If you ever worked in fast food, did your manager(s) track the number of items you had to take back when orders were wrong? Did they factor in the number of people who were unhappy with their order but were probably already home and didn’t want to bother taking it back?
Category: Thinking (Page 9 of 13)
I’ve been noticing lots of the people I follow on Twitter have been connecting up with me on Google+ over the last few days. Some of these folks are using Google+ in the same way they use Twitter and putting out a steady stream of status updates. Of course, it’s kind of Twitter in reverse. Instead of “following” the way you do on Twitter, Google+ lets you choose who you want to “Share” with.
It seems like over-share in the beginning, but when you think about it, it’s kind of nice. Because Google+ lets you decide who you want to share with, it also lets you decide whose updates are going to make it to your main stream and which people who are sharing with you are going to get chucked into the “Incoming” bin.
Not that I don’t care about these people and what they are up to. I do. That’s why I follow them on Twitter. But I may not care so much that I need to be notified if they’ve said something new. Twitter is nice in that way. If I choose to go back and read their full stream I can. But for me, Twitter is more about what’s going on in real time, and I seldom have the urge to go back and read any stream history.
And for the Twitter folks I follow who I’m not sharing with on Google+, there’s no reason to feel rejected. The stuff those folks would care about is still flying out publicly on Twitter (and maybe even on Buzz). I promise, I’m not sharing anything on G+ that’s earth shattering or ground breaking. It’s mostly stuff I don’t like putting on Facebook. You know–stuff that people who have known me personally for years may care about.
My favorite thing about Google + so far is that I have yet to receive a notification that someone got a high score on Farmville, a flood of happy birthday wishes from people who would have no idea when my birthday was if they weren’t forced to know, or an invitation to find out what my cat’s stripper name is.
I’ve been playing with Google Plus for a few days now, and I really like it a lot. One of my favorite features is the Buzz tab on the user profiles. This makes Buzz an almost usable product. I think Google could not only make Buzz more viable but also improve Plus a lot by making a simple change.
Plus needs a Buzz gutter.
I’m seeing lots of people making public updates to Google Plus as if they are using Twitter, and the problem with that is that it’s filling up my Stream with information that…I already get from those people on Twitter. This is a problem with Facebook as well–too much minutia showing up in the main stream. It would be nice if Google would bring Buzz up to the forefront, allowing users to enter those type posts with Buzz. They could also put a Buzz section in the sidebar for “short updates” and have that sorted by Circles just like what you see in the regular Stream.
It’s a pretty simple change, but it could breathe life into an almost dead product while also cleaning up the main Stream, solving one of the other big problems Facebook has.
I was thinking about Google Plus a little last night as I continually refreshed my screen hoping it would magically appear. I think there are a few things that can really make or break Google’s latest attempt at social.
1. Nobody has groups right yet
Twitter’s lists are great, but are basically read only. You can’t broadcast to them. This is in keeping with the way Twitter fundamentally works, so that’s cool. But as far as the people on your lists go, it is more of a mark of reputation to be on someone’s list than it is an indication of engagement from that person to you. Facebook has done a better job with Groups, but they aren’t even close to the three dimensional overlapping of sets of groups we are able to so easily process in our brains. Maybe Google is actually smart enough to tackle this abstraction.
2. Group Texting
Yeah, everybody has a group texting gadget, but Google has more reach. They bought Disco, and have seemingly re-branded it as Huddle. I hate texting, but this may make it a little better.
3. Ubiquitity (I just made up that word I think)
With Chrome, Google has the ability to offer a nice extension to make Google Plus always on. No need to visit a site or run a separate app to see what is going on…it can always be there, yet still unobtrusive. I don’t see why Facebook couldn’t do something like that with Chrome, but they don’t own the browser. Google could actually ship their extension as a part of the browser (and I bet they will), while Facebook will have to settle for being an extension. I don’t know the numbers on how many people running Chrome don’t ever install extensions, but I’m betting that number will rise as Chrome gets closer to the meaty part of the user adoption curve.
4. Android
Google already has a big market share for mobile, and they’ll be able to tightly integrate all the features of Plus into Android. iOS users are stuck with an HTML 5 webapp for now. Again, I don’t know what this has done for Gmail, and it was already a hit before, but this may be a huge factor. Bonus points if they offer up an online locker with plenty of space the way they did with Gmail at the beginning. That would be a big feature for storing photos and video.
Just some thoughts. I’m sure I’m way off base here. Tell me why.
***UPDATE***
Instant Upload from Android devices is a money maker! Coolest thing yet for any social platform I’ve used!
The newly designed visual that tells us what we should be eating is going to be revealed today. That’s probably a good thing, since no one was paying to much attention to the Food Pyramid as the chart below shows.
Since Al Gore has taught us that correlation and causation are interchangeable, it makes sense to blame the jump in obesity starting in the early 80s on Atari. I’m not sure what George W. Bush was doing during that time, but there’s probably plenty of blame for him too.
Of course, the real reason for the jump in obesity is that people consume more calories than they burn. They don’t exercise and don’t pay attention to the food pyramid, or any other reasonable recommendations. You know, they’d rather just eat stuff like this.
It probably would have made more sense to ditch the Food Pyramid for a Food White Castle, Food Pizza Hut, or some other more modern structure that people do want to acknowledge.
Just brainstorming.
I’ve been looking at (wanting) a Kindle for a while. But, I’m cheap. And I know the prices are going to keep dropping. Besides, it’s not like I haven’t been reading just because I don’t have a Kindle yet. I just keep having to go to the library, reserve books online, pay late fees, etc. Several things have happened recently that have me (almost) ready to buy, but the sum of these things makes me think I should wait it out just a little bit longer.
There’s speculation that Amazon is going to have two Android powered tablets out by Christmas for under $500. That means they’ll be motivated to empty out some of their lower end Kindles between now and then. They’ve already started to do so with the $114 6″ Kindle with ads for a screen saver.
This seems like the best choice for me…if I was going to buy yesterday. I’m really wanting the e-ink display instead of the LCD the tablets will have, and it doesn’t matter to me if it’s a touch screen or not. I just want something easy to look at with long batter life. Also, I don’t care if it’s 3G or not. I’m home most of the time, and I’m sure I can load it up with plenty of stuff to keep me entertained in the event I’m away for a few days, so Wi-Fi connection is fine with me. The screen size is actually perfect. I currently use the Kindle app on my phone, and my two biggest complaints with it are that the screen size is small and the display. A bigger screen would be nicer to look at, but the 6″ screen is about right for lugging around the house and holding without being cumbersome.
Barnes & Noble announced its own 6″ Nook today, priced exactly the same as the 6″ ad-free Kindle. It’s not a Nook color; it’s black and white e-ink. But unlike the Kindle, it’s running Android 2.1 and has a full touch screen. It also features a two month batter life. Sounds like a nice little device. It’ s not the one I want to buy though…I want to see what kind of pressure this puts on Amazon to lower their price even further, especially considering what they have coming later this year.
For the kicker, there was a rumor a while back that Amazon was considering giving a free Kindle to all of its Prime customers. That’s what I hope actually happens. I’m all about free. Now would seem like the perfect time. I could imagine one scenario where they do this sooner rather than later as a “reward” for existing Prime customers. Another possibility would be to not only give current Prime customers a free Kindle, but also send one out to new customers around October/November. This would be a great way to get rid of existing inventory while putting the device in the hands of people who don’t yet have one to entice them to request/purchase the newer devices as gifts. Wouldn’t hurt to entice people to try out Prime right around Christmas and have their gifts shipped (and purchased) through Amazon.
I think the end game here is control of the market itself. Readers are eventually going to be available for next to nothing either way.
Awesome post over on The Logic of Long Distance on stoic running.
Finally, and this point is probably hardest to grasp, you are responsible for you. Not your shoes, not your watch, not anything else. Those are tools, to be used with the requisite understanding, but they do not take away your responsibility to yourself.
I’d maybe even take this a step further. I think some of the best long distance running a fella can do takes place when there is no watch, HRM, or iPod involved at all. Just run and figure it out. Pay attention to what’s going on, and let what you’ve learned about yourself dictate what you are doing at that moment. Get rid of the gadgets that are telling you what you should be doing. Get rid of the external influences that may push you to do more than you should or hold you back from doing what you could. Instead, just do what you feel like you should do.
We’re talking about distance here, right? If you’re running any kind of distance it’s because you’ve worked up to it, so you should have learned something along the way. And you can keep learning as you go.
I miss running long.
Suddenly it all makes sense. And it’s brilliant!
He’s a plant.
His sole purpose in getting involved is to make Sarah Palin look like an reasonable and viable candidate.
I’m sure she’s a perfectly nice lady, but this guy is just a circus act.
It’s a simple four step process:
Step 1: Do some stuff that makes your opponents really mad.
Step 2: Put your junk in that box.
Step 3: Do things that make many of the people who defended you in Step 1 really mad.
Step 4: Figure out a way to piss off the people who will blindly support you no matter what.
That last step is pretty tough to accomplish, but he has a year and a half to find a way to do it. Remember, we elected this guy because of his unbelievable intellectual prowess, so he’ll surely be able to stratergize a plan of action.
Don’t give up Hope.
Facts:
- Labor Day and Memorial Day are the two best holidays. They feel like Sundays, but Chick-fil-A is open.
- Waffle fries can hold ketchup in the airy spaces between potato. Regular fries can’t do that.
- Chick-fil-A sandwiches don’t come with mayo by default, so you don’t have to worry about them soaking your bread with disgustingness accidentally.
First, let me clarify. When I say, “working from home”, I don’t mean the occasional Friday or snow day. I’m talking about working from your house, day-in-day-out. Telecommuting full time is definitely not for everyone. I tried it during the dot com days with limited success myself, but I learned a lot during that time about how to pull it off and some pitfalls to avoid. Since it seems like working remotely is a growing trend, I thought I’d document some tips I’ve learned for new telecommuters to help them make the transition from working in the office to working in the virtual office.
You do not work from home.
I can’t stress this enough, so I’ll say it again…in bold–You do not work from home.
You work from work. If you have the mindset that you are working from home, you’re already walking on thin ice. The problem with this mindset is that you will inevitably either bring home to work (not good), or bring work to home (even worse). One of the biggest difficulties I had working from home in the late 90s was that some days I had a very difficult time “going to work”. Other days, it seemed impossible to “come home from work”. There are a few things you can do to make the transition easier and keep the separation between work and home more clear:
- Set aside an office in your home. If you are limited on space, this may not be a separate room, but it needs to be a separate work area at least. It can even be a designated chair. All you do in this area is work. You don’t watch TV, play video games, or read for pleasure here. Work there, and don’t work anywhere else. I’ve learned that I do best with an entire room complete with bookshelves, a printer, filing cabinet, etc. It has to be as much like a traditional office as possible. And it must have a door that locks.
- “Go” to work in the mornings. In the beginning, you can help yourself with transitioning to telecommuting by continuing the same routine you would to go to work at a traditional office. This helps prepare your mind for the day ahead. For me, that meant actually getting dressed for work and arriving at the office at 7:30 am. After a month or so, I was able to drop the dress code, but I still like to “clock in” at the same time every day. If you have a morning workout routine, this will be much easier because you will continue exercising and showering before getting dressed. I’ve heard of other people going so far as getting in their car and driving to Starbucks for coffee, then returning home and going straight to work–simulating a commute.
- Factor in transition times, both to and from work. If you are used to commuting 20-30 minutes every day, this one is crucial. You may not realize it, but you’re probably using that time to either mentally prepare for work on the way there or to deflate from work before you get home. One of the issues you can run into when your commute is only 10 seconds is that your mind is still at either home or work, even though your body has changed locations. I’m lucky that the people in my group at work tend to start around the same time I do, while most of the people I support come in a little later. This gives me time to catch up on what’s going on within my group if necessary before “customers” start coming in, and it also keeps my morning more flexible so I can easily transition. “Going home after work” is much more difficult for me personally because my customers are still working when I’m ready to leave the office. If I’ve been working on one of their issues or am writing some code right up until the time I leave for the day, I sometimes find myself still mentally “at work” when I get home. I try to save tasks that have definite termination points for the end of the day to help me make a clean break.
There will be doubters. And some won’t change their minds.
Whenever you are doing something outside the absolute norm, there are going to be people who are skeptical. I once worked for a company that had a strict 8:00 am – 5:00 pm attendance policy. When they moved to flexible scheduling for salaried employees (as approved by management), lots of people in management refused to allow their people to participate, even if it meant something as small as taking 30 minutes instead of an hour for lunch and leaving at 4:30 instead of 5:00. Does that sound like a good way to keep responsible, reliable professionals around?
Skepticism of working remotely is fair up to a point. Know this is the situation you are signing up for, and do your best to change minds. Remember, you are being given a large amount of trust in your ability to manage your time effectively, so it’s reasonable to accept more responsibility for doing just that. Some people will never have their minds changed, but do your best to make sure that’s because of them, not you.
- Answer phone calls and emails ASAP. Every work place is different, but a certain amount of time in between receiving an email and replying is usually acceptable and the norm. Try to beat that. Every time. Try to be the most responsive person in the organization, especially during the regular office hours.
- Be flexible, especially with the “not bringing work home” rule. Smart phones make it easier to at least respond to emails if you have information readily available without “going back to the office.” I think it’s reasonable for people to expect a little more availability from a telecommuter given the extra flexibility they are afforded.
- Be willing to “go back to the office” later. If you’re working in IT, you are probably used to having to come in during off-hours to perform maintenance and installations anyway, so it’s no big deal at all to go back to your home office and log in from 10pm-2am to perform some task. Much better than driving back in, right? If you work in another field, this may take some getting used to.
- Produce! You’ll probably find you’re much more productive by default since you aren’t spending as much time in meetings or getting pulled into random conversations with people stopping by your cube. Don’t take your foot off the pedal!
- Volunteer! There are always going to be those “meh” projects in any organization that no one is too excited about taking on. Take the opportunity to grab them if you are caught up on your usual duties and have the time to take care of them! This stuff has to be done by someone anyway, and it’s been my experience that I almost always end up learning something new or making a connection that leads to a much more interesting project later on.
Work From Home Every Now and Then
Every now and then (but not too often), work from home the same way other people do. Does this mean relaxing by the pool with lemonade in hand and doing just enough to keep your screensaver from activating? Uh…no. But it can mean an evening performing some less thought intensive tasks with your feet up on an ottoman while someone else in your house is engaged in a Desperate Housewives marathon. You’ll have no problem focusing on work if that’s your only other option.
You can work-from-home from home if you’re single or have the house to yourself during the day, but it’s tough to really work in your living spaces during the day if you have kids. My preference is to head to a coffee shop for a Friday afternoon every now and then when I’m caught up and things are expected to be smooth for the rest of the day. Right before a long holiday weekend when everyone else has mentally checked out is the perfect time. It’s a nice change of pace from sitting in the same spot every day and gives you the chance to feel like you are a part of normal society, even if it’s just for a few hours.
Sometimes You Have To Adapt
Just like at the regular office, sometimes things pop up that throw a kink into your perfect plan. You’re going to get sick, but there isn’t any “I don’t want to infect everyone else,” so you have to do your best to fight through it and still get some rest. Sometimes you’ll need to handle an errand during your office hours, just like an in-office job, and you’ll have to step out to take care of it. The best you can do is to try and imagine how you would handle any unexpected occurrences if you weren’t a telecommuter and try to handle them the exact same way.
I’m sure others have some great strategies to adjust to telecommuting and handling the challenges it brings. If you can overcome the things that make working remotely difficult (solitude, distractions, mindset, etc.) it is a great way to work! Again, it’s not a good fit for everyone or every company, but it’s worth giving it a shot if your employer is game to letting you give it a shot and you think you can do it successfully.
Here’s where I break it down to levels beyond scientific.
Some people love her. Some people hate her. Me…I’m completely indifferent.
What I can’t figure out is why anyone, whether they love her or hate her, puts any serious stock in what she says or does.
It seems to me she’s the Paris Hilton (famous for being famous) of politics. Group A hates her because Group B loves her, and Group B loves her because because Group A hates her. Take the love and hate away, and what is her real relevance?
Just an indifferent perspective.
NOTE (2.7.2014): What you will find below is one strategy. I don’t think it’s the best strategy. In fact, three years after originally writing this, I don’t even think it’s a very good strategy.
This is not the way I currently train for 70.3s. I’ve gained mucho experience and knowledge in the last three years, and you can read most of that in the articles listed here.
There are much more effective ways to train, even with time constraints. And I’ve realized that setting time goals for a 70.3 is maybe not the smartest thing to do, at least for me. A time range is reasonable, but race day is full of unexpected events and factors you can’t control. Read on, but at your own peril.
Ok. I’ve noticed a lot of people are landing here looking for the answer to that one simple question…”What is the best way to train for a half iron distance race (70.3 miles) and finish in under six hours?”
I wrote a longer, more detailed post about one strategy to do this a while back. But if you’re looking for a simple (and logical) approach, I’m going to summarize it here. I’d advise going back and reading the whole post, which contains a little more detail. Keep in mind, I’m not a certified triathlon coach. I have absolutely no credentials other than the fact that I’ve actually done it while weighing over 200 lbs, eating higher quantity and lower quality of food than I should, and skipping a workout here and there.
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Here’s my strategy: Prioritize the race (and your training) in the order of time spent in the race itself. That means concentrate on bike first, then run, then swim.
The bike is going to be about half of the race, right? So make biking the main focus of your training. That means you are probably not going to get a PR for your half marathon during this race. So be it. If you wanted to PR a half marathon you’d be training for that exclusively anyway, right?
Running will probably benefit from having a really solid base before you start training for the race. Build that up in the off-season, and you can put the running portion of the training on auto-pilot. It probably isn’t necessary to rack up a ton of miles running, but it’s a good idea to be mentally prepared for 13.1 by making sure you still hit a long run every week, preferably on tired cycling legs. For me, I did that along with a 10% brick of my rides, and it worked out. Again, I was a long way from PRing the 1/2 marathon in my race, but I’d banked so many minutes on the bike that I had a huge cushion.
Swim–fuhgetaboutit. If you can swim the distance, you will be fine. No need to spend hours in the pool so you can shave off 3 minutes of swim time when you could spend those hours biking (or resting). If anything, spend your swim time in the open water so you are comfortable with it.
Keep in mind, the point here isn’t to “do your best” or “run the perfect race”. If you want to do that, you should hire a coach, measure everything you eat, take vitamins, etc. Not knocking anyone who wants to do that either, but that’s a different (and very worthy) goal than just trying to arrive at 5:59:59.
The worst thing about living in Florida is that leaving the house to go to the grocery store means you have a good chance of running into a dude who looks like a retired professional rassler.
The best thing about living in Florida is that leaving the house to go to the grocery store means you have a good chance of running into a dude who really is a retired professional rassler.
Do yourself a favor and invest some time reading Mark T. Mitchell’s memories of working on a Montana ranch. As a country, we need a whole lot more of this and a whole lot less of anything that isn’t this.
I didn’t have a job anything like Mr. Mitchell did at 14, but I did a lot of farm work before I ever held a steady job, starting with pulling suckers off tobacco plants at 12. I had the same anxious feeling the first time my uncle told me to drive the tractor back to the barn while he drove the truck. Luckily it worked pretty much like a riding mower, so I didn’t mess up too badly.
All the things my brother and I had to do around the house seemed like slave labor at the time since we didn’t really have a choice in the matter, But we were lucky that when opportunities came to do some work for folding money, work wasn’t a foreign concept. It just made chores around our house seem more like slave labor. 🙂
Every one of those jobs “helping somebody out” for a day or two did infinitely more good for me in the long term than it did for the people I was working for in the short term.