Simplicity's Best Friend: Small Groups of Smart People

According to Ken Segall (2012), small groups of smart people are simplicity's best friend:

Start with small groups of smart people -- and keep them small. Every time the body count goes higher, you’re simply inviting complexity to take a seat at the table. The small-group principle is deeply woven into the religion of Simplicity. It’s key to Apple’s ongoing success and key to any organization that wants to nurture quality thinking. The idea is pretty basic: Everyone in the room should be there for a reason. There’s no such thing as a “mercy invitation.” Either you’re critical to the meeting or you’re not. It’s nothing personal, just business.

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Ken Segall

Many of the meetings I have attended over the years regularly included nonessential participants. There's a lesson to be learned here for those seeking to achieve excellence...

Source: Segall, K (2012, June 6), Meetings Are A Skill You Can Master, And Steve Jobs Taught Me How, Fast Company.

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What are Histrionics?

histrionic, histrionical
adj
1. excessively dramatic, insincere, or artificial histrionic gestures
2. Now rare dramatic
n
1. (plural) melodramatic displays of temperament
2. (Performing Arts / Theatre) Rare (plural, functioning as singular) dramatics
[from Late Latin histriōnicus of a player, from histriō actor]

Gerald Arthur "Jerry" Sandusky (1944- )

Source: The Free Dictionary

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Tight Money Threatens the Economic Outlook

According to Charles Kadlec of Forbes (2012, June 11):

Monetary policy in the US has tightened, inadvertently, but with potentially dire consequences for the economy, employment and the stock market. The source of tight money is a failure of the Fed to act in the face of a surge in the demand for dollars as individuals and corporations shift money balances out of the euro and into the dollar.

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Charles W Kadlec

I am relieved to see that the US Federal Reserve's tight money policies are now being increasingly challenged by some in the media.

Source: Kadlec, C (2012, June 11), Tight Money Threatens The Economic Outlook, Forbes.

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Congratulations to Eagle Scout Kyle Jeffrey McKibbin

Warm congratulations and regards to my nephew, Kyle Jeffrey McKibbin, who recently earned his Eagle Scout Medal.

Kyle Jeffrey McKibbin

Well done, Kyle...

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Living Without Fear

The R Imperative

Prof Courtney Brown makes a succinct case for learning the R programming language.



I concur with Prof Brown. The R programming language is real. Much more to follow...

Project R

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Beware of Zombie Banks

According to Yalman Onaran (2011) in Zombie Banks: How Broken Banks and Debtor Nations Are Crippling the Global Economy:

Zombie banks refers to an insolvent financial institution whose equity capital has been wiped out so that the value of its obligations is greater than its assets. The level of capital is crucial for banks, more so than for non-financial companies, because the event of bankruptcy, a bank's assets lose value faster and to a bigger extent. Thus, when a bank's equity declines significantly due to losses, its creditors panic and head for the door (deposits are insured in most Western economies, so depositors don't run away as easily).

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Banking stakeholders will find the contents of this book disturbing...

Source: Onaran, Y (2011), Zombie Banks: How Broken Banks and Debtor Nations Are Crippling the Global Economy, Bloomberg Press.

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Well Said...

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."

~ Dr Seuss


Theodor Seuss Geisel aka "Dr Seuss" (1904-1991)

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Business Intelligence Process Integration via Knime

The business intelligence (BI) production path integrates data access, transformation, analysis, visualization, and exploitation into a unified process. Knime (Konstanz Information Miner) is a professional open-source software package that integrates all of these functions onto a single platform. According to the Knime website:

Knime, pronounced [naim], is a modern data analytics platform that allows you to perform sophisticated statistics and data mining on your data to analyze trends and predict potential results. Its visual workbench combines data access, data transformation, initial investigation, powerful predictive analytics and visualization. Knime also provides the ability to develop reports based on your information or automate the application of new insight back into production systems.

Knime is supported by an expanding number of third-party extensions that enable interfacing with Excel (Microsoft), R (Project R), BIRT (Eclipse), WEKA (University of Waikato), and more. Expand the graphic below to see how Knime integrates various functions and processes via its discrete process simulation features.


Knime Function Nodes [click to enlarge]

Follow the link below to learn more about Knime and its powerful BI production features for enterprise.

Knime

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Make It Matter...

Here is some motivation for the exceptional few who seek to pursue a life that matters....



Brand advertising at its best, from HP.

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Your Life...

Captain China: The World's Greatest Communist Super Hero!

Comic book collectors will want to order a copy of Captain China: The World's Greatest Communist Super Hero!

Follow the link below to order from Amazon.

Captain China

Brain Gym

Those looking for a "brain gym" might consider practicing arithmetic with an abacus.



The abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool used to perform arithmetic processes. Abaci were in use centuries before the adoption of written numeral systems and are still used by merchants in Asia, Africa, and other places.

The user of an abacus is called an abacist. I keep an abacus in my study, which I use on occasion. I guess that makes me an abacist...

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Rhyming on Purpose

There once was a man who had weighed

All the plans for his life he had laid.

But now at its end,

(I am sorry, my friend),

He’d discovered his purpose unmade.

At that point it was easy to see:

All the goals he had reached steadily

Had amounted to naught,

Not at all what he’d thought

And meant nothing to his legacy.

He awoke suddenly with a scream

It had been nothing more than a dream.

T’was clear to him then,

To start over again,

So he set out to craft a new theme.

A statement of purpose he wrote.

For the rest of his life to devote:

“I found here within,

Whom I will have been,

Now that is what drives me.” Unquote.

So how does this tale affect you?

Take a lesson from what my friend knew.

You’ll see fear’s abatement

With your purpose statement

Which directs everything that you do.

~ Jeffrey Tobin

Jeffrey Tobin

Follow the link below to learn more about Jeff Tobin's other writings and activities.

Source: Tobin, J (2012, June 4), Why You Need a Purpose Statement.

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Corporations are not People

Unlike corporations, people cannot be owned...

US Employment to Population Ratio Marks 2-Month Rise

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the US employment to population ratio* for May 2012 rose to 58.7%, up from from 58.5% the previous month, and 58.5% a year ago. The May 2012 increase follows a similar increase in April. The US employment to population ratio has been trending downwards since 2000.

Many economists believe that reporting the number employed as a percentage of the civilian population provides a more accurate description of the current state of employment than conjecturing the number of "unemployed" in a population. The US employment to population ratio reached an historical peak of 64.4% on an annual basis in 2000.

*The BLS defines employment and population (civilian noninstitutional) as follows:

Employment consists of all persons who, during the reference week (the calendar week including the twelfth day of the month), (a) did any work at all (at least 1 hour) as paid employees, worked in their own business or profession or on their own farm, or worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in an enterprise operated by a member of the family, or (b) were not working but had jobs or businesses from which they were temporarily absent because of vacation, illness, bad weather, childcare problems, maternity or paternity leave, labor-management dispute, job training, or other family or personal reasons, whether or not they were paid for the time off or were seeking other jobs.... The civilian noninstitutional population consists of persons 16 years of age and older residing in the 50 States and the District of Columbia who are not inmates of institutions (for example, penal and mental facilities and homes for the aged) and who are not on active duty in the Armed Forces.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

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