Dominate Your Market What's Your Dash?

If you want an average successful life, it doesn’t take much planning. Just stay out of trouble, go to school, and apply for jobs you might like. But if you want something extraordinary, you have two paths:

1. Become the best at one specific thing.
2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.

The first strategy is difficult to the point of near impossibility. Few people will ever play in the NBA or make a platinum album. I don’t recommend anyone even try.

The second strategy is fairly easy. Everyone has at least a few areas in which they could be in the top 25% with some effort.

There is a lot of advice out there of people saying become the best at something. Often these same people forget to explain what it takes to do that. If you want to become Olympic-class (top 1%) at anything you're going to have to put in a lot of time to practice.

To master any skill it take about 5000 hours of practice to get to that level. If you work at it full time 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, it will take you about 2 and a half years to get that time in.
Most people don't have the capability to do that, but you may be able to squeeze in 1 hour a day. That will take 20 years.

On the other hand, if you just want to get really good at a skill (top 25%) that can take only 1000 hours or less. That will only take 4 years at 1 hour per day. A college course often is only about 50 hours of study and you end up knowing quite a bit.

Becoming good at two or three things and presenting it as a package can be a really great way to break into a market. Look at Ben&Jerry, there were lots of big ice cream companies, so they dual-classed with organic-ice cream. Haggen-Daas went with gourmet-ice cream.

What is your dash?
I am an engineer and I also write. I am an engineer-writer. Can I dominate in a market with that? I think I can.
How about you?

Serious Literature

I've been surfing the web to read about what people think about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I came across this amazing comment.

...my husband, a Tolkien scholar, often observes that these days, in literature, to write about deep and ultimate themes, it is almost impossible to do so in, say, poetry or "adult" literature and be taken seriously - for that, you must write in fantasy and/or children's literature - and then your readers will find you.

I certainly believe it. One of the worst parts of high school were the English classes. I love to read and even back then I was a voracious reader, reading lots of material outside of the requirements of school. But all that "great literature" was something I read but couldn't really stand. All it showed was that life and living was pointless and we all died even if you win you lost. "The Old Man and the Sea" was particularly nasty that way. They all ended with the protagonist (I can't call them heroes) either dead or insane. The best case for one was merely social and financial ruination. We only studied the tragedies of Shakespeare where everyone pretty much died. After 3 years of that is it any great surprise that the average American doesn't read for fun. There is no pleasure in it. Then I find a post like this that just pegs the sad/pity-meter.

I sampled all kinds of genres when I was young, it was fun to wander into the library and choose a book at random to see where it might take me. I still do that but not so often. I settled on scifi and fantasy because some of them would deal with hard and troubling questions.

What makes us human and different from the animals?
Why do people make choices that are obviously bad for themselves and others?
Why are so many people listening to someone who despises them and doing what he says?
How can good people do awful things?

There are plenty more questions but these are a good start. Too much great literature is only based around jealousy or envy, that isn't necessarily bad but there are far more emotions out there then just those.

Harry Potter generally is a coming of age story, but is also about love and the nature of good vs evil.

If schools really wanted people to learn to read they would offer a huge variety of material to read. Encouraging people to find the books they like best. That will help them learn to like to read if find some they want to read.

But it is still interesting that the literature that explores the hard stuff is considered kids stuff. Is that irony I smell.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

We didn't get the book until very late on Saturday and while I read the first three chapters out loud of my family I after our daughter went to bed I settled in for a a couple of hours good reading before bed. I was slightly annoyed with myself when I closed the book and noticed the sun up coming up and my alarm clock going off as I stood up.

We are reunited with many old friends and revisit just about everywhere we've been before, before ending up back at the beginning.

A good strong opening with Harry equipping himself of the hunt. Like the heros girding themselves for battle Harry is readying himself for what he expects to be coming, but he knows that he doesn't have all the knowledge that is wishes he had, not being able to heal a small cut is the key image here. The goodbye with the Dursleys was not what I expected and Dudley seeming dimmer then usual. A harrowing battle as the protection breaks and Harry is taken to safety. It was a good plan and it mostly worked.

This is followed by a wonderful interlude at the Burrow, Hermione tells Harry just how much she trusts him and how important what he has to do is to her. That blew me away. The wedding is broken up by the fall of the Ministry.

Then we are off on the Quests. There is more then one. They are pretty smart together and very courageous, but they are still just three kids. Harry has so much to overcome within himself that the story seems slow in the middle, but that is only because we expect fast, easy resolutions to conflict in our sit-com world. Harry has to make serious choices and he actually spends time working them out and not just going with whatever pops into his head. He has learned from the mistakes he's made in the past and that is really important. He knows people are on his side and fighting for his cause, but he has to focus on winning the war instead of turning the tide on any particular battle. He shows great maturity. He also learns of the ultimate choice he has to make. He shows just how powerful love is.

There are some great scenes in this book that I am sure the special effects artists reading now are beginning to sweat over. The Battle for Hogwarts may not beat the Battle of Pelinor Fields but it may come close. They better get to work now.

Snape rocks.

Molly is not just a quiet little homemaker, she never really was since she had been in the original Order of the Phoenix but we finally see her at full power and she is something else. They better not leave that out of the movie!

Voldemort has his weakness but he is smart enough to learn from his encounters with Harry. He never does take a stupid pill, but his weakness sends him down wrong paths. And that is just fine for a well written villain.

There are few books out there that have enticed me to stay up all night reading them. This was worth it. The obvious comparison is Lord of the Rings. Do I think that Harry Potter will be celebrated in 100 years? Yes, I do.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

I saw this film with my wife as a date which we haven't had in a long time and we gave it a solid 3 of 5 stars.

The opening scene with Harry, Dudley and his gang was well done and quite intense. In general he stayed as close to the book as he could, using quite a bit of the dialog, but given the nature of book 5, very introspective which is hard to put on screen, there was a lot to skip over as well.

The wizards battle at the end was extraordinary, the rest of the movies have something to live up to now.

My biggest problem was that the music was too bland, it didn't support the movie as much as it could have. I was also disappointed in the lackluster attention to detail. There were many things I was expecting to be in place that just weren't there, particularly in the second act which lacked emotional intensity.

Daniel has improved tremendously as an actor as have the others, if not as much, though it maybe because they didn't have as much to do. I really enjoyed Luna, she really got into that character and tended to steal the scene. I hope to see more of her.

Build You Own Machine Tool

multimachine : Intermediate technology machine tools

Get the pdf from Popular Mechanics

Could be very useful someday.

Mega-mushroom a savory stunner in Mexico

Mega-mushroom a savory stunner in Mexico

Now all we need is lightning and some saffron. :)

Ratatouille Review

Ratatouille is the best film I've seen in a long time. While the images were great on their own that isn't good enough by itself to make a great film. The story has heart and soul. It is not a summer blockbuster type film and that is just fine. It is a story that is very moral. Yes, the good guys lie and cheat and steal trying to do the best for themselves, but it is only after they confess and make amends that their true abilities come forth. 

Reme just wants to have food that tastes good but his abilities were about more then being just a food sniffer or even a chef. Linguine just wanted to keep his job. They weren't losers, just not in the right place doing the right things for them. 

After Reme gets separated from his family as they try to escape from a shotgun wielding little old lady riding a cookbook he ends up in the sewers of Paris, though he doesn't know it yet. We see a wonderful set of vignettes introducing us to Paris before the big reveal at the top.

It is the astonishing attention to detail that is most brilliant thing about Pixar. We come into a world that feels like it existed before the movie starts and will continue beyond the end, but not as an obvious sequel bait or happily ever after, just life continuing on.

That was one of the most disappointing parts of the Star Wars prequels it was lots of fun but had no depth like this or The Lord of the Rings.

The food was brilliant, they took cooking lessons and it showed. We were so hungry afterwards but chose to do something better then the standard fast food burger joint. They really understand foodies; food is more then fuel and it was amazing how well they were able to translate that to the big screen. The climatic shot captured it completely, it was beautiful. 

Not everyone is a foodie, that is okay, though we have a friend who grow up in a family where they called a three course meal, meat, potatoes and a vegetable. Usually it was just a single food item like hamburger or potato. 

It has heart and the characters are deep and complex, far more so then is usual. The character development time is well spent, it is not an action feature and don't even try confusing it with one. Though the big chase scene with Skinner chasing Reme across Paris was great, that bit with the tablecloth was choice.

I loved the characters, Colette was great a tough, no-holes barred up-and-comer, with real heart.

The pivotal character was Alton "The Grim Reaper" Ego, food critic. He just comes on scene at the very end but even then he steals it completely. It is amazing what the power of love can do. 

I highly recommend this film and plan on buying it later.

Massive GTD Resource List | zen habits

Massive GTD Resource List | zen habits: "My tribute to all the GTD junkies out there (a group that includes me) — a massive list of GTD stuff. It’s far from comprehensive, but who can be comprehensive on a topic this huge?"

A honking big list I need to keep handy for myself.

Social Bookmarking

Social Poster - Best Social Bookmarking Solution yet? | Tech Spikes : "Well, now apparently Social Poster allows you to submit links to 34 social sites including Digg, Reddit, Technorati, Stumbleupon, del.icio.us and more."

I'll need this later

Safari 3 Rocks

Safari has one absolutely great feature no one else seems to have talked about yet.

The in-page search really stands out now. In Safari 2 and the other browsers I've used the in-page search has been rather understated: a simple highlight, that may be in the middle or bottom on the page never consistent and often plain hard to find.


Safari 3 changes all that.


No only is the page darkened and the word highlighted in orange with a white background, it is also magnified. As you got to the next one the previous one is still highlighted so you can see where you just were.

I really like this and it is great. I can't remember how often I've searched and missed something because the highlighting wasn't noticeable enough.

Great job Apple, but why didn't you mention this?

Steve Jobs WWDC2007 Keynote

That was maybe not one of the most exciting keynotes Steve has given, mainly because he's talked about almost all of it before.

Stacks was new to the keynote but a patent showed up on that years ago. It is really great to see it come up. Though to be honest about it I've been doing something similar for ages, I put Home, Applications, and a few other folders in the dock to accomplish the same thing.

The Core Animation stuff looks wonderful. I presume he was using a maxed out Mac Pro, I wonder if that cool animated video search tool is going to be available or was just a developer plaything. I also wonder if a MacBook could handle all that video playing at once.

A lot of developers are bummed over not getting a real SDK for the iPhone. In all likelihood one will be forthcoming in time but not now.

Going cross platform with Safari is pretty interesting. I am going to be thinking about that a bit more.

That huge picture of the Library of Congress was great. You could almost read the titles on the books when he zoomed in all the way. And that the title he added was smooth all the way in was awesome.

I am still curious about the other 290 features that are coming to Leopard will be. Actually Apple's website lists a whole bunch though I didn't count them. I am really impressed by the new voice they have, that will be nice.

Mini Maglite LED Upgrade

Out daughter likes flashlights and often she will fall asleep with one on in her bed. We got one of those windup ones to save on batteries but it is to big for her and she doesn't like it. She loves the Mini Maglight that is much more her size. At some point she took it apart and lost the bulb, while I could have used the spare in the base I decided it is the perfect time to get the LED upgrade I saw at Walmart, It is from NiteIze and has 3 white LEDs in it.

It is a nice little kit, with a 3 LED bulb system and a replacement reflector. The new reflector is the hardest part to deal with, I needed a couple of pairs of pliers to unscrew the face of the Mini Maglite but the LEDs were a simple drop in replacement though it is polarized so if it doesn't light up when you pop it in you need to try it the other way. The LED is big enough that even if she pops it out it is big enough to find easily.

The light it produces is very bright and lasted for hours on old batteries. The flashlight itself gets rather warm after that much time but doesn't seem to be a problem.

Hacking Knowledge: 77 Ways to Learn Faster, Deeper, and Better | OEDb

Hacking Knowledge: 77 Ways to Learn Faster, Deeper, and Better | OEDb: "Life-changing knowledge does typically require advanced learning techniques. In fact, it's been said that the average adult only uses 10% of his/her brain. Imagine what we may be capable of with more advanced learning techniques. Here are 77 tips related to knowledge and learning to help you on your quest. A few are specifically for students in traditional learning institutions; the rest for self-starters, or those learning on their own. Happy learning."

This is a fantastic list. It is more geared for the High School/College crowd, but it is well worth reading in detail.

Wound Care: An Emergency Room Doctor's Perspective, by E.C.W., MD

For the concerned individual who must deal with a wound outside the emergency room or clinic setting, for whatever reason, I have some reasonable advice on avoiding infection that is not widely taught, even in some health care settings. (The following applies to wounds that an experienced parent could evaluate and immediately know that a band-aid alone would not be appropriate.)

A major essay. Well worth reading.

How to bootstrap technology

Kevin Kelly -- The Technium: "A favorite fantasy game for engineers is to imagine how they might re-invent essential technology from scratch. If you were stranded on an island, or left behind after Armageddon, and you needed to make your own blade, say, or a book, maybe a pair of working radios, what would it take to forge iron, make paper, or create electricity?"

This is a fun exercise. I like to consider what to take along to colonize another Earth-like planet. I am also assuming clean enough air and water and living soil to start with. And finally I am assuming the colony ship has a good library available, so we are not reinventing the wheel at every stage.

The ship won't be able to carry very much since it takes so much to support the colonists. So it won't have tons of pipe for water handling or things like that. However it would have a full machine shop and a small semiconductor fab to produce some technology. The biggest thing the fab would be needed for would be radio parts. Communication is one of the biggest forms of leverage you can have.

That thing that makes our modern world work best is the division of labor, people who are best at mining may not be the best at farming. That is want we are trying to recreate as quickly as possible. If we do this right we should be able to recreate a goodly sized potion of our technology in 50-60 years or less.

The first thing is to produce food in excessive quantities. If we can make more food then we need we will be able to repurpose much of the population to other specialties. Most of this comes down to domesticating beast of burden so relief ourselves of doing the muscle work, and we want to replace then with machines as soon as we are able. The nice thing about farming is that it is only labor intensive for two periods of the year: Planting and harvesting.

At the same time we need to be sending a few knowledgeable people out to find ores and extract them. If they're close together farming and mining can be done together. As the metals start piling up we refine them and using blacksmithing techniques to make better farming equipment.

One of the next things to start doing is recreating Roman-level sanitation technology. Clean safe water and public hygiene are pretty important. They even had hot and cold running water, sure they used stone instead of metal or plastic piping but it still worked.

Now that the basics are covered we can start building more creative tools: at this stage is where a lathe makes sense to build. Once you have a machine shop you can build steam engines and you are at the Industrial Revolution. The ships has a machine shop but creating another one from local materials would be a great step.

There is also glass making and paper making and textile creation to be considered.

This would take about a generation.

Now you can start building tractors and textile machines and all kinds of labor saving devices. This is when we can start climbing up the tech curve fairly quickly. With all the research in the library we can skip a bunch of blind alleys and dead ends and move more quickly. Even with refrigerators and washing machines and the like the biggest limitation I see is just the sheer size of the population. It is just too small to allow enough specialists to rebuild quickly.

So decisions would be made as the to best use of the available labor pool. It would definitely be worth going for electricity at this point just for the leverage it provides. A bunch of small electric motors in each home does wonders for labor savings, Add to that bunches of simple computers and things get even better.

This is a fun problem to think about, and a lot of interdependent technologies that make it really a lot of fun. But then what things would you do differently if you knew what we know now but where starting over on a new planet from scratch?

The radio spectrum could be used a completely different way and not be a crazy hodgepodge of laws.

though in any case we wouldn't be able to completely recreate modern society but then we probably won't have the need to create many things until we had a big enough population to support sit-com production and all those types of things.

TCS Daily - L'Eggo My Lego

TCS Daily - L'Eggo My Lego: "So they first explored with the children the issue of ownership. Not all of the students shared the teachers' anathema to private property ownership. 'If I buy it, I own it,' one child is quoted saying. The teachers then explored with the students concepts of fairness, equity, power, and other issues over a period of several months.

At the end of that time, Legos returned to the classroom after the children agreed to several guiding principles framed by the teachers, including that 'All structures are public structures' and 'All structures will be standard sizes.' The teachers quote the children:

'A house is good because it is a community house.'

'We should have equal houses. They should be standard sizes.'

'It's important to have the same amount of power as other people over your building.'"

Interesting lessons in those schools. Much more important then things like reading and math.

Stories like this make me want to hurl!

The implosion of the Soviet Union confirmed that socialism just doesn't work. When we visited our relatives in East Germany it was amazing to see bomb damaged buildings still un-repaired after 50 years.

And what have the children learned. Low-level mediocrity. Woopee

How Much Emergency Money Should You Have On Hand?

The Simple Dollar has a post on why you might need to have some emergency cash on hand. However, he doesn't really give you any guidelines on how much.

Is a Franklin enough? A week's salary? something else?

It depends on what you can do and what you are expecting to happen.
For example the various relief agencies will take 72 or more hours to get on scene for most disasters. But it often takes about 2 weeks to restore services. In any case it may take longer to get to your particular home.

Having some cash on hand is great to help cover some items you may have forgotten. If you lose your job you need to understand that it generally takes 1 month per $10,000 your make to find a similar job. For example, if you had earned $60,000/year, it will generally take about 6 months to find an equivalent paying job. So having 6 months of expenses (mortgage, bills, insurance premiums, &etc.) saved up is a good thing to have, but that is a family emergency and you'll still have access to banks. Though if you identity is stolen you may have a job but no way to get to your bank accounts, so having a month or two's expenses handy may be very handy.

If there is an evacuation having enough cash on hand to drive across the country, eating fast food and staying in motels and filling up the car is useful to have. Things will cost more near the site of the disaster so expect to pay more.

If you want gold for a economic disaster, like Post-War Germany (doesn't matter which one) or current Argentina, the best choices are plain gold jewelry like necklaces and rings. My parents and grand-parents made use of these are an alternative currency on occasion.

Most people have a good idea of what they are worth as you see them for sale in every mall, unlike gold and silver coins which very few people are familiar with. Besides they are pretty and most people want them.

For emergency supplies a good progression is this:
• A 72 hour kit for the office/car to get back home.
• A 2 week supply of food, water and fuel for a BBQ at home.
• A 1 week supply of cash for food, gas, motels in case of evacuation.
• Expand home supply to 2 months built up over time to a years supply.
• Increase cash supply to cover 2 months of expenses built up over time to a job search level.

Browse Random House books

Random House has created a new ability to browse their books on line. This is a good way to get people to buy since it is more like the bookstore experience.

Paycheck Calculator

This is a useful money hack. You can fine tune your tax exemptions and the like.

You know you're a foodie...

when you have six different kinds of salt in you cupboard.

We made a run to the Penzey's spice store over in Old Town Arvada. That is always fun because they have jars of spices that you can get a good sniff from.

Among other things we picked up some Diamond Kosher salt, which is a much different size compared to our standard Morton's Kosher flake salt and so I wanted to try how that works in food.

We also picked up some course salt for grinding as we have a salt grinder that is almost empty.

We have some Pacific Sea salt that makes for a nice finishing salt.

Finally we have ordinary table salt and popcorn salt. The popcorn salt is a very fine salt that is great on popcorn and fried foods.