Friday, October 25, 2002

QOTD. We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action. - Frank Tibolt I suppose that is how skunk works projects get started. Seriously though, I think Frank is right. Sometimes you just need to put pencil to paper, or fingers to keyboards, and get something started. Oftentimes the inspiration will come later. It reminds me of my old friend Bob Zimmerman. Bob had Adult Attention Deficit Disorder, something he used to his advantage. Bob was a very good coder, but could not focus on a problem long enough to design a solution. His approach was to start developing lots of solutions until one worked. One colleague remarked that with Bob's approach "one starts with the solution and the problem slowly begins to emerge". The quote also reminds me of an old-line manager that used to walk between the rows of application developers' desks saying things like "I only want to see elbows and a**holes out here". Crusty, but effective. [On The Mark] 1:34:14 PM    trackback []     Articulate []

I took the multiple intelligences test and was told that of the six kinds, I scored highest on Personal Intelligence.  The six kinds are: Linguistic I am definitely NOT a word smith able to get my point across with either precision or flair.  So what should I do about that? Logical / Mathematical At one time this was my best subject, but it has deteriorated thanks to disuse.  Math was no sweat for me in school.  Some of the sciences were tough, some easy.  Where I fell down was in memorization.  When I had the leisure to figure things out, I did Ok.  I could visualize multiple dimensions, but they tended to slow down my thinking geometrically. Visual / Spacial A phobia associated with heights and crowds probably impeded my exploration of this part of our world.  I can function, but I just try to avoid certain combinations.  I have met a few people with photographic memory and am glad I do not have it.  What they all had in common was a lack of sympathy for people with impaired memories, an arrogant disdain for normal frailties. Physical I had never before considered athletic prowess as a form of intelligence, but you know, our world values that, and reading this section tells me that this includes craftsmen and artists, who are gifted in non-verbal expression. Social I figure I am probably lowest here, perhaps tied with physical.  Both low compared to other people, and low compared to how well I do in the other intelligence areas. Personal Personal intelligence is all about the ability and willingness to reflect on life's big questions: I know that there is such a thing as stable secure powerful computers at affordable prices, so why does the crud drive them out of business? Why did 9/11 happen? Can the sniper get a fair trial and why does that matter? Why does our current enemy hate us so much, and is there a long term solution for the continuing recruitment of new enemies? What should I be doing differently, planning for my future? When we are communicating with people we need to be sensitive to the fact that different people understand things best different ways, learn things best different ways.  Good writing helps.  Examples and Analogies help.  Illustrations help.  Numbers help. Now one might argue that tests like these need to be similarly crafted with great wisdom.  I saw some questions there that I had never before seen anything like it, and some familiar forms.  It was a mixture of spacial, math, literary, and common sense questions. Write your name using the hand you don't typically write with and look at the results. Which is true?  I checked that the results looked like they were written by a four year old.  Fortunately I was not asked about what my name looks like normally. Chris is now 2/3 of Ted's age. In six years, Chris will be 4/5 of Ted's age. In 15 years, Chris will be 7/8 as old as Ted. If they are both under the age of ten, how old are they now? I started with ((Ted now) x 2/3 = Chris now) + 6 years = (Ted then) x 4/5 therefore T x 10 = (T+6) x 12 solving for T now, with result of a negative number.  I majored in math in college, but I really have not had this kind of arithmetic since grade school - I suspect I am misinterpreting 4/5 of Ted's age now or then? [Al Macintyre's Radio Weblog] 12:30:08 PM    trackback []     Articulate []