This morning, I got sidetracked and watched a series of music videos. I’m not sure if there is much significance to this list, aside from the fact I’m quite fond of them, with the middle three being some of the best music videos I’ve ever seen.
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Alexander Huerta, 1/21/2020
On Monday, I heard that local artist Alexander Huerta had passed away.
It was crushing.
He was one of the first people I met in Vegas. My wife and I went to the Arts district for a first Thursday, his studio was open, and we had a long conversation that night. I was taken by his Vintage Urban pieces on black scratch board, as well as his earlier, brilliant explosions of color. For the past seven years, I’ve followed his work with its twists and turns. Always unique, he never settled.
But beyond the paintings, I deeply respected him. He told me of his first life as an alcoholic, and how he discovered painting on his own. Painting saved his life…and so thoroughly enriched ours.
Life and kids got in the way so I didn’t get to hang out with him very often, but every time I’d drive by his second story studio on Charleston, I’d think of him. More often than not, his window was open. He was legit. He put in the work.
He was a pillar in this small town, an institution who showed up every day and gave us his true art.
Dude. I miss you.
Coda. A groundbreaking ceremony was held at Nevada State College for their new School of Education building this Wednesday. One of his pieces is displayed on the third floor of the Roger’s Student Center. It was comforting to say hello before and after the event. He left us some great work, but damn I’d rather he stayed. -
EntreLeadership, Dave Ramsey, 2011
Given the guests on the podcast with the same name, I went ahead and borrowed EntreLeadership from the library. The book is a simple, quick enjoyable read.
Admittedly, I’ve never run a business and have no intention to do so in the future. However the book seems like it could be a good primer spanning for a would be entrepreneur, even if much of the topics are covered elsewhere (such as Covey’s 4 quadrants, or Ziglar’s 7 spoke Wheel of life).
However there is one piece of advice that did not sit well with me. He proudly flaunts his “no gossip” policy, which is a fireable offense. It seemed odd to me, so I slipped onto the internet and came across the Daily Beast expose on his exceedingly heavy handed leadership practices.
Then it all snapped in focus. This is a man who has been the boss so long he has forgotten what it is like to be an employee. He has no idea that his position as the founder and owner is a singular one. His perspective is applicable only to himself.
Just flip one of his other exhortations around. He wants each of his employees to act like entrepreneurs. So if I’m running my own little freelance gig, shouldn’t I talk with my fellow freelancers about market conditions? Shouldn’t I make sure that my primary client is treating me fairly? Shouldn’t I “gossip”?
I get that employees should not waste their time bellyaching at the break room. It is better if they bring up concerns to their management so the problems can be fixed. However, that type of trust is earned, not demanded.
This writer has been boss so long, he has mistaken great culture with a populace that has been cowed into submission. And that too is a classic mistake entrepreneurs make.
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Crash! (Jul to Nov 2009)
I just read an interesting statistic. Employment at architectural firms nationwide dropped from 224,500 to 184,600. That means 39,900 jobs were lost in about four months. More than 1 in 6 architects were laid off.
I was one of the lucky ones. I had gotten a gig with a small firm at the start of 2008, so I avoided being laid off even though my hours were cut down to 30 a week. Even though my bank account was not happy, I used the extra time to take my exams.
But still, when you see your colleagues losing jobs and scrambling for work, it leaves an imprint.
Ultimately, we’re all freelancers.
Bosses that preach “family” might not like to hear it. Unless you to throw a child out of your home every time things get rocky, such proclamations ring hollow.
Remember, one out of six.
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One Small Step Can Change your Life, Robert Maurer, 2004
I recently went on a Kaizen kick borrowing all the books on this subject from the library.
Most were straightforward business books from the mid to late 90’s, before the malaise that hit Japan and mad the subject less of a juicy marketable subject.
But One Small Step Can Change Your Life, by Dr. Maurer, was an interesting self help book where the main premise is that very small steps can ultimately be very fruitful, hence the title. It is a very optimistic book, with quite a few examples from both business and historical lore as well as personal interactions by the author.
Like any self help book, it is a persuasive hamburger – it starts and ends by selling you on the effectiveness of of the topic with a multiple steps process in the body of the text.
In this case, you are given a primer on kaizen as a business practice and then some examples on how this approach can be applied to one’s personal life. This book’s six-point program consists of:
- Ask Small Questions
- Think Small Thoughts
- Take Small Actions
- Solve Small Problems
- Bestow Small Rewards
- Identify Small Moments
And then it closes with a reminder that kaizen is good for both for changing course on bad habits (or jumpstarting inactivity) as well as stacking gains on top of previous successes.
The basic premise is that sustainable change comes from small steps that are consistently applied over a long period of time. This stands in contrast to the “innovation” or bootcamp mentality – which are banking on shocks to the system to make lasting change.
The issue with the drastic change approach is that sometimes the system will often bend but snap back into place – the inertia is too much. Kaizen is small so it is immediately actionable, and it entails such small steps that the recalcitrant system doesn’t know what hit it.
Coincidentally, I listened to a podcast about meditation and one of the suggestions for creating a practice is to just aim to meditate for 1- minute every day. While such a goal may seem ridiculously paltry, it creates a habit and it creates opportunities where you decide to meditate for more than a minute. While the decision to go an extra minute may also seem miniscule, the podcaster noted this choice was actually quite momentous. That first minute is motivated by an extrinsic factor (your previous commitment to meditate for a minute every day) but the second minute is voluntary and motivated by intrinsic factors now that your obligation has been satisfied.
This seems to me to encapsulate the spirit of this book. Make a small step and the ride the wave to continuous improvement.
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Happy Holidays! 2019!
It’s crazy how the years fly by, especially when you have a couple small folks at home that are rapidly becoming un-little!
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Looking at fish
I was going through a bevy old photos that had been stuck on a sundry of devices and found this old shot.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this particular photo has already been uploaded here. But I thought I’d post it again as a reminder at how quickly four years has passed.
One day you’re halfway through the decade, and in a blink of the eye you’re thinking about writing a retrospective on your blog.
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Fridge Bread, Oct / Nov 2019
I’ve been playing with rising the dough in the fridge, and aside from the lost space in the box, it has worked out really well. The main thing is that the timing is much more forgiving.
400g all purpose flour
300g water
200g starter
4g saltThe only change from typical recipe is adding a lot more starter (and of course throwing the dough in the fridge for 2-3 days after the autolyse and mix).
Along with proofing in the fridge, we are now playing with using fresh wheat berries in the bread. I soak the 100g of berries in 200g water overnight and then process it in the vitamix (using the last 100g of water to wash out the container into the dough).
400g all purpose flour
300g water
200g starter
4g saltThis system is proving pretty promising, getting the flavors of whole wheat bread without concerns about the oils in the flour going rancid.
And now that we’ve gotten into the soaking business…next step, sprouted grains!
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MaNiKi (Crazy Car variant), Dominique Ehrhard, 2002
This morning I slammed together a DIY set of MaNiKi (also called Jungle Smart and Crazy Circus) using Duplo Blocks.
I made three different colored cars (green, blue, and yellow) and put them on red and orange Duplo Houses. I wrote up a cheat sheet using the MaNiKi commands.
So the only thing that didn’t match the published game was determining the goal for the round. Instead of having the 24 cards as in the published game, I took 5 pieces and put them in a bag, green, blue, yellow for each car with red and orange for each of the houses.
To set the goal, I draw one piece at a time. All of the car color tiles are stacked in order and then placed on the first house tile that came up. After the second house tile comes up, any further car tiles (if any) are placed on that second house.
This system worked well enough, though the cards in the published game make for better gameplay, since the goal is immediately revealed and the game can proceed without the drawing process.
That said, this makeshift set worked quite well in teaching my five year old the game. She’s not ready to play competitively since she can’t work out the order of operations in her head, but she caught on surprisingly fast.
It’s definitely a sharp little game, one worth trying, and possibly buying as well!
One last note. In the photo, you will see a little tower to the right. I used that tower to keep track of the starting setup for a round. If there were any mistakes we could easily go back to the beginning to work out the correct answer. It’s not necessary for the rules as written, but a nice accessory for beginner games.
