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  • the year of less

    Cait Flanders’ book the year of less describes her personal life in vivid detail regarding her addiction to alcohol, shopping, and takeout coffee. It started with an article in Forbes four years ago and (thankfully) expanded into the full book. She comes to realize that she can control herself without the need for Alcoholics Anonymous or a similar external control. I appreciated that she read the book in the Audible version. This makes me feel like I am getting the more authentic version of the book and a deeper insight into the story.

    One of her blog posts stated that “we don’t buy things; we buy stories.” I know I do this. I look at a backpack or notebook or pelican case and think “I will be more organized with this item and I will be better.” This healthy reminder is like a mantra to tell ourselves when considering a purchase in the “save for later” section on Amazon.

    Right before I finished listening to the Audible version I found out that she stopped personal blogging. So I missed the posts that lead up to the shopping ban and the book, but she still is posting, albeit less frequently than in the past. It seems like she is taking a page out of Cal Newport’s latest book, Digital Minimalism.  

    Obviously listening to the Audible version didn’t allow for writing on the pages of the words Ms. Flanders wrote, so I have less to refer to, rather my impressions of what she went through. I appreciate her love of hiking, drinking coffee, and analyzing her life in her own way, through her own systems. One would be remiss to say, “Well, she doesn’t have kids” or “Her life isn’t as complicated as mine because of X” and write her experiences of as easy for her. The point is to look at what you are doing and spending and ask if that is right for you.

    In a way, her book is almost an amalgam of A Million Little Pieces and Your Money or Your Life.  She didn’t go to a rehabilitation facility and she didn’t buy Treasury bonds, but her path of self-discovery to minimalism and financial freedom is presaged by those earlier books.

  • Lubuntu 18.10 Cosmic Cuttlefish

    I finally upgraded my HP laptop from Lubuntu 18.04 to 18.10, but there was no familiar taskbar! I restarted for several days, until I finally searched for clues tonight.

    Somehow in the upgrade, I think Openbox is managing the desktop instead of Light Panel. I right-clicked and found some menus and was able to get a terminal running. I cleared the cache and restarted, to no avail. I ran lxpanel from the terminal, and a blocky version of the taskbar I was used to came up. I also installed the Cairo dock to see what that would do.

    Finally watched the intro video on the main Lubuntu site, which describes the LxQT desktop being the default. Maybe that is the issue…I’m trying to use the old desktop. Hope this helps you.

    Update: Still no taskbar. Renaming desktop.conf didn’t help. Next step was restoring the system configuration for the main menu.

    Update: Still no taskbar. Running Chrome through the right-click menu.

  • effective

    I (finally) finished reading Peter Druckers The Effective Executive 50th Anniversary Edition this morning. I even dabbled in Farnam Street’s advice to write in the book (gasp!) as a form of personal edition commonplace book. Here’s a quick review and some of the passages I underlined.

    Chapters:

    • Foreword: Ten Lessons I Learned from Peter Drucker by Jim Collins
    • Preface
    • Introduction
    • 1. Effectivenes Can Be Learned
    • 2. Know Thy Time
    • 3. What Can I Contribute?
    • 4. Making Strength Productive
    • 5. First Things First
    • 6. The Elements of Decision-Making
    • 7. Effective Decisions
    • Conclusion: Effectiveness Must Be Learned
    • Afterword: Don’t Tell Me You Had a Wonderful Meeting with Me
    • Index

    If I remember nothing from this book, I will remember what Drucker told Jim Collins: “And you seem to spend a lot of energy on the question of how to be successful. But that is the wrong question. The question is: how to be useful!” Like Thomas the Tank engine, seek usefulness as opposed to success (or glory or fame). Not to get ahead of myself, but the Afterword quotes a parable Drucker used in The Practice of Management: Three stonecutters were asked what they were doing and they replied in turn: “I am making a living.” “I am doing the best job of stonecutting in the entire county.” And “I am building a cathedral.” The challenge is balancing the near-term utility of your actions with seeing the long-term bigger strategic picture of your cathedral, book, or whatever your project is.

    The introduction outlines the structure of the rest of the book and echoes themes from Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The eight practices of effective executives (paraphrased below):

    • Asked “What needs to be done?”
    • Asked “What is right for the enterprise?”
    • Developed action plans.
    • Took responsibility for their decisions.
    • Took responsibility for communicating.
    • Focused on opportunities rather than problems.
    • Ran productive meetings.
    • Thought and said “we” rather than “I.”

    The great thing about these practices is that they can apply to the civilian sector, the military, and one’s personal life. If you ask yourself these questions prior to taking an action, and are honest with yourself, you will be more effective and achieve more than a “base level” of productivity.

    Skipping ahead, Chapter 2: Know Thy Time underscores the importance of tracking your time to truly see where you spend it. (“Show me your calendar and I’ll tell you your priorities.”) I have not read it yet, but the premise of Cal Newport’s Deep Work could be applied as Drucker describes a minimum of 90 minutes applied to a topic to truly accomplish anything (feel free to take bathroom breaks as needed). A quote I liked: “A well-managed plant, …, is a quiet place. A well-managed factory is boring.

    Contribution talks about needing performance in three major areas: direct results, building and reaffirming values, and developing people tomorrow. Ask yourself, “What can I and no one else do which, if really done well, would make a real difference to this company?” A prescient statement that could be applied to email: “The more we automate information-handling, the more we will have to create opportunities for effective communication.” A note on meetings implores the executive running the meeting to always go back to the opening statement and relate the final conclusion to the original intent of the point of the meeting.

    Strength: Too often we focus on problems, rather than true opportunities for greatness. Focusing on “opportunities instead of problems not only creates the most effective organization, it also creates enthusiasm and dedication.” Reminds me of Jim Collins’ Good to Great discusses how the great companies focused on what they could do that no other company could do. Regarding bosses: “Few things make an executive as effective as building on the strengths of his superior.” And probably the thesis of the chapter: “one feeds the opportunities and starves the problems.”

    Some bulletized thoughts about First Things First:

    • Focus on one thing at a time. Forget multitasking.
    • Ignore sunk costs.
    • Decide what not to do, as well as what to do.

    Elements of decision-making applies extremely well to the military decision making process, whether it is MDMP (US Army Military Decision Making Process), JPP (Joint Planning Process), or using the OODA (Observe Orient Decide Act) loop.

    1. Realize the problem is generic and can be solved through a rule or principle.
    2. Define boundary conditions (i.e. restraints and constraints).
    3. Think through what is right, before attention is paid to compromises (best military advice).
    4. Build the execution into the decision.
    5. Define the feedback (assessment) which will test the validity of the decision.

    The seventh chapter has some nuggets as well:

    • One starts with opinions from real people, not facts.
    • There are no facts unless one defines a criterion of relevance.
    • Ask any statistician: no one has ever has failed to find the facts he is looking for.
    • Executives looking to make a decision create dissent and conflict. Otherwise, groupthink takes hold or “yes-men” rise.

    The conclusion sums up the book by hinting at Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, describing modern knowledge organizations needing to provide economic and psychological benefits (the why) to its workers.

  • In Review: 2018

    For the last two years I have been doing a subjective assessment of progress made toward my goals once the new year hits. Recently James Clear and Paula Pant have done 2018 reviews so I thought what better format to document my progress in 2018. Here goes.

    1. Books read – Read 36 books. This includes graphic novels, Audible books, and Kindle editions, but not books about dragons that my kids made.
    2. Weight lifted – Finally migrated from the Starting Strength Novice program (thanks Atlanta Barbell!) to the (various) Intermediate programs. I implemented the Texas Method, then the 4 Day Texas Method, then found the beta Strength Club site and transitioned to Heavy Light Medium (HLM) for older trainees. You wait till you turn 37. I also purchased my own squat rack and set of plates so now I work out in the garage in winter. I really need to find a bar heater…Heaviest lifts of the year:
      1. Squat 5×335
      2. Bench 5×245
      3. Press 3×180 (thank you 2″ diameter large washers from Amazon)
      4. Deadlift 5×435
      5. Clean 3×195
    3. Blog posts – Bought my own domain and created this blog. Also migrated from Namecheap to WordPress. I found the number of clicks to get from logging on to Namecheap to editing a post to be inversely proportional to the desire to blog. I figured if I’m going to use the WordPress theme I might as well just use WordPress dot com.
    4. Family – Took family trips to Orlando, Atlanta, and the backwoods of upstate New York. Got two out of three sons on skis. Minimum crying involved.
    5. Finances – Two thousand eighteen was the fifth year in a row that we contributed the max to three retirement accounts. We didn’t save much in cash, but did add a bit to our taxable account. End of the year market roller coastering (definitely a word) lowered net worth about 6%, but viewing it as ETFs on sale.
    6. Work – Your tax dollars at work: the military has seen fit to give me orders through retirement. So I have that going for me, which is nice. Also, finally moved out west after interviewing for jobs for about 1,480 days.

    If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.

    Yogi Berra
    1. Books
      1. Read 12 nonfiction books
      2. Read over 20 fiction books
    2. Personal strength:
      1. Squat 345
      2. Bench 265
      3. Press 185
      4. Deadlift 445
    3. Blog: Debate with myself over whether or not to implement ads, Patreon, PayPal, or homing pigeon with a leather pouch to increase personal side hustle. Maybe start with blogging once per week.
    4. Family: Oldest received snap circuits for Christmas, so I will continue to teach all three boys about programming, computers, and electronics. When you have three degrees with the word ‘engineering’ in them, you kinda want to teach your kids about James Clerk Maxwell, Michael Faraday, and Carl Friedrich Gauss, without them realizing it. Oh, and visit family, who keep getting older.
    5. Finances: Continue to max out retirement accounts. Add precision to “emergency fund” by specifying savings purpose. Continue to invest in taxable portfolio.
    6. Work: This year is the year to get promoted. Then they will just expect more of me, probably in the form of additional duties such as Cubicle Architect, Cybersecurity Email Engineer, and Backronym Generator.

    I forget where I read this, but someone made a team and their motto was “make progress slowly” or something snazzy in Latin. So, if Google Translate is to be believed, this year my motto will be Tardius proficere in honor of slow gains.

  • Avengers Infinity War

    Yesterday was Christmas and with that holiday brings all the trappings: decorations, a tree, ‘presents, lots of food, and the release to Netflix of the blockbuster hit Avengers: You’ve Been Waiting Ten Years for This.  I saw the movie in theaters in May and again on a plane this summer before watching about an hour of it last night before bed.  Here are some thoughts on watching the opening scenes (with help from all the fan theories and rants I’ve seen on reddit):

    • Loki must have a plan.  He is no idiot and he probably could have gotten away if he wouldn’t have spoken to Thanos.  He just saw him trounce the Hulk, so why talk?  Why pull a dagger?  Here’s to hoping he’s alive.
    • The Scarlet Witch and Vision romance is slightly annoying.  We are going through scenes where Team Thanos are attacking the Asgardians, Earth, and elsewhere and we cut to “I love you despite you being a super-Android.  Let’s run away together.”
    • Just like Loki, Hulk’s reticence to appear after his trouncing must be more than fear.  Maybe he has a bigger plan?
    • Why did Tony Stark pull on the strings of his sweatshirt?  Did that act activate his nanoparticles?  Pepper was wearing a similar style sweatshirt; does she also have particles on her person for insurance?
    • Thor was full of ego and assholism while on the Guardians ship.  He barely discussed what happened with the GotG before rummaging through their ship for supplies.  If they would have made a joint plan together maybe Gamora wouldn’t have died.
    • Why didn’t Gamora think of a backup plan, such as telling Quill or something?  If nothing else, split the team again and go to Vormir.
    • It is not realistic that a former Russian spy can hold her own against Proxima Midnight.
    • Should Wong care about the Sanctum Santorum?  Couldn’t he have helped, whether in Wakanda, Titan, or anywhere?

    More thoughts to come.

  • Scouts

    I recently ended my tour as a Bear Scouts Den Leader and (due to lack of volunteers, momentum, and my organization skills) am now a Lion leader.  The official Cub Scouts site has a slew of free resources to help Den Leaders, scouts and their families.  Additionally, Scouter Mom is another resource for parents.

  • routine

    I am a creature of routine.  The older I get, the more I crave order in my morning, gym, and bedtime routine.  An Art of Manliness podcast introduced me to the concept of shark habits and pirate maps.  Shark habits are “one bite and done” activities that get put on autopilot so we don’t have to decide what to do.  I really like the idea of shark habits as it systemizes human “subroutines” such as getting dressed, making meals, going to a store, etc.  Each day I know I am reading a nonfiction book, reading a fiction book, writing a blog post, getting my bag ready in the car for the next day, etc.  This resonates with David Allen’s Getting Things Done three d’s: Do it; Delegate it; or Defer it.  Allen suggests that if you can do it in under two minutes, do it right away.

    Another area in which Dan John espouses is systemizing your wardrobe.  He owns multiples of the same jeans, shirts, shoes and other clothing items to reduce the “what do I wear today?” decision.  President Obama only owned gray or blue suits to reduce his decisions in the morning, as he knew he had many important decisions to make during the day.  This is another great aspect about being a full time military officer: I’ve only have four choices of uniforms in the last fourteen years!  As far as civilian clothes, the main item I have been focusing on is my underwear.  The Ex Officio brand of underwear feels great, is lightweight, and can be washed in the sink and line-dried to fit with a travel schedule.

    This can extend to eating at home as well.  Keeping your meal routine for breakfast, lunch, and dinner eliminates extra choices and can keep your grocery budget lower each month as well.

    Another big part of my daily routine is my bullet journal, currently on year 3.  This system lets me focus on the defer actions or ideas, so I’m not constantly looking at my phone or searching into Google random ideas.  As I migrate tasks from one day to the next, week to week, or carrying over from the previous month, I ask the deliberate question “Is this action really necessary?”

    My sleep routine focuses on letting my body wind down and relax before sleeping.  The goal is for every night to:

    • Close the laptop by 7pm
    • Turn off the TV by 9:30pm
    • Prep next day lunches
    • Take supplements (magnesium, zinc, melatonin)
    • Read fiction for 30 minutes

    Note: I haven’t really been taking supplements at night consistently since last summer. When you get out of bed before 0600 everyday, you basically ensure you can fall asleep quickly at night.

  • Awards

    My son received an award the last week of his third grade school year for A/B honor roll.  At the risk of simply being labeled cynical, I quietly sat in my seat in the cafeteria and pondered the purpose of these awards at so early a stage in his schooling career.  Several of the boys and girls who won awards went up to the stage multiple times for multiple awards spanning academics, physical fitness, art, music, volunteering, and character.  Oh, and for perfect attendance.  Did the parents of these kids push them to excel in their class?  Did they emphasize awards as a stepping stone to middle school, then high school and college?  What effect do these awards have on the kids who do not receive them, either on that day or a later event?

    Being in the military, I’ve been exposed to multiple perspectives of quarterly or annual awards, not only for officers, but for enlisted and civilians as well.  There is a careful balance between “taking turns” with nominating people for awards and only writing up those who are truly deserving of the acclaim.  There is also the utility of awards as bullet points on performance reports that bolster pushes for future assignments and promotions.  I’ve seen people turned down for awards, in lieu of more senior ranking individuals being put forward because they were very close to the next rank and needed the award in their record for added weight at promotion time.  So, awards can serve multiple purposes.

    The crucial question to answer is: What is success?  If success is defined by a prestigious job title, a gross annual salary, or what car one can afford, then these awards could lead to those things.  If success is defined by creativity, lateral thinking, risk taking, contribution to others, leadership, or other hard to measure traits, then these common awards might be highlighting behaviors that give short term gains but may or may not truly lead to a “successful” life.