Month: March 2017

This probably isn’t going to go the direction you might think based on the title. I think the things that are creeping up on us—or bearing down on us at ramming speed—can often be far less of a threat than our tendencies to gloss over recent successes in our constant struggle to continue improving. Let me break it down a little.

I’m not saying we should ignore the things creeping up on us or bearing down on us at ramming speed. We should always be aware of threats, deadlines, or obligations that we must handle. As one of my coauthors so eloquently wrote, we simply can’t let the urgent overcome the important and many of these things often fall into the urgent category for a variety of reasons. Inability to distinguish between urgent and important can result in myopia, negative single-mindedness, distraction and wasted energy. As one of my favorite song lyrics goes: Breathe in, breathe out; breathe in, breathe out. You can always handle the challenges closing in on you if you keep a couple things in mind:

• Maintain your priorities even in the face of seemingly excessive pressure
• Don’t wait too long to ask for help. You are stronger with others and they are stronger when they help you.
• You’ve been successful before and you will be successful again.

That last point is where I want to take this post. Too often I’ve seen people and organizations allow the strength of the headwinds overcome the force of the tailwinds to create a negative force. Paradoxically, I think it’s one of the most negative, positive and impactful characteristics of Americans writ large. So many of us achieve successes that range from little steps of progress to significant, spectacular achievements that are marked with a smile, a nod, a pat on the back and then we turn our focus to the next task. I see this where I work ALL THE TIME. These folks take the term learning organization to the ultimate extreme where even when we’ve knocked out a massive transformation of our capabilities the majority of our folks move from “Great job” to enumeration of the things yet to be done. This inability to celebrate our successes can lead to a focus on the negative—the empty space on the checklist or things undone—that are cancerous for organizational morale. I’m not saying everyone should get a trophy or that we should create some sort of Bacchanalian bonanza to commemorate and memorialize our feats of daring do, but I am saying we ought to look in the mirror a little longer and remember that the success we achieved shouldn’t be forgotten so quickly.

I want to use today’s post to talk about some of the arguments you will hear from politicians, pundits, enemies and even friends.  Not that knowing the type of argument or logical fallacy will change a person’s mind making the argument.  At least you can identify the logical fallacy being used on you and subsequently reject the argument from the standpoint of reason.

Mark Twain supposedly said – probably not exactly as phrased here – , “never argue with an idiot, they will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience”.  A variation of the same saying is never wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty, the pig loves it, and onlookers won’t be able to tell the difference.

Five of the post common logical fallacies you will hear are:

Ad Hominem — Latin for “to the man,” attacking the arguer and not the argument.   Donald Trump is a 9^th level Sith Lord of the ad hominem attack. One simply has to read his tweets to watch the master of this fallacy in action.

Argument from Authority – this one was a favorite of President Obama and his supporters.  He once said, “we won, you lost, get over it” when negotiations broke down with Republicans over Obama Care.  This is the might makes right argument – and its just as wrong as the others.  The argument that a person is in charge and that he or she must know what they are doing is simply crazy.

Appeal to Ignorance — I really hate this one, it’s the claim that whatever has not been proved false must be true or vice versa. Carl Sagan summed it up by saying “(the) impatience with ambiguity can be criticized in the phrase: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”  Just because I can’t prove Elvis was not a time traveling alien who returned to planet Memphis doesn’t mean it’s not true. Ugh.

Non-Sequitur — Latin for “It doesn’t follow”.  My rich neighbor uses an iPhone – so if I use an iPhone then I’ll get rich. My neighbor has a vicious pit bull, therefore all pit bulls are vicious. These arguments drive me crazy.  A recent example a friend used was that a white man attacked an Indian couple in Kansas, so he must be a Christian extremist.  Non-sequitur.

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc — Latin for “It happened after, so it was caused by” This one is used often on both sides of the political spectrum.  For example: Hillary Clinton lost the election, Trump was friendly with the Russians, so the Russian’s must have made Hillary lose. My aides did stupid things, the democrats are happy they got caught, it must have been the democrats that made them do it.

There are other logical fallacies – but I picked the ones I’ve heard recently on the news . Arm yourselves with knowledge, and don’t wrestle with pigs.

“If you’ve got the truth you can demonstrate it. Talking doesn’t prove it.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

As I watch the news it occurs to me that the art of critical thinking is and has been neglected in today’s education. Carl Sagan wrote about what he called “The Fine Art of Baloney Detection” – he devoted a chapter to the subject – in his book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. I wanted to share Sagan’s observations with some added commentary to help the coming generation cope with the flood of questionable information they are assaulted with every day. There are 9 tools to add to your reasoning toolbox.

1. Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the “facts.” Nowadays we need to be careful with the word “facts.” I would suggest that a fact is a verifiable, undisputed observation, or law. A simple but meaningful example would be the definition of legal or illegal. To do something that is contrary to the established laws of a nation is illegal. It’s the most basic way to understand law. The attempt to rephrase whether an act is illegal in order to spare someone’s or some group’s feelings is foolish at best, and censorship at worst. One of my least favorite phrases is “it is what it is.” Fortunately or unfortunately, this phrase fits this idea. Facts are facts and we should not accept alternative facts that fit a narrative – regardless of political affiliation.

2. Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view. The keywords are “substantive debate,” not shouting matches, not violence, and not censorship. If you can’t logically defend your point of view, then you probably shouldn’t be debating. It’s like bringing a rock to a gun fight. Also, a person shouldn’t try to shut down debate because they cannot logically defend their point of view. As stated in previous posts, we have two ears and one mouth because we should listen twice as much as we talk.

3. Arguments from authority carry little weight – “authorities” have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future. Perhaps a better way to say it is that in science there are no authorities; at most, there are experts. Saying that most scientists agree on any subject is a great example of this indicator. Consensus does not make an argument. There was once consensus that the world was flat and that “bad or evil vapors” caused most illness.

4. Spin more than one hypothesis. If there’s something to be explained, think of all the different ways in which it could be explained. Then think of tests by which you might systematically disprove each of the alternatives. Don’t be a slave to your ideas or thoughts, and don’t be afraid to read or hear opinions that differ from you own. If you become uncomfortable with your own hypothesis after hearing another – that’s a sign that maybe your original one may need to be reexamined.

5. Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it’s yours. A hypothesis is simply a way station in the pursuit of knowledge. Ask yourself why you like the idea. Compare it fairly with the alternatives. See if you can find reasons for rejecting it. If you don’t, others will. This can be seen every day in the news with some of the crazy hypotheses that can be picked apart with very little effort – but won’t be because the person who presented it is a celebrity or an academic.

6. Quantify. If whatever it is you’re explaining has some measure, some numerical quantity attached to it, you’ll be much better able to
discriminate among competing hypotheses. What is vague and qualitative is open to many explanations. Of course, there are truths to be sought in the many qualitative issues we are obliged to confront, but finding them is more challenging.

7. If there’s a chain of argument, every link in the chain must work, including the premise – not just most of them.

8. Occam’s Razor. This convenient rule-of-thumb urges us when faced with two hypotheses that explain the data equally well to choose the simpler.

9. Always ask whether the hypothesis can be, at least in principle, falsified. Propositions that are untestable, unfalsifiable are not worth
much. Consider the grand idea that our Universe and everything in it is just an elementary particle – an electron, say – in a much bigger Cosmos. But if we can never acquire information from outside our Universe, is not the idea incapable of disproof? You must be able to check assertions out. Inveterate skeptics must be given the chance to follow your reasoning, duplicate your experiments, and see if they get the same result.

I’ve been asked a number of times about applications, web sites, and tools I recommend everyone to use, so I decided today would be a good day to address some of that.  I have added the links for those who are interested in more information and download options. Remember this is just a small subset, I’ll revisit this more later, and I encourage you to add your thoughts/recommendations in the comments.  So, without further ado, here we go.  Also, these are designed for laptop/desktop computing.  I’ll post my Android/iOS recommendations in a future post and am happy to take any questions you might have.  Trust me, almost nothing is ever truly irrecoverable.

Let’s start with one of my favorite new tools.  Have you ever installed a piece of software only to find that your search engine is now set to “goober.com” and your home page is now different?  Unchecky is the app for you.  It unchecks all of the opt-in screens when you install a piece of software and reports what it blocked for you.  This has been a huge timesaver in terms of not having to uninstall or change preferences.  You can find it at http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/unchecky_beta.html

Next up, I do a lot of remote tech support for friends and family.  The tool of choice?  TeamViewer.  You can find it here.  http://www.teamviewer.com   Don’t set it up to automatically load at startup, but definitely install it for those times when you need remote support.

I get a lot of questions about being anonymous online.  While there are a number of things that can be done to ensure this (to the extent that is possible), here are two web browsers I like for anonymous browsing online.  Anonymity has gotten a bad rap with people saying things like, “why worry, if you don’t have anything to hide?”  It is always a personal choice, but I prefer the libertarian approach of denying information about me by default and allowing information as I see fit.  Anyway, in that vein, I offer the following two browsers for normal use.

The TOR browser was developed from a DARPA project called The Onion Router (TOR), which was designed for anonymity.  While it is slow, it is one of the top ways to stay anonymous on the web.  Be sure to read the recommendations on how to minimize your online footprint, and, for those of you so inclined, be sure to check out their bootable USB TAILS to see how to be completely anonymous online.  Their anonymous browser is called the TOR browser bundle and it can be found at https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en.

My second favorite browser is the EPIC browser.  It does many of the same things the TOR browser does, but it is much faster as it does not go over TOR links (if you are interested, I can give you an in-depth tutorial on TOR, but that is WAY beyond what I want to do here).  EPIC can be downloaded at https://www.epicbrowser.com/

The next area is in mind mapping.  I think in terms of pictures instead of lists.  For me it is difficult to make a list because when I remember something that should come earlier I have to redo the entire thing.  Mind mapping is a visual way of representing concepts and ideas.  It has you put a concept in the center of a page and then put ideas as nodes off of it.  Sub-nodes are added to nodes and so on until the relationships start to become clear.  There are many, many tutorials on how to mindmap…I just know it works for me in both analyzing problems and defining the relationships between concepts.  In any case, the mind mapping tool I use most often is FreeMind, which can be found here.  http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

I highly recommend checking it out.

Next, I’d like to address online learning.  I am a huge advocate of continuing to learn throughout the entirety of your life.  There are many specialty courses I subscribe to online, but for general purposes, there are three I like (although, I am beginning to check out duolingo for language learning).  The three are centered around a number of universities that have put their courseware online, such as, MIT, Stanford, etc.  The three main sites I like are:

Khan Academy               https://www.khanacademy.org/
MIT Open Courseware https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
coursera                           https://www.coursera.org/

Finally, I have had many questions about what search engines I use.  While Google is the de facto standard in searching, I have a couple I like that don’t track you.  First is startpage at https://www.startpage.com/.  They anonymize google searches for you making them pretty good as both a start page and search engine.  Second is duckduckgo at https://duckduckgo.com/ which is also known for anonymous searching, although is not suitable for a start page.

So, that is some of the apps and sites I recommend for personal use.  There are a number of other interesting apps, such as virtual private networking apps, that I recommend and will bring up later, as well as mobile apps I like.  I hope these help and am happy to answer any questions or help out as needed.

“Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit…wisdom is not putting it in fruit salad.” -Miles Kington

I repeated this quote a number of times, because it so aptly demonstrates the fallacy of equating knowledge and intelligence with wisdom.  All too often I have run into people who are knowledgeable by the world’s standards, but lack wisdom, and an encounter with a group of colleagues this week made me dive into it a little deeper.  This group was made up of a wide array of individuals, some were graduates of some of the finest establishments of higher learning in our nation, some had decades of hands on experience, and some were just starting out in life trying to find their way.  It was interesting to watch the dynamics of the group as discussions went from topic to topic regarding crafting a strategy for our evolving mission.  There were, in each group, the stereotypical individual, the Ivy League know-it-all, dressed well, using words as a surgical tool to make very nuanced points allowing him the ability to be on both sides of the same issue at once, the raised himself up by his bootstraps, experienced veteran, who tended to be blunt, singleminded of purpose and self conscious about his lack of degrees from respected institutions, and the kid just out of college trying to figure out how to navigate such strong personalities.  More interestingly, however, there was one guy in the group, who I thought was a great example of Kingston’s quote…and no this is not autobiographical.

Gene is retired Air Force, born in Texas and got both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree at the University of Texas in Austin.  He went through an executive MBA program out of Duke and is a voracious reader of all types of literature.  He likes football, drinks beer, likes a good whisky, and enjoys watching auto racing.  He owns a pickup and a BMW, wears cowboy boots with his suits and has been known to debate on topics ranging from Aristotelian versus Socratic methods of learning to why Phineas and Ferb was better than Rocko’s Modern Life.  He also has a rule when approaching meetings such as the strategy one we were in.  Say nothing for the first 30 minutes and then start by asking the opinion of the quietest guy in the room.

Gene is a believer in the idea that we have two ears and one mouth because we should listen twice as much as we talk.  He also believes that too often good ideas and thoughts are not shared because people are afraid to challenge those who are louder or more outgoing.  As a result, he has made it his personal goal to get the “silent majority” to start talking and sharing in these types of events, and he does it masterfully, because Gene understands the differences between knowledge and wisdom.  Knowledge is what we learn.  It sticks in our head and is what our intelligence uses to speculate on and predict what will happen, what should be done, etc.  Wisdom, however, is based on our experiences.  It is rooted in our heart and helps us understand “what could be” and why.  Knowledge understands the logic in the argument, while wisdom understands the relationship between the logic and the person.   Knowledge crafts the answer, while wisdom crafts the approach.

Many places in the Bible, the authors talk of the gifts of wisdom and knowledge separately, but linked together.  Far too often we consider them to be equivalent and redundant, but the subtle distinction between them is critical to being well-rounded.  So, if knowledge can be gained by observing and learning as we proceed through life, how do we gain wisdom?  In James, we are told to ask for it, however, the longstanding joke is to be careful because, that means you’ll have to go through a lot of rough experiences to gain the wisdom you desire.  However, not all experiences have to be bad for you to gain wisdom.  In most cases, wisdom is in recognizing the danger before it becomes bad.  Anyway, my approach to gaining wisdom (and I do not yet consider myself to have attained it yet), is to first ask God for it and trust that he will give me wise insight as I approach situations.  Second, I seek the advice and points of view of people I trust, regardless of whether they agree with me or not.  Again, wisdom doesn’t seek to validate a position, it seeks to understand it in context.  Finally, I actively review past decisions, both good and bad, to seek what all I can glean from them.  The purpose being not to wallow nor bask in the successes or failures of yesterday, but to reflect on what can be learned from the experience.

In any case, you will build up both wisdom and knowledge as you progress through your life.  If you choose to actively seek it, you’ll be much, much better off, than if you learn it by letting things happen to you.  I leave you with this quote by Confucius.  “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”

Bath towels can be folded two main ways. You can start by folding them in half along the length or the width. Either way you start, the end result looks exactly the same. I use this analogy to explain one of the most challenging aspects of leading people.

We all have a certain way we like to do things or, as leaders, ways we want things to be done. Sometimes, it has to do with the process and sometimes it has to do with our preconceived notions. Even when we aren’t going to actually perform a task ourselves, we mentally establish a method of how we would do that task. That method includes the steps involved, but most challenging for leaders is the fact that we also preconceive a level of quality at which we know we can perform the task. These preconceptions automatically create an expectation leaders have about the task at hand. However, what truly matters is the outcome, not the process.  Remember the towels.

The transition from action officer (doer) to leader (tasker) is challenging for many folks. We move from being a highly lauded, subject matter expert on a specific skill or capability to the person who is supposed to set a strategic direction; build a high performing, smarter-than-you, complementary team, and enable the team to succeed for a higher purpose. This involves letting go of our approach, our preferences, our biases on how things should be done.  This is good, but very hard. Going back to a previous post, this requires great humility and confidence in perfect balance. Humility allows us to build a team that is smarter, better looking and more creative than us…the most interesting team alive! Confidence allows us to leverage our experience and knowledge built on years of successes and mistakes to prepare this team, equip them properly and cut them loose to achieve the objectives the leader establishes for the good of the organization/mission. When we focus on outcomes, not threats to our credibility or level of expertise, everyone wins. The outcome is important, the process—not so much. Remember the towels.

Of course, the leader still needs to maintain oversight. Different approaches can lead to superior results, but they also may require excessive resources (time, money or people) if not allowed to leverage the experience and wisdom of the leader. That doesn’t mean we need to stick our fingers in every little detail. Cut people loose; give them space to be creative and take initiative; but guide them when they’re going down paths you already tried and failed. Then let them fold lengthwise or widthwise—it doesn’t matter. Even if you have a preference.

Going with the low brain power input today for this post. I just got home from a six-day, three country trip to Europe and of course I spent the eight-hour flight watching four movies due to my inability to sleep on planes. I know, I know—first world problems so stop your whining. I actually used that same phrase not less than four times during my visits this week. It amazes me that we still have people who’s first response when asked how life in country X is suiting them and their family is to enumerate all the things that they don’t like. I’ve written before that no matter which country I visit, I always feel like kissing the ground when I land back in America because we live in the best country of the world. But that isn’t an excuse to let one’s focus be on the negatives while being paid very good money to experience other cultures and countries for a living. Let me now list the things that I should have heard about:

• London’s Leicester Square and the ability to see just about any musical or play on any day for $30
• English bacon: If you think American bacon should be in everything, you should try this stuff.

• London’s black cabs and public transport: Best in the world!
• The ability to get ANY ethnic food in it’s natural state within a couple tube stops in London
• Belgian chocolate
• Belgian beer
• The aesthetic beauty of any plate of Belgian food
• Belgian waffles
• European trains
• Walkplatzes
• Jagerschnitzel
• Brochen
• Schlosses every five miles on the Autobahn
• Walks along the Rhein
• Doner kebabs
• Butter (Belgian and German)
• German fruit spreads
• 600 year old buildings that you can eat in, drink in, worship in, etc
• European cars on the Autobahn
• Airfares between countries that are less than half of airfares between states
• Christmas markets and carnival festivals

Stopping by the gym on Tuesday reminded me that at the beginning of every year millions of people make promises to themselves, New Year’s resolutions, and break them fairly soon after.  I know why gyms offer incredible discounts in December and January – it’s easy money. People sign up, come for a couple of weeks, and never show up again.

The locker room at 2pm was more or less a ghost town – except the same guys I’ve noticed at the gym for the last 3 years. The difference between them and the people who couldn’t last a week is will and dedication. I’ve read in many books about the time it takes to create a habit – usually 30 days. Through personal experience I would generally agree with that number. It takes about a month for me to develop the habit – and usually another month for me to internalize the habit to the point where I feel a need to continue the habit.

An interesting book I read recently was The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg. He makes a compelling that we are the habits we cultivate.

To paraphrase one of my favorite quotes – too many people quit when they are on the edge of success. March always reminds me of the people who started the New Year with great hopes and aspirations – but fell back into their same old habits. It seems that they forgot why they started in the first place – they took their eyes off the prize.  March should be a month where you are satisfied with the progress you make in bettering yourself – not regretting quitting. So, if you are reading this – and find yourself sliding back into old habits – remember that it’s not too late to start again. Everyday take a minute to reflect on what your ultimate goal is – lose weight, pay off a bill, finish a class, or learn a new skill. Visualize yourself at the end of your journey and don’t quit.

“Age wrinkles the body; quitting wrinkles the soul.” – Douglas MacArthur

March reminds me of the play Julius Caesar by Shakespeare and the ominous warning in the play, “Beware the Ides of March!”  More on the Ides of March as it gets closer, but I wanted to talk about some of our friends who, by design or accident, tend to steal our happiness.

How many times have you asked someone about a trip or a movie and they told you how bad it was, or how they didn’t enjoy the experience?  Sometimes, my friends will even try to convince me that a movie I’ve seen is bad, or how a restaurant I like has bad service or poor quality food.  They then proceed to attempt to convince me why I should change my mind.  All the while I’m wondering, why they are so passionate at convincing me, or why they care if I like this movie or restaurant.  I believe that some people, even friends, just want to steal your happiness.  Not necessarily with malice, it’s just who they are.

Don’t let your friends, or anyone for that matter, bring you down – instead, bring them up.  Make that your daily goal. Don’t be surprised if you have some that refuse to be happy, and like crabs in a barrel, are only happy when they are dragging you down. On that note – much of what is now being labeled as “fake news” by both sides is simply one person’s point of view.  Make it your goal to read, watch, or listen to what a person has actually said or written before believing the spin.  Don’t let the press, right or left, steal your happiness either.  Be your own filter – and be happy.