The Challenges of Testing
Today I turned my Adwords account back on. Testing business ideas is hard work. In the two years since the first time I read Tim Ferris’s Four Hour Workweek and took Tim Clark’s Entrepreneurship for Everyone course at Portland State, I have oscillated between business ideas – teaching dads to cook, military service academy admission [...]
Be the Only Stress-Free Analyst in Your Office
Ancient techniques for dealing with the stress of being an analytical person in an uncertain world. I hate my annual performance review. The worst part is when my boss finally tries to tippie-toe around his negative feedback for me. I fight to keep silent as he launches into how “things that could have turned better.” [...]
How you can become an expert
You learn more about what your boss thinks about you by disagreeing with him than you do during your performance review. Particularly revealing are disagreements when you and your manager both “analyze” a problem and come to opposing conclusions. Most damning is when your boss explains the disagreement as a difference in “points of view.” [...]
Be the Shane Battier of Analysts
Has the rise of super-star analysts led you to stretch too far? Are you trying to be Michael Jordan when you should be Shane Battier? Trying to emulate super star analysts creates problems by temping you to over extend your analysis. Freakonomics is an amazing book. I am sure my reaction to reading the book [...]
Keeping score between Google+ and Facebook
Most of the discussion about the competition between Google+ and Facebook revolves around their differences (Are Google+’s privacy features enough to establish a new social network?) and tactics (Is Facebook seeding the media with anti-Google stories?) For all the discussion about who win will, there is little discussion about how we will determine the winner. [...]
15-Minute Challenge – Who will win the American League East?
The Rules 15-Minute Challenges are quick exercises to improve your problem solving skills. I don’t design the problem with a specific solution in mind; I try to create problems that maybe solved with several different methods. Challenges are open book – I encourage quick web searches to find a missing number or fact. A link [...]
Reunions
My ten-year Naval Academy reunion is in October. The emails, LinkedIn requests, and Facebook updates have started to flood in. Hey Lord of the Fire (embarrassing story), Haven’t seen you since graduation. I’m heading up to the reunion in October. Are you going? Is it still dangerous to drink beer with you around coat hangers [...]
The Possession Diet
I made six cross-country moves during my ten years in the Navy. With each move, the stuff grew exponentially – including getting married and having a son. I left home for Annapolis with a single change of clothes that I knew would be thrown away. Before the last move from Charleston, South Carolina to Seattle [...]
Brookslander
I am obsessed with male models. My wife caught me watching male models on YouTube. She can tell how much I love how they describe their grooming regimen and product tips. I try to convince my wife I am still sane. Doing my best to sound sincere, I tell her, “It is not for me. [...]
Should you learn to sew in a sweat shop?
Are overseas contract apparel manufacturers (referred to from here on as sweat shops for simplicity sake) the best place to learn to sew garments? I am trying to figure how to hack sewing for men. I like the idea of sewing custom dress shirts, but I am turned off by prospect of spending hours learning [...]
