Scientific Ink

Author: Dunrie

  • Pardon the Interruption

    I probably don’t seem like a rabid sports fan, as I can’t quote many statistics and I rarely attend live games. But, over the last few years, I’ve watched the ESPN sports show Pardon the Interruption (PTI) almost daily.

    I’m hooked on the good natured, playful banter between the two hosts – Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser. They maintain the format with guest host appearances by folks like Dan Le Batard from the Miami Herald and Bob Ryan from the Boston Globe, to name a few. My attachment to PTI is so deep that I am disappointed when it is supplanted by an actual sporting event on ESPN, and I tune into Dan Le Batard’s deeply silly AM radio show when I’m in Florida. And, I’m planning on knitting Tony “stat boy” Reali’s bird sweater and coercing my husband into wearing it. Now if only I can get my husband to pretend that I win every game we play like Stat Boy does for Tony Kornheiser. Here’s the sign I’m a goner: they even make me interested in golf, not watching golf, but listening to them talk about it.

    I like the very human perspective PTI’s hosts take on sports: games, athletes, coaches, and the media. I appreciate the silly parts – long-running jokes about the “bald brotherhood”, Uranus, and ripping on each other in a fraternal rather than mean spirited way.

    I appreciate their reasoned candor about such “elephants in the stadium” as race, gender, money and our perceptions thereof. For instance, they made me think about why the media/public get more bent out of shape when black basketball players tussle than when white hockey players go at it. They actually mention womens collegiate and professional sports (not a huge part of their show, but more info than I’d get otherwise).

    But I think their best feature is their manner of debate – largely positive, sometimes good natured teasing, now and then emphatic, but rarely mean-spirited. The two hosts have genuine good will for each other, the games, the coaches, and the players, and that makes the show for me. A nice break from more dogmatic role-play-ish political talking heads that had been my standard model of “debate” in the media.

  • Letting go

    So, the theme of the last month has been getting rid of stuff: trying to align my current possessions and situation with who I am now and who I intend to become, rather than who I have been.

    • I have gotten rid of my old stamp collection – bartered it to a friend making and selling stamp-themed art. See her stuff at shiningdesigns.etsy.com.
    • I have gone through the linen closet and our clothes to winnow what we don’t use to pass along to the Homeless Shelter (towels) and other charities (clothing).
    • I emptied out the storage room of my father and stepmother’s Florida condo. I gave away many books, keeping only The New Complete Bulldog for Andy and my grandfather’s 1925, 1926, and 1927 Michiganensian yearbooks. I even gave the yearbooks to my aunt.
    • I’m tossing and replacing the 40-year-old couch cushions from the cabin (sshhhh, don’t tell my aunt til I’m done).
    • I’m also tossing items that have outlived their lifespan: stretched out and beat up formerly favorite shoes, the portfolio that I got from the Society for Technical Communication conference in 2001, and items that never fit, no longer work, or are no longer suitable.

    I’m warming up to get rid of my car. We’re going to take the ancient Jeep up to Tobermory Airport and leave it in the field next to the runway for when we fly up north. My goal is not to replace it. I walk to work, and I can use my husband’s car for errands on the weekends. I’m considering using ZipCar to fill in the gaps.

    My main lifestyle hindrance/regret will be I will no longer be able to go to my favorite yoga studio, A2Yoga, at the drop of a hat. I have been attending some 5:30 classes on some Mondays and Wednesdays, which means that I have to rush home, change, grab my car from the street, and get there. There are at least five yoga studios within walking distance of my home and work. I suppose I could go to one that doesn’t require a car. Or, I could start using my Go! Pass to get to A2Yoga on weeknights. Maybe going carless won’t be so bad.

  • We Feel Fine / by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar

    We Feel Fine / by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar

    So, in Meyers-Briggs personality lingo, I am an intuitive feeler (INFJ). I’ve seen this type described more than once as a “dolphin,” essentially navigating the world based on complex emotional echolocation. (warm…warmer…nope cooler again…drat!) How I feel about things is crucial, and I am at least wise about myself enough to know that it is difficult to project how I will feel about something until I experience it.

    In practice, what this means is that I make mistakes and “bump into walls” as I figure things out. It can’t be helped; it is my process. Maybe actual dolphins are more graceful in practice.

    That most of us are bad at predicting how we’ll feel in a new situation is one of the themes of Daniel Gilbert’s book Stumbling on Happiness. Research sugests that we can understand how we *might* feel about something by talking to someone who is having that experience.

    Ah hah! I can use books and other people’s brains to help me narrow down the set of things I need to go out and experience to understand! Amazing. Maybe I can avoid a few walls that way.

    For that reason, I find the exploration of emotions aggregated from blogs in We Feel Fine interesting. I don’t yet know how to interpret it. I have to spend more time experiencing it. But, it gives me a sense of being connected to others through the irrational network of emotion. That’s kinda cool all on its own.

  • 12 and Go!

    12: The Elements of Great Managing

    I have been meaning to write a blog entry about 12: The Elements of Great Managing since I finished it in December. I have a few excuses, none of them particularly good. Let’s see:

    • I liked it so much I loaned it to a friend (HSG Consulting’s Principal),
    • I liked it so well that I actually spoke about it with friends instead of writing about it,
    • Or maybe I just needed some time to process.

    Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance
    Well, now I’m partway through yet another Gallup book, Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance. Go… is more of a workbook on how to make your job fit you better, how to contribute at a higher level, and maybe help others at your workplace do the same. It’s helping me clarify some things, some things that 12 brought to the surface.

    I think I’m a sucker for these Gallup books because they reinforce my belief that we can collaborate to recreate our work so that individuals and teams function at a higher level, so that individuals and teams contribute from their talents and cover each others’ weaknesses. These books capture and evangelize my vision of true diversity – that people with different superpowers (vision, command, strategy, relating, woo…) can come together because they’re stronger as a team than as individuals.

    Well, 12 is valuable because it emphasizes the critical list these same folks described in First Break All the Rules: the twelve items that make great workplaces, the elements that consistently attract and retain high achievers, the Gallup branded magic formula for success.

    12 argues that great managers provide the following twelve things to their teams: clear expectations, sufficient resources and materials, the chance to contribute at a high level, praise, care and nuturing, respect, a feeling of purpose, good colleagues who care about their work, good comerades, and a chance to grow with feedback (paraphrased).

    Now, this same group had explained this very same list in First Break All the Rules, but in 12, they shared stories of people actually doing these things at organizations, turning around places by paying attention to one of the missing elements. So, it is actionable and inspirational, providing at least a sense of the tools required to enact the vision.

  • Usability Professionals’ Association

    Here’s my statement of interest for becoming an officer of the local chapter of the Usability Professionals’ Association.

    I am ready to volunteer as an officer of the Michigan UPA. I have enjoyed the UPA events I have attended over the years – they often provide me some nugget I can go back and apply. And, I believe we really do need to pay attention to how we make things (software, websites, alarm clocks, projects, teams) so that they reflect and enhance our experience, rather than bother us. UPA has been a source of inspiration for me in this regard. Recently, I’ve been able to apply ideas from Lou Rosenfeld’s search analytics talk in January and many of the February Internet User Experience talks (schedule, photos). Additionally, I enjoy the other folks in the group and want to help support the local chapter.

    My background includes project management, technical writing, and project work where I always maintained a focus on the needs of the end user of the product, application, web site, or device. I’m good at seeing things that need to be done and figuring out the what, who, and how to get them accomplished. So, logistics, communication, organization, and team building. I also have some rusty PR skills I could dust off and put into service.

  • The way to travel

    My husband and I just returned from a one-week trip to Austria. My husband works for an Austrian firm, he travels to the head office several times a year, and we have often spoke about me coming along for a visit, maybe to the wine country south of Graz, maybe to the Alps to ski…

    The Wilder Kaiser from the Chapel

    Now, I’m not a downhill skier, and, in 1991, when deciding whether to have surgery to repair my blown-out left knee, whether or not I skied was a decision criterion (no downhill ski? maybe don’t need to cut into knee). The list of vacation destinations on my bulletin board is:

    1. Quebec City,
    2. Cape Breton,
    3. Iceland,
    4. Trieste, Italy (largely because of Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere),
    5. return to Alaska,
    6. return to Hawaii, and
    7. Austria.

    So, how come Austria jumped to the top of the list and we elected to go to the Alps to ski?

    Friends.

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