Recently in Thoughts 'n Rants Category

My good friend, Kendra, wrote a great article that I finally took the time to read today. She nails a number of points that I would have made myself it it weren't that she is simply a better writer than I.

"One of the irritating things about Klein and her ilk is their hypocritical behaviour. They gain personal wealth because their best-selling books are published and distributed by large multinational businesses (HarperCollins, Costco) and are funded by risk-taking investors.

Similarly, their newspaper columns are funded by advertising revenue from companies. They make their way around the world by buying and using the modern technologies (computers, the internet, Boeing 777s and Airbus A380s) supplied to consumers through globalisation and markets.

They live in political regimes which protect freedom of speech and association. Yet the end result of their ideas, were they to become reality, would be to deny these markets, technologies and ideas to the people of the world." (link to article)

It never ceases to amaze me how prophetic the statists are and their Orwellian double-speak - oh wo are the people who operate under the iron fist of liberal markets and minimal government. Klein and her ilk talk of the doom and gloom of commercialism and free markets and yet so much of what they do and the luxuries they enjoy depend directly upon the largess of a free culture. Klein's absurd notion that Friedman's philosophy can only be enacted through coercion is typical for her peers. There are days when I can't believe we are still fighting against such patent lies.

This is a take-off on a phrase many of my Hillsdale brethren will know well.

The thoughts I have now - especially nearing what we are hoping as much as any one (or many) can hope - are those along the lines of whereto from here? I don't want to continue down the same path. Despite what has happened, there would be something else prompting this thought - some other happening, some other occasion - but I rarely have the strength or courage to say it out loud. Steph having cancer was a shock and regardless of the outcome (and for those reading this and who are not in the know, the outlook is fantastic) it changes things forever. I know that life will go back to some norm when this is all over, but I have a feeling that some hint of the aftertaste of the experience will follow us for the rest of our lives.

So, the big question that awaits an answer is which thoughts will have the greatest consequences? Every few days or weeks, I move in and out of a shell. There is a period of time where the only thing I can concentrate on are Steph and what it means to care for and watch someone go through the things she has endured and then the shell-shock of experiencing the world around me as I come out of the cave. The reality of today - each time I return from my retreat - is disturbing, at best. For years, the change towards the problem is someone else's has been gradual. What I mean is the subtile changes in average the average citizen's opinion that someone else will be held accountable for their failures (but of course, not for their successes - for that they alone are responsible). I'm scared by the constant move towards collectivism - as if, it is the only solution out there - and this move is brash in some instances and very meek in others. But, the march goes on.

Through life's experiences, you are confronted with those big things. Everyone is. The big things have always made me go back to wanting to take my own responsibility for my actions and the regret of having bowed to the opinions and advice of others when it was really my (or my and Steph's) opinion(s) that made the biggest difference. The subtile message was that, we, as individuals, knew best. As we move forward, picking up certain pieces, it is hard not to see where we mistakenly took the advice of others because of a certain respect we thought owed to them (for whatever reason). Luckily, these were not big mistakes and life has treated us well. But, they have been important enough decisions to have made a difference.

I want to change that. I know I can't always make my own decision. Survival (the type I would like to continue to enjoy) requires some amount of pragmatism. I stand before the precipice of which thoughts?

I don't understand Jarvis's statement:

"I believe in the market but I also believe that the government must decide when to regulate it just enough. (That is the essence of why I am a Democrat.)" (The moral imbalance of bailouts)

My personal understanding of a general Democrats' opinion is that there is rarely a reason not to involve the government in our lives as long as it passes the litmus test of "helping" a given segment of the population. And this is exactly what makes me not a Democrat (and these days, less and less of a Republican).

This could have just as easily been a series of tweets, but I wanted to show you that I'm thinking about writing all the time:

I envy those professionals out there who can say what they think, print it (i.e. blog it) and live with the consequences. Perhaps because what they say is so provocative, their business, notoriety and wealth grow because of it. Maybe it doesn't. Only they know the truth. At first glance, though, they say it like they have nothing to lose and as a reader, you likely believe them.

Walter Ferguson's editorial in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from September 6, 2008, The state must be willing to take risks to be 'great' fails on so many levels to develop a cogent argument for state intervention, it took me three tries to read the entire piece. My absolute favorite piece is the ridiculously misleading portion of the article that mentions Denmark as a leader:

"Looking for a role model? You’d do worse than Denmark. Forbes named that country the best in the world for business. According to the magazine, Denmark has public policies that foster low inflation, low unemployment, low taxes, free trade, innovation, protection of intellectual property and the development of technology. In operating their businesses, it is worth noting the Danes are energy independent through wind power for electricity and technologies that convert pig blubber to heating oil."

No, Mr. Ferguson, it would be hard to make the United States or any State more inept and bureaucratically rigid as Denmark. Stagnant population growth (0.295%), low immigration (a measure of a country's desirability for finding new opportunities), and marginal tax rates for middle income (by US standards) reaching over 63% make Denmark a very, very poor example, indeed. I lived south of Denmark for over a year and every Dane I had ever met, whether in Germany or Denmark directly, complained about the ridiculous tax structure that afforded little upward movement for the average citizen, which limited their ability to pursue individual, productive desires and interests. Think of it this way, until mid July of each year, you will have spent the previous months paying your dues to the State. It is only after July that the money you have worked hard earning is actually yours. The motivation to work harder and/or be more creative is nullified by the fact that whatever extras you do earn, most of that will go to the State.

"Sorensen, who graduated from business school in Copenhagen, found himself earning the equivalent of more than $100,000 before he was 30 - and paying 63 percent of it in taxes...'When you are at 63 percent tax, you don't look forward to the evaluation with the boss to get a raise," Sorensen said. "You look for more vacation or a training course in the tropics - something that you get the full benefit of.'" (High income taxes in Denmark worsens a labor shortage - International Herald Tribune)

Denmark's low poverty level and unemployment is masked by the fact that the State doles out money and "jobs" to persons by earmarking huge portions of the working class's income towards those people. It is similar to the idea that there were no unemployed in the socialist/communist Soviet Union. While statistically true, as they say, there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Mr. Ferguson should have stopped writing there. His idea that, "Wisconsin must seek to define those industries or technologies that are crucial for future economic development. The state should then push development of those industries or technologies through the full benefit of public policy instruments and expedient action..." is absolute nonsense. The government - i.e. no governing body, nor State institution - has ever been successful at guessing which ideas will become the next commercial hits. There have been cases where state fostered development of technologies has eventually reached the public and been the catalyst for new opportunities. GPS and Cellular Telephony are two examples. The state was working for a solution to a logistical problem in both of these cases and hadn't foreseen the possibility that your average citizen would find a use for these products - vis a vis mobile phones and in-car navigation systems. This is very different than saying the State should decide which new ideas/technologies are desirable and subsidize them. Let me put it this way: a product was developed because there was a specific, tangible need. Said product was then applied to unknown or unforeseen needs. This is not the same as saying we don't know what the need is for technology xyz, but we're going to subsidize it anyway.

It is surprising that as a consultant and former executive at two Silicon Valley companies, Mr. Ferguson is confused that infrastructure and legal consistencies - i.e. safe and reliable transportation, communication, legible/understandable laws etc. - are the same as providing bureaucratically driven "vision" to business development. Let me say this as a businessperson: leave me alone. Give me a consistent low tax burden and easy-to-navigate rules and regulations and I will provide the success you and your visionaries think the State is there to provide. Furthermore, the State does nothing more than muddle the playing field and cannot be held accountable for the inevitable mistakes it will make. The markets I and my business colleagues serve are very swift at telling us whether or not we are heading in the right direction. A measure of responsibility is handed down by way of business growth or shrinkage. We don't need more "help" from the State. Sure, there are plenty of us that wish for handouts and I believe those of us who do are not only lazy, but ignorant of the long term damage handouts do to any free market system. Socialism in its grand form - i.e. central planning - has had its day in the Soviet Union and modern day China. It lost the battle and will continue to lose the battle because markets and people's desires cannot be planned and they cannot be foretold by some any visionary - from the State or elsewhere.

By the way, all of the "subsidized employee training, property tax concessions, low or interest-free loans..." are patently unfair. Why are we being slapped with the financial responsibility for supporting your new wave of innovation just because our companies and our staff have been successful and providing a product to the market that is of obvious desire? Where do we stand when it comes to fostering growth and success? In your scheme of investing in future technologies, nowhere. You seem to forget that those new industries you wish to "help along" will not only stand on the shoulders of those who have already succeeded, but trample them to the ground through the process of recklessly transferring away from them what they have rightfully earned for themselves and need for future investment. Shame on you for suggesting such a thing.

I've been trying to slowly plow through the three book series The New Ansel Photography Series and finally landed on The Negative (Book 2) yesterday. Today, I came across the following section that made me really sit back and think:

Crystals of silver halide that are exposed to light are "triggered" so that they will reduce to black particles of metallic silver during development. On exposure, the light produces an invisible latent image composed of crystals that will form image silver when developed, but have not yet undergone any detectable change. Portions of the film which have been exposed to great amounts of light yield a considerable deposit of reduced silver upon development, referred to as a higher density; areas of film exposed to less light yield less silver, or lower density. Thus the image on film is negative, dark areas of which correspond to bright areas of the subject. When printed, the dense areas of the negative give relatively little exposure to the paper and produce a light area on the print, and the low negative densities produce dark print areas. Thus a second reversal occurs that re-establishes the original relationships of lighter and darker values.

I had to read the above because I was confused by two things. One, what the hell did he just write??? I'm not that far out of college that I can no longer read technical writing, but the second bit of confusion caused a bit of the generic first. Second, I couldn't figure out how colors were produced out of crystals of silver halide, etc. It took a few seconds for me to realize that Adams was only referring to black and white film/photography. I had forgotten that I was reading a book on the negative. Such is my world paradigm that despite the fact I think and talk about shooting film from time to time, it escaped me - if only for a moment - that I was reading about the development of a negative for film photography.
I took a few moments to step back and think about the photo I had just posted to flickr last night. The original photo was shot in color and I was having a hard time dealing with the colors, so I decided to convert it to black and white. With the flick of a mouse, voilà, black and white it is. With a few adjustments, I was relatively happy. (Frankly, I would have liked to have spent 20 minutes or so in Photoshop really getting into the nitty gritty of adjusting shadows, etc, but the day was drawing to a close and this was simply good enough.)
Twenty seconds of click-this-click-that. None of this silver halide light exposure triggering.
I usually accept my paradigm as is, but tonight I laughed and thought, how far we've come...

This is one of those posts that could and would better be written as a book, but I'm dead tired and need to get a few thoughts off my chest. I've (we've) been out an HR person since February of this year and it is really starting to hurt. It was fine when we were slow and were actually trying to rid ourselves of dead weight (oh yes, I'm one of those bastard capitalist business owners who sometimes views people as dead weight)* and work on helping the good workers who remained with some overtime and a better work environment. Now, however, we're busy again. Not like last year, but enough so to keep me on my toes and to keep the revolving employment door spinning in both directions.
I let it be known to a select few that I was looking again for help. It is funny, though. The people who are supposed to be in the business of finding you the right candidates for your needs seem to be more interested in hooking someone they know up with a job. Normally, I wouldn't mind this, except it doesn't appear that people ... nay, HR professionals ... are listening to what our needs really are. Right now, I need someone to help with the bureaucracy of HR (i.e. keeping accurate employee records, time card administration, vacation request administration, etc), not doing the heavy lifting of interviewing. I need assistance... you know... like an assistant. Not an HR manager.
Furthermore, I don't know if I want an HR manager. They tend to be guideline and rule driven; not necessarily the think outside the box types. This isn't a criticism, per se, of HR people, but it is when it comes to being the type of person I think we need in our company. I think we need someone who is driven to learn about our firm, our rules and our culture. We don't want another culture imposed on ours only to find it creates undue friction. And I don't want to have that discussion again about how we know what we're doing and once you've been here a while, then start to ask and challenge, but, my little grasshopper... until then, observe.
But, I'll do it for now. I'll interview all of the [friends] who have been recommended. We'll see if anyone of them simply is excited to learn about what we do and see if they can assist. Finding good people is about sitting back and observing. Like in physics, it is difficult, if not impossible, to observe something without affecting it. Wouldn't it be nice if we could actually observe our potential employees without affecting them? That's the goal, though... and that's what so few HR people come close to comprehending.

* Well, when you're paying someone a salary and working towards the long term growth and survival of your company - not only for your sake, but that of the many, possibly hundreds of families that depend on your existence - you tend to take things like people not working while they are supposed to - and being paid for it - somewhat seriously. No, this is not a perfect world, and no, we don't expect people to be scurrying about like lemmings all of the time, but for the most part, our wish is to see product made in a sensible time frame with perfect quality. For that to come to fruition, you can't have dead weight!

The annual (or semi-annual depending on the year) Wisconsin Dells boys trip took place last weekend and was a blast - as usual. I'd love to go into details of the weekend, but nothing but trouble would come of that exercise. As Raj and I rode home, a torrent of thoughts went through my head. As I/we get older and as these types of outings get harder to make because of our family and work lives. Thus, the value on the time and experiences like these is greater. I wish details could emerge about the people and their personalities, but it would be unfair to openly scrutinize people without giving them the benefit of retort - and in some cases, it would be downright inappropriate. So, the following is a little disjointed and purposefully ambiguous.

Adventure Most years/times we have gone to the Dells, we rent a cabin a short stint outside of Wisconsin Dells (everyone assumes everything up there is in the Dells, when in reality, most of the big resorts are in the jurisdiction of Lake Delton, not Wisconsin Dells) somewhere along the Wisconsin River. Matt set this up the first time five years ago and although some of us were wondering what the hell we were doing in the podunk Dells, it turned out to be a fantastic trip and a fantastic idea, long term. This year, we thought we would have quite a few more people than normal, so I, as this year's organizer, got a bigger cabin. Well, there were less people than the normal. Not by many, but by enough to have initially made me worry we went overboard. I was wrong. The cabin was much better, more secluded and big enough to accommodate the typical monkey fun that goes on. There will definitely be a next time and it will be at the same place if I have anything to do with it. Although the train rolls by every hour or so, the cabin has a great view and easy to find location.
Josh and I ended up going out for a great and yet miserable ride on Saturday. It took us 20 min. to cover the distance that took 40 min. on the return. Plus, he had to deal with a bum rear derailleur on the Giant TCR he is borrowing from me (for the time being). No rear gear shifting control and 20+ mph headwinds do not make for a comfortable combination. Besides the headwind issue, the ride was unbelievable. Highway O (in that area) is newly paved and we saw all but two cars driving on the 13 mi. ride. I wish I had taken more time to go further, though. It would have definitely been a brutal return, but another 10-15 mi. out would have done the body and spirit good. I'll reserve that for next time, I guess. Ironically, we went out in a light rain and by the time we came back, the weather started to clear and the sun came out.
Saturday evening was much more subdued that Friday night. We went out Friday and stayed in Saturday. No adventure there, other than the ridiculous steak dinner Raj cooked Saturday night. This was far better than the $650 dinner for six we had at Kaminski Bros. Chop House at Chula Vista last year. When you combine expensive with horribly prepared food, it is hard to leave without feeling gutted. The quiet Saturday night is mainly due to the fact that we're all getting two old to go all out two nights in a row. That's a good thing, though. I actually came home awake and with extra energy - not used up and drained down. Adventure is good - in Massen (in moderation).

Interviews One of the most interesting aspects of being on a trip like this is that you have an opportunity to see people in a semi-natural element. What I mean by this is that without the normal inhibitions, people's relaxed nature starts to shine and it gives you better insight into what drives them. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the true person shines in moments like these. Plenty of people give a different face to their coworkers at work than they would ever dream of doing when out with friends. But, this face has an impact, nonetheless, on how a manager can better deal with that person. This is quickly leading to what I've thought most about: finding good people to work for our business. I'm obsessed with building a long-term top notch team for our companies. I am not my father and while I wish I were when it comes to his tenacity, insight, and talent, I am not. I know there are areas where I am severely lacking and if we are going to continue on the path of success he has set before us, we will need extraordinary people to fill the voids he leaves - whenever that is. So, weekends like this give me an opportunity to interview. Yup... interview. Never forget that the best jobs come through knowing or meeting someone... even in the oddest of places like the Dells.
There were two people in particular I had in mind - one of those, maybe someday positions. They have no idea who they are. One would be shocked to even consider it was a possibility because of the circumstances under which we were talking. But, it was. I walked away from both conversations with one of those wow... I woulda' never imagined this is the way things are based upon what I have seen up until this point feelings. Those who are in a position of hiring well paid managers know what I mean - you beg for the time to spend with a person you are thinking of hiring so that all the baggage is laid bare. 'Tis better to know ahead than afterwards. I haven't made up my mind on either, but I was left with this:
Confidence is paramount. Both of you have it. But both of you think I'm someone or was being driven by something that I was not. It was a LOL moment when it hit me. You think I'm talking to you about something that I'm not. In one case, you are misreading my intentions and are definitely missing some real opportunities. In the other case, you were simply oblivious - for reasons I don't quite understand, because you're pretty damn intelligent.
The most interesting aspect of interviewing people who don't know they are being interviewed is that the bigger surprises come from how different their home personality may be from their job personality. Not that this is unusual. I am wired differently at work than I am at home - although, partial to my upbringing, I would argue that I am inclined to act more like I do at work at home than vice versa. Anyone up for a re-interview is fine by me...

More Time with friends has an amazing way of re-energizing you. Most of us have known each other for most of our lives - literally. The ability to relax and interact in a no-pressure environment with people like that is amazing. It never ceases to amaze me how different our lives are, though, than what we thought they would be like. One common thread among the attendees: we never thought we'd still be in contact or even be in the same area that we are today. (Perhaps two or three of us did, but the majority didn't.) It is always interesting how life leads in directions you never imagined.

I really like my Apple products. I like their computers, I like their software, and I like their gadgets (e.g. iPod, iPhone, AppleTV). I loathe their support. Apple, and many companies like Apple (in the tech industry), simply don't know how to let their tech support personnel make sensible decisions. Here is my example for the day:

I purchased the Leopard Family Pack installation DVD about a week after Leopard came out. I really had no intention of using it on my main machine (right now a 17" MacBook Pro - still running 10.4/Tiger), but I wanted a chance to try out some of the "improvements" on one of my workstations that I use as a backup to the MBP. A few weeks later, I got around to installing it on a Mac Pro and it worked like a charm. (I'm not overly enthused with the performance of Leopard on any of the machines I have had a chance to install it on, but I like certain software features, like Time Machine and the improvements in Apple Mail, that it has made sense to install it on a few coworker's machines. I have had nothing but problems, however, installing it on PowerPC based machines. We have three identical 17" iMac G5's that were purchased at the same time. The installer crashed every single time in every imaginable way on all three machines. The only way I eventually got Leopard installed on the machines is by installing using Target Disk Mode on a PowerMac that we use as a backup and test server. I read somewhere in the Apple Support Discussions that others had experienced similar problems with Leopard 10.5.0 install media and that they had been able to get Apple to swap their install discs. In my case, I didn't want to waste the time dealing with AppleCare on the phone, so I put up with the problem. That was until this weekend, when I tried to do a fresh install on a PowerBook G4 (1 GHz), the installer crashed (again) in every single imaginable fashion - i.e. I tried a dozen times in a dozen different ways to get it to work, and it didn't. Write me if you want the details. It would take far too much time to explain it here. Suffice it to say, I really did try everything - except installing via Target Disk Mode.

Yesterday, I bit the bullet and called AppleCare/Apple Support and went through the process with a tech. An hour later, we ended the conversation with, "Steve... please take the PowerBook and install media to the Apple Store and get them to replace the media..." Nice. 60 miles (one way) and over $20 in gas and 3 hours of my time (which on the low end, equates to a total trip cost of $160 plus the waste of me driving a vehicle because somehow my problem - which we all agree is with the media - cannot be solved by them sending me another copy of the software). What a friggin' waste. Today, however, I had the chance to make it to the Apple Store in Milwaukee (Mayfair) because I had to go to Milwaukee for business anyway and the 20 min. extra drive would be worth it. I made an appointment and went through the motions with the Apple Genius dude - who was extremely helpful and pleasant, by the way - to get the media replaced. After explaining my experiences, showing anyone who would listen an example of said experiences, everyone we have talked to agreed that the install media was the problem and it needed to be replaced.

Read that last sentence again.

Instead of shipping me a package in a very efficient manner - via UPS/FedEx/DHL - I drove 120 mi. and wasted 3 hours to replace a 8 oz. package that has a DVD that was defective. 120 miles... round-trip. for a dvd.

This is the type of waste that companies promote because people don't use their brains - or aren't allowed to. Now... I don't think I had one tiny minute impact on the environment, etc. Sorry, I don't play that game or buy into that religion. But, I do believe that the over-all impact to me and society was negative. It was a waste of time and energy; time and energy that could have been applied to something productive. Shame on Apple and shame on businesses that promote waste and laziness because their policies and systems don't let people make decisions that simply make sense.

This morning as I was making coffee, I grabbed one of the Sonos controllers and set out to find a radio station to listen to. There are a number of choices Steph and I usually choose from (if she's not home, the choices expand, as my taste in music usually irritates her) between Sirius over the internet, Rhapsody music channels and some radio stations from Germany that stream over the net (thank you!). I realized that other than in the car, I haven't listened to a normal radio in my house or apartment for close to eight years. Once streaming radio over the net became available, I stopped listening to normal (terrestrial) radio. In the car, I have Sirius (which I never thought I'd like) and/or an iPod. When I have to drive a vehicle that lacks either of those, the thought goes through my head, "damn... static, fade, constant commercials, crap content and never being able to find a station I like." Granted, there are a number of stations I listen to that stream over the net and are thus like their over-the-air counterpart, but the difference is that they don't fade and the content is that good that I don't mind the commercial interruptions. Either way, I realized how different the radio is today compared to yesterday and how differently our kids will look at radio "stations." Talk of using short-wave radios to get in a station for the west coast or even over-seas will fade and slowly go the way of tube based amps. No, they don't disappear, but there are a select few who actually know about them and will remember how they work.