insecure, giglike employment are taking on risks that used to belong to the corporate sector.  Not coincidentally, the share of GDP going to the corporate sector as profits has risen and the share accruing to labor as pay has gone down.
That trend, and that risk transfer, are not sustainable over time.  We need a social safety net focused on career support rather than just simple unemployment benefits.  Companies and individuals and the state must work together to build an enhanced and more flexible version of the welfare state that overlaps with lifelong training and education.
…
The architects of this new industrial revolution, by the way, agree with this proposition.  Yann LeCun, the chief AI scientist at Facebook and one of the pioneers of deep learning, said recently that every economist he has spoken to agrees that governments must take measures to compensate for rising inequality brought about by technology.  “All of them believe this has to do with fiscal policy in the form of taxing, and wealth and income distribution.”
We also need a functioning marketplace.  The collapse of U.S. government action in the area of antitrust and competition law has led to a damaging concentration across most industries — from cable TV to airlines, online advertising and farming.  While a new generation of robber barons controls huge sections of the U.S. economy, corporate profits surge, wages stagnate, and fewer ordinary workers have reason to believe in the capitalist system.
…
The final component of what we do next concerns not what we do but what they do — “they” meaning the elites who have profited most from the trends of recent decades.  Quite simply, those elites have to pay their taxes.  They have to stop using offshore havens and accounting tricks to hide their wealth from the societies in which they live and from which they make their profits. Instead of founding think tanks and gorging on discussions about improving distant lives, they have to attend to the lives around them in the places they actually live.
A new emphasis on the role of the nation-state;  a new partnership between the state and the private sector and the individual;  new action on lifelong learning and training;  higher and fairer taxes; less security for big corporations:  these things shouldn’t be unthinkable.  It is strange and sad that the least likely thing on my wish list is the idea that elites will change their behavior.
But elites may have to change if they don’t want change to be imposed on them.  This coming wave of technological transformation has the potential to be the most serious challenge modern capitalism has faced.  For people who don’t have the chance to change and adapt and re-skill, a pitiless world ruled by algorithms and machine learning, in which they have no utility, no relevant skills and no security, could look completely unlivable.  Facing that prospect, the populations of the developed world may do things that make the current populist moment look polite, low-key and lawful.
—    John Lanchester
From his article:  “Economy:  Leveling The Playing Field“
Appearing in:  Time Magazine (dtd:  Feb 4/11, 2019)
The article also appears online as:  “The Next Industrial Revolution Is Coming.  Here’s How We Can Ensure Equality“
The link to the entire online version is:  http://time.com/collection/davos-2019/5502589/next-industrial-revolution/
[Please note: This article is extensively quoted without permission from the author or from Time Magazine.  I personally subscribe to the physical version of Time Magazine and have done so for almost 50 years now.  I make no claim to ownership of the article or its ideas.  I do NOT normally post so extensively from an article, but this was (to me) a powerful article about the future of civilization, so I have made an exception.  The ellipses indicate where I have edited out portions of the article.  I hope neither the author nor Time Magazine will object to my editing or use of the article.  Obviously, I encourage all of my readers to go to read the original.    —    KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2018	New And Old
2017	Ever
2016	At The Center
2015	True Value In Life
2014	A Potential To Be Concerned
2013	Fine No More
2012	Have You Checked Your Height Lately?
2011	Are You Convinced?

Read Full Post »

Insha’Allaha Bukra

Work is the greatest thing in the world, so we should always save some of it for tomorrow.
—    Don Herold
.
On This Day In:
2018	Lost Time
2017	Are You Talking To Me?
2016	Here, Desire Is Purified
2015	Hopefully Just Visiting
2014	Fond Memory?
2013	Distress, Hope, Trust
2012	Creating Interlocking Fragility
2011	Four Stories And A Gospel
	What Have You Burned Lately?

Read Full Post »

I’m Actively Irresponsible

To do real good physics work, you do need absolute solid lengths of time  …  it needs a lot of concentration  …  if you have a job administrating anything, you don’t have the time.  So I have invented another myth for myself:  that I’m irresponsible.  I’m actively irresponsible.  I tell everyone I don’t do anything.  If anyone asks me to be on a committee  …  ‘no’ I tell them:  I’m irresponsible.
—    Richard Feynman
Quoted by:  Cal Newport
In his on-line article:  “Is Email Making Professors Stupid“
Appearing on the site:  The Chronicle of Higher Education, located at:  www.chronicle.com
[LOL!!!  It worked for me, too!    —    kmab]
.
On This Day In:
2022	Until Something Better Comes Along
2021	Facing The Headwinds
	Still Thankful, Still Don’t Read Well
2020	Write For Yourself
2019	I’m Actively Irresponsible
2018	I Will Love You… Forever
2017	Pebbles In Your Shoe?
2016	Resolute Will
2015	Absorbed And Civilized
2014	Relax And Lead
2013	Location, Location, Location
2012	Are You Really Good?
2011	Relatively Objective, Anyway

Read Full Post »

Does Terrible But Not Important Count?

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.
—   Bertrand Russell
.
On This Day In:
2022	Natural Selection
2021	Farming Lessons
	Changing Colors
2020	A Simple Fact
	Home Through The Years / Just Painted
2019	Does Terrible But Not Important Count?
2018	Have You Stretched Today?
	The Original
2017	Being Nice
2016	Zero To Some = Most
2015	Born More Obligated
2014	Rage And Fury
2013	Successful Children
2012	For God So Loved The World
2011	Go Cheeseheads!!
	Structured Mentality

Read Full Post »