Eggheads and Cracked Eggs

Why we can't solve problems. 

We no longer want to embrace analysis. The empirical method of analysis.  Conduct the experiment, document the results, duplicate the experiment, duplicate the results, write a paper with the conclusions.

Here is the metaphor.

Wolf Blitzer stops off at the market on the way home to buy a dozen eggs.  When he arrives home, he is motivated to try an experiment.  

• He takes an egg out of the carton, drops it on the floor, and it breaks.  
• He documents the results.  
• He repeats the experiment. 
• He duplicates the results.  
• He submits a paper on the topic.  
• His conclusion?  
• Don't drop raw eggs on the floor: They will break and you will have a mess.
• Dr. Blitzer cleans up the mess.

John King reads the academic paper.

• John King decides to duplicate the experiment with the same results.  
• Mr. King comes up with a different conclusion.  
• He has not dropped enough eggs on the floor.
• Mr. King buys another carton of eggs.  Then another with the same results. 
• Mr. King writes a paper challenging Dr. Blitzer's conclusions.

Candy Crowley reads these papers and invites both onto her show for an interview.

Dr. Blitzer reiterates his position.  Mr. King objects.  Candy Crowley wants to know why.

Mr. King 

• challenges the limited scope of the experiment.
• challenges the number of people involved in the experiment.
• challenges Dr. Blitzer's hasty conclusions.

Candy Crowley turns to Dr. Blitzer:

"In other words, you did the experiment yourself, you did not include other testers, and you came to a conclusion because your way is the only way."

Candy Crowley turns to Mr. King.  

"Now, you, John, you have a different approach.  Tell us all about it."

Mr. King says:

• I want to involve more testers. 
• I want to use more eggs.
• I want to use eggs from different chickens.
• I want to use eggs from different birds.

"Very open minded of you, Mr. King,  John, to keep such an open mind. Now you, Dr. Blitzer..."

"Well, I still believe--"

"I'm sorry. That's all we have time for. Coming up next: Reliable Sources, where the friends of John King will discuss why Mr. King's work is so important."

The Empirical Method of Scientific Inquiry Suffers.

Regards,

Slim

If you find anything here to be helpful, please do not hesitate to send me a really tricked-out laptop and to put a few dollars into the envelope along with the thank you note. Slim

www.linkedin.com/in/slimfairview/

slimfairview@yahoo.com

Copyright (c) 2013 Slim Fairview

All Rights reserved

Learning, or not.

ENOUGH SAID?

Internet Disconnect? NO!

Internet Disconnect? Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Among my "skills set" in addition to starting out life as an English major, and transferring schools to major in Finance, I also left the corporate world to write an unpublished (able) novel. I took unique jobs. Steel Fabricator. 10 hours a day on a brake-press, a spot welder, etc.

Plan B. 8 - 10 hours a day at a keyboard.

A. Hot, dirty, heavy, low pay, long hours.....
B. Keyboard, share ideas, connect with people globally!

Type a novel, enter an email, click attach and away we go. See an article -> twitter. Share it with thousands. (Okay, only seven.) Copy paste, high-light, add a link, add a mail to. Or, copy paste a photo, a graph, a chart, or a dozen links to same. Sit down to dinner with a friend across town, across the country, on the other side of the world. Free. (Did I hear someone say skype?)

I heard a rumour you can even run for President using the Internet.

http://slimviews.blogspot.com/

Regards,

Slim

Frank Investment Strategies

 

Investing?

Here's the metaphor.

Two friends stop off at a hot dog stand. Ahead of them, they see a man order a hot dog. One says to the other, “I bet he has mustard.” His friend says, “Ketchup.” The man puts mustard on his hot dog. The first friend wins.

They follow him down the street to a pretzel stand. The first man bets that he buys a pretzel with no salt. The second says with salt. The man buys it with salt. The second man wins.

Down the street, the man stops for ice cream. The first man says, “Chocolate”. The second man says, “Vanilla”. The first man wins when the guy in front of them buys a chocolate ice cream cone.

You know all this because you are following the two men and listening in as they make their wagers.

The next thing you know, you are calling your friend on the phone and inviting him to meet you for lunch at the hot dog stand.

When you get there, you see the same two men you saw the day before. They make the same wager. You turn to your friend and say, “I bet the man on the left wins the bet.” Your friend says, “You’re on.”

You bet that the man on the left will win the wager each time.

You win two out of three bets. You come out ahead.

Do you now have some idea of how our investment industry is changing?

Regards,

Slim

Mail: slimfairview@yahoo.com 

Copyright © 2011 Slim Fairview

Slimviews is an non-profit, unfunded, unsupported, and, alas, unprofitable web log by Slim Fairview

http://slimviews.blogspot.com

Commentary on Global Political and Economic Events by Slim Fairview. Read my blog today or hear it from experts in a month or two. Slim

Starving Nations and Food Equations

A Metaphor:

If one person in the group does not have enough food to eat, he may die.

For a while, that means more food for the rest of the group. However, that also means one less person to work the farm. That means less food to eat. Less food to eat means someone will die.

For a while, that means more food for the rest of the group. However, that also means one less person to work the farm. That means less food to eat. Less food to eat means someone will die.

Soon, there won't be enough people to work the farm. That means there won't be enough food to eat.

Get the idea?


Slim

Mail: slimfairview@yahoo.com


Copyright (c) 2011 Slim Fairview

MicroManagement?

Unforeseen management involvement:

When the supervisor can't do the job and the OM or the VP must step in to make an adjustment to the supervision.

Micromanagement:

a. When the manager doesn't really know what he is doing and imputes his deficiencies to his subordinates.

b. When a manager has foist upon him by his boss a process that he knows won't work and tries to cover himself by micromanaging the person he will blame for the failures of the process which is considered viable by his boss.

Slim

tilden9@yahoo.com

Copyright (c) 2011 Slim Fairview

The CSO: Chief Strategic Officer

We all know the C-Level jobs. Which one is in charge of strategy? And don't say all of them.

A company has to have a metaphorical motion detector that detects changes. That motion detector is the Chief Strategic Officer.

Part One

Is the turn around time getting shorter or longer?
Is the ROI going up or down?
Are sales rising? Are they rising at a slower rate or a faster rate?
Have competitors entered the market?
Are clients/customers starting to ask questions about innovations, discounts, delivery dates?

As these matters come up, they are indicators that the strategy and the process need to be reviewed and refreshed.

Part Two

To remain competitive, the CSO has to look to opportunities to make changes to stay ahead of the competitors, the market demands, and the changes in the financials.

This is not something to be done occasionally. This is an ongoing process.

Any thoughts on the matter?

Regards,

Slim

Mail: tilden9@yahoo.com

Copyright (c) 2011 Slim Fairview

Contact

Contact Information:

For Global Interests: tilden9@yahoo.com

For Domestic Interests: slimfairview@yahoo.com


Thank you.

Sincerest regards,

Slim

Welcome

Just a note to thank those from around the world who have visited my Blog.

From the Stats we have, The United Arab Emirates, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, The Czech Republic, Turkey, United Kingdom, and The United States arranged in alphabetical order. There have been varying numbers of visits from one per day to 28 in one day.

And welcome to new visitors: China! Lebanon! Malaysia! Moldova!

I am happy to have visitors from around the world.

Sincerely,

Slim
Mail: tilden9@yahoo.com

More to View

Slim Fairview's PowerPoint Presentations on SlideShare.

Global Management: A Shift in the Paradigm of Corporate America.

The Future of the G-20 in Good Times and Bad

Preview: Fairviews: The Quotations of Slim Fairview

The Multiplier Effect: Illustrated

Regards,

Slim Fairview

Also available on LinkedIn.

Mail: tilden9@yahoo.com

copyright (c) 2011 Slim Fairview

Monograph on the Population Shift to Cities in Emerging Nations

GLOBALLY, the population is moving to urban areas. Food and Jobs are two topics that arise for discussion. This suggests that by talking about it we will solve the problem. Which problem? The problems suffered by the people who move from rural areas to urban areas. Abolishing farm subsidies in Western countries is not the solution.

Farming is a job. In addition, it is hard work. Moreover, it doesn't pay well even under the best of circumstances. Then, when the population increases, it gets harder because plots get smaller. What helped the decline of Russia was the absence of primogeniture.

Cities had to start somewhere. England and France were emerging nations at one time in history.

The rural populations is moving to cities rather than building cities.

The affluent leave the cities and move to rural areas because they can afford to escape the cities.

Cities are indeed vibrant areas of creativity. This even in emerging nations. (We don't need a new world big city to have creativity. The WSJ published an article:
Why Some Islanders Build Better Crab Traps (about the creativity in commerce of emerging communities. It is well worth reading.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704523604575512071789091444.html?mod=wsj_share_twitter



There is a very unpleasant step between reduced subsidies making cheap food available in emerging nations, and farmers in emerging nations becoming 1. Self-sufficient and 2. Being able to produce a sufficient amount of food to feed the large numbers of people.

That unpleasant step is where abolishing subsidies comes up against phasing out subsidies.

(The banning of DDT was a positive environmental move that created the unpleasant step of increased deaths due to the spread of malaria.)

One trendy catch phrase used by the media vis-à-vis our current governmental conundrums is "unintended consequences." That phrase has the moral equivalent of a little boy outside church on a Sunday morning tossing a hand-full of change into the air and saying what God wants he'll take and the rest belongs to me.

There really are no unintended consequences.

True, globally, people are moving en-mass into urban areas. There is no work in rural areas and there are no jobs in cities. Migrations to European countries confound the migrants. "How come in such a wealthy nation the government cannot provide 300,000 jobs?"

However, abolishing subsidies will have consequences. If our leaders stop referring to unpleasant consequences as unintended consequences, they may start to focus on solving the problem--micro finance was one of the solutions propounded by an economist in an emerging nation. That earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.

Regards,

Slim

Mail: tilden9@yahoo.com

Copyright (c) 2010 Slim Fairview

Innovation and Crisis

In answer to the question about whether or not we innovate more during a crisis, I pose the following answer.

Yes. We do.

Assume for a moment that there is no crisis. Innovation requires a budget. There will be measurables to achieve. We really don't know what needs innovation without some form of market study. Our resources must be allocated in a manner that will be most cost effective. If we have additional funds, would those funds not be better spent on upgrades, marketing, sales, and so on.

If we have a crisis, we know exactly where to devote our precious funds. We know what we must focus on, and we have some indication of what we must achieve. In addition, the group knows we must achieve these goals to avoid becoming victims of the crisis.

Regards,

Slim


Copyright (c) 2010 Slim Fairview

The Decline of Science As a Way to Make a Quick Buck

Where is Clyde Crashcup when we need him most?

The latest trend in education is to lament the lack of science performance. (Soon it will be declaimed that this is the result of not spending enough money.)

Science requires focus on a goal, attention over a long period of time, and does not offer instant gratification so much craved by young people. Science means enjoying the process.

We will not improve in science until we learn to delay gratification, focus on the problem we are trying to solve, and be able to offer our attention (span) over a long period of time.

Regards,

Slim

ps. Oh, yeah. Science is empirical as well as methodical--and precise.

e.g. In math, 10 x 10 = 100. 99 is not 99% correct. 99 is 100% wrong. Something some people can't seem to deal with. Desole :-(

Slim

Copyright (c) 2010 Slim Fairview

No Excuse to Fail

No Excuse to Fail


In one of my first, real, math teaching assignments, I had a student whose mother was not thrilled with the grade on her son’s first test. She came in on parent-teacher night to discuss this.

Mrs. Parent reassured me that she did not believe this was my fault. She was not blaming me. She was sure that I was intelligent and that some day I would make a fine teacher. However, as I was new, perhaps I had not yet acquired the skills necessary to teach her little Cherub.

Well, I explained to Mrs. Parent, the first test of the year is a review of what the students’ remember from last year. That way I can determine what I need to cover before we can move on. I reassured Mrs. Parent that the first two or three questions were easy questions, to help the students build confidence. To help the students overcome any math anxiety.

Now comes the part where God was with me. (I can say that because this was a Parochial school.) Mrs. Parent came with Mrs. Friend who had Miss Daughter with her. (They went to the daughter’s class first. Either that or Mrs. Parent brought Mrs. Friend with her to be a witness.

I turned to Miss Daughter. I asked, “What grade are you in?”

“Sixth,” she replied.

I put the first question of the test on the board, handed her the chalk, and asked her to solve the problem. She did.

I turned to Mrs. Parent and said, “Now, your friend’s daughter solved that problem and she is only in the sixth grade. In addition, this is the beginning of the year, so they did not get to that material yet; which means she learned it in the fifth grade; and, your friend’s daughter did not know there was going to be a test tonight, so she did not have a chance to study. There is no excuse for your son getting that problem wrong.”

Mrs. Parent thanked me, took the test, folded it up, and they all left. Mrs. Friend and Miss Daughter went out the door, Mrs. Parent, under the woodwork.

I did not humiliate Mrs. Parent. Miss Daughter did not humiliate Mrs. Parent; the little Cherub did not humiliate his mother. Mrs. Parent humiliated herself when she came into my classroom and began the meeting with an empowerment and dignity festival to reassure me she was not blaming me, and proceeded to explain her son’s performance by fabricating a lack of ability to teach on my part.

I have often said, “It is the teacher’s job to teach; but that is all the teacher can do. Learning is the student’s responsibility.”

The following morning Little Cherub wanted to know what I had said to his mother. I started to tell him. He was not listening.

“My parents had me up till three o’clock in the morning. My parents were all over my case. My parents didn’t cut me no slack. (“Any slack”—he wasn’t listening.) My parents didn’t cut me no slack.”

Epilogue:

This student turned out to be, let us say, one of my top three students. The embarrassment his mother was subjected to (REMEMBER WHAT I HAD SAID ABOUT PEER PRESSURE? IT APPLIES TO PARENTS AS WELL.) was all Mrs. Parent needed to hold her son responsible for his grades. Moreover, he not only met the challenge, he exceeded it.

Regards,

Slim

PS. I am not Paul Harvey.  Still, I am open to becoming a paid blogger, columnist, or commentator.

In the meantime, if anyone finds the monographs on my blog to be especially helpful, please do not hesitate to send me on of those tricked out laptops and few dollars tucked into the envelope with the thank you note.

Sincerely  

Slim

Mail slimfairview@yahoo.com

Copyright (c) 2011 Slim Fairview

(On a personal note: If you have any doubts about raising children, contact John Rosemond, the professional http://rosemond.com He knows what he’s talking about.) www.rosemond.com

How many parents want their children to get the appearance of an education?

How many parents want their children to get the appearance of an education?


To follow up on a previous article, I am now a teacher. I teach 7th and 8th grade math. Children have math anxiety; pressure from their parents; and pressure they place on themselves. This, I found, was easy enough to deal with.

On the way home one Friday, I stopped in a stationery store. I bought a box of gold stars. Not those chump size stars, the big ones.

As I reviewed my students’ work, graded papers, and entered grades in my book, I looked for the best paper each student had submitted. I put a big gold star on the top, I wrote a very positive comment next to it in red ink.

On Monday, I handed out the papers. Some of the students went through them. One student said, “Hey, I got a gold star on my paper.” Another said, “How come I got a gold star on my paper?” Another said, “I got one too!”

I said, “Relax, everyone. Let me explain what I did.”

I explained to my class that I took the best paper each student submitted, put a gold star on top, and wrote something nice in red ink. Then I told them what I wanted them to do.

“I want you to take your papers home and say, ‘Look, I got a gold star on my paper.’ Now, what your parents are going to do, is look at the paper, tell you how proud they are of you, and maybe not get on your case so much. That way, when you come to class you won’t be so filled with math anxiety. You’ll be more relaxed and I will have an easier time teaching, and you will have an easier time learning.”

There was dead silence for less than a heartbeat. Then the class broke out in laughter. They got the joke.

Epilogue:

Tuesday, I asked my class how it went. They all had positive comments to share. I said, “Good. Now your parents won’t be getting on Sister’s case, Sister won’t be getting on my case, your parents won’t be getting on your case, and we can all relax, have a good time, enjoy math, and you’ll learn a lot more.

Regards,

Slim

PS. I am not Paul Harvey.  Still, I am open to becoming a paid blogger, columnist, or commentator.

In the meantime, if anyone finds the monographs on my blog to be especially helpful, please do not hesitate to send me on of those tricked out laptops and few dollars tucked into the envelope with the thank you note.

Sincerely  

Slim

Mail slimfairview@yahoo.com

Copyright (c) 2011 Slim Fairview