Monthly Archives: May 2016

Numerical Jokes

May 20, 2016Nostalgia, Punsadmin

So, a person walks in to a bar. As they enter, someone up on stage says ‘one hundred and fourty seven’, and the whole bar erupts with laughter.

The person walks over to the bartender and asks ‘What are they doing? Why did everyone laugh just then?’

The bartender says ‘Well, a few years ago, they realized that they were just telling the same jokes over and over again, so they wrote them all down and assigned numbers to them. Saves a lot of time.’

‘Oh! Let me try!’

The person runs up on stage, and yells ‘Fifty-two!’. Dead silence. ‘Fifty two?’ Dead silence. They disconsolately walk off the stage and back to the bar. The bartender says ‘It’s alright.’

‘What did I do wrong?’

‘Just watch.’

A person from the crowd, a regular it would seem, walks up onto the stage. ‘Fifty two.’

The crowd erupts with laughter again.

‘What? Why did that work?’

‘Well, it’s all in how you tell a joke.’

Then a different person comes out of the crowd, and walks slowly up to the stage. They pause for a while, and then say ‘One thousand, two hundred and seventeen.’

There is a pause. Another pause. Then one person starts laughing, then another, soon the whole bar is laughing.

‘What did they just do? Why did the crowd react like that?’

‘That was one they hadn’t heard before.’

Notes: I think I heard this one from my dad for the first time when I was very young. I’ve always enjoyed it. It felt difficult to ambiguate the gender of the participants, but it felt necessary. I think there are two endings above, everything after ‘it’s all in how you tell a joke’ is an alternate ending, but I enjoy the whole thing together, if only because you get to surprise people twice.

Slide Rule Accuracy and F=ma

May 19, 2016Engineering, Nostalgia, Teachingadmin

Earlier this week, we were talking about drawing a Large diagram as one of the lasting and important things I learned in Prof. Collins’ Structure & Materials course.

Here are some of the others:

‘Slide Rule Accuracy’

This is the idea that in the real world[1], you’re never going to use more than three digits of accuracy (or four if your number starts with a ‘1’)[2]. Beyond that, things will get lost in the noise, or other inaccuracies, whether it’s budget contingencies, manufacturing defects, or whatever. (It would be interesting to see whether this has changed for manufactured parts with increased automation.)

The ‘3 laws of engineering'[3]:

1) F=ma

Simple, yet profound. When you’re dealing with non-relativistic systems (pretty much all of them), you push on something, it will move or react proportionally. This is not limited to physical systems.

2) You can’t push on a rope.

Also simple, has a number of applications for mechanical systems, but is probably the most ‘Engineer-y’ useful statement for dealing with other people.

3) In order to solve an engineering problem, you must first know the solution.

This one doesn’t really make sense on first blush, but I’ve experienced it. I mentioned earlier that the brain is often a structure that problems flow through, and in a sense this is a statement of that. You’re going to try to fit a new problem you’re looking at into the structure(s) of all the problems that you’ve seen before, and you have a huge advantage if you’ve seen similar problems before, or seen other problems you can apply by analogy.

We also had a ‘notebook’ that we put all of our class notes in, including cut and pasting from technical sheets, and this ‘notebook’ was our open book for the exam. It was a great exercise in focusing note-taking and coalescing your thoughts onto a medium-small piece of paper.

“When someone is paying you $100 for an hour of work, it’s worth paying a few extra cents for a good sheet of paper to give it to them on.”

The course had special ‘engineering notepaper’ that they wanted us to hand problem sets in on. There wasn’t any penalty for not doing so, but the lesson was that a little bit of professional presentation went a long way.

[1]This is when you’re dealing with things of reasonable size. I’m guessing when you’re looking at gravity waves or Higgs bosons, you might be using somewhat more accuracy. But at the same time, you’re probably not really looking at more than the last few digits…

[2]This is one of those subtle things which is actually quite important and powerful. On a slide rule, the portion which starts with a ‘1’ is fully 30% of the length (log10(2) ~=0.301), so unless you use the fourth digit here, you’re losing a substantial portion of your accuracy. There is a better explanation of this here:

[3]For a slightly different set of three Engineering laws, look here:

Deadlines are a Clarity Crutch

May 18, 2016Agile, Idle Speculation, Organizing Systems, Software Development, Thoughts on Thoughts, Words!, Writingadmin

I have a love/hate relationship with deadlines. At one point I said that the amount of work I do is proportional only to the number of deadlines I have, not proportional to anything else. (I think this is one of the reasons I favour daily 5-minute standups. They allow a daily reset of expectations, along with a deadline to work towards each day.)

So, deadlines proportional to accomplishment. Daily blogging something to show for your year something something etcetera[1]. But today I wanted to talk about the mental clarity that arrives as you’re approaching a deadline.

You have a task/deed to accomplish, you have a fixed time when it is due. As the time gets closer, the light cone[2] of possible ways to solve the problem shrinks. You push aside a large number of extraneous things[3], choose how solved you can get the problem in the time alloted, and get it done.

There’s the standard ‘good, fast, and cheap…pick two’. It feels like a lot of this clarity comes from having chosen the speed. As the time grows shorter, the number of ways you can now spend your mental focus budget on the task becomes manageable.

So, knowing this, how do we compensate? More frequent deadlines do actually seem to help, but that’s more of a forcing a solution, rather than relaxing into a solution.

What is it about the problem that is making you pause? Is your brain working on it in the background? (Does this mean the fallow time is necessary?) Are there parts you can hive off? Can you draw a large diagram? Can you put it in a spreadsheet or table?

Or perhaps the elephant in the room: If it is so difficult to find mental focus, what do you need to change about your environment?

[1]Until writing this I didn’t know that the ampersand ‘&’ was a ligature of ‘et’, and ‘etcetera’ was often written ‘&c.’

[2]Light Cones are also fascinating. I use them often in my mental model.

[3]In undergrad, we used to say that we enjoyed exam time, because we could push everything else away and focus, and not face opprobrium.

Draw a LARGE Diagram

May 17, 2016Engineering, Nostalgia, Organizing Systems, Teaching, Thoughts on Thoughts, Visualizationsadmin

Draw a LARGE diagram. When you start, you have no idea which part you’ll be focusing on, so draw it large to start.

In undergrad, we had a Structures and Materials course with Prof. Collins. I owe a lot to that class. It was first year, first term, and it was our first experience with ‘real Engineering’ (with a capital ‘E’).

Collins talked about (along with how to build bridges and other structures) a number of things which you would actually use every day, no matter what types of things you were designing or calculating or planning.

The biggest[1] one is indubitably ‘draw a Large diagram’. Every time I do this, whether it’s on a whiteboard at work, or in my journal[2] at home, it helps far more often than I expect, especially when you’re drawing a teaching diagram, and people are asking questions.

It helps when you’re drawing a semicircle intersected by many lines, with some angles known, some angles not known, and you need to do a bunch of fancy figuring to get the answer[3].

Next time, we’ll talk about some other useful tidbits I learned in that class. Stay tuned!

[1]Ha!

[2]I use notebooks with blank pages. It helps me draw diagrams without extraneous lines, feels freer for thinking.

[3]I think this was a GRE question.

Burning Man 2015 in Pictures V: Unpacking and the Calm of Early Arrival Burning Man at Night

May 16, 2016Photos, Things We've Built, Traveladmin

Having finshed unpacking, we returned to camp to build our yurt!:

Presenting our new home for the duration, complete with smiling occupant. Note that I am trying not to shine a headlamp[1] in her face.:

Our new home, complete with maniacal occupant.

Investigating the rest of camp, we met this guy, and felt reassured by his knowledge of first aid:

Still having some energy, we decided to go back to the installation to take a look around. I gave M & F a hand building some scaffolding. M convinced S to climb up to take a look. Apparently the view was breathtaking:

I contented myself with enjoying the calm of Early Arrival before the multitudes arrived for the festival proper[2]:

Next up: Building building building!

[1]Protip: Headlamps. Not just for Burning Man.

[2]’Early Arrival’ is half a week (or more!) where those who have large installations to setup arrive early. It’s quite something to be living in a city of ten thousand people, every single one of them there to build something. Even the festival proper can’t compare.

Burning Man 2015 in Pictures IV: We Finally Arrive, Unpack, and Setup Camp!

May 15, 2016Photos, Things We've Built, Traveladmin

In which our intrepid heroes visit the box office, unpack a fire mirror maze, and set up camp.

After a long journey, we had finally made it! (To the box office…):

Finally, we have reached our destination! The Box Office?!?

Our intrepid heroine ventures forth to stand in the (mercifully short) line:

At the box office, we found that the playa dust had formed itself into a message of some type. While we recognized it as being partially palindromic, we were not able to decode it in its entirety:

A cryptic message, spontaneously formed from playa dust.

Tickets in hand, we continued our (now dusty way):

And we were there! You can see the green glowing man in the dusty[1] distance:

Burning Man! With the green glowing Man in the distance!

Day turned into night, we unpacked some, and ventured out the Charnival grounds to help unload the truck, bravely driven for days from Toronto by an amazing group of volunteers.

Normally, your first day on playa is for acclimation, but we had a lot of building to do, and the truck needed to be unloaded (including our fragile tube![3]). This would turn out to be fortuitous, as we lost an entire day to high wind and sandstorms (but more on that later).

Here, you can see the lighting of the Charnival grounds in the distance (it looks like I took this picture from my bike). Lighting is incredibly important, especially on open playa, with art cars and bicycles zipping[2] about. The Charnival grounds peeps did an incredible job:

The Charnival grounds, from a distance. Note the man in glowing green.

We met up with the S3FA people, and much truck unloading ensued. You can see the result here, with our tacitly triumphant trusty heroine:

Tacitly, our triumphant trusty heroine tells her tale.

To give you an idea of why we needed a truck, here are the not yet assembled pieces of Mirror Blaze. Those are 4×4 8′ cedar (half the mass) posts with hinges (for easier[4] assembly), and 4’x8′ acrylic mirrors in a pile. It’s interesting how I automatically orient my view of this picture with respect to the fence and the Man, how I can feel where the rest of the festival is around me:

Mirror Blaze components ready for assembly!

Some more components for Mirror Blaze, and some of its friends:

Mirror Blaze components and friends: (l-r fencing, my first welding ever, some 4x8 ply, some accumulators, parts for the Mirror Blaze lifeguard stand, a shipping container, Quartz Tube, fence posts) — Mirror Blaze components and friends: (l-r fencing, my first welding ever, some 4×8 ply, some accumulators, parts for the Mirror Blaze lifeguard stand, a shipping container, Quartz Tube, fence posts)

Next time, off to finish setting up camp and unpacking!

[1]You may think I’m overemphasizing the presence of the dust, but I’m really not.

[2]Art cars at 5mi/hr, and bicycles only somewhat faster in the (usually) hard-packed dust.

[3]A 7′ long 1′ wide quartz tube, used for keeping the flame effect away from the acrylic mirrors.

[4]Note that I didn’t say easy…

Burning Man 2015 in Pictures III: The Most Important Kind of Freedom

May 14, 2016Photos, Thoughts on Thoughts, Traveladmin

Last time, we had just arrived at the salt flats, and were all set to enter the line to take us into the festival.

Here’s the turnoff to the festival, and the first of many generators you’ll see. These were invaluable for our night builds:

The turnoff from the highway onto playa.

0.5 miles may not seem very far, but when you’re limited to 5mi/hr (to keep down the dust and to reduce damage to the playa), it can feel like a long way:

Along the way, we saw the first of many warnings:

The first of many warnings. "Warning: Complex Sentences Ahead". — The first of many warnings. “Warning: Complex Sentences Ahead”.

And true to their word, there was indeed a complex (and poignant) sentence[1] which (I think) represents some of the best aspirations of Burner culture:

(The most important) kind of freedom... — (The most important) kind of freedom…

You trade in your reality... — You trade in your reality…

And perhaps a commentary on why some people find the release offered by alcohol so difficult to deal with:

...your ability to feel... — …your ability to feel…

...and in exchange... — …and in exchange…

...put on a mask. -Jim Morrison — …put on a mask. -Jim Morrison

Under the heat of the afternoon sun, it perhaps felt like a ritual cleansing, the sauna before you sit and think deep thoughts before fully experiencing.

Or maybe it was just a mask of playa dust:

[1]Yes, I know it’s multiple sentences.

Burning Man 2015 in Pictures II: Travel to Black Rock City!

May 13, 2016Photos, Traveladmin

Today we return to our intrepid adventurers as they brave the roads of Nevada and the entry lines of Black Rock City.

In the morning, we met up with D, would would be helping out with building Mirror Blaze:

Many interesting things were seen, mostly out of camerashot:

"What's that over there?" — “What’s that over there?”

Taking advantage of the hotel wifi, as navigatrix, I grabbed some maps:

We did some last minute shopping, then headed out to pick up our bikes:

Black Rock Bicycles! (There may be something of a theme to these names.)

Along the way, we saw a type of terrain which we would be seeing a lot of:

Nevada Badlands. We would be seeing a lot of this.

We also played a (not very difficult) game called ‘Spot the Burner’:

Spot the Burner! (For bonus points, spot the art car.)

And ran into the school police (no relation?):

Then, it was time to head into the desert! I pulled out my trusty map:

See that big blank patch? That's where we're going. — See that big blank patch? That’s where we’re going.

For all we talk about the Badlands being much of the same, they’re actually extremely varied:

Scrub Badlands, with Butte (Buttetholomew, to its friends).

Passing through the last vestiges of civilization near Gerlach, we saw the ‘last store before the Burn’, where we had experienced our first culture shock upon leaving in 2013. They had interesting ideas about potato chips[1]:

They have all the same colours as vegetables... — They have all the same colours as vegetables…

And then suddenly we were there, driving through the salt[2] flats:

It’s difficult to describe or even photograph the alienness and barrenness of this landscape:

It's difficult to capture the barrenness of this landscape. — It’s difficult to capture the barrenness of this landscape.

Next up: More playa and playa dust than you can shake a furry glowing boot at!

[1]Which is probably good, because potato chips feel like a terrible survival food

[2]Salt is somewhat of a misnomer, because playa is more like an alkali salt, around pH 10.

Burning Man 2015 in Pictures I: Supply Trip to Reno

May 12, 2016Photos, Traveladmin

So, early in 2015, we decided we should build a gigantic flaming mirror maze in the desert. Lacking any suitable deserts nearby, we decided to go to Burning Man in Nevada. On the way, I took a few thousand pictures.

Any large project such as this one requires extensive planning. We’ll cover that later. This post is about the frantic last supply trip to Reno (Nevada), which is the closest major center to Black Rock City. Most people traveling to ‘The Burn’ end up in Reno at some point, even if it’s just traveling through.

Reno is a casino town, if somewhat overshadowed by Las Vegas. Our home away from home was the ‘Eldorado’ hotel and casino:

The Eldorado, Reno, Nevada. Our home away from home.

They had a surprisingly well designed parking garage:

Where we parked our (still very undusty) trusty steed:

And took another gander at the glitz of the Eldorado before venturing inside:

Inside, we found the shortest escalator ever, as S demonstrates:

The Escalatrix De-escalates the Shortest Escalator I.

The Escalatrix De-escalates the Shortest Escalator II.

After checking in, we went in search of supplies!

Sadly, we were not allowed to go on the cart:

No cart for you. :( — No cart for you. 🙁

But we were successful at Trader Joe’s (protip: excellent supply store for Burning Man):

Trader Joe's Success! — Trader Joe’s Success!

We then went on a brief[1] walk outside, and saw an ‘ampersand’:

And then went quickly back to the Eldorado:

For some much-needed rest to prepare for the long journey ahead.

[1]Reno did not feel like a optimal place to go for a nice night walk.

Five Management Roles

May 11, 2016Agile, Analysis, Organizing Systems, Software Developmentadmin

I was talking with my best friend earlier today, and we were comparing notes on some different management roles. Traditional hierarchical management theory[1] tends to have all of the management roles embodied in one person. This can be problematic, as very few people are good at all of the management roles.

This has led to a number of different techniques for dividing these roles among people. To start, we’ll talk about five of these roles, using Agile software development language, as that’s what I’m most familiar with:

Performance Manager (Worker Evaluation):

The ‘Performance Manager’ is probably the most traditional of the roles. When someone talks about their ‘boss’, it is generally the person who evaluates their performance, gives them performance reviews, and decides if they should get a bonus, a raise, or be fired[2].

Estimatrix (Estimator):

The ‘Estimatrix[3]’ is in charge of estimating the amount of effort required to perform a task or set of tasks. This role is often spread out over multiple people, even in traditional hierarchies.

Product Owner (Prioritization):

The ‘Product Owner’ is the other half of ‘traditional’ management. They are in charge of prioritization of the work being done, once it has been assigned to a team and estimated.

Scrum Master (Removing Obstacles):

The ‘Scrum Master’ (my favourite) is charged with removing obstacles. Once the team knows what it is working on, things will get in the way. Some of the obstacles are acute issues, associated with work being done, some of the obstacles are chronic issues, which are generally solved by trying to change habits, and many ‘restrospectives’.

(People) Development Manager (Development Conversations):

As a retention technique (and because it’s the right thing to do), many organizations spend time on development of their employees, helping them figure out what they want to do with their careers, and helping to find them ways to develop while doing their job.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at some ways these roles are remixed.

[1]It’s really more of a default.

[2]Like user stories, anytime your description includes the word ‘and’ or ‘or’, it means you can subdivide it further. That is left as an exercise to the reader, if they are so inclined.

[3]I really enjoy this suffix.

Sometimes Egregious, Always Gregarious

Sometimes a letter can make a word of difference