Powell's Prescient Wisdom Echoes my Recent Troubles

Gosh, wish my recent boss had read this stuff..

Ironically, by procrastinating on the difficult choices, by trying not to get anyone mad, and by treating everyone equally "nicely" regardless of their contributions, you'll simply ensure that the only people you'll wind up angering are the most creative and productive people in the organization.

 I know I'm being a bit self-glorifying by putting that there, but you get the lesson he's conveying. Question : did Powell figure this out the hard way? What was his Aha moment?

Here's another cool one. Echoes my recent troubles. I stopped asking for permission and started asking for forgiveness after taking action because my old boss loved to micromanage. A good idea or a good solution was one that originated from him. So sad to behave that way in your mid-fifties. When a person brings a problem to you, what he's really saying is, my priorities have changed and I need time for this, not "solve this". Duh! Sure, you might have experience that directly applies or know of someone who can tap the case in the right place..

The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership

One of Welchi's tidbits that Gail Denter violated : "Make the organization chart as flat as possible."

By contrast, what I observed was that people were being rewarded for a**-kissing and yes-manning with hierarchy in the org-chart. What a sad state of affairs. Powell says "A tip : Don't invest in such companies."

Applying what I Learnt from Colin Powell

Not directly of course - a presentation I saw about 15 years ago (yes, I have a decent memory :)

something about "Seek out mentors, ..."

My latest interaction :

Hi X,

        I visited once and met you. I'm between jobs now and have some time. Are you open to me spending a day with you looking at what you're working on and seeing what gaps I have in my skillset and discussing how to fill them?

I'm an IC designer, but my dream is to do computer vision stuff...

X :

I'm sorry to say I don't yet recall our meeting. My current work is in electronics and design for manufacture of wearables and gadgets.

I'm currently in NY and might be back Mid Sept some time ... though then I might be headed to china for a bit.

Why don't you email me again a week or two into sept to see where I'm at of that works for you

Me : to me : so that's basically a no. But, not to worry. My subconscious mind will find a way.

The PPT of General Powell's leadership advice is here (thanks ) :

http://www.policeone.com/chiefs-sheriffs/tips/1778991-Colin-Powells-tips-for-leadership/

I remember this one and it makes me ashamed from time to time :

Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity: you'll avoid the tough decisions, you'll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted, and you'll avoid offering differential rewards based on differential performance because some people might get upset.

Welchi sums it up : Leaders have a knack for making unpopular decisions and gut calls.

A User's Guide to the Brain

(while reading Michael GW's book, Super Body, Super Brain)

John Ratey :

What makes us move is also what makes us think
Our physical movements can directly influence our ability to learn, think and remember.
Evidence is mounting that each person's capacity to master new and remember old information is improved by biological changes in the brain brought on by physical activity.

Synthesizing a Problem - Using the Wisdom of Dana Clarke

For the USB-PD transceiver I'm going to be working on, we can be sure we'll get at least one customer return from the field some day.

Is it possible to synthesize such a customer problem through a gedanken experiement it, think of what could possibly create a problem for the customer and have all the solutions available. A team that could do this will certainly be on track to 100% market share for the first year - sort of like FDTI.

Dana used to have a "Resources" section on his web. Gone now, but, I'm getting the TRIZ book for sure. Can't hurt to have that stuff down in my new job :)

http://www.innovationrainmakers.com

Yikes - he recommends a book - 40 Principles : TRIZ Keys to Innovation
Amazon used : $38. Half.com : $17!! WT*? I checked the ISBN numbers - the same *ing book!

Rule 1 Investing

Okay, the website seems like a real time-waster, but the book is okay - I guess..

Shooting for 15% a year is a noble goal. Throwing $5m away on NEXT because Steve Jobs is the boss shows you in a poor light of course.

The mnemonic : Me-Mo Ma-Ma : Meaning-Moat Management-Margin

• Does the company have meaning for you - would you be passionate about owning it?
• Does the company have a moat to ward off invaders?
• Does the co have excellent management?
• Does the investment have enough safety margin - are you getting it for 50c per $?

If you can answer yes, then buy and sell when it's fairly priced.

To Phil Town's credit, he might have some tangible stuff in the Rule #1 for 401K Investing... I downloaded it but haven't had time to look at it.. He mentions some small cap growth funds I think.

After 10 Years, Knoppix Still Kills Dell + M$

Well, to be fair, I was using a 10 year old reinstall CD to get Win XP up and running. Knoppix has gotten me out of tight spots before - when I desperately needed to look something up online and Windows just couldn't hack it.

But, here's the kicker - M$ cannot get me internet access via Ethernet on a platform (D600) that swears by M$ and Knoppix can. Sure, the page renditions are not very pretty, but WTH? You can see why M$ and Dell are both going nowhere..

What's Important to Know About Self-Control

aka Willpower :

• It's a mind-body response, not a virtue
• Is a limited resource - like muscle strength - use a lot of it at work during the day and you know why you need a shot or a smoke or a quickie when you get home
• Temptation and stress hijack the brain's systems of self-control, but the brain can be trained to withstand higher levels without giving in
• Guilt and shame over your setbacks lead to giving in again, but self-forgiveness and self-compassion boost self-control
• Giving up control is sometimes the only way to gain self-control
• Willpower failures are contagious - you can catch the desire to overspend or overeat from your friends - but you can also catch self-control from the right role-models

Don't believe me? Then read "The Willpower Instinct" by Kenny McGonigal (interesting combination of Scotch-Irish and Prussian there)

Never Guess About Your Finished PCB Again

Thanks to this maestro (Jerome really impressed me with huge abstraction and adaptation skills even in the stressful setting of a MMO development; he quickly became someone you can rely on, which is very rare for a first position!) you can (if you're unlucky enough to be on Windows V or higher, actually 7 isn't that hot a hell) drag your gerber file onto GBRV and see what it's going to look like - in 3D.

For the record, this is written in Lua.

Raspberry Pi Consultant Takes on ADT for Home Security

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Hc0JWI4I0

So You Want to Be an Analog Designer

Where can you learn this stuff without wasting your time in a university? Note that, at a university, you usually get free access to Cadence. The EE world has not (unfortunately) benefited from open-source the way software has.

Dr. B. Razavi's slides (No guarantee they'll still be there). BTW, Behzad has a nice PPT on his site about what life is like as a professor - I highly recommend it.
Hans (late) Camenzind's book : Designing Analog Chips (inventor of the 555)
Dr. Phillip Allen's course slides (see, he's nice, not like Dr. Leach, who pulled his stuff off)
Dr. Phil Allen's short-course slides (NOTE, in general, I feel the slides are poor-quality from the point of view of presentation, but they're good for documentation - so, my all beans, go through them once then know where to look in future when you want some info. Don't expect to learn from them them easily, the way you can from Behzad. Sorry, Philly, I owe you a cheese bake)
Satish Kashyap's ripoff site - wonder how long this guy can run this. Never mind putting sir (lowercase) at the end of each prof's name to mollify.
Berkeley's EE 240 Adv Analog IC's course lectures. Let me know if they're any good.