Many conflicts of vision can be ascribed to confusing cause and effect. That of course says nothing of unrelated effects ascribed to a cause incorrectly, which is probably much more common!
Type II diabetes. For a variety of historical reasons, elevated glucose is seen as a cause, or at the very least is the diagnostic, of Type 2 diabetes. Hyperglycemia is actually an effect of the disease of Type 2 diabetes; treating it does not address the underlying disease. Elevated glucose does not cause all the harms associated with Type II diabetes; it is simply one of the constellation of effects of the underlying cause, hyperinsulinemia.
Why do people always have to say “I don’t like this person! I’m actually a leftist!” before stating an emminently reasonable position that doesn’t conform to the left? Rogan does this all the time. If someone in the mainstream defends Rand Paul, it’s always prefaced with “He’s ICKY!!!… But…” Even nominally conservative or libertarian people use this construct. Why do conservative, libertarian or simply non-batshit-leftist statements always seem to require a disclaimer?
Does every manager type in a large organization go to the same “School of Vapidness”? Why does every single one seem to have a compulsive need to send a spam email out after the completion of some particular milestone with the same empty platitudes? “Given the complexity and challenges of <upcoming task>, in our <milestone in the preparation for upcoming tast>, I see a true team coming together! Our ability to function as a team is so critical. I am constantly reminded that there is no better team at <large organization> than the <sub team working on this task>. You guys RULE!” I understand and am fully behind “Thank you everyone for your hard work. These are difficult tasks that require lots of effort to execute, and the work is appreciated” Done. But you said exactly the same thing to the last <random group of people> you “managed”, regardless of performance. And you will say the exact same thing to the next group. All these empty, repeated, meaningless platitudes mean you can’t really be sincere/honest so I disregard your entire BS statement, hence the purported purpose of your bromide is completely undermined. Maybe it’s just me. But does anyone read that and really think it’s a sincerely stated, honest evaluation and feel pride? I just think “empty bullshit, f-off”.
Lockdown inverse correlation with outcome. There is some data that show an inverse correlation between severity of lockdown efforts and negative Covid-19 outcomes (see e.g. PANDATA). If this was treated like the media and politicians often treat cause and effect, one might infer that lockdowns cause worse Covid and come out against lockdowns. While there’s a plausible mechanistic pathway for that (lock people indoors, more transmission, more concentrated viral load), it’s just as plausible that regions more strongly impacted implement more stringent measures in a (vain) effort to mitigate those larger impacts. I wonder whether the reason this isn’t treated the same way “experts” often treat observations and cause/effect is the fact that doing so would result in reduced power for the state and influence for the media?
Why is it that “requirements” become sacrosanct? We have to do things by the book even if that creates extra work and/or compromises the effectiveness/efficiency of whatever endeavor we are engaging in. It seems that the people in charge of enforcing ‘requirements’ or ‘standards’ are completely clueless about the systems those requirements/standards apply to and therefore have no ability to make judgements and so simply follow the script, often to the detriment of the entire effort. Also seems a common way to dodge responsibility and effort.
Anthropogenic global warming (climate change?) – Is CO2 a cause, or effect? There is clear data in the geological record of significant temperature changes over the course of the earth’s history. To the degree one can discern, it seems temperature is a leading indicator, CO2 a trailing, so rising temperatures actually cause the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere, rising CO2 is not causing rising temperatures. To say nothing of why we seem to focus on CO2, one of the most minor of GH gasses, both in quantity and efficacy. The cynic might observe that it’s the only emission whose control and regulation gives power and money to societies ‘experts’ and ‘elites’. And with methane providing another avenue to more power and control, it’s starting to be emphasized. Man, I’m a cynic. I mean realist.
Social construction of gender roles. There’s an assumption that society forces gender roles onto individuals and the cause of variation between the sexes in work and play is the result of that societal enforcement. And social institutions do enforce gender roles at some level. But the cause is biological and evolutionary. The effect is the development of social institutions that reflect that underlying biological root cause.
When we see discrimination everywhere – “I’m not welcomed into a male-dominated sport/activity”, “I’m not in a management position because of systemic racism” – are groups that have been told to expect discrimination and racism mistaking the absolutely normal skepticism and ‘hazing’ that comes with new experiences for real discrimination? People are never (or rarely) welcomed into a new group with open arms; there’s a period of “are you competent at this endeavor? Are you willing to listen and learn before demanding recognition? Do you fit in? Demonstrate to us that you belong here.” – a lot of that dynamic happens subconsciously, some deliberate. Not having been trained to take offence at every turn, I might take that as the normal process; some one trained to see nefarious purposes everywhere might interpret that more ominously.
Acronyms. Cutesy. Doubly nested. Triply nested. I hates them.
You’re asking us??
We’ll give him plenty of wrong answers.
I liked it, thanks!
A fine ranting, though, Andy Rooney. We all think these things.
NARC? You can’t be serious.
Though it could be a hint as to where they get the money.
The Big Dig Part II. Everyone swore they’d never waste that much money again.
$108B includes a tunnel under the Long Island Sound? Give me a break. If they managed to do just that part for under a half a trillion, I’d be surprised.
This. I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole thing is a hoax. (NARC?)
The only NARC I’m interested in
Yup.
Back of the envelope:
The Ted Williams Tunnel runs underwater for 3/4 of a mile and cost $1.3B in 1995 – call it around $2.2B in today’s dollars. Let’s call it $3B per mile.
New Haven to Lake Ronkonkoma is in excess of 20 miles of water, so a mere $60B.
That assumes making a 20 mile tunnel under the Sound scales up just like 3/4 of a mile under the relatively shallow Boston Inner Harbor. And doesn’t cover all of the eminent domain takings of some of the most expensive real estate in the country.
I’m going with my initial “no way they could do the tunnel for $108B”
Don’t forget that the Green Line Extension in Boston costs twice per mile than the recently completed longest rail tunnel through the Alps.
And is not a tunnel.
Yes! Although a rather long toast speech. Now drink.
Don’t tell me what to do.
well you are a servant. now bring me my pipe and monocle
Unfortunately, I never learned the lesson that brevity is the soul of… see I can’t even remember what it’s the soul of, that’s how bad I am at brevity. Everything spirals into a long sequence of embedded explanations and connections. Much like what happens when you… SHIT! It’s happening again. Never mind, I’ll stop now.
Brevity is the soul of lingerie.
-Dorothy Parker
10/10
Solid rant.
Would read again.
I got lost after the first sentence. But, I’m drunk, because your 11am is my 11pm.
Ghost guns! He’s trying, god love him, to hype this up – but his delivery is just so flat.
Wet streets cause rain: film at eleven.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WHdrMXOtSGA
Well, they gotta say somethin’, yanno?
BTW, YOU ROCK! /nosarc
“they gotta say somethin'”
Yes, I suppose 🙂 But to me a “thanks, good work, appreciate the effort” is much more meaningful than “you guys are the bestests ever! Best team I’ve ever worked with! You are all special and cool and the best!”. That’s just an empty form letter and actually has the opposite effect of what’s (purportedly) intended. Meaningless.
hence the purported purpose of your bromide is completely undermined. Maybe it’s just me. But does anyone read that and really think it’s a sincerely stated, honest evaluation and feel pride?
The admin probably wrote it. That should tell you how much I value it.
I thought admins were a thing of the past.
My rant yesterday happened 20 years ago, which is why I don’t know why that all bubbled up.
Irish amnesia? 😉
We used to have one for the entire group. Then she retired, now we have to cope… I can’t figure out half this paperwork process. Give me a misbehaving computer and I’m golden, give me a stack of poorly documents formed that have to be filled out precisely to the satisfaction of some bureaucrat I’ve never met, and I’m lost.
Can you requisition a new admin? You have the power to hire, yes?
No.
I don’t have the power to hire. I have to beg for permission to hire people.
We’ve asked the director to get a new admin in because the amount of time we spend muddling through the process conflicts with the time needed for all the projects they want us to finish.
I feel that way about pretty much every statement issued in the name of any authority/expert figure anywhere throughout the world. ”The admin probably wrote it.”
Helps keep me sane. -ish.
Hyperglycemia is actually an effect of the disease of Type 2 diabetes – the cause is shit diet no exercise and excess fat
Anthropogenic global warming (climate change?) – Is CO2 a cause, or effect? – both?
There is clear data in the geological record of significant temperature changes over the course of the earth’s history- – ain’t been properly adjusted yet is all
But the cause is biological and evolutionary. – no. all the men in the world got together at the great patriarchy convention in 22356 BC and imposed gender roles on the wymminz
Not enough insulin (hence, insulinemia).
However, a low-carb diet can correct it.
for most people the insulin issue is caused by what I said. Now some have just chosen the wrong parents. But for most it is lifestyle imo.
pourquoi pas les deux?
*non les deux? lequel? Où est Rufus? Il nous manque.
That’s Type 1 vs Type 2, mostly. Type 1 is typically inherited, Type 2 is typically a result of malfunction. Typically.
type 1 is basically a sort of autoimune disease
but even for type 2 you can be genetically predisposed
Both, I reckon, but 1 much more strongly and autoimmune than 2.
Too much insulin actually. Insulin starts being elevated years before any glucose effect is seen in diabetic patients. The elevated insulin leads to insulin resistance, especially in fat cells. Type II is not a disease of insufficient insulin, it’s a disease of too much insulin. Unfortunately, the diagnoses is usually very late in the progression, once the elevation is no longer sufficient to clear the excess glucose and you start seeing climbing glucose numbers. Bad diet leads to elevated chronic elevated insulin which leads to increases fat storage, which re-enforces the insulin resistance, which… Circle of viciousness, begun it has.
Misspoke. My education in diabetes, insulinemia, hypo/hyperglycemia, and suchlike ended years ago when I was seriously low-carbing. Didn’t need to know specifics anymore; I just knew what worked for me.
“Dissipative Friction in my Cylindrically Mounted Periodic Protrusions”
I *know* I’ve seen that one on PornHub.
I thought it was what you did while watching PornHub?
When we see discrimination everywhere – I am most certainly discriminated round these parts
[insert stupid and unwarranted vampire joke here]
I was thinking of inserting a gypsy joke until I thought better of it.
Shoulda gone with tramp or thief.
Fun entirely narcissistic fact: I often get story ideas from song lyrics, but it’s just filling out the story in the song. Some songs, the story is perfect just the way it’s told (see the above-linked).
Like Hemingway’s shortest story ever, “For sale: Baby shoes, never worn,” the brevity is part of the story.
You know who else got a story idea from song lyrics?
Uh, me.
Four of them last fall.
Animal…
thems fightin words
Well, you’re a vampire, so . . .
(Just thought I’d illustrate your point, Moje. ;-) )
GMTA
Obligatory: “FSD”
Mo, could use some more Elizabeth Bathory jokes.
Funny ‘cuz it’s true. Also, my real name is Elizabeth.
?
Wait. Just re-read the last bit of the rant. Isn’t
(((this)))
triply-nested?
RAAAAAAACIST!!!
Hmmmm, you may be right. Oh well, I hates (((them))) too then!
???
*hoists beer in Putrid’s direction*
Fishbone diagram. Ugh.
I recently had to sit through an interminable meeting to solve a production issue. Lots of fishbone diagrams, 6 Whys, Taguchis, and several other assorted “structured problem solving” methods. Follow-up meeting, more of the same. Hours and hours of this.
Punchline: I ignored everyone, was a terrible team player, and solved the problem myself. Guys on the production floor knew exactly what I was doing, why I was doing it, and enthusiastically pitched in to help. They were delighted at the fix. Only the managers were pissed off.
The Six Sigma shit is cancer.
I feel your pain.
Never could stand a problem solving process that required more time be put into the document preparation than the actual solution.
When process is more important than results, time for me to check out.
I actually said out loud, “This is bullshit. I’m going to go at it myself. At the end, everyone is going to hate me but the problem will be solved.”
Which has been the pattern of my entire career.
You must get along famously with consultants.
Never could stand a problem solving process that required more time be put into the document preparation than the actual solution.
Allow me to point you to JCIDS.
Better link (since it includes the glorious wall chart).
HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! I just formatted an ebook on why Six Sigma sucks donkey balls, although he didn’t say it that way.
Got a link to it? Or is it not on the market yet?
He hasn’t uploaded it yet.
I’ll buy it.
It’s titled Optimum Sigma is NOT 6 by Kermit Taylor, but he hasn’t uploaded it yet.
IN FACT, had a very long telephone conversation with him in which I hesitantly pointed him here.
I’m snickering because Fred Taylor is the great granddaddy of all the scientific management fads (Taylorism).
That’s my new word for the day.
Unlike the pipeline to stupidity of modern consultants, both Taylor and Gilbreth started out on the ground floor and worked their way up.
Indeed. “We have an anomaly review at 15:00 UTC, please have you charts and fishbone ready to present”. “Uh, we’re working on root cause here, pulling data and reviewing designs to see what could have caused this anomaly and figure out a fix”. “Please forward you charts to the board”. “You know that’s 3 hours that we have to take away from actually solving the root problem here, right?” “Please use the approved powerpoint templates when preparing your charts.” “….. ….”. “Putrid’s dead; can someone prepare his charts for him?”
God-damn html tags! The “…. ….” was supposed to be “….. swallows barrel, ties string to trigger; BLAM!…..”
I’m disappointed that I have to be the one to provide this music link (TW: stay away Hyperbole).
Not being an enginerd I’d never heard of a fishbone diagram, although once I saw one I recognized it.
Wiki says this is another thing we get to thank Japan for giving us.
If it’s useful the characters for “Ishikawa” are Stone + River which may be helpful when you want take one wrap a stone and throw it in the river.
6 Whys
We can only afford 5 Whys.
A classic case of correlation != causation. And that’s even assuming you buy the faked data behind the “correlation”.
Absent a means to prove or disprove this hypothesis, it’s not worth acting on let alone destroying the global economy over.
But you see, the ‘problem’ they want to solve isn’t global warming, it’s the global economy, and by extension people.
Surely, if this were a serious thing, someone would have taken a terrarium and put in gas mixtures under a simulation of solar lighting and shown the devastation.
And stuck in a spherical cow.
Does every manager type in a large organization go to the same “School of Vapidness”?
Ever deal with an HR manager? Whenever someone gets canned, they trot out the same sentence: “We wish him the best in his future endeavors.”
It was so cliché that we used to refer to getting fired as “being future endeavored.”
I’m sure the curriculum that every manager is forced into is largely the same. And the ones who are enthusiastic about that junk follow it to the letter.
If it’s not the same wording, then the Kremlinologists starting reading meaning into it. ‘Wait, he left to pursue other interests but nothing about spending more time with his family? That’s because he was boning the EVP’s side dish, isn’t it?’
Haha, oh my god… Literally the same exact wording that goes out on the emails from our HR department when someone quits or gets shitcanned…. “Such-and-such has left [company] to pursue other opportunities. We wish them the best in their future endeavors.”
Our go to is always “pursuing other interests”. As in “Fred is now pursuing other interests”.
I like ‘opportunities’
I’ve seen that not used a handful of times. Most of those were for fraternization using company resources.
We wish him the best in his future endeavors
If they are smart, they mean it, too.
Because somebody who gets a good job right away is very unlikely to sue you for wrongful termination. The ones who sue are teh ones who can’t get a good job right away. On the rare occasions when I have fired someone, I have done whatever I can to help them go straight into a new job.
Taking your introductory graf as #1 and not 0:
3 ad hominem
4 re vapidity, these are the people who write in to complain *
5 objection: vague (their position, not yours)
6 NASA and Royal Astronomical Society** have ascribed it at least partially to solar activity (**not sure who)
8 Is it really that brown people don’t hike? or black people don’t learn how to swim for whatever reason, and drown much too often?
*compliments to cranks ratio
Good thing I am unlikely to be fired from here.
“Taking your introductory graf as #1 and not 0”
I hates people who don’t zero index. 🙂
Just because there’s a deficiency in how computer chips count doesn’t mean we have to fall to their levels.
^^^THIS^^^
Oh, so much this.
But is it scientific and European and therefore just better, like the metric system?
Feel free to renumber. Was of a mind myself.
I hope the “smiley face” conveyed that I’m just messing with you, nothing intended. I really just hate everyone, I don’t discriminate against 1-indexers. Except FORTRAN programmers.
For my lists, zero indexing wouldn’t work.
“The second document, which is number 1 on your list . . . .”
“The third incident, number 2 . . . .”
“You will see on the fifth line, numbered 4 . . . .”
I, for one, am an Eagle Scout.
But it’s less ethnicity and more class. You need to have a job that lets you take time off to go out into the woods. It also helps if that job is not so physically demanding that you have the energy to spare on a pastime that revolves around physical activity.
Class always gets short shrift in favor of skin color.
I also think urban / rural divide. For example my Boston Irish mother in law can’t swim. She grew up in a working class city living family.
The irony being was that ol’ B-P specifically designed the Scouts to break down that divide.
It wouldn’t surprise me if geography/climate accentuates the urban/rural thing. The handbooks (at least up to when I was in the BSA) were very much assuming a temperate forest in their camping/nature/survival scenarios.
I did my scouting in the south, but I can imagine in the pre-malaria eradication days recreational comping there was not a thing.
As Exhibit A, I give you swim qual in Marine boot camp. Recruits who can’t swim at all go to the shallow end of the pool for remedial instruction. Virtually all of them were black.
I chuckle when I remember Sgt. Freeman, who was black, yelling “BLACK PEOPLE: THE WATER WILL NOT HURT YOU!”
I didn’t think there were any black Marines, just dark green ones.
Post completion emails and similar platitudes- it’s no different than saying thank you to someone holding the door open for you. Trivial, unasked for, and you’re rude if you don’t do it. Such are many business emails.
Copy. I object to the form and content, not the sentiment. We are NOT the best team ever that you’ve ever worked with. This wasn’t the hardest problem in the history of problems and we came together as the best team in the history of teams to conquer it. Just say “Thank you, the efforts are appreciated”.
“I assure you, sir, that in you I have my greatest confidence.” ??
OT – dropped you a link in the last thread you might find useful.
Thanks! Dogen really grated on me, but I’ve warmed up to his schtick and competence. Even as a beginner, I hear what he’s talking about but didn’t know the rules behind it, particularly when
apingshadowing native speakers.His schtick require knowledge of both languages. If you don’t have enough Japanese it’s simply going to be annoying.
His Patreon stuff is focused on pronunciation which is his big interest. So little to no comedy there, but I’m not a subscriber so I can’t confirm other than what he has released outside Patreon.
I’m a YouTube subscriber only. The comedy keeps me coming back.
A bit of a stolen base here. Some gendered behaviors have biological and evolutionary causes, but others do not. There is nothing in or DNA or our evolutionary neuro-hard-wiring that divides hair length as “short” = masculine and “long” = feminine. Evidence? The minority of cultures in which it is the exact opposite (Thai culture, for example). Now one could argue that Thais et al. have radically different brains than cultures in which long hair is coded feminine, but a simple neuroanatomy course would disabuse one of that notion.
Certainly a more general observation than an Iron Law. But I’m also not sure that I’d classify hair length as a ‘gender role’, but rather a conception of beauty/attractiveness. There are biologically encoded measures of attractiveness, but it’s also an area where cultural/historical ‘accidents’ can have a larger role. I’m not even sure if it’s a minority of cultures that have the opposite division. Lots of medieval pictures of guys with long wigs, American Indians seem to have had a lot of long-hairs. In fact, I’d venture to guess that the association of masculine with short hair is fairly modern cultural construct. But it doesn’t really seem to fall into a ‘gender role’ per se.
Thai hair came to mind because it was a difference I was fascinated with. In my understanding, in general, even in cultures where men have long hair, it is expected to be shorter than women’s hair. That having been said, there are enough cultures in which there are exceptions to prove that it’s not a cultural universal like mother-son incest taboos or burial of the dead.
I would push back on the difference between a gender role and a conception of beauty/attractiveness. When it comes down to it, social/cultural performance of gender behaviors are for one reason only – to signal your attractiveness to the complementary gender. Throughout human history, a woman’s ability to be a caregiver has been celebrated because it is a signal that she has the ability to ensure your offspring would survive. Likewise, shapely, muscular, male buttocks (and the activities that produce them) are pretty much universally celebrated as they are a signal of health, vitality, and strength. [Pics available with a Glibertarians Gold-Level Membership Subscription] Those clearly have biological root causes. However, there are plenty of behaviors that originate in society that serve gender signaling that have the effect of increased sexual attractiveness, which is a biological effect. With reproduction being both an effect and a cause in this case, I admit that we are getting into the chicken and the egg. I guess the point is, for a thinking, sentient species like Homo sapiens, we are unique in that socially-constructed behaviors can be causes for evolutionary-selective effects. Both cool and terrifying if you think about it!
“With reproduction being both an effect and a cause in this case”
Which is where I’m not sure I’d agree, or at least it’s where I struggle conceptually. To the degree I’ve thought through it, biological reproduction is always the cause. The ‘biological’ gender roles evolve to maximize the success of that endeavor. Males and females have different strengths that they can bring to bear on the problem of ensuring successful propagation of the species and evolution has favored us ‘discovering’ and implementing those roles. Social institutions evolve to re-enforce and facilitate those roles/divisions of labor, not the other way around. If you removed all the social ‘enforcement’ of gender roles, they would still be necessary (modulo the growth of civilization and knowledge to the point that the evolutionary pressures no longer favor that particular gender division, but that will take time for that to propagate into what it means to be a human male or female from the biological perspective) but the converse is not true.
Always the caveat that this is ‘true’ (I may be wrong!) in the aggregate, not when applied to any one individual.
Realizes I’ve fallen into the non-brevity trap again…
a thinking, sentient species like Homo sapiens
Objection! That is conjecture not based in evidence!
Long as I can grow it
look women should not have hair bellow the neckline and men should. it is biology. Although a landing strip is alright
Explain France.
I cannot I have my limitations
So goatees are okay on the ladies, then?
Don’t forget the Franks. Nobody said Charles Martel was womanly.
Or … necessity is the mother of invention.
So, with the proliferation of Mommy Blogs (SAHMs) and Pinterest, an interesting phenomenon has developed and I have seen it throughout my neighborhood.
Women are doing the DIY, including some of the heavy stuff. Why? Because a) they don’t want to keep harping on their husbands because the husbands make the money, b) they like it, c) they’re more detail-oriented (or so a contractor friend who hires women told me). Construction is/was a man’s game, but now the women are doing it because they have control over what’s done, how it’s done, and what it looks like at the end–and it’s fun. It’s as much a creative outlet as knitting or playing the piano. It’s just–a lot more labor-intensive and requires more upper body strength.
Oh, I meant to follow that up with this: my neighbor, who is much older than I and Hispanic, very much disapproves of my doing the DIY. He has said frequently that my husband should be doing it and he would like to bond with my husband over chainsaws.
Well, my husband’s got two bad knees and two left thumbs. He will, however, climb on the roof and clean the gutters, and he’s done a lot more of it since I had two surgeries that put paid to my DIYing.
How many thumbs would he have if he used the chainsaw?
Cool if so.
Lesser tech aspects I could learn given much time. Brawn, brain…
Where is Camille Paglia these days, anyway?
I think she got canceled. /s
Or else she just threw up her hands and said, “Fuck it, I’m outtie.”
Luv: short for Audi 5000, hx of which q.v.
Merde!
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=i%27m%20audi
random
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqJDuZIcQ34
I thought the hazy hx was the most interesting part.
Women are not ‘forced’ into gender roles by men or the ‘patriarchy.’ Gender conventions are enforced and propagated by women. Women vie for social dominance/power and part of that is setting the social norms for a given population. Queen bees set the standard and other women try to match or exceed her social power. If you are skeptical, ask yourself which gender is more likely to try and shame you into wearing your mask? Which gender is likely to alienate another of the same sex out of a social group?
Men are trying to woo women by becoming what they find attractive in terms of behavior, fashion etc. in a mate, thereby setting men’s social norms and selecting men that are predisposed to having the sought after traits. Thus continuing the cycle.
Whatever these conventions end up look like obviously vary from culture to culture, but they are there and are controlled by women and their considerable social power and mate selection.
Of course, there are exceptions by and large I think it is at least a reasonable hypothesis.
Concur.
Just watch two women when they meet. They generally both give the other the ice-cold up and down evaluation Look. That is rubber-meets-the-road gender role enforcement.
And to be perfectly honest, I think I’d rather have women as the Gender Cops than men.
The Six Sigma shit is cancer.
You’re mostly right. It was a pop version of Japanese Total Quality Management ideas recycled to be palatable to American managers. I mean, how many managers would be comfortable with the idea that they are responsible to their team for the team’s work (the idea is that if there’s a problem, the default assumption should be that the manager failed to uncover the problem the worker was having and correct it)?
That said, my guess is that you’re probably a pretty good natural problem solver. A lot of this probably amounts to pointless busy work for you. An unusual portion of managers, though, aren’t innate problem solvers. And the tools are intended to help them structure their thinking in a way to solve problems. Consider all the people you talk to every day who can’t manage a linear discussion or conversation. How natural do you think they are at solving problems.
The problem, and this is somewhat related to the “requirements” bit, is that the tool is no longer a tool, but the goal. Whether that tool facilitates what should be the real goal – solving the problem – or hinders it is not part of the process of applying the tool. We’re trained to do x-y-z and we’ve not the initiative/insight to deviate from x-y-z.
I’m just whining. I see the value of a structure that helps people get the the job done, but too often it hinders other people and becomes a ‘value’ in and of itself. I also don’t see and easy way out of that quandary. It’s the natural evolution of what happens to a good idea when it comes into common usage.
We’re trained to do x-y-z and we’ve not the initiative/insight to deviate from x-y-z.
I refer to this as “laminated card.” As in, the guy at the help desk who has the standard answers and cannot deviate from them.
“I’m getting a memory error.”
“Is your computer plugged in?”
“It’s a MEMORY error.”
“I see. Is the computer turned on?”
One more anecdote: some years ago, I ran an electronics company that supplied to (among others) Compaq. Our stuff was consistent and reliable. No matter, we were required by them to use the Ford Q1 system. I got a major dressing down by their head of quality for skipping some of the paperwork.
“You need to follow the Q1 system exactly and completely. It is the best quality system that exists.”
“Then why does Ford make such shitty cars?”
Related.
Long story short – shitty implementation of a half-understood Toyota JIT manufacturing systems led to our current shortages in many products.
Look, I captured my one time income bump from the inventory reduction, cashed my stock options and retired. What happens after that is the next guy’s problem.
Did I miss something?
Nope. That’s it.
One of the reasons we weathered COVID as well as we did is that, unlike many other health systems, we didn’t do the stupid short-term JIT inventory reduction for a minuscule one-time bump in operating revenue. We kept our par levels for things like masks, gowns, respirators, etc. higher than most others, which also kept us as preferred buyers for that stuff. At one point last year we had Sea-Tac containers parked behind the hospital because we couldn’t fit all the PPE into our warehouse.
JIT could work for parts and supplies that change design, etc. frequently. We do JIT for stuff like implants – you don’t want to look up one day and discover you have a year’s supply of outdated hip joints at $10K each. But like most MBA ideas, JIT has more limited applicability, and less long-term benefit, than the MBAs would lead you to believe. JIT takes away your design margin for supply chain disruption; I’m just amazed when people don’t realize that.
I don’t recall JIT doing anything to impact operating revenue. Keeping a larger inventory may impact your cash flow but parts and stuff don’t come out of operating revenue until they are actually used.
Remember
JIT happens.
We use the JTL supply chain system.
The JPL supply chain has cooler stuff.
That video gets the thumbs down for the upspeak, just like Chef John videos (besides that his recipes are often crap).
I’m a dummy, but after getting year end minor material purchase freezes a time or two, I started building up and squirreling away purchases in the early part of the year to tide me through. Two is one, and one is none.
Great write up, PM.
Every military award ceremony has the recipient going ‘above and beyond’ the expectations of a person… I know, I wrote a few of them.
I had an assignment in a joint office that had an unexpected turnover of people, I was given the task to write the recommendation for several people that didn’t work for me (I was like the low man on the totem pole) for a Joint Service Commendation Medal.
I even had to write the recommendation for my boss. He told me if I wanted one (JSCM) I should write my own and he’d endorse it. I wouldn’t/couldn’t because I had only did my job, in the best way I knew how, the same as the others.
Needless to say I’m not impressed when I see a senior officer with rows upon rows of ribbons. That is not to say that awards for heroism/extreme bravery are given out freely, however.
OTOH, Putrid’s article goes above and beyond expectations and I recommend him for a Honorary Master Glib Award. Thanks, PM
I suspect the echoing of “Above and beyond” into the ceremony is a result of that phrasing being in the requirements for the awards.
But that’s just me speculating.
Yeah, most people do the minimum to stay out of trouble. Anything beyond that is recognizable.
“Sergeant Smith show up for work most days fairly sober, surpassing all our expectations
‘
I only recently learned about the smutty genesis of Beetle Bailey. rowr!
Reading comprehension for the loss. Mea maxima culpa.
Didn’t mean to make light, anyway.
I’m using that in my next round of annual evaluations.
“For a man of his personal hygiene, he doesn’t steal as much as you’d think.”
“He emits carbon dioxide, so he must be good for the trees.” [obvs pre ACGW hysteria. An actual peer review comment re: one of my co-workers in the ‘say something positive about person X’ section]
Today’s PSA.
“Go ‘way. Training my ostrich.”
This may be the stupidest thing I’ve seen in, well, quite some time.
Which is great, and of course the trains have good quality surveillance cameras, so they’ve got some good shots of the perp.
The stupid part? They blurred (and I mean blurred) the perp’s face in the photos they released asking for help in identifying the perp.
But not the victim.