German Capitalism and Don't Be An Idiot

Process Control

I may have taken a break during the holidays (hard to babysit a 3-year-old and work, too), but Terry Blevins got a post in on process characterization. A second one went up this morning.

Don't Be an Idiot

Julien Smith nails it--how to recognize an idiot. He concludes:

Look, here it is right here. Everyone needs to get better at the following phrase. Repeat it out loud with me now and use it 5 times today.

"I don’t know."
"I haven’t really informed myself."
"I wish I knew more about that."

You see how you’re not stupider, smarter, or anything after using that? You see how no one ridicules you? Get used to that phrase, people, because it’s true about almost everything.

We need to do ourselves, our peers, and everyone in our lives a favour and stop being proud of our own ignorance. Maybe read a book, even. Learn a thing or two before we open our mouths.

The world would be a better place.

Economics

From an article in the Asian Times, "Capitalism: Getting it right" by Martin Hutchinson.

"The German economic model works very well for a country with perpetually high labor costs. Education and training are of great importance, as are engineering skills - engineers have a much higher social position in German societies than in Anglo-American ones - while housing finance is given a low priority, since it is correctly regarded as unproductive.

"Finance plays little role in the system - it was notable during the 2008 debacle to what extent the German banks were helpless victims of Anglo-American shenanigans, with little creative role of their own. The typical successful German company is both smaller and longer-established than its US counterpart, with powerful shareholders who prevent management from engaging in self-dealing and mindless empire-building."

Maybe a focus for 2011, let's promote the value of engineering.

Wireless Benefits of Humor

This post sort of goes along with my last post, but I thought Greg McMillan should get his own post here. He is so right on. Wireless Benefits of Humor. If you don't have a sense of humor, what's the use of living? I'll tell you, when I was trying to wade through the muddied politics of wireless sensor networks in process automation barely avoiding all the arrows aimed at me, I really needed the sense of humor. Greg also talks about music. It is from the soul. I really miss my old regular "get the guitar out and sing" times. But streaming BB King or Lynard Skynard or something jazz or (especially Mozart when I write) from Pandora over my Sonos wireless speaker system greatly adds to my day. So read this post from Greg at Modeling and Control and work on that sense of humor ;-)

Automation News

River of Science News

There are many science blogs published by independent scientists and science reporters. Someone got the idea of aggregating them into one place. Then one of the "suits" of the aggregator got a bright idea for making a lot of money and "sold" a blog that they would feature to Pepsi. And Pepsi scientists could write whatever they wanted. I have not seen the site, but I see enough press releases--and I remember the outpouring of "science" from tobacco companies in the 80s that purported to say that tobacco smoke was not harmful. I've now seen releases from food companies, fast food purveyors and the like trying to downplay the role of sugar and saturated fat in the poor health of the people in this country hiding behind "science."

This action, by the way, is always a temptation for sales people in media. Let's just give advertisers a venue to write something that looks like journalism--make them happy and hopefully they'll buy more ads. The problem with this attitude is that it is very short term thinking. Once you lose credibility with readers, then those advertisers will leave anyway.

In the case of the science blog, Dave Winer has written the script and opml for a "river of science news" aggregator to solve that problem. You can try it here. Hope it works out. I already subscribe to some of the sites. I hope to discover additional sources of good information.

Set No Goals

I've been through the "self-help" gurus of the 80s and 90s. Set goals. Make them specific, measurable, detailed. I did that some. Then I noticed that some goals were always on the list, but I never worked on them. I found a book that I have since lost track of entitled something like Stop Setting Goals and Start Accomplishing Things. Over the years, I've redefined the goal process to something more akin to envisioning the type of person I want to be doing the types of things I enjoy doing.

Leo writing at Zen Habits tackles the "no goal" idea. Thoughtful reading.

Consistency

Catching up on some Gillmor Gang conversations this week, I listened to a rant from Michael Arrington (the guy who started TechCrunch, and who everyone in Silicon Valley seems to regard as a jerk). In almost one breath, he extolled being a Republican (which I take it to mean from the context believing that government should stay out of "my" business) and complaining about the US government being unable to stop the oil spill in the Gulf. What?? Just how many engineers skilled in deep water drilling and piping does the US government employ? I'm betting on a number asymptotic to zero. I'm still amazed by people who on the one hand want limited government, but on the other still expect it to solve all their problems.

Let's be consistent. If you want less government so that you don't have to pay so many taxes, then be prepared to give up something--maybe lots of things. I'm also tired of hearing people say that the budget could be fixed by taking away money from other people (not me). It won't work until either the economy grows rapidly or we all agree to take hits on stuff that benefits us. If you think that will happen, read The Federalist Papers--essays from the intellectual forebearers of our government. They didn't think it would happen. That's why they designed things the way they did.

This is similar to the people springing up all over the place to get bright ideas on how to fix the problem. I worked in product development for a number of years. Had lots of people come to me with bright ideas. I also see many as an editor of a technical journal. Most, if not all, of the bright ideas still need lots of engineering (and sometimes marketing). Ideas are good, but they're cheap. I respect people who do the work.

Social Media, Safety, Change, Jobs

The Siemens PLM social media team kept going long after the conclusion of their event. Here's one of the wrap-up blogs.

Have you noticed the changing sections at bookstores lately? Over the past 18 months or so, I've noticed that the once huge computer sections have shrunk dramatically. Also the business book sections. Lots of fiction. Lots of specialty books. The "philosophy" section is often devoted to Buddhism and Taoism. New Age is still pretty hot. So what happened to computing? No new programming languages to learn? Have we seen enough of the quick solution, light-weight business book?

Jim Cahill discusses the very timely issue of safety at Emerson Process Experts.

Speaking of safety, I've been interviewing for an article. A couple of conversations about risky behaviors. And on how a series of decisions that each one alone may appear to be only low to moderate risk add up over time to a major risk. (Think BP in the Gulf...) I think these exhibit patterns. I've seen it throughout my career. It's not so much the one decision, or even a series of decisions. It's the pattern and acceptable behavior of cutting small corners here and there. Unsafe workplaces, poor quality, poor manufacturing performance are among the results of such sloppy or duplicitous thinking.

Here's a presentation on inspiring kids pointed out by Garr Reynolds on the Presentation Zen blog.

The tyranny of the urgent. Heard that for the first time at the very first motivational management seminar I attended. Michael Hyatt discusses setting time aside specifically written in your calendar to actually work!

Robert Reich argues that "We Can't Rely on Foreign Consumers to Rescue American Jobs." The analysis is sound. You may not all agree on the prescriptions. But that's what makes politics interesting.

Leo Babauta discusses the elements of change in this Zen Habits post.


Training Manufacturing and Marketing

Automotive Startup

I'm not sure what to make of this news. Tesla Motors, the company making electric cars that just announced a glitch in supply of bodies for its roadster, just announced that former Toyota production engineering general manager Gilbert Passin will lead Tesla's vehicle manufacturing operations. Given the problems Toyota has had recently (downplayed in the press release), this is an interesting move. Passin has 23 years of international automotive manufacturing experience along with a few years of Toyota Production System indoctrination. Might be a step toward professionalism in Tesla's manufacturing. We can only hope.

Only five years ago, the thought of entrepreneurial startups in the automotive market would have been laughable. Now the leaders are all stumbling and perhaps there's an opportunity. For all you engineering and marketing readers -- take a hint and keep your eyes open.

Profibus training

Carl Henning has posted notes about 2010 training from the folks at Profibus in the US. He notes that Profibus training will change only slightly, but they've overhauled the Profinet training with a focus on implementation--that must mean it's moving toward a critical mass of adoption. From his Profiblog:

We’ve eliminated the distinction between discrete and process PROFIBUS classes.  The content was virtually identical anyway.  So this year the PROFIBUS classes explicitly include discrete and process automation.  The fact that PROFIBUS handles both types of application has always been one of PROFIBUS’ strengths.

PROFINET classes are getting some major changes.  Last year we focused on introducing attendees to PROFINET concepts and applications; this year we’re focusing on using PROFINET.  This year when students leave they’ll be ready for their first PROFINET project.  (Of course, we recommend the 4-day PROFINET Certified Network Engineer class for more depth.)

Take a look at the class schedule and plan to come to the class nearest you!

Better dinner conversations

For my occasional tip for living a better life, here are a list of suggestions from Michael Hyatt about having better dinner conversations. Visit the Website for details, but the short version is pay attention to others, ask open-ended questions, don't jump in with your own experiences (ouch!), listen.

Marketing

From Chris Brogan, Are You Following the Same Old Conventions?

A sampling:

Marketing. Old marketing would be: find buyers for my product. Hunt them down and relentlessly hit them with messages until they buy. The bigger the number of prospects, the better the yield.

New marketing. New marketing is more like: find people who make more sense. Start relationships with them before selling them. Learn more about them. Make the offer if it makes sense. The social in social marketing would suggest that you care a bit about humanity, not that you’re using new pipes for old shit.

And, finally, from Tara "Miss Rogue" Hunt's HorsePigCow blog, the gap between business values and human values. Thought provoking.