The Science of Pretty Much Anything
In the late sixties, I spent several summers working in a gas station. I learned how to rebuild brakes, mount and balance tires, and perform basic maintenance and repair tasks. I also pumped gas. For those too young to remember, these were the days when you would pull into a gas station and someone would […]
Sentient Stuff
Those of us who have worked in the data storage industry often wonder how our computers match up to the processor we carry around in our own heads. Comparisons are difficult to come by – we can estimate the average number of neurons in a human brain (~ 86 billion), but they are quite different […]
The Last 5 Minutes
Before Greek physician Galen (129-210 AD) came along, it was widely believed that air circulated in our arteries. Galen was the physician to the School of Gladiators, which helped him realize it was blood flowing in there. We’ve learned a lot about bleeding over the ensuing millennia. According to the CDC, traumatic injury is one […]
Everything Else
Multi-Tasking is a fantasy. There are plenty of high-energy people out there who say they can Multi-Task, and many a job-seeker has laid claim to this skill in an interview. The truth is, they are lying. Humans can only do one thing at a time. Our modern tools have propagated the Multi-Tasking myth. Our Smart-TV’s […]
Common Sense
According to the Internet, the phrase “Common sense is not so common” originated with a Frenchman – Francois-Marie Arouet – who was a leading figure during the Age of Enlightenment. Francois, who had a knack for catchy phrases, began writing them at the age of 12. Eighteenth Century authorities were not always amused, and he […]
Empathy: A Requiem
It was the summer of 1977 when I drove with my fiancé’s younger brother to the Hollywood Boulevard Walk-of-Fame. Neither of us was that impressed with the famous names on the sidewalk; we were there to stand in line at Mann’s Chinese Theater for the very first Star Wars movie. These were the days when […]
The Canonical Weekend
A former boss of mine had a well-rehearsed response for any employee who complained they had too much work. There are twenty-one 8-hr workdays in a week, he would say; three in each of the seven 24-hour days. If you are only using five out of those twenty-one, you are clearly just lazy. Although the […]
One Thing Leads to Another
When I meet someone for the first time and tell them that I do research for a living, I know exactly what they are thinking – I don’t actually do anything, and I get paid for it. One of the most audacious research efforts in recent memory, NASA’s Space Program led to the now legendary […]
Review: Startup Myths and Models by Rizwan Virk
Type “Startup” into Amazon book search and you’ll get over 20,000 hits. In this crowded field, the path to producing a work of value is an epic journey. In Startup Myths and Models by Rizwan Virk, the author uses elements of legendary journeys to breathe life into his personal stories of building a business from […]
The Meaning of Old
Most of us grasp the meaning of “old” but putting it into words can be challenging. When it comes to people who might be old, there are plenty of euphemisms to choose from. Senior, elderly and senior citizen come to mind, while terms like curmudgeon or geezer are available when appropriate. According to Webster’s, old […]
