Monthly Archives: April 2010

Maximum Bob Lutz’s 8 Laws of Business

April 30, 2010
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You just gotta love Bob Lutz. The man just says it the way he sees it, something all too missing in today’s world where everyone is concerned with everyone else’s feelings to the point many are treading on egg shells all hoping not to say something that will “offend” someone else. Personally, I think people have thicker skins than most people will give them credit for. Besides, most people enjoy laughing at themselves. I know I do. If being politically correct means we can’t see the folly of our own ways we’ll lose a lot of what makes society interesting and fun. Thus, I present Maximum Bob Lutz’s 8 Laws of Business. And if you don’t know why he’s called Maximum Bob, just google and you’ll soon find out! Law 1 – The Customer Isn’t Always Right Law 2 – The Primary Purpose of Business Is Not to Make Money. Law 3 – When Everybody Else Is Doing It, Don’t! Law 4 – Too Much Quality Can Ruin You Law 5 – Financial Controls Are Bad Law 6 – Disruptive People Are an Asset Law 7 – Teamwork Isn’t Always Good Law 8 – When You Inherit a Really Big

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Darth Vader, Venture Capitalist

April 29, 2010
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Call it a bit of crazy folly or perhaps just a case of having dealt with investors for too long but I’ve always found that Darth Vader sounds a lot like a Venture Capitalist. I’ll leave these quotes with you to decide if I’m right or wrong or simply delusional. Enjoy. I find your lack of faith disturbing. No one will stop us now. I am altering our deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further. The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am. Don’t fail me again. Perhaps I can find new ways to motivate them. I’m here to put them back on schedule. No. Leave them to me. I will deal with them myself. I don’t know. Those all just sound kind of, uh, familiar…

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On Design

April 20, 2010
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I’m quickly reading through Brooks’ latest tome, The Design of Design. As usual, Brooks is straight up and to the point explaining his views on design and why it’s a solo or, at most, a 2-person task. This makes sense to me, but I tend to be biased. The implementation is a team effort, but not the design. One thing I noticed courtesy of John Cook’s blog is what amounts to two new additions to Brooks’ Law. Brooks’ Law is the famous “Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.” We can now add: “Many hands make light work” — Often. Corollary: “Many hands make more work” — Always. And what I’d call Brooks’ Law of Design: Most great works have been made by one mind. The exceptions have been made by two minds. Obviously, I highly recommend anything written by Fred Brooks. His Mythical Man Month is a classic that everyone should read, especially project managers. His new book is the same, a must read. I’ve always loved the fact that Brooks has little use for the Waterfall Model. I loathe it, and it seems he does too. I like being in good company .

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More on the iPad

April 15, 2010
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I just finished reading Why the iPad isn’t for me over at MacWorld. And I have to say he’s not the only person from whom I’ve heard that type of refrain. I do find it funny, though, that so many people figure that the iPad should be a general purpose computer. As I’ve stated previously, to me it’s a media consumption device. I’m sure Apple will release an iPad-ized MacBook in the future, but for many people out there the iPad is perfect if what they primarily do is consume media and, to a much lesser amount, produce it. Thus, for those who occasionally email or post on web forums the iPad is fully sufficient. To provide annotations to a document via Pages, fully sufficient. To take notes during a meeting, again sufficient. To use as one’s primary device in a media-heavy context, be it journalism, high tech, etc., fully insufficient. As a senior researcher I primarily need a luggable computer to read contracts, make notes, read documents, provide commentary, etc. And, to be honest, most of that can be done via a desktop instead. However, as I spend an ungodly amount of time in meetings I would love to

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The iPad

April 8, 2010
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I’ve been reading the various reviews and opinions on the iPad and it’s been rather enjoyable. Seems to be of two camps. I’m squarely in the one that figures this is, indeed, the next big thing. It is effectively a computing appliance that allows someone to do with the iPad what most of us wish to do — namely, read documents, check email, do minor updates to things, etc. For heavier lifting those of us that need it can get a general-purpose computer as well. I know, personally, the iPad is what I will definitely want in the future. Being effectively in management means I spend most of my day in email, Word or Excel. If not that, then reading contracts, proposals, documentation, etc. Thus, with the iPad, I can do what I need whenever I need to while also having specific pieces of information at my fingertips. I also figure, really soon now, Apple will release a modified MacBook Air (the MacPad, MacTablet?) that will be a MacBook Air when the screen is oriented normally, but when it’s twisted around and laid flat across the keyboard so the screen is upwards it becomes an iPad. It’s not as if

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Musings

A blog of my musings. Some folks find it interesting and so I continue. Hopefully it will remain fairly interesting. At worst, it'll keep me writing orthogonally to my day job.

Month at a Glance

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