Order in Chaos

On the 16th, while travelling north to Maine for the holidays, I spent the better part of a day wandering around downtown Boston. I made a point to visit the New England Holocaust Memorial there – and snagged a few photos.

The memorial's made up of 6 glass pillars.

A closer shot of the pillars.

Yet another closer shot.

There's a walkway that goes through all of the pillars.

The panes of glass on the pillars are engraved with the numbers, symbolizing the numbers that the Jews were branded with.

A closer shot of the engraved numbers.

Another shot of the engraved numbers.

“Oh, I’m bad at math, haha“.

I can’t count the number of times that I’ve heard this, and I’m sure you can’t either. I hear this all the time. I say I’m bad at math, but that’s because I had my [explative] handed to me on a plate in equations (which, as my calculus II professor put it, are “a whole new world of pain”). But when I hear a lot of people say that they’re bad at math, what they mean, is they can’t figure out 50% of 150. But that’s okay, cause they’re bad at math, haha.

What I’d like to particularly note is that people usually laugh after saying they’re bad at math. In fact, it’s “cool” to suck at math. “Oh, that math crap is hard and is for nerds and losers. I hate it, haha” I hear too often. I can appreciate a certain aversion to academics (yes, there have been times when I have cursed class, any class). However,  math, especially at the algebra level, is a basic enough skill that everyone should have at least a basic understanding and ability. Furthermore, it should not be “cool” to hate it.

My discrete math professor said something that I’ll never forget:

“Why is it that people think it’s cool or funny to suck at math? That’s like saying ‘Oh, I can’t read, I suck at reading, haha.’ People are ashamed to say they can’t read.”

The catalyst to this post was something that I saw over on Wil Wheaton’s blog today in which he indicated that he’s not as good at math as he used to be. Look at point 5 in his post, which expands upon

“I mean, I’m a pretty smart guy, and there are times when I have to write down a math problem that I used to be able to do in my head, and some of the spelling and grammar errors I make are just embarrassing – and I’m a writer! So my idea is for an 8 week class that meets once or twice a week for a couple hours, that would be a mental tune up for guys like me.”

This sounds like a fantastic idea, one which I’d probably attend. I love the idea that he wants to be better at math! In fact, I think that there might be something more here. There are all sorts of interest groups, organizations, and events that exist on a national level: hackerspaces, FabLab, MakerFair, ACM, IEEE, etc… Why can’t there be some sort of organization or group that offers adult oriented refresher course? I’d be more than happy to brainstorm with anyone who’d like to with me.

Yeah, we all pretty much agree, aviation checklists are good. It’s reasonable, it’s smart, it just plain makes sense. Conversely, most of us have seen Office Space (or, we got that memo) and agree that, never mind TPS reports themselves, TPS Cover Sheets are stupid mindless paperwork keeping us from just gettin’ on with our jobs! Most people probably have not actually dealt with a TPS Report, per se, but we’re familiar with the metaphor – stupid worthless paperwork.

So what am I getting at? Aviation Checklists and TPS Report Cover Sheets are really the same thing.

Aviation Checklist (Yup, there’s an App for that!)	TPR Report Cover Sheet (did you get that memo?)

The purpose of the aviation check list is pretty straight forward. To keep you un-deadified.The purpose of the TPS Cover is a little more convoluted, but it’s essentially a management checklist.

So how did the aviation checklist come into being? Did someone, one day, say for no reason “Let’s have a checklist. Yeah!”. No. First, somebody messed up. Bad. Then, people got together and had a meeting to discuss what went wrong and how to solve the problem.

A similar history lies behind much “mindless” paperwork similar to TPS Covers. A young or growing company, without the proper process or individual accountability, can turn a team of young, energetic, and enthusiastic recent college grads into a collection of sleep-deprived jaded suicidal alcoholics in mere days. After one, or more, projects have missed deadlines horribly, a meeting is called. In that meeting it’s asked “Why was the project so late? The original time line still looks reasonable – something went wrong. How can we fix this?”. The answer is often more process, more checklists, more paperwork.

So, TPS Cover Sheets are the end result of a project (or three) gone wrong. As much as a pain as they may be, they may actually be saving you from being driven into a jaded state of suicidal alcoholism. Conversely, there’s definitely the possibility that too much process and paperwork comes out of the meeting – perhaps an email to an email list for a memo for the coversheet for the tps report, which is ultimately for the test process for the actual product. There’s obviously a balance, but TPS Report Cover Sheets are probably not as bad as Peter Gibbons would have you believe. In the end – Damn, it feels good to be a gansta.

Just a few night-pics of my city. Click on any image for full-resolution version.

San Diego Night Skyline

San Diego Skyline, Zoomed In

San Diego Gaslamp Quarter, Downtown

Downtown San Diego, 6th Ave & C St