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Tools

Tools are meant to be used.

Let’s say you spend a lot of time setting up a new tool, making it look nice, and laying the groundwork for how you think you will use it. But then you don’t use the tool. You’ve wasted a lot of time.

Even if you use the tool a little but it doesn’t improve what you are doing greater than the time you put into setting up and using the tool then you are not better off.

The obvious case here is that of a flashy tool with exciting features. But if the output isn’t going to make you better, or if the necessary upkeep doesn’t fit with your workflow, you’re not going to benefit from it.

Sometimes people use the busywork of setting up and maintaining a tool as a way to avoid their real work.

Right now I’m feeling the challenge of collaboration tools. These tools are intended to improve work in which multiple team members collaborate. The challenge is that different people have different workstyles. Some prefer digital, some prefer analog. Some prefer pictures, some prefer text.

It is really tempting to set up a collaboration tool that will allow a team, a department, an organization to better work together. If you have the right tool in the right situation it can take you to a whole new level of success.

But if not…

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Feedback

In my short time managing employees, I have learned people want feedback. In fact, I think they crave it.

Delivering feedback is easy. Say “good job, keep it up”. There, you delivered feedback!

Delivering good feedback is not so easy. What characterizes good feedback? In my experience:

  • Accurate (don’t say “good job” if that’s a lie)
  • Actionable (don’t dwell on mistakes; what can be done for the future?)
  • Concrete (back up feedback with specific examples)

The most common reason I don’t deliver important feedback is because I fear how the receiving individual will react. This is a bad habit I should break. Upon reflection, I tend to overestimate emotional blowups to negative feedback and underestimate the power of delivering feedback.

PS: I wonder if this is true of the population at large or if this is only true of the sample I work with (American libertarian millennials). Maybe this is a millennial trend in which we don’t know whether or not we are succeeding without direct feedback from an authority figure…and my reluctance to give feedback is a millennial fear of hurting someone’s feelings…

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On Walmart and Uber

“They don’t think it be like it is, but it do” – Oscar Gamble

Most people think Walmart is unique because it pays low wages. It is actually unique because of superior supply chain management. Most people think Uber is unique because it treats drivers like contractors not employees. It is actually unique because it disperses capital ownership.

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The Medium of Spoken Word

When I first heard about podcasts, I didn’t understand the appeal.

I enjoy watching the Dan Patrick Show. To keep up with the show, I started listening to it in podcast form. Now I listen to a number of podcasts daily. This really picked up when I got on a regular workout schedule. My time in the gym lifting weights is the perfect setting to listen to a podcast.

I have even started my own podcast, the Social Change Podcast.

The other day I was reading a post from one of my two favorite bloggers. I eat up everything he writes. But for the first time I found myself thinking, “man, I really wish the author was delivering this as a podcast”. I am now pondering two questions:

Why is that? Why is a podcast (or audiobook, or whatever it would be called for this medium) preferable to reading the blog post? I think it’s worth noting I was reading this on my phone while walking up the street to get dinner. In a situation like this, especially in a busy city, listening while keeping my eyes alert is clearly preferable to having my eyes glued on my phone while I stroll.

What opportunities can spring from that? What other types of content can be delivered via spoken word that aren’t already (or at least not frequently enough)?

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My White Whale

Kelly and I recently bought a Tivo Bolt. Having both grown up with a Tivo, we have discussed getting a DVR for a while. The time seemed right to buy one after receiving some very generous wedding gifts and with the Olympics coming up. Kelly loves the Olympics and we’ll be busy during a significant portion of it for a wedding Kelly is in and some other activities. This is the story of setting up that Tivo Bolt.

To be more accurate, this is the epic tale of setting up a Tivo Bolt with Comcast. The Bolt has been great so far but Comcast made it an extremely trying experience.

When we first ordered the Bolt I looked up the installation process. Basically, you get a CableCARD from Comcast, install it in your Bolt, and activate the card. I called Comcast to ask how I get a CableCARD and they said I should go to my local Comcast branch.

On the day that the Bolt arrived I took our Cable Box back to the local Comcast office and asked for a CableCARD to use in my new Tivo device. The Comcast office was surprisingly sleek and I was out of there in less than ten minutes full of hope. Oh how foolish I was…

I went home, put the CableCARD in the Tivo, and connected it to our TV.  I called the CableCARD activation number. After providing the necessary information to the Comcast employee on the phone they told me they were unable to pair the CableCARD. The CableCARD was coded as a Cable Box and could not be set up as a CableCARD within a Tivo device, they told me. I was instructed to go back to the Comcast office and get the CableCARD properly coded. While the office I went to was closed, another location in D.C. was open for 45 more minutes so I hopped in an Uber headed for that location.

Now at D.C. Comcast location #2, I explained my situation to an employee and what I was told over the phone: my CableCARD was appearing as a Cable Box within Comcast’s system and I needed them to change it to be coded as a CableCARD. The nice employee looked at this in their system, wasn’t sure what the problem was, and just gave me a new CableCARD which she said was indeed coded as a CableCARD.

Heading home in an Uber, I put this new CableCARD in our Bolt and called up the activation number. After going through the activation process I was told that this CableCARD was once again labeled as a Cable Box. Only local offices, not the call center, can change this coding. Unfortunately by now all Comcast locations near me had closed for the evening. After calling the activation number and trying again, only to be told the same story, I went to bed frustrated and angry.

Trying to put on a positive attitude in the morning, I went back to the second Comcast location. After telling them about my trails and tribulations the previous day, an employee attempted to change the coding on my second CableCARD from Cable Box to CableCARD. After many efforts she told me the coding was correct but didn’t sound so sure about it. Gulp. Reluctantly, I went home to put the CableCARD back in the Bolt and restarted the activation process over the phone. Once again, I was informed this card was labeled a Cable Box and could not be paired. And once again, I was told this could only be resolved by a local office.

Looking back, I’m not sure what I thought would happen, but I went back to the Comcast office and told them that their latest effort to record my CableCARD was unsuccessful. The office employee had me call up the CableCARD activation line and then she spoke directly with the activation employee on my phone. After she was transferred at least three times, she spoke to an activation person who said that while he saw in my account this was showing up as a Cable Box he could tell based on the serial number it was a CableCARD. He suggested I go home, try the activation process again, and say over the phone that while this may show up as a Cable Box that they should check the serial number and see it is indeed a CableCARD.

Well, I went home and did as he instructed, but I was once again told the coding was incorrect. Absolutely infuriated by being told to go to a local Comcast office, I demanded to know what other options were available. The person over the phone told me that they could ship me a CableCARD from their warehouse that will be compatible with a Tivo. Woah! Why hadn’t I heard about this earlier?! From my original inquiry into setting up a Tivo device, to my four stops at Comcast locations, to my many calls to the CableCARD activation line, this was the first I heard of this option! So I requested a new card be shipped to me even if it was going to take 3 to 5 business days. I also requested a technician come out later in the week for safe measure in the hopes that he could get this loop of confusion resolved.

Two days later, while I am at Towson University for work, UPS comes to deliver the CableCARD but needs a signature. Our building hasn’t added our phone numbers to the call box even though we’ve lived there for over a year, so UPS left a note on the door and didn’t leave the package. Ugh. After we authorized the note UPS left it at our building on Monday. Hope! I put this CableCARD in our Bolt and called the activation line. Once again the activation failed however this time it was not a coding error. She noticed I had an open work error (a technician scheduled to come out on Thursday) and apparently the CableCARD could not be paired unless she cancelled that appointment. Okay, whatever. So she cancels that and voila! The CableCARD is paired!

This is where the Comcast element of the story ends but a few hiccups remained. Pretty early on in this whole process the screen started flickering when our Bolt was on. I was hoping this was just a glitchy activation screen. But when this flickering continued when the CableCARD was paired and the channels were all set up I really began to worry. I quickly had a hypothesis. Our TV has 3 HDMI inputs but we have more than 3 HDMI devices so I have a separate 4-HDMI switch which goes into one of the TV HDMI slots. The Bolt was feeding into the switch. Maybe that’s where the problem was! So I unplugged the switch and sent the Bolt directly into the TV. No flickering! But, naturally, a new problem arose. On the TV my Bolt informed me that HDMI was not prohibited. But, but, just minutes before it was showing up fine via HDMI albeit with a flicker. Well, after some additional research, it turns out that today Tivo devices need to go into a TV equipped with copyright protection. Naturally I assume this means our TV doesn’t have copyright protection and I begin to panic. After another Google search I find that our TV does have copyright protection. For all that is good and holy what is the hold up then? Well as it turns out not all HDMI cables are made alike. After going through three of them I found one that is, I guess, capable of communicating the TV is enabled with copyright protection.

We now have a fully operating Tivo Bolt. It is pretty great. I am particularly a fan of the four tuners running simultaneously. Last night we were able to pause, play, rewind, fast forward between two baseball games and the CNN & CSPAN feeds of the Democratic National Convention!

An appendix: You may ask why I kept going back and forth to the Comcast office to get the coding on my device changed rather than calling them on the phone. Well Comcast has no mechanism for calling or being transferred by phone to a local office. We wouldn’t want them to make this easy on us now, would we?

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Brexit and the Overton Window

Current British immigration policies are unpopular. These policies would likely not be in place under purely British national politics because of the current Overton Window on immigration in Britain. Britons are very opposed to immigration. Nonetheless, the United Kingdom must comply with European Union common immigration policies. Immigration polls as the top issue relevant to voting on EU membership. It seems to me that many people approached the Brexit vote as an opportunity to implement their desired immigration policies. 
I predict voters will push other countries to leave the EU if the nation is not aligned with their Overton Window on their top issue due to EU rules. This is a mild claim but it’s a more useful test for the EU’s longevity than pure popularity of the EU. It is possible “belonging to a supranational political body” will be a top issue with “no” holding the majority position. But we don’t tend to think that abstractly. This will play out vis a vis more concrete policy issues. 
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2016 NBA Playoff Predictions

Wow! The 2015-2016 NBA regular season came to a conclusion last night in spectacular fashion. Kobe Bryant ended his career by scoring 60 points and willing the Lakers to victory over the Jazz. Meanwhile, Steph Curry hit his 402nd 3-point shot as the Golden State Warriors became the first NBA team to win 73 regular season games. This was the perfect finale to a great NBA regular season. Even though my Chicago Bulls are eliminated (or maybe because of it, freeing me up to root for whomever I please) I am excited for the playoffs. Here’s the playoff picture and my predictions:

Round 1
Western Conference
Golden State Warriors defeat Houston Rockets (4-0). The Rockets have no answer defensively for the Warriors’ historic offensive attack. While James Harden could conceivably score his way to one victory if the Splash Brothers have an off night, I wouldn’t count on it.
Los Angeles Clippers lose to Portland Trail Blazers (4-2). My “upset” pick in the West. In a league that increasingly values versatility, the Clippers embody comparative advantage. Paul passes, Redick shoots from outside, Griffin scores from inside, and Jordan rebounds. This won’t get it done against the Trailblazers, whose rising stars Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum look increasingly in sync.
Oklahoma City Thunder defeat Dallas Mavericks (4-0). The Thunder’s biggest challenge in the playoffs will be avoiding late-game collapses. Luckily for them, this Mavericks team probably won’t be able to keep up with the Thunder through the first three quarters.
San Antonio Spurs defeat Memphis Grizzlies (4-0). This is the most lopsided match-up in the West. The Spurs will be able to defensively lock down what little offensive firepower the Grizzlies have without much trouble.

Eastern Conference
Cleveland Cavaliers defeat Detroit Pistons (4-1). The Cavaliers don’t look very impressive for a top team outside of LeBron. But Playoff LeBron is here and he is out to dominate. The Pistons will pick up one at home in a game where LeBron clunks up too many jumpshots but that’s all they will get.
Atlanta Hawks defeat Boston Celtics (4-3). This should be the tightest first round series of the playoffs. For me this is essentially a toss-up, and I’m not sure I can even give Atlanta and edge for home court advantage given the likely energy levels in Philips and TD Garden. I don’t think the Celtics have a clear answer for Paul Millsap and Al Horford, but I’m anxious to see how Brad Stevens gameplans against them.
Miami Heat defeat Charlotte Hornets (4-1). No pun intended, the Heat are the hottest team in the East. Their recent acquisition of Joe Johnson looks like the move of the season. Jeremy Lin will have one of his great bench performances in the Hornets’ lone win.
Toronto Raptors defeat Indiana Pacers (4-0). This series is easy to write off because the Pacers just aren’t very good. But I’ll take this opportunity to say the Raptors are an enigma to me. They play with the second-slowest pace in the NBA and are middle of the pack in scoring.

Round 2
Western Conference
Golden State Warriors defeat Portland Trail Blazers (4-1). Obviously, the Warriors are the team to beat. But you need exceptional defense to beat Golden State and the Trail Blazers are lackluster on defense.
San Antonio Spurs defeat Oklahoma City Thunder (4-2). What a great match-up in the conference semi-finals. I will be rooting for Oklahoma City but they’re going to have an uphill battle. They will need their supporting cast to play above much better than they’ve shown if they are going to beat the Spurs. Also count on Westbrook for a boneheaded play in crunch time for a close loss.

Eastern Conference
Cleveland Cavaliers defeat Atlanta Hawks (4-0). Playoff LeBron will dominate a solid but average Hawks squad, aided by Kevin Love’s ability to stretch Atlanta’s strong front court out of the paint.
Toronto Raptors lose to Miami Heat (4-2). Here’s my big upset pick of the East. Again, I think the Heat are red hot and I just don’t understand the Raptors. The Heat will bring too much between Wade and Johnson’s scoring as well as Whiteside’s defense for the Raptors to handle.

Round 3
Western Conference
Golden State Warriors defeat San Antonio Spurs (4-2). This will be an epic battle. The Spurs have shown they can lock up Steph Curry from outside. I think they’ll do that again while at home, but that level of defense against Steph just isn’t sustainable for a full series. Role players for the Warriors like Iguodala, Speights, and Livingston will also come up big in this series.

Eastern Conference
Cleveland Cavaliers defeat Miami Heat (4-3). Oh man, what a match-up this will be if it happens. The Heat go from the villains of the league to America’s Team against LeBron. This would be straight out of a WWE plot and I really hope it happens. The Heat will keep it close but they don’t have the ability to truly stop LeBron in seven games.

Finals
Golden State Warriors defeat Cleveland Cavaliers (4-1). Cleveland will bring more to the table this year if their squad remains healthy, but Golden State is playing at an even higher level of greatness than they did last year. Draymond Green will give the Cavaliers fits on offense and defense while Kevin Love will choke on the big stage. Count on Tyronn Lue to make a big mistake and/or get told what to do by LeBron in a big moment during this series.

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Mr. Smith Goes To Washington

Last night Kelly and I watched the film Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. This is one of those classics you need to watch at least once in your life (94% at Rotten Tomatoes), so I’m glad I can finally check this one off the list. It was overall a fine movie worth watching. Jimmy Stewart was great as expected. I’ve always thought of myself as loving Stewart as an actor, although to be honest this might be the second movie I’ve actually seen him in. I guess he’s just that good in It’s A Wonderful Life and I’ve seen it that many times (holiday movies are like that).

I caught two allusions to Don Quixote. I’m wondering what the significance of these allusions were and if I missed any more of them. The first was straightforward, a character (I can’t remember who unfortunately) referred to Stewart’s character Jeff Smith as Don Quixote when he is first arriving to Washington. The second, which really caught my attention given the first reference, was when another character told Smith he was fighting windmills (like Quixote). I know Don Quixote is one of the most classic stories of all time but I don’t remember it that well because I read it in Spanish, not English (no kidding).

The supporting case alongside Stewart’s outstanding performance was solid throughout, especially Claude Rains as the senior Senator in Smith’s state. Rains played out the various shades of grey in his character well. This was important to the film as his character was one of very few in the film to actually have moral ambiguities to them. Smith is the white knight while Edward Arnold’s Jim Taylor is the evil cronyist industrialist. I enjoyed seeing Thomas Mitchell (who plays Stewart’s uncle Billy Bailey in It’s A Wonderful Life) fill out a comedic role as reporter Diz Moore in the film.

I don’t have many movie chops when it comes to discussing elements such as camerawork and pacing, but again, I really enjoyed the film. It’s a classic good versus evil story, so there’s not much to compel you besides Stewart’s earnestness and Rain’s performance, but there’s a lot to like. I got a chuckle out of the time capsule elements to the movie, such as the Boy Rangers which Smith leads.

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Getting Fit Again: Three Months In

At the start of 2016, I set a few New Year’s Resolutions. I have never really taken New Year’s Resolutions seriously or followed through with them before. I haven’t kept up with all my resolutions this year, but I have kept up with my health and fitness resolutions. After three months, I am very proud to have hit my initial goals: to lose 25 pounds and run a 5k in 25 minutes.

To accomplish this, I was conscious of my diet and exercise (weightlifting and running) three times a week. For my diet, I aimed to eat at least 500 calories less than my total daily energy expenditure (calories out) with an emphasis on eating a lot of protein. For my workouts, I followed the Stronglifts 5×5 program while following the Couch to 5k program for running.

I have lost 30 pounds, ran a 5k in 24:37, and have surpassed novice strength benchmarks. I have enjoyed this process much more than I expected and plan to keep going. My new set of goals are to lose another 10 pounds, hit intermediate strength benchmarks, and I have considered aiming for a 10k.

While I allowed myself to fall into poor health and fitness habits a few years ago, my work over the past few months has me back in shape. It is a very powerful feeling to be in control of my body and change it to my goals. I hope to further solidify my new healthy habits for years to come.

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Protesters

Today, Students For Liberty student leaders organized an event about Free Market Environmentalism (basically, how can concerns about the environment be addressed through market rather than government means?). Two people decided to stand up, shout, and obstruct one of the speakers. Unfortunately the organizers had to call campus police so that the event could continue.

Video of the incident is available here: http://bit.ly/1M8t1VR

I find this very unfortunate for a number of reasons. First, we *want* people of varying viewpoints to attend these conferences. The event was open to anybody but attendees were simply asked to not interrupt the speakers and were welcome to civilly disagree during question and answer opportunities. Second, I think these two are doing a disservice to a cause they are passionate about (if an SFL leader did this at an event on campus, I would be embarrassed). Third, I hate having to call the police and never want it to happen at an SFL event. And finally, I fear this is part of a growing trend of college students unwilling to critically engage with views different from their own.

I hope everyone who attended the event walks away with more knowledge of free market solutions to environmental concerns, even if they disagree with those solutions.