We’re still staying home from the pandemic, but the girl still wanted to make a costume for Halloween.
She was so excited about the idea, she took the initiative by sketching her rabbit costume. Once there was a plan, we just had to execute.
We started with the mask. It took a few iterations to get it right, but we eventually landed on a template that fit her well.
Yes, these masks are basic. A piece of paper with punched holes for the eyes, nose, and mouth, using a headband of folded paper. All held together with staples and tape.
It would have been a lot faster to buy something more sophisticated, but once you make something yourself, it’s truly yours.
The boy saw his sister’s mask and wanted his own. Turns out their faces are close enough in size, so I used her mask as a template (sans ears) and we shortly had the Monkey King running around the house.
The kids loved their masks. They spent all week running around as their alter egos.
This early victory led to further successes. We moved on to paper gloves and then paper shoes (I learned why moccasins have developed their distinctive shape).
None of the final results are spectacular. The costumes wouldn’t get any likes on social media, but we made something real, together. We weren’t just consumers; we were makers.
The world will constantly sell you on the satisfaction of owning excellence, the German sports car and the Swiss watch. But I’m starting to wonder if there is deeper satisfaction found in making something yourself, even if it’s mediocre.
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(notes on) Team of Teams
This new world moves too quickly for top-down, optimized entities.
The twin narratives of this book are the rise of the hyper-efficient organizations (exemplified by the work of Fredrick Winslow Taylor) in the 20th century and the rise of the hyper-connected network (exemplified in the structure of Al Qaida) in the 21st century.
After Saddam was crushed in Iraq, the occupying forces were constantly harassed by the flexible amorphous cells of the terrorist organization. This underground operation was running laps around the awesome might of the great American military machine. General McCrystal’s task was to reverse this trend.
He accomplished this by “shared consciousness” and “empowered execution”. He merged the information silos in multiple organizations so that all the data was shared throughout the forces. He also delegated decision-making power as low as possible, allowing the staff who were most familiar with the situation to respond in an agile manner.
These twin endeavors ultimately turned the tide of the war. While history was being made, I had thought that the “surge” was merely an issue of applying more resources. I did not realize that the eventual defeat of Al Qaida was the result of better management techniques.
At first glance, it does not seem that the lessons in this book are immediately applicable to the much more methodical work of a government OPM.
However, timing is always an issue. Sooner is generally better than later, but our processes with multiple peer reviews tend to push the schedule longer. It’s a bit of a conundrum. Budgets for state buildings are tight. This one renovation may be the only project in this building for the next twenty years. With such timescales, losing a couple of months is worth the tradeoff of ensuring the design is dead on.
But still, the needs are immediate. It would be nice to move more quickly so we can better serve our users. This book makes me wonder if I should experiment further to speed up my projects. It also makes me question if our system of multiple checks is truly effective. Are we getting proper value for the delay? Each extra step incrementally improves the project, but at what hidden cost?
In all, this book is a good read. It is a compelling story of how a top-down behemoth adapted in response to the networked resilience of its opponent. Restructuring the team was the key to the endeavor, the nature of the organization is its strategy. As such, this book is a great case-study companion to Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Anti-Fragile.
The other concept that intrigued me is the regular status update meetings that were instituted by General McChrystal. Along with transforming their main base into a large open office plan, his team started running a 2-hour meeting every day. All relevant parties could attend these meetings, and he touts it as his primary tool to achieve “shared consciousness”.
There is a prevailing trend in Tech to avoid such meetings. In that vein, I’ve been pondering how to minimize my OAC meetings. Maybe that is the wrong approach. Maybe I should be thinking about how to maximize the effectiveness of those meetings.
As OPM’s, we tend to think in a top-down fashion, after all, we are the “owners”. However, delegation (empowered execution) is the primary job of our work. Empowered execution is only effective when there is true coordination, so how does one create a shared consciousness between the multiple parties in our team?
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A Question
How do you handle regular status meetings?
Hit reply and let’s chat!
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A Link
As an employee of the State of Nevada, I’m contractually obligated to mention that October 31 is Nevada Day when we joined the Union. Unfortunately, we observe it on the last Friday of October, akin to celebrating Independence Day on the first Monday of July.
Thanks for reading the OPM letter! I’d love to have a conversation if you have any feedback. I hope you found some prompts to stretch your craft and relationships as a curious Owner PM. See you next week!
Stay humble, be kind, and keep experimenting! Justus Pang, RA
Seven Years, Eight Years, and Twelve Days after she arrived, we finally slept in our own room.
There are a couple of caveats to this impressive streak. When the pandemic first settled in America, I was exiled to my in-law’s empty rental house so I’ve spent a good several months sleeping by lonesome. When the boy showed up, our daughter had to sleep in my mother-in-law’s bedroom while we stayed at the hospital. But of course, he was with us.
Like most events in parenting, the kids had no idea this was a “big deal”.
The night before the momentous occasion, I was chatting with a friend who mentioned his kids (the same ages as ours) had started sleeping in the same room, without mom to lulling them to sleep.
The next morning, I proposed the idea to my kids. They enthusiastically agreed to the idea.
My daughter had previously talked a big game about sleeping in her own room but always reneged in the afternoon. This time she had a partner in crime, and this time they stuck.
We moved the beds in the afternoon, and I could see their excitement building up.
At bedtime, my wife offered to join them in the rearranged bedroom while they fell asleep.
No need.
The next evening, our boy decided to go to bed before his sister. Again, my wife offered to sit with him.
No need.
He fell asleep by himself. Twenty minutes later, our daughter did the same.
How quickly time flies! Every day moves ponderously; then the kids suddenly cross another threshold.
If I knew they would so quickly acclimate to their new normal, I would have savored our last couple of nights sharing a small bedroom.
But that was yesterday. Now I need to avoid missing everything else.
Autumn has finally hit Las Vegas, I think we’ll finally shut down the AC for the rest of the year.
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Swerve to go Straight
Nicholas Nassim Taleeb’s Anti-fragile recounted a story of a science demonstration with a vibrating table covered with bouncy balls. When the tabletop was activated at a purely regular rhythm, the balls would bounce around chaotically on their own. However, the balls would fall in sync after random noise was inserted into the vibration pattern.
I often think about this story while pulling my boy in the wagon. My in-law’s backyard has a tight side yard where it is easy to pull in. However, there isn’t any room to turn around, making it’s a challenge to push back out of it.
Like the science demonstration, I’ve found that adding a little swerve to the push gives me control over the direction of the wagon. Jamming the wagon straight requires a perfect line; any lean will compound into crashing with the fence or house. Adding a slight serpentine undulation allows me to fine-tune the trajectory as I push the wagon and avoid hitting the edges.
I suspect this lesson could also apply to the office. We live in a world of optimization and standard operating procedures. I have a hunch that we should occasionally mix it up, even if we think we’ve locked in a best practice. Little experiments will keep things fresh and explore the parameters that constrict us.
On paper, testing suboptimal processes is inefficient. Most of the time, we’ll rediscover that the tried and true is best. But occasionally, we’ll discover that a good process is keeping us from finding a better innovation.
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A Question
What accepted wisdom should you challenge?
Hit reply and let’s chat!
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A Link
One idea that haunts me is the concept of a Local Optimum. Is this solution truly the best? Or have we settled into something that is good relative in its immediate context? Have we artificially constrained ourselves to the settling into a least-worst solution? Is there a more optimal solution out there?
… and a photo.
Sail Wagon, Brooklyn, Bain News Service, ca. 1910-1915
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Thanks for reading the OPM letter! I’d love to have a conversation if you have any feedback. I hope you found some prompts to stretch your craft and relationships as a curious Owner PM. See you next week!
Stay humble, be kind, and keep experimenting! Justus Pang, RA
Like many other hobbies, I’ve cooled a bit on the I Ching. For a while, I consulted it once a week, but it’s been a while since I last visited the book. Like my bread baking, I will coast on the knowledge I picked up over my first couple of months of diligent practice. Or maybe like the Ukulele, I won’t visit much at all.
With the honeymoon phase long past, I won’t be finding many more internet resources for the I Ching, so this seemed the appropriate time to compile some key links.
Biroco – S. J. Marshall’s book reviews were a great introduction to the world of the I Ching in English. I also follow his method for interpreting the changing lines. A comprehensive site, though I suspect that some people might take issue with some of his harsher judgments of various translations. However, I picked up the Wilhelm/Baynes and Lynn translations due to his recommendations and have been pleased with both.
Hermetica – A lot of good resources, both weblinks and book reviews. He also shares his own translation of the book on this site. His page comparing a multitude of hexagram names is quite interesting to peruse.
Russell Cottrell – Another site with many reviews with a few virtual divination resources. He also explores a lot of other ideas, including a page comparing 44 translations of #3 and #36, and a nice pocket format I Ching based on the Richmond translation.
Online Clarity – A nice forum and good community around the I Ching. I’ll occasionally pop into Reddit as well, but prefer the homier feel of this site. I also enjoy Hilary’s email newsletter. She was recently interviewed on youtube which covers quite a bit of ground as an introduction.
Wikipedia Hexagrams – A concise location of hexagrams and English and Chinese names.
LiSe – I have not explored this site much, however many people have recommended her site. If I was to start exploring the I Ching again, this would be the next spot to dig into.
Fred Hatt is a New York artist who has made a good video of divination with yarrow sticks. It takes a while (a feature of this style of divination), but he chats his way through the process. He was also the guest on this great podcast episode which includes an audio demonstration of divination with coins.
Finally, I must close with this extended quote from Fred Hatt’s autobiographical blog post. It has nothing to do with the I Ching, but wish I was as comfortable with myself as Fred is with his path in life, “while I ignore this official Art World, it ignores me back.”
I rarely write about my own life here on Drawing Life. I avoid drama and so I imagine my life would be pretty boring to anyone not close to me. I devote much of my free time to drawing, photography, and other creative pursuits. While I show work and do events and performances fairly regularly, I’ve always maintained my art as an amateur practice. Of course the word “amateur” means lover, one who does something for the pure love of it. Since I work for a living, I don’t have to worry about creating work to please a market or to make it fit what some critics want to write about. I keep the work free, and I follow it wherever it leads me. To be honest, while I love a lot of living artists and their work, the international contemporary art scene as a whole, with its mega-wealthy collectors and ego-driven art stars, its combination of pretentious discourse and cheap gimmickry, bores me, and while I ignore this official Art World, it ignores me back. I’d rather treat my work as my own exploration of perception and practice. I do want to use it to communicate to a larger audience, but I’m actually more driven by the pleasure of sharing one on one, the special connection that develops between me and my models, the people I sketch portraits of and the people whose bodies I paint, the dancers and performers I collaborate with, and the fans of my work that visit my studio, sit with me on the floor and look through piles of drawings or photographs.
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(notes on) Anti-Fragile
Taleb’s core premise is that we can’t predict the future, so we can only prepare in the present.
Pretty basic advice for an uncertain world. So what can we do?
His counterintuitive elaboration is to posit the idea of “anti-fragility”. Anti-fragile things are not merely robust – they don’t merely avoid failure under stress. Anti-fragile systems improve when they encounter variability. For example, our bodies get stronger when we practice a wide variety of exercise routines.
What an inspiring concept!
Anti-fragility provides a framework for developing improvements. As individuals, there isn’t a ton we can do to fix the big problems, but we aren’t completely powerless. Don’t obsess over massive single-shot wins. Focus on making lots of experiments. A bunch of little mistakes will come up with the occasional win. Transform one of those discoveries into a big victory.
He recommends that one starts with a life that maintains a baseline stability. With this solid foundation one is freed to take some risks that might become big wins. Avoid debt and live freely. Procrastinate thoughtfully – a default aggressive stance isn’t always best.
To nitpick, I admit that the book is a bit long and would have benefited from a sharper editor. But what the hell, it’s well worth your time. Taleb is a punk. He points out that the emperor has no clothes, and that our castle is a house of cards. I wish this book had been published while I was in grad school, I suspect my master’s thesis would have revolved around this concept.
As with all audio books, I started listening to it at 1.5x speed. Unlike most of them, I dropped it down to 1.0x speed almost immediately and listened to all 16 hours at the narrator’s natural pace. Highly recommended.
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One Question
Where can you start experimenting? How are can you create the variability to make you become anti-fragile?
Hit reply and let’s chat!
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One Link
Along with Anti-Fragile, I recommend checking out Simon Sinek’s book the Infinite Game. It hammers in the point that “winning” in life is being invited to “keep playing”, a critical concept that rhymes well with the themes of Anti-Fragile.
Thanks for reading the OPM letter! I’d love to have a conversation if you have any feedback. I hope you found some prompts to stretch your craft and relationships as a curious Owner PM. See you next week!
Stay humble, be kind, and keep experimenting! Justus Pang, RA
Reading this book was an exercise in confirmation bias. Long ago, I had reached similar conclusions Comte-Sponville, after a similarly devout upbringing while also leaving the faith in early adulthood.
While losing a personal diety may be difficult for some folks, it was quite liberating for me. Not to become a wanton libertine. Rather I was freed from carrying an unnecessary construct in my brain. It allowed me to enjoy life more fully.
That said, I don’t begrudge those who are religious, and Comte-Sponville’s first essay is a discussion about tolerance in the face of the unknown. You be you.
However, we’ll still believe in the absence of a god (more certain than a mere agnostic). His second essay plainly addresses why he does not believe in the existence of a deity.
Finally, he tackles the title of the book in the third essay, exploring how an atheist can explore spirituality.
I’m an architect, not a philosopher. So even though I had naturally come to similar conclusions as Comte-Sponville, I enjoyed reading a professional exposition on this matter. The book is well structured with the three essays that build upon each other, and then it ends with a rousing epilogue, on Truth and Love.
Here is where all our different themes converge without conflating.
Fidelity to truth: rationalism – the rejection of Sophism.
Fidelity to love: humanism – the rejection of nihilism.
Fidelity to a separation between the two: atheism.
…
Love, not hope, is what helps us live. Truth, not faith, is what sets us free.
We are already in the kingdom. Eternity is now.
In all a great read. He hit his mark in writing a book for a popular but serious audience. There are plenty of allusions to other authors whose names I recognize but have never read, but the book is plenty readable, and each essay is properly dense, as appropriate for this weight subject. This is not your usual quick burn self-help fare. It may be “little”, but took a surprising amount of time to work through.
Even though I don’t feel the urge to purchase my own copy, I’ve already recommended it to several friends and I suspect this will become my standard book recommendation for anyone interested in such matters.
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Job Walks
I’ve never been great at job walks.
Last year, my weekly walks on my big project had become so unproductive that I called a former intern for advice. He recommended that I study the drawings and re-walk the project after the big team walk.
When the pandemic surged at the end of 2020, I started walking the job site alone on Sunday mornings. In the quiet of an empty building, I found my stride. I could sense the building and feel its gaps.
I was completely alert without studying the drawings. I didn’t need to practice this extra step because I wasn’t distracted by people. My mind was purely focused.
But quiet meditation on a job site is not normal.
Along with my major project, I started a couple of small quick tenant improvements. I held those walks with the contractor, but I had become complacent with my habits.
I forgot to check my drawings. I missed obvious items, resulting in significant rework. Contractually, these busts were the contractors’ problems, but I could have been more helpful.
Back to the basics. Study the drawings. If walking with a companion, I must re-walk the project by myself or insist upon being excruciatingly methodical.
And don’t get cocky. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Coda: Today is my former intern’s first day as an OPM at Nevada State College. The big project I just completed is now his building. JB, all the best in your new gig!
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Two Questions
Do you have any tips and tricks for maximizing your job walks?
Thanks for reading the OPM letter! I’d love to have a conversation if you have any feedback. I hope you found some prompts to stretch your craft and relationships as a curious Owner PM. See you next week!
Stay humble, be kind, and keep experimenting! Justus Pang, RA
The pandemic landed in America at the same moment that my in-law’s tenants gave up their lease.
After a couple of coworkers called in sick in mid-Februrary, I went into exile to minimize the chance of exposing the parents and children to this mysterious disease.
My wife bought an air mattress and hand pump, packed up some groceries, and I was a single man again.
The air mattress lasted about half a year. Kids ruined it by jumping up and down on it. However, the pump (which cost more than the air mattress) has paid off handsomely.
It turns out that when you buy a tool, you’ll find other uses for it.
They used it to blow air on each other’s faces. They played around with the detachable flexible tube that came with the pump, using it like a telescope. I used it to pump up the yoga ball.
And then we got a packet of balloons for my daughter’s birthday.
With the germophobia induced by the pandemic, we quickly realized this was the perfect way to inflate balloons.
Because it was so easy to inflate them, it was also no big deal to deflate them.
For a couple of weeks, the boy would watch me inflate a balloon and then release it, laughing as it bounced off the ceilings and walls, sputtering around the room.
This pump is about eighteen inches tall, a perfect height for children. So the boy has been able to operate it as well.
As implied by the “Double Quick” name, this thing pushes air on both the up and down strokes. It’s endlessly amusing to watch him strain with this thing.
As middle-class parents in a wealthy nation, we purchase many toys that get land with a thud. These wasted expenditures purchases are lottery tickets for amusing our children.
Then life intervenes and a worldwide pandemic forces you to buy the perfect toy that you didn’t even know was a toy.
We pulled out the pump after storing it for a few months. His face brightened up immediately, and he went right back to inflating and deflating balloons. Some toys are just real, and we’re lucky when we find them.
The three steps of this practice are Recall, Simple Explanations, and Spaced Repetition.
“Recall” is as basic as it sounds. Pause and think about what you just read. Information shouldn’t be treated like a page-turner. Pause between chapters and ponder what was just read.
I stumbled into this practice two years ago, after refocusing this blog as “notes on my consumption”. I try to write a blurb about every bit of extended content that I consumed. At the time, I was trying to force myself to be a more consistent content producer, but it unwittingly made me a better consumer as well!
“Simple explanations” are called the “Feynman Technique” in the video. Master the subject so you can explain it to a 5-year-old.
I have used this technique throughout my career. I’ve always forced my engineers to explain problems so that I can retell the story to the clients. Decision-makers are rarely the subject matter experts, so the consultant’s job includes distilling issues to their core essence for informed action.
“Spaced Repetition” is the practice to regularly review content. As we internalize the info, we gradually increase the intervals between reviews to lock the information into our long-term memory.
Again, this blog has come to the rescue because posts involve multiple rounds of edits. For example, this post was initially drafted on June 8th. I edited it in August and I’m now publishing it in October.
This post regurgitates the actionable advice from the second half, but the first half is worth watching because it provides the neurological context for its recommendations and includes a potent warning that feeling like we know something is not a sign of real understanding.
Give it a watch, take some notes, explain it to a kid, and watch it again!
Also, consider starting a blog. This site has hosted a variety of odd experiments. This digital archive of the decade has become a personal infrastructure for further explorations. Maybe it will even unwittingly create a process to help you improve at remembering things.
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One Question
Do you have any processes that help you practice spaced repetition? How do you avoid forgetting information as quickly as you learned it?
Hit reply and let’s chat!
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One Link
While this video may be the best single shot I’ve come across this year, I have been really enjoying the Technology Connections Channel by Alec Watson. He explains common technology (such as the dishwasher) in simple clear language with a wickedly dry humor.
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Thanks for reading the OPM letter! I’d love to have a conversation if you have any feedback. I hope you found some prompts to stretch your craft and relationships as a curious Owner PM. See you next week!
Stay humble, be kind, and keep experimenting! Justus Pang, RA
