by Ross Sivertsen | Nov 16, 2010 | Blog, Uncategorized
I read the following article in Psychology Today this morning and it struck a cord with me. A friend of mine once made mention of the concept of ‘Big Hat, No Cattle’, i.e. form over substance.
We are all prejudiced in some ways to appearances. It is a fundamental Darwinian survival instinct. We have the advantage over our other animal counterpart in that we have the ability to see it if we give the predisposition to prejudice our attention. Would qualify as prejudice to prejudice?
Anyway the article basically states four thing to watch out for:
1. Keep in mind that the image of professional doesn’t imply professionalism. It simply means that the business or person is good at presenting an image.
2. Bigger isn’t necessarily better. I learned this the hard way a couple of years ago when I engaged a project with a large well known telecom supplier, thinking that since they were the large 800 lb. gorilla in the market that they knew what they were doing. NOTICE: Big organizations are as dysfunctional, often more so, than small organizations.
3. When in doubt, check references. ‘Nuff said.
4. Trust your own critical thinking skills. Don’t give in to conventional peer pressure either by you superiors or peers. More often than not your ‘smell test’ of your skills. Keeping in mind than often decisions by others are often motivated by political or emotional reasons than facts.
We are all influenced by the cover of the book, but we should clearly look beyond it to really make informed decisions.
http://ping.fm/oHizp
by Ross Sivertsen | Nov 16, 2010 | Blog, Uncategorized
“How often I found where I should be going only by setting out for somewhere else.” — Buckminster Fuller
by Ross Sivertsen | Nov 3, 2010 | Blog, Uncategorized
I’m beginning this post with a deep sigh (*SIGH*). I’ve long envied the ability of some people to do more than one thing at a time. Multitasking is something I’m just not any good at.
There is plenty of recent study data to support the idea that multitasking not only inhibits productivity but increases lead times to project completion.
This study, of several judges in the Italian court system, shows that in addition to extending cycle times of project completion, multitasking contributes to an increase in the size of work backlog.
We work in an age where knowledge, not industrial work, is the preeminent means of gainful social progress for our civilization. Yet we work in such highly competitive industries, myself included, that the drive to get more done in less time has driven us to the need of being always ‘on.’
I’m not throughout stones here, in the worst offender, just ask my wife.
But it is that much more critical that strive to block out sections of true downtime, where we are completely present in the moment, without distraction, to take a time-out from life, even if forced; where we can take stock of our lives, identify the patterns of habit that are or aren’t working, and just be.
Maybe we can then ratchet down the squelch level and truly identify our dreams and at least get a taste of how are lives can look like something different than living on a harried treadmill…
Here’s my new campaign ‘Stop the Multitasking Madness!’
http://ping.fm/EHZp3
by Ross Sivertsen | Nov 2, 2010 | Blog, Uncategorized
As I read this article this morning, I felt an overwhelming desire to delete my entire to do list and start over. My list is currently around 120 items, and like managing my weight has been a constant struggle for me. So this somehow seems relevant.
The premise set forth by Mark McGuiness at the99percent.com is that your day has a finite amount of time in it and so does a Post It note. Attempting to fit mode to dos in to your day is tantamount to writing smaller on the post it note, you can do it, but does dong so make you more effective.
Take a look at this article and let me know what you think.
http://ping.fm/ZiDeX
by Ross Sivertsen | Nov 1, 2010 | Blog, Uncategorized
This is a recap of an article on Lifehacker about the poll results of encryption technology.
I actually use all of these tools, I mentioned in a post earlier last week that if I had to pick KeePass and TrueCrypt would top the list, and they would for the large part, I find them both easy to use, and understand without the need to have a cryptographic or computer science expert.
Five Best File Encryption Tools: http://pulsene.ws/d3hp
But I might have to include both GNU Privacy Guard and and 7Zip. GnuPG is one of the heavyweights in encryption technology for personal use and there’s an interesting story behind it and the product PGP. Anyway, GnuPG is also used to digitally sign files, email and other types of messages to insure that people receive information fronton as you intended it.
7Zip fills an interesting niche as the article continues, by providing a free file compression tool, ala WinZip, along with highly secured encryption through AES.
Take a look at these tools and comment back and let me know what you think.
by Ross Sivertsen | Oct 29, 2010 | Blog, Uncategorized
Singapore: Why Innovate in Utopia? http://pulsene.ws/cR8y
I read this article about Singapore and whether or not the country innovates because of it’s intolerant approach to crime, but I have to say that I disagree. Singapore is one of the cleanest places I’ve visited with some of the most friendly people I’ve met.
Ok, so I have to add that the whole ‘Asia training wheels’ thing might be somewhat accurate. But I really love Singapore, I have travelled to many places in western europe, and Asia, and Singapore is by far my favorite, not for the views, the coate d’Azure has that won hands down.
It’s the people and ease of getting around. I have never met more friendly people. Every cabby I met I wanted to go have a drink with and continue my conversation. Can you say that about New York city cab drivers?
I bought a few trinkets in the temple district for friends on my last trip, a few Buddhist prayer beads. A week after I returned home, the vendor emails me (they had a little guest book for people to sign) asking me if my friends and family enjoyed the gifts and then sent along an explanation of the meaning of the beads so I could tell my family the story of the beads!
Business is really easy to ‘do’ there. Singapore customs alone are a model for excellence, my last trip, i got off my plane went through an airport that was a thin of beauty and efficiency to be met by a customs agent that had a waiting smile and greeted me warmly like I had just come home. I want you to hear that, a smile, from a customs agent… A smile. Do customs agents even know how to smile? And there’s a small bowl of candy at the customs counter. Tom Peters, in his book The Little Big Things (an really good read by the way) writes about the Singapore customs experience.
We have an office in Singapore, it’s a hub for our Asia pacific operations, and let me tell you the last thing you want after a 22 hour flight is hard. Singapore is not hard. I run really early in the morning and I feel safer running at 4:30 in the morning there than I do in my own neighborhood.
Maybe it’s because Singapore has no natural resources, so it makes it’s own through it people and it business/traveller friendly environment. But if that’s not innovation on a national level I don’t know what is? They’re taking the most abundant resource they have, maximizing it and bringing it to the market and people all over the world are buying it.
