Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Thus spake the master programmer:

``When the program is being tested, it is too late to make design changes.''

I've been programming too much lately.

Or have I?

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Celebrities with Political Opinions

Celebrities with political opinions

Everyone is entitled to their opinion—this is the free world—and celebrities are no exception.  However, free speech aside, “the invisible hand” of free market economics does apply to everyday interactions.

Let me illustrate my point:  Donald Sutherland is saying things that I don’t agree with.  In fact, I’m certain that there are several people who are very, very peeved off at these sorts of remarks (instead of me being just peeved).  However, when people say these things we can choose not to listen or to avoid these people and the things that they do & say.  

It’s free market economics applied to personal interactions.  People have the right to say it, but you also have a right not to hear the stuff coming out of their mouths.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Phoenix

“A clever warrior is one who not only wins, but excels at winning with ease”
—Sun Tzu

Since I was 14 years old, I have been an owner in an operated three businesses; been a general manager for one; bagged groceries, baked pizzas, flipped burgers; for all practical purposes, ran a 26-soldier combat engineer detachment; been a part of a team that managed the personnel actions and records for more than 1,000 soldiers; been an office manager for a defense contractor; and been a concierge for a world-renowned resort. This doesn’t count the small lawn-mowing empire that I had while I was a kid, either.

However, the years of 2003 and 2004 were not my finest in the business world. I fell. I fell hard: Somewhat because of my own failings, somewhat because of the betrayal of those around me; somewhat because of various environmental factors. I was burned, but vowed someday to get back into the business world and once again run a company.

That time is now. Over the past several months I have been training myself in the art of programming in visual basic for applications. I have previously taught myself pretty much every other language of BASIC (since the fourth grade), have picked up smatterings of HTML and Flash over the years, and was formally trained in the basics of Ada while in my first two years of undergraduate school. A few friends/co-workers and I have determined that we will start developing a game. This is a departure from previous projects I have worked on, mostly research and development, but I feel it could very well be a profitable move.

And so, it is time for the phoenix to rise from the ashes. It is time to play the game again.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Real Life and the Movies


You ever watch TV, and then compare it against real life?  

I was watching a TV show tonight…in fact, it’s still playing in the background, and there was a heated argument.  Upon one person making a valid point, the other person broke down and told the truth about the situation.  This doesn’t happen in real life.

In real life, when I make a valid point to a person, they often don’t rationalize (or even attempt to do so); they instead get defensive or combative (one goes with the other in many cases) and throw logic or any other linear thinking out the window.

However, things can be very funny like the movies.  And the special effects are sometimes better, too.

Work Update

This week has been a cross between “business as usual” and testing the waters in an environment where it’s been determined “the big, big bosses” won’t back us up on matters where we are dealing with customers.  In fact, it’s like walking on eggshells, afraid that you will fall through at any moment.

My attitude on the phone, when taking an escalation, is not very process-oriented as it is goal-oriented.  My intent, and my behavior on calls in the past, is to find a resolution for an issue as quickly as possible while getting through the B.S. that the customer usually has to say…anything from how they hate the company…yadda yadda…to I am a bad person…yadda yadda…to, well, you get the picture.  I know better:  People like to vent, and giving them some time to vent is often a good thing to defuse a situation.  

Most of the time, however, the customer simply perceives that they have a problem.  The computer systems have automated most every routine transaction as to ensure that errors aren’t made as much as people think they are.  

Oh yeah, I had one guy tell me today that he thought we were trying to de-fraud him out of money.  This becomes funnier in the context that this is not the first time I’ve heard the argument.  However, let me assure you…there is no wrongdoing.

Regardless, most perceptions are not reality.  Most everything is remedied with proper customer education, and I attempt to do that.  People just have a problem with not wanting to hear what, well, they don’t want to hear.  They impress and project their own thoughts and feelings into a situation and no amount of rational thought or intelligent interaction will make them realize, think, or perceive otherwise.

Having a mind for theory in whichever endeavor I am in at the time, I began thinking on the topic of call handling earlier this week.  To my good friend and colleague Rick, I state something along the lines of:  “You know, back here we take 2 kinds of calls…advice calls from representatives and escalated calls from customers.  However, in both circumstances we are always doing the very same thing:  Offering resolutions.  So why don’t we change the paradigm of an escalated call and an advice call to being a paradigm of all ‘resolutions calls.’”

There is a stigma throughout my organization about my work.  We take escalated calls and draw upon obscure policy and workarounds (ahem, hocus pocus?) to make things work.  Escalated calls carry with them a certain aura that is impressed upon representatives in their first days in training.  Changing the paradigm from escalations to resolutions was such a big hit I got my supervisor to thinking about implementation.

And then there is the new application that we are working on…one to generate notes for a calls with a few clicks of a mouse.  We are close, but the included feature set increased by about a fourth this week on a whim of mine to make the program more of a policy guide than it originally was conceptualized as being.
I also learned of a new word that a colleague of mine devised this week:  Dodophobia:  The fear of stupid people.

I fear stupid people, but I need to talk to them most of the time.

Quote of the Day

You ask if I’ll grow to be a wise man, I ask if I’ll grow old; You ask me if I known love...I’ve seen love come, I’ve seen it shot down, I’ve seen it die in vain" - Bon Jovi, "Blaze of Glory"

Strategy, Part III

War is a struggle between two forces that can be formulated into discrete formulas until irrationality and human emotion enter the fray.  As such, the study of warfare can be broken down into a series of geometries that face off against each other, exerting force on one another.
Concentration:  This is a number more suited towards the density of forces on the battlefield and can be measured when the application of force is being planned against an enemy’s own concentration of forces.  From a metaphorical standpoint, where are your assets, and how are they arranged relative to those things that you must conquer prior to reaching your goal?  Concentration is the brother to Economy of force.
Economy of force:  You have an idea what the densities of your forces are, but each of your assets have economical values.  For instance, fuel trucks are more economical for logistics (fueling vehicles) than they are in mechanized combat.  In the corporate warfare sense, you need to make the same kind of assertions about what you can do, what you’re up against.  When you’re going for strategy over brute force, economy of force is a key factor in a success.
Maneuver:  In a strategy-over-brute-force battle, maneuver is the pal of force economy, which will save the day.  You may have everything else arranged correctly, but if you can’t utilize the assets properly in the heat of battle, you will lose.  Losing is bad.

Cooperation:  You have planned arrangement of assets to include density and economical considerations, and how they will move to contact their intended targets.  Now, you must ensure that all the elements of this system interact as they should.  They need to cooperate well with each other.

Security:  And, certainly, you cannot maintain initiative in any sense if your forces—your assets—aren’t protected.  This could mean anything from securing your intellectual advantage by not letting out trade secrets to making sure you or yours are not hurt.

Next, we will start to look at strategy through the eyes of the great strategic thinkers and begin to produce a grand picture of strategic thinking and winning the war.

Friday, September 23, 2005

Quote of the Day

"To subjugate the enemy's army without doing battle is the highest of excellence" - Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Pick Two

Almost Before We Spoke, We Swore

Yes…there are studies into people swearing.  I thought this might be an interesting piece to read, due to the profession that I am in…and even though it comes from the NYT.

The article discusses, over the course of 4 pages, a few things about bad language.  In no particular order:

  1. Cursing is universal

  2. Curses towards another individual are rarely random, rather they are calculated when attacking

  3. Swearing elicits a biological response from individuals

  4. Profanity can rid a person of stress and anger

  5. Swearing is often practiced as a coping mechanism

  6. If the person is too enraged for expletives, there is major cause for concern (Think:  “Going Postal” or “Going Schoolin’”)

  7. The difference of swear words across cultures is due to fears and fixations in that particular culture.

  8. When one person swears to another, it is a decision made and not an impulsive reflex in most cases.

Okay, so Contestant Number 1 calls in, escalates to me, and is upset about needing to fax appropriate documentation to resolve a missing payment issue.  They think that we should take their word for this or that we can otherwise perform the necessary searches to find the payment.  Our tools in this regard are limited, so they go off on a string of profanities, thinking that this will change my decision.  Is this just venting their frustration with the matter?

Let’s try Contestant Number 2.  Calling in, the customer wants an extension on making a payment on the account.  Oh yeah, I’ve been told I pretty much have to give them the moon on this one.  I guess Contestant Number 2 gets a prize.

Contestant Number 3 calls in, wanting to escalate over something stupid, say, such as collections calls.  Yes, people who owe balances on their account, and get calls about these balances will routinely ask to speak to supervisors.  Being kind and civil at first, they don’t get the answer that they like, so they attempt to elicit a different response from me by swearing a chain of profanities that would make male ranchers kicked between the legs by mad cattle proud.

So, I guess that people just generally don’t like me, so their trying to belittle me.

Yep.

I’ve made a determination with a lot of people.  They have a tendency of being:
  1. Stupid

  2. Lazy

  3. Irresponsible

Pick at least two.

Pick Two

Almost Before We Spoke, We Swore

Yes…there are studies into people swearing. I thought this might be an interesting piece to read, due to the profession that I am in…and even though it comes from the NYT.

The article discusses, over the course of 4 pages, a few things about bad language. In no particular order:

  1. Cursing is universal

  2. Curses towards another individual are rarely random, rather they are calculated when attacking

  3. Swearing elicits a biological response from individuals

  4. Profanity can rid a person of stress and anger

  5. Swearing is often practiced as a coping mechanism

  6. If the person is too enraged for expletives, there is major cause for concern (Think: “Going Postal” or “Going Schoolin’”)

  7. The difference of swear words across cultures is due to fears and fixations in that particular culture.

  8. When one person swears to another, it is a decision made and not an impulsive reflex in most cases.

Okay, so Contestant Number 1 calls in, escalates to me, and is upset about needing to fax appropriate documentation to resolve a missing payment issue. They think that we should take their word for this or that we can otherwise perform the necessary searches to find the payment. Our tools in this regard are limited, so they go off on a string of profanities, thinking that this will change my decision. Is this just venting their frustration with the matter?

Let’s try Contestant Number 2. Calling in, the customer wants an extension on making a payment on the account. Oh yeah, I’ve been told I pretty much have to give them the moon on this one. I guess Contestant Number 2 gets a prize.

Contestant Number 3 calls in, wanting to escalate over something stupid, say, such as collections calls. Yes, people who owe balances on their account, and get calls about these balances will routinely ask to speak to supervisors. Being kind and civil at first, they don’t get the answer that they like, so they attempt to elicit a different response from me by swearing a chain of profanities that would make male ranchers kicked between the legs by mad cattle proud.

So, I guess that people just generally don’t like me, so their trying to belittle me.

Yep.

I’ve made a determination with a lot of people. They have a tendency of being:
  1. Stupid

  2. Lazy

  3. Irresponsible

Pick at least two.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Strategy, Part II

The study of strategy originally, as discussed above, was the art of a general in the framing of a war; historically, in most societies (eastern and western civilizations), this fell upon the monarch or other ruler of the sovereignty.  This began to change in the early 1800s (the Napoleonic Era) when great military thinkers like Karl von Clauswitz and Antoine-Henri Jomini began to construct the way that modern thinkers work with strategy.   In about a century—from the times of Napoleon and his campaign to conquer Europe to Pershing’s execution of World War I—strategy shifted into two components:  National strategy (including posturing of national defense and the political elements) and operational strategy, practiced primarily at corps and division levels.

This great shift rose during a period when scholars of strategy began realizing that one of the change constants in strategy is technology:  Certain concepts of strategy may remain constant, however it must be adapted to the changing technology in the world.  Even though technology may play a part in warfare (with rifles or otherwise), Colonel John R. Boyd, American military strategist reminds:  “Machines don’t fight wars.  People do, and they use their minds.”

And so, over the years, each great strategist usually develops a number of principles in order to portray their beliefs on the subject to the rest of the world and to the rest of history.  These range from the almost-poetic discussion on strategy in warfare by Sun Tzu in The Art of War through U.S. Air Force Colonel John R. Boyd’s A Discourse on Winning and Losing.  One of the first things that an acute strategist is going to look at is the environment.  In the history of warfare this has equated to the terrain:  Take the high ground, don’t get caught on the low ground, etc.  In “everyday strategy” or corporate warfare, one needs to ascertain the environment that they are currently in.  Situational awareness is paramount for a leader, but useful for anybody; it is absolutely necessary to be able to see your life from the hilltop.  Be able to see the bigger picture.  But, perhaps, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Microsoft once ran an advertising campaign with the slogan “Where do you want to go today?”  You must ask yourself this.  What is your objective?  Okay, now that you’ve asked yourself this, let’s give it a litmus test:  Is the objective more complex than it should or needs to be?  It must be well-defined in order to be workable in the long run.  How, using the situational awareness that you should have developed as a leader by now, take a look at your environment.  You are going to be, throughout the course of achieving you goals, applying forces and other stimuli to your environment, the land around your current vantage point atop the hill.  How is your environment going to potentially react to the stimuli that you are going to introduce?  Do you need to re-think your objective at all yet?  Take into account chaos theory heavily:  If any errors are introduced into your courses of action throughout obtaining your objective, they will cause for much chaos later on.  This is why you must keep things as simple as possible: Introduce as few variables to the mix as possible.  This is, of course, you are comfortable with the complex systems that may result from more intricate plans.

Boldness.  Speed.  Simplicity.  These are the things that you are aiming for in developing an offense; this, and trying to develop an offense that does not require much of a defense:  The more that you defend ground, the more time is lost, and you may dig your own grave (metaphorically speaking, outside of the military context).  A good offense applies just the right amount of force to just the right places at just the right times.  If you have planned things exceptionally well, your offense can be quick, as to harness the element of surprise in attaining your objective.  Oftentimes, the quickest victory is the best because it is the least costly.  Always on the offense, if possible; and take heed of the geometries of your environment and make them work to your advantage.

Why surprise?  Again, surprise can make victories less costly for friendly assets and it often catches opponents off-guard, entrenched or otherwise.  In certain schools of thought (Sun Tzu, for example) provides that deception is a critical element in surprise; whether deception is used in the accomplishment of your objective or objectives, I will leave to you as may cross the boundaries of proper moral behaviors and is tied to an individual’s belief system.  I will say, however, that with or without the element of deception, using surprise as a tool for a successful operation can be achieved.

Tomorrow I will discuss the next topics:  Concentration and economy of forces.


Sunday, September 18, 2005

Interesting News Stories, At a Glance

Space Elevator Gets FAA Clearance

This is very cool:  In the future, instead of sending up a space shuttle for routine missions for low earth orbit, we can just get on the space elevator and set it to go to the top floor, leaving the space program having more resources for exploration and not getting the next satellite dish satellite into space.

Clinton Turns on President Bush

Ask again why I don’t like this man:  Because he has no sense of tradition and can’t keep his mouth shut about politics and…well.  If you can’t guess, I’m not too much of a Democrat.

Microsoft Turns 30

…And it needs to determine how it can still grow.  A good read on business strategy once you wade through the usual fluff.

Pornography:  The Next Cell Phone Revolution

You know all those annoying things that people do with cell phones?  Get ready for another one…








Strategy

Derived from the ancient Greek “strategos,” strategy was seen at the time as the art that is practiced by a general. As time passed, this discipline that works to pair tactics with the meeting of an objective through a number of different principles, developed into a field of “grand plans” in the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Whereas some texts will place strategy in a triumvirate with tactics and logistics, I feel that proper tactics and logistics are inclusive of a good strategy.

In my view, strategy formulation is the epitome of all great feats, as it perfectly pairs the science of any particular branch of study with the art form of creative resolutions and applications of specific tactics. The ability to harness the power of strategy empowers an individual—whether they are the lowliest “private on the battlefield” or a CEO in a boardroom—to control the fate of any given situation to their liking.

The formulation of strategy is going to be formulated greatly based on one’s continuing interactions with their environment: Observations, predispositions, traditions, cultures, and any number of other influences acting on the system that you are in. In this respect, a foundation of knowledge in the study of systems from science and mathematics is a strong ally. For instance, military strategy has been closely related to the field of game theory since it’s inception in the past decades: A field of applied mathematics which attempts to predict and control the outcome of serious interactions between intelligent parties.

Aside from environment, schools of thought regarding strategy seem to agree on a finite number of principles that make for a good strategy. These are, listed in no particular order, are:

  1. Objective

  2. Offense

  3. Simplicity

  4. Surprise

  5. Concentration

  6. Economy of force

  7. Maneuver

  8. Cooperation

  9. Security

  1. Objective: The objective is what a strategist must always keep in sight. Regardless of anything else, this is the entire reason for everything else. In extreme circumstances, the situation might even call for “the ends justifying the means,” in the words of Machiavelli. We’ll get to him later, though.
2. Offense: General George S. Patton was made famous, in part by his maxim that an
army is always on the offense—that is, to be on the attack and moving towards the
objective. This differs from the defense which is the prevention of one’s opponent
conquering land or other assets over you.

3. Simplicity: Another maxim from Patton’s playbook, the General liked to play by three
simple rules: Speed, simplicity, boldness. Simple plans are easier to execute throughout
the ranks, and even with one’s own self. The ability to achieve success in a given
situation may be directly proportional to the complexity of a plan—the simpler, the
better.

4. Surprise: The ability to catch an opponent off-guard, when they’re not looking, when
and where they least expect it…this is the element of surprise. Although the enemy may
have strong points and weak points, the element of surprise will add a positive coefficient
to the success potential of any offensive measure taken.

5. Concentration: This is linked strongly to economy of force, but differs enough to be
considered a separate measure in strategy formulation. Concentration of force,
generally speaking, is having the right forces in the right places. As (U.S.) Civil War
General Nathan Bedford Forrest once said, “get there the firstest with the
mostest.” This statement illustrates the importance of the previous two portions of
strategy formulation: Surprise and concentration.

6. Economy of force: When determining the full value of the forces to be utilized in an
operation, the strategist must realize that not all types of resources are created
equal: From a military standpoint, artillery and infantry—both combat arms
forces—have different effects, and therefore different values, on the battlefield. To this
same end, they are best utilized against different aspects of the opponent’s forces. The
value of a particular asset is one value at rest, and varying values in different situations.

7. Maneuver: As forces have different economic values based on situation, this factor is
also influenced by how they are maneuvered—utilized as an offensive or defensive
asset—against the opponent. Maneuvering takes terrain (actually or metaphorically)
and other environmental variables into great account in their formulation.

8. Cooperation: As assets are being maneuvered about the battlefield, the interactions that
they have with each other should be taken into account. As another military example
would indicate: If you have infantry in a firefight and in direct contact with an enemy,
you will not want to utilize a Multiple-Launched Rocket System (MLRS) that could have
devastating effects against the enemy—and the friendly infantry.

9. Security: Militarily termed “force protection,” this also includes intelligence &
counter-intelligence activities. Security aims to protect and maintain friendly
assets—forces and otherwise—as well as any competitive advantages that the
strategist has against their enemy.

Strategy is what wins a war. Wars are a series of battles which are won by tactics. Tactics are comprised of a series of drills. Drills are a discrete series of repetitive movements that can be mastered by an individual or a team thereof: This where tactics fall into the continuum of the individual fighting towards an objective.

Finally, then, one must look at the support functions necessary to win a war. I will break this down as the U.S. Army has for several years:

  1. Human resources and administration

  2. Security and intelligence

  3. Operations and training

  4. Logistics and maintenance

  5. Civil (and political) affairs

  6. Communications and information management

  7. Joint operations

  8. Resource management


Next I’ll start piecing everything together in order to formulate a successful strategy.

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Lingering Thoughts

I can’t help but linger on the current political climate of my workplace.  Amongst the escalated calls and exceptions that my colleagues and I make with customers, we are to be much, much, much more lenient:  The Company has decided that we should do pretty much whatever we can to keep a customer.

Mind you, I work in the receivables management department:  And, typically, many people who call this department aren’t exactly the happiest customers, let alone the occasional batch of kooks or dinks that we get calls from.  

As business textbooks will tell you, and my current supervisor’s intent, the job of a supervisor—even a quasi-supervisor such as myself—is to add value to an organization.  My supervisor most equated this to our ability to have customers who give us high ratings in industry-wide surveys and our company’s stock price.  Knowing full well that stock prices are an irrational element in economics, I have a couple conflicting thoughts about this.

Stock price can be tied to earnings or otherwise just how a particular group of investors are feeling on a given day.  This wonderful dynamic has been studied by many disciplines.  Regardless…if we are making as many exceptions as we have been ordered to make, isn’t that going to have a direct effect on profits?  This, in turn, will have an effect on the stock price when we report lower earnings.  Or will the cost of customers purchase enough good reputation to offset what it is costing us?  Will there be economic spillover that hasn’t been foreseen?

However, on the other side…history has been known to repeat itself.  This, I have been told, happened once upon a time, in a different incarnation of the business.  But maybe, just maybe, one should start counting their blessings and begin thinking about implementation of a “Plan B.”

Friday, September 16, 2005

Through the Fire

Today I walked through the fires of “Hell with Fluorescent Lighting” and came out on the other side. Let’s see how high that I bounce. I’ll get back to that.

For those of you who have been reading my blog for any amount of time know what I do for a living: I take advice calls from representatives and escalated calls from customers in the receivables management department of a major wireless carrier as a quasi-supervisor. In a normal week every person in one like mine will take good calls, bad calls, and, if you’re lucky enough, you’ll run into something that gets you into trouble.

I made a mistake in a judgment call I made on a call yesterday regarding transferring to another supervisor, possibly one with a clearer head for the situation than I apparently had. A customer escalated on a representative and, as the fates would have it, it got to me twice. A string of things that could have—should have—gone differently added up to ensure that the customer contacted the company back and the boss of my boss of my boss of my boss (boss x 4) received enough word of this that I was suspended today pending an investigation of the activities that took place. The management team, in proper stead, took my story and examined the notations made to the account. I was advised that I should type a letter to the investigating officials from the company dictating my side of the story and selling myself to them as being (still) a valuable asset.

Although I’m never too confident in anything, as I know how the universe sometimes unfolds, I knew that my supervisor, the managers over him, and my colleagues would stand up for my integrity as a professional and my value to the team. As things would have it, I came through the fire, knowing that I had made mistakes, still able to retain my badge and keep my job.

General George S. Patton, always one to be audacious, was quoted as saying “Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom." I’ve been standing inside the fire for about 6 or 7 months in my current position now, never on the outside looking in. I’ve been a change agent, a team forger, a task force leader. I have helped establish a new paradigm in my department, and if you think for a moment that I’m going to slow down…you’ve chosen the wrong answer.

So, how high should I bounce next?

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Yeah, I know. Another quote. I probably should be putting something more in tomorrow.

"Out of every 100 men, ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are just targets,
Nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle.
Ah, but the one, One is a warrior, and he will bring the others back." - Heraclitus

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

No regular blog entry tonight, however I will leave you with this quote:

"In critical and baffling situations, it is always best to return to first principle and simple action"
- Sir Winston S. Churchill

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

The Coming Corporacy: Part II

Originally formed in 1885, American Telephone & Telegraph—AT&T coins itself these days as the “world’s networking company.” In over 100 years of operation they have established themselves as a company that is highly aggressive in their practices to the point where the federal government decided that they were too large.

As early as 1949 the U.S. Government sued AT&T for monopolistic practices regarding their capitalization of technologies produced by the famous Bell Labs. Their attempt for AT&T to divest Western Electric caused AT&T to stay out of the business of selling computers, among other things.

Although AT&T was able to escape a larger divestiture at the time, the nails in their coffin were finally sealed after the U.S. Department of Justice finally won an antitrust lawsuit in 1982, after 8 years in the courts. This caused the affectionately-known “Ma Bell” to spawn 7 “Baby Bell” Regional Bell Operating Companies. Technically, the local exchange service operations of AT&T were divested with the agreement that AT&T could go into the computer business—a reversal of the earlier 1949 lawsuit.

The resulting companies, sans the parent company AT&T:

  • Ameritech
  • Bell Atlantic
  • BellSouth Telecommunications
  • NYNEX
  • Pacific Telesis Group
  • Southwestern Bell Corporation
  • US West

(Note: AT&T also had investments in two independent companies: Cincinnati Bell and Southern New England Bell, or SNET)

Remember the list of babies created by the breakup of Standard Oil from earlier? Let’s go through and see what the disposition of the Regional Bells have been since the divestiture:

  1. Ameritech: Acquired by Bell Atlantic in 1997.
  2. Bell Atlantic: Merged with GTE in 2000 to form Verizon which, in turn, is currently in negotiations to purchase MCI.
  3. BellSouth: No changes.
  4. NYNEX: Acquired by Bell Atlantic in 1997.
  5. Pacific Telesis Group: Acquired by SBC Communications.
  6. US West: Acquired by Denver-based Qwest.
  7. Southwestern Bell Corporation: Changing its name to SBC Communications in 1998, SBC acquired 3 of the Baby Bells and has announced plans to purchase their parent company AT&T.

AT&T, through the 1990’s and until 2001, made several investments into media and VoIP (voice over IP) technologies. Running into debt issues, AT&T spun off AT&T Wireless in 2001 as (at the time) the largest IPO in history. Renowned for it’s business accounts, AT&T Wireless was acquired by Cingular Wireless (owned 60-40 by SBC and BellSouth, respectively), causing Cingular Wireless to become the largest wireless company in the world with over 50 million customers.

The trend that I want to point out is that, with the exception of Cincinnati Bell, the companies formed by the forced breakup of AT&T are larger and more successful than their parent. Compared with 2004 revenues of $30.5 billion; SBC alone reported revenues $40.7 billion for the same time period.

Regardless of government regulation and interference, market forces have ultimately created a handful of behemoths.

In the next post I will briefly discuss a final case study and delve further into the corpocracy form of government.

Monday, September 12, 2005

The Coming Corpocracy: Part I

In the future the type of nation-state that most people can identify with today will no longer exist. It will, instead, be replaced with a form of government that has evolved from the previous tyrannies, monarchies, republics, and democracies. No longer will senators, presidents, prime ministers, or even the occasional monarch rule over the land. Instead, shareholders will elect board members who will, in turn, select top executives to run multinational vertically- and horizontally- integrated conglomerates. Maybe shareholders will even have a say in choosing these top executives. As distant as it may seem, this world isn’t very far away. To an extent, a skeleton form of the corpocracy exists today; however, this is only the beginnings of a brave new world.

The most overt act of this can be seen in a recent move by Wal-Mart to take over a 60-acre property in Inglewood, California, outside of San Diego. This is part of their ongoing strategy to open 40 grocery stores that would also have the traditional discount merchandise that the firm is known for. The Inglewood site would have consisted of a larger shopping experience for the consumer, being something of a mall a la Wal-Mart. In and of itself, this is a remarkable feat; however this is not what worries most people involved in the fray—neither is it what will necessarily bring the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company into the corpocratic status that will riddle the global landscape in the future. The fact that the word “sovereignty” has came up multiple times is what makes this different.

Reportedly, the space that the corporate giant was looking to establish it’s sovereignty on is the size of 14 football fields. I have lived in towns the size or smaller than this. It is a nice foothold: Today, sovereignty; tomorrow, establishing embassies in countries around the world. Even though Wal-Mart may be paving the road for the actual land-owning aspect of sovereignty, corporations have been exhibiting sovereign traits for a long time. Between the times of the Industrial Revolution and now, though, significant gains have been made by global firms to this end.

The the original “bad boy” of corporate monopolies: Standard Oil. Formed in 1870 by forming his business concerns into a single entity, John D. Rockefeller borrowed heavily in order to acquire 90 percent of the United States’ oil refining capacity. This move to become the largest monopoly that the world has ever known was a bolder organization than even AT&T or Microsoft. After becoming the wealthiest man in the world, the United States Congress, led by the Ohio senator John Sherman, passed the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890. This law, citing that any corporate front for a combination of firms or corporations who agree not to lower prices below a certain rate (“price fixing”) for the purpose of reducing competition and controlling prices throughout a business or an industry was illegal, was used two years later by the Ohio Attorney General in 1892 to win a lawsuit again the company.

Standard Oil had developed several core competencies that have been adapted to many a playbook for current corporations: Aggressive competitive practices by offering their product for less price because they could produce & supply more of it than smaller competitors (“economies of scale”), and taking control of various aspects of producing oil, such as distribution or marketing (“economies of scope”). They also developed strategies in which they negotiated with various stakeholders to get them better deals for their business.

In the end, the same court of public opinion that businesses today must succeed with sealed the fate of Standard Oil. The Supreme Court ordered their breakup in 1911 into 34 smaller companies. Among these companies:

  • Standard Oil of Ohio (now part of BP, “British Petroleum”)
  • Standard Oil of Indiana (now part of BP)
  • Standard Oil of New York (now part of ExxonMobil)
  • Standard Oil of New Jersey (now part of ExxonMobil)
  • Standard Oil of California (better known as Chevron)
  • Atlantic and Richfield – (now Sunoco and part of BP, respectively)
  • Standard Oil of Kentucky – (part of Chevron)
  • Continental Oil Company - (now part of ConocoPhillips)

Other Standard Oils:

  • Standard Oil of Iowa - pre 1911 - became Standard Oil of California
  • Standard Oil of Minnesota - pre 1911 - bought by Standard Oil of Indiana
  • Standard Oil of Illinois - pre 1911 - bought by Standard Oil of Indiana
  • Standard Oil of Kansas - refining only, eventually bought by Indiana Standard
  • Standard Oil of Missouri - pre 1911 - dissolved
  • Standard Oil of Nebraska - eventually bought by Indiana Standard
  • Standard Oil of Louisiana - always owned by Standard Oil of New Jersey (Esso)
  • Standard Oil of Brazil - always owned by Standard Oil of New Jersey (now Esso)

See a pattern above? Regardless of regulation by the government, in the end the effect is still the same.


Tomorrow we’ll look into a couple of other examples of this trend from an historical perspective.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

9-11-2001

I abstain on producing a blog entry today on this subject, as my good friend S.J. Christ has written a piece on this very subject that sums up my feelings on it this year very well.

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-CJf8Lc4zeqWQaStFd3SFw1Wmay036ds-?l=6&u=10&mx=10&lmt=5&p=5

Thoughts on Leadership…

This will be a continuing thing.

Leadership is a science and an art form: Any number of textbook concepts applied to the canvas of human interaction.

I have long held to the belief that the world is black and white, right or wrong. Binary: One condition or another. The “grays” in the world…the color and such…is added when human emotion comes into play. If people didn’t base decisions on such things as emotional valuations or other bias-related factors, the world would be a much simpler place.

There have been myriad disciplines established in order to attempt to explain such behaviors: Psychology, sociology, chaos theory, and game theory are just four that come to mind at this time. Psychology aims to predict, and thus control, behavior; sociology deals with the behavior of these people in groups; chaos theory, the growth of entropy in a system; and the interactions between intelligent agents—game theory.

Leadership, then, is the application of any number of these principles—and more—in order to meet organizational goals. In order to have leadership, you must have a team; in order to have a proper team, you must have leadership. Leadership isn’t the be-all, end-all to team accomplishment, but it is an important catalyst in the execution of such.

What are the qualities of a (good) leader? Literature will vary on this topic, but generally most schools of thought will point out (This list is not all-inclusive):

  • Vision
  • Values
  • Willing to accept a challenge
  • Drive
  • Knowledge: A good mix of practical and “text book”
  • Risk-taking
  • Attention to detail
  • Willingness to take responsibility
  • An ability to complete things properly (read: Good staff work)
  • Mental toughness
  • Awareness of their surroundings, and at least a minimum-level of self-awareness
  • Partnering abilities
  • Administrative skills: The necessary reporting functions of any leadership position to include paperwork and management of people and logistics

Things that P*ss Me Off

You want to know some things that piss me off? Read on, there might be some humor involved…

Like…with the latest al Qaeda warning: "Yesterday, London and Madrid. Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne, Allah willing. And this time, don't count on us demonstrating restraint or compassion.” The tape was done by former Los Angeles-area teenager Adam Gadahn. How does this piss me off? “Only a few years ago, Adam Gadahn was a southern California teenager with interests in the environment and heavy metal music.”

Yep. You read it right. Youth gone so wild, they need to be smacked.

How about this one: The kids (or even “young adults” in their early- and mid-20s). with the cars that are dented, busted up or otherwise a P.O.S. that either has 1) No muffler or an otherwise modified muffler to make it the loudest P.O.S. on your block, 2) A stereo system with speakers or an amplifier worth more than the car, or 3) Nice, shiny rims that are supposed to make the entire thing better.

Or…the respect and common sense people have with cell phones: While walking, riding bike, running, or driving. These are wrong. If you are in a restaurant, store, or any other place with any significant number of people…this is wrong.

Maybe cell phones are an excuse for people to not have what little respect for others that most people once had.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

News Story of Interest: Pre-emptive Strike

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/10/AR2005091001053...

Thought this might be interesting for those of you who care. Current doctrine pending approval by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld dictates that the pre-emptive nuclear strike option is now open.

Entry for September 10, 2005

Did you know…that even when people are being recorded…and they know it…they will still continue to swear profusely if you’re not doing what they want?

Also, where does a person get off calling someone “f-ing white trash” when you see that they have two unpaid accounts work in excess of $400 each?

I head the c-word today for the first time with a British accent used.

I was also called a variety of other names for other parts of the female genitalia. To round off the list, a couple co-workers called me a boob.

Bless them. It’s the only thing that brings me through a day on days like this.

Friday, September 09, 2005

Give "The Finger" to Frivolous Lawsuits

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/09/D8CGV9L8A.html

Remember the Nevada woman that sued fast food restaurant Wendy’s because she found a finger in their chili?

Yeah. She recently pleaded guilty in that case.

We’ve all heard of frivolous lawsuits that have become more prevalent as of late, but this one seemed extraordinarily ridiculous to me. Maybe it’s the amount of people that I have spoken to on a daily basis that says that they are going to complain to [insert government agency here] or the better business bureau or their attorney that seem to do so, most of the time, frivolously so.

Okay, I’m using that word too much. And, let me go back a bit.

People speak to the receivables management department to pay—or try to get out of paying—their bills. Sure, there is that group of people that are honest and probably very decent; however there is also the group of people that give most other people a bad name.

“Well, at least my bill gets paid on time.”

Want to know a secret? I don’t care. This is still a material breach of your contract. Insinuating that you somehow have a right otherwise is ludicrous. Do these people really think they have a leg to stand on when they go complain to their attorney or the government about thinking it’s unfair that we suspend or cancel their service because they haven’t brought their account balance current for 60, 90, or more days? Heck, if I were the presiding authority over half of these peoples’ concerns, I would just laugh and cite two words:

Personal responsibility.

So, yes, viewed through my job the world looks like it’s going to heck in a hand basket: The kinds of people that try to pull their shenanigans on me and my colleagues are the kinds of people that try to sue everyone and anyone that they get their hands on.

People that pull these things…need to be smacked with a newspaper: A big one.

Give "The Finger" to Frivolous Lawsuits

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/09/D8CGV9L8A.html

Remember the Nevada woman that sued fast food restaurant Wendy’s because she found a finger in their chili?

Yeah. She recently pleaded guilty in that case.

We’ve all heard of frivolous lawsuits that have become more prevalent as of late, but this one seemed extraordinarily ridiculous to me. Maybe it’s the amount of people that I have spoken to on a daily basis that says that they are going to complain to [insert government agency here] or the better business bureau or their attorney that seem to do so, most of the time, frivolously so.

Okay, I’m using that word too much. And, let me go back a bit.

People speak to the receivables management department to pay—or try to get out of paying—their bills. Sure, there is that group of people that are honest and probably very decent; however there is also the group of people that give most other people a bad name.

“Well, at least my bill gets paid on time.”

Want to know a secret? I don’t care. This is still a material breach of your contract. Insinuating that you somehow have a right otherwise is ludicrous. Do these people really think they have a leg to stand on when they go complain to their attorney or the government about thinking it’s unfair that we suspend or cancel their service because they haven’t brought their account balance current for 60, 90, or more days? Heck, if I were the presiding authority over half of these peoples’ concerns, I would just laugh and cite two words:

Personal responsibility.

So, yes, viewed through my job the world looks like it’s going to heck in a hand basket: The kinds of people that try to pull their shenanigans on me and my colleagues are the kinds of people that try to sue everyone and anyone that they get their hands on.

People that pull these things…need to be smacked with a newspaper: A big one.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Entry for September 08, 2005

In the course of my days some are extraordinarily great, some are extraordinarily bad, while some are just extraordinary. However, on occasion, my days are normal. What does a normal day consist of, however? Let me enlighten you into my wonderful world.


Typically my work shift runs from about 11:30 am to 8:30 pm. However, I typically arrive around 11:15 am and do not leave until 9 pm. Throughout my day I will typically field an average of about 30 calls—either advice calls on any number of issues from representatives or escalated calls from customers in hopes of resolving an issue that the customer has regarding any number of issues regarding payment of their account. Between calls I typically am working on two to five projects by my own initiative or assigned by my immediate supervisor. My colleagues and I are also asked for advice or account analysis by any member of the supervisory or management teams. I am consistently relied upon by all levels of the organization to provide timely and accurate advice and guidance on any number of subjects drawing on any number of disciplines.


Examples of projects that I have initiated are front-end/GUI, some back-end work, and algorithm development for any number of “trackers:” applications that quantify various metrics of job performance throughout a representative’s work day. So far our trackers have been made to measure and allow the user to evaluate agent performance metrics at both the agent and supervisor/team lead levels; also, to monitor compliance—how closely a representative adheres to their schedule (agents not adhering to their schedules is one of the biggest losses of income for a call center, if not the biggest) and generate account notations.


I say “we” and “our” because these are, by no means, individual efforts. It just takes one to be able to pull a group of people together towards a common purpose. The real way many of these things started is my primary partner in these creations getting an idea from someone and creating a proof-of-concept for that idea or developing the idea more. Between us we develop the back-end and the front-end of the code, test the alpha version amongst ourselves, work out the kinks, and send the beta version out to a team of dedicated beta testers. Over the course of our pre-established beta run any glitches are remedied, user feedback is used to add requested features to the applications, and we finally go gold.


Aside from this I am responsible for site-level and team-level reports for collections metrics for one line of business at the site, encompassing nearly 200 actively collecting agents on a weekly basis. I have also been on teams reporting on attrition and retention opportunities, sent to other call centers to teach receivables management and system use, and developing a more user-friendly database produced from the larger knowledge base that not only encompasses departmental methods and procedures, but also attempts to limit the number of transfers to another department by increasing representative’s capabilities of assisting with customer care-style issues. With this I have been able to gain the assistance of 4 additional people. I would not be able to accomplish this project on time without their critical assistance and input.

Recently, my team underwent a transformation: Many interim positions were eliminated and made permanent, with some permanent positions added. Some people in the "old guard" were replaced, some stayed, and the general feel and mix of personalities changed to create, essentially, a "new guard." WIth this new guard, there are less than a handful of people that, it seems, have been setting the standards for the rest of the team. My good friends S.J. and Cliff are two of them. I didn't realize that I was one until today when another good friend of mine, Joy confided in me that she felt that she should offer to take on maintenance of the primary application that we use in Resolutions to keep track of the calls that we take. When she, mostly in jest, scolded me for this after I implied that it might be my fault, it hit me. I had been an impetus for the standards of this new guard.

This work often encompasses much of my break time and also ensures that my lunches typically aren’t full ones.

Don’t think, however, for a moment that I am complaining. I love every minute of it. Why? This is what I’ve prepared myself for several years and my theory that my application of them in an actual cube land-style workplace is getting me far. One day while I was trying to find business insurance for the CEO of the company I was working for at the time, the lady I was speaking with said that she was extremely impressed with my business acumen and stated that I should “give [myself] a chance and try to get a job in a bigger city.” They say that the harder you work, the luckier you get.

I don’t care who you are, all it takes is adherence to a finite number of principles and you, too, can get far in the workplace.


So, I guess that my job isn’t too ordinary. Maybe it’s not a function of the job that can make things ordinary or extraordinary; but a function of the person in that job.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

"I've seen a rich man beg
I've seen a good man sin
I've seen a tough man cry
I've seen a loser win
And a sad man grin
I heard an honest man lie
I've seen the good side of bad
And the downside of up
And everything between
I licked the silver spoon
Drank from the golden cup"
-Everlast "What It's Like"

For generations, it has been told by the wise ones in our society that it is difficult to tell the true character of a person on an everyday basis: It takes special circumstances, when things come down to the bottom of it all...crisis and the like...to actually tell the character of a person.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the true nature of portions of our society have been made known to the entire world. In an instant it is turned political and blamed on the sitting president by liberals while National Guard and other first responders (police, firefighters, and paramedical personnel) rush to protect and serve, as their oaths to uphold and defend the basic tenets of society dictate. Masses are housed in the largest structures that the area has to offer and then transported by bus to Houston, TX while others fight to stay in the homes that they have spent years making for themselves.

I have always had a fixation on the endtimes--a field of study called eschatology. What will the last days of mankind be like? I have always been intrigued by the epic events that pepper the timeline of mankind, with this single chain of events being the epitome of them all. As a student of human behavior, however, I have always wondered how people would deal with these turbulent times.

The events following Hurricane Katrina offer us a benchmark for what to expect of human behavior in epic times in history. I want to take this opportunity to highlight some of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The federal rescue effort statistics as of 6 September 2005 per FEMA:

Rescues performed 32,000
Shelters 559
People housed in shelters 182,000
FEMA responders 7,000
U.S. Coast Guard personnel 4,000
National Guard personnel 43,000
Active Duty Military 15,000
MREs provided (meals) 11.3 million
Water provided (liters) 18 million
These numbers are spectacular. Other numbers I have come across in the past few days have been, for example, the number of volunteers that Houston-area churches were able to recruit in train in just a few dozen hours: 31,000.

We have all heard the reports of assaults on the police, firefighters, and soldiers, sailors, and airmen assisting in the relief efforts. This simply is ridiculous. What goes through a person's head when something like this has happened? Is it a free ticket to completely be ridiculous in one's actions? Or, maybe, this is how they act on an everday basis? I can understand looting for the basis of survival, but not anything more. There have been stories going around about "tribes" forming of people across various divides--economic, cultural, and racial--in order to better survive. There have also been stories about gangs emerging and wanton violence.

British news outlet The Online Sun published a story online recently at http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005410428,00.html called "Orphans of the Storm" highlighting those children that have been orphaned--by one means or another--by the natural disaster. The most chilling line in the entire piece, in my opinion is the one that reads: "Rescuers are haunted by the realisation that hundreds of survivors may never be reunited with their loved ones. Older children may even be faced with the worst task of all — identifying the bodies of their parents."
Truly, this event in our history can be used to benchmark several things about human society. Among the short list:

o Human behavior in epic times of trial
o Proof of development of different economic systems in an economic breakdown (the theory goes that barter is among the most basic of economic systems and currency, fiat or otherwise, is an indication of a more advanced economic system)
o Methods of better responding to disaster threats at the regional, state, and local levels.

I put the lyrics in the beginning of this entry in due to pieces done by two very good friends of mine who spoke of the relief effort in terms of their experiences as first responders--a police officer and a firefighter (both soldiers, also) and the experience of people standing on the outside of the fire looking in. You cannot understand what these fine people go through unless you walk a mile in their shoes.

So, in conclusion, probably the only redeeming factor of the chaos in the Katrina debacle is the basic human element of kindness towards his or her fellow person.

To those who have given of themselves to help this area get back up on it's feet: My hat goes off to you and I thank you with every bit of my person. To those people who are a part of the problem: Go away now. No one wants you here.

I've seen a rich man beg
I've seen a good man sin
I've seen a tough man cry
I've seen a loser win
And a sad man grin
I heard an honest man lie
I've seen the good side of bad
And the downside of up
And everything between
I licked the silver spoon
Drank from the golden cup
-Everlast "What It's Like"

For generations, it has been told by the wise ones in our society that it is difficult to tell the true character of a person on an everyday basis: It takes special circumstances, when things come down to the bottom of it all...crisis and the like...to actually tell the character of a person.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the true nature of portions of our society have been made known to the entire world. In an instant it is turned political and blamed on the sitting president by liberals while National Guard and other first responders (police, firefighters, and paramedical personnel) rush to protect and serve, as their oaths to uphold and defend the basic tenets of society dictate. Masses are housed in the largest structures that the area has to offer and then transported by bus to Houston, TX while others fight to stay in the homes that they have spent years making for themselves.

I have always had a fixation on the endtimes--a field of study called eschatology. What will the last days of mankind be like? I have always been intrigued by the epic events that pepper the timeline of mankind, with this single chain of events being the epitome of them all. As a student of human behavior, however, I have always wondered how people would deal with these turbulent times.

The events following Hurricane Katrina offer us a benchmark for what to expect of human behavior in epic times in history. I want to take this opportunity to highlight some of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The federal rescue effort statistics as of 6 September 2005 per FEMA:

Rescues performed 32,000
Shelters 559
People housed in shelters 182,000
FEMA responders 7,000
U.S. Coast Guard personnel 4,000
National Guard personnel 43,000
Active Duty Military 15,000
MREs provided (meals) 11.3 million
Water provided (liters) 18 million

These numbers are spectacular. Other numbers I have come across in the past few days have been, for example, the number of volunteers that Houston-area churches were able to recruit in train in just a few dozen hours: 31,000.

We have all heard the reports of assaults on the police, firefighters, and soldiers, sailors, and airmen assisting in the relief efforts. This simply is ridiculous. What goes through a person's head when something like this has happened? Is it a free ticket to completely be ridiculous in one's actions? Or, maybe, this is how they act on an everday basis? I can understand looting for the basis of survival, but not anything more. There have been stories going around about "tribes" forming of people across various divides--economic, cultural, and racial--in order to better survive. There have also been stories about gangs emerging and wanton violence.

British news outlet The Online Sun published a story online recently at http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005410428,00.html called "Orphans of the Storm" highlighting those children that have been orphaned--by one means or another--by the natural disaster. The most chilling line in the entire piece, in my opinion is the one that reads: "
Rescuers are haunted by the realisation that hundreds of survivors may never be reunited with their loved ones. Older children may even be faced with the worst task of all — identifying the bodies of their parents."
Truly, this event in our history can be used to benchmark several things about human society. Among the short list:

o Human behavior in epic times of trial
o Proof of development of different economic systems in an economic breakdown (the theory goes that barter is among the most basic of economic systems and currency, fiat or otherwise, is an indication of a more advanced economic system)
o Methods of better responding to disaster threats at the regional, state, and local levels.

I put the lyrics in the beginning of this entry in due to pieces done by two very good friends of mine who spoke of the relief effort in terms of their experiences as first responders--a police officer and a firefighter (both soldiers, also) and the experience of people standing on the outside of the fire looking in. You cannot understand what these fine people go through unless you walk a mile in their shoes.

So, in conclusion, probably the only redeeming factor of the chaos in the Katrina debacle is the basic human element of kindness towards his or her fellow person.

To those who have given of themselves to help this area get back up on it's feet: My hat goes off to you and I thank you with every bit of my person. To those people who are a part of the problem: Go away now. No one wants you here.

Entry for September 07, 2005

"I've seen a rich man beg
I've seen a good man sin
I've seen a tough man cry
I've seen a loser win
And a sad man grin
I heard an honest man lie
I've seen the good side of bad
And the downside of up
And everything between
I licked the silver spoon
Drank from the golden cup"
-Everlast "What It's Like"

For generations, it has been told by the wise ones in our society that it is difficult to tell the true character of a person on an everyday basis: It takes special circumstances, when things come down to the bottom of it all...crisis and the like...to actually tell the character of a person.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the true nature of portions of our society have been made known to the entire world. In an instant it is turned political and blamed on the sitting president by liberals while National Guard and other first responders (police, firefighters, and paramedical personnel) rush to protect and serve, as their oaths to uphold and defend the basic tenets of society dictate. Masses are housed in the largest structures that the area has to offer and then transported by bus to Houston, TX while others fight to stay in the homes that they have spent years making for themselves.

I have always had a fixation on the endtimes--a field of study called eschatology. What will the last days of mankind be like? I have always been intrigued by the epic events that pepper the timeline of mankind, with this single chain of events being the epitome of them all. As a student of human behavior, however, I have always wondered how people would deal with these turbulent times.

The events following Hurricane Katrina offer us a benchmark for what to expect of human behavior in epic times in history. I want to take this opportunity to highlight some of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The federal rescue effort statistics as of 6 September 2005 per FEMA:

Rescues performed 32,000
Shelters 559
People housed in shelters 182,000
FEMA responders 7,000
U.S. Coast Guard personnel 4,000
National Guard personnel 43,000
Active Duty Military 15,000
MREs provided (meals) 11.3 million
Water provided (liters) 18 million

These numbers are spectacular. Other numbers I have come across in the past few days have been, for example, the number of volunteers that Houston-area churches were able to recruit in train in just a few dozen hours: 31,000.

We have all heard the reports of assaults on the police, firefighters, and soldiers, sailors, and airmen assisting in the relief efforts. This simply is ridiculous. What goes through a person's head when something like this has happened? Is it a free ticket to completely be ridiculous in one's actions? Or, maybe, this is how they act on an everday basis? I can understand looting for the basis of survival, but not anything more. There have been stories going around about "tribes" forming of people across various divides--economic, cultural, and racial--in order to better survive. There have also been stories about gangs emerging and wanton violence.

British news outlet The Online Sun published a story online recently at http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005410428,00.html called "Orphans of the Storm" highlighting those children that have been orphaned--by one means or another--by the natural disaster. The most chilling line in the entire piece, in my opinion is the one that reads: "
Rescuers are haunted by the realisation that hundreds of survivors may never be reunited with their loved ones. Older children may even be faced with the worst task of all — identifying the bodies of their parents."
Truly, this event in our history can be used to benchmark several things about human society. Among the short list:

o Human behavior in epic times of trial
o Proof of development of different economic systems in an economic breakdown (the theory goes that barter is among the most basic of economic systems and currency, fiat or otherwise, is an indication of a more advanced economic system)
o Methods of better responding to disaster threats at the regional, state, and local levels.

I put the lyrics in the beginning of this entry in due to pieces done by two very good friends of mine who spoke of the relief effort in terms of their experiences as first responders--a police officer and a firefighter (both soldiers, also) and the experience of people standing on the outside of the fire looking in. You cannot understand what these fine people go through unless you walk a mile in their shoes.

So, in conclusion, probably the only redeeming factor of the chaos in the Katrina debacle is the basic human element of kindness towards his or her fellow person.

To those who have given of themselves to help this area get back up on it's feet: My hat goes off to you and I thank you with every bit of my person. To those people who are a part of the problem: Go away now. No one wants you here.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Confirmation Bias

"Confirmation bias refers to a type of selective thinking whereby one tends to notice and to look for what confirms one's beliefs, and to ignore, not look for, or undervalue the relevance of what contradicts one's beliefs...A tendency to do this over time unjustifiably strengthens one's belief in the relationship between [a cause and an effect]."


No matter how smart some people are, they sometimes make the dumbest judgements. Why is this? It is a concept called confirmation bias. Due to genetic predisposition, educational background, parental influence, or general life experience people will tend to make decisions skewed towards the irrational even when faced with a straightforward table of "pro's" and "con's."

Take, for instance, at work today. My "Call of the Day" was a customer that had called in after their respective customer care department had closed. He wanted to dispute his bill, which (in most circumstances) can only be done through this department: Not the receivables management department, to which I belong.

He comes on the line and I introduce myself as I always do with my name, position, and department and a statement indicating why I understand they wanted to speak with me.

Of course, the customer needs to go into their issue, what they feel is background, for a while. He finally gets to the point after some minutes of speaking. I indicate to him that the previous representative was correct, and that he needed to speak with the customer care department, however they were closed at this time.

The customer, obviously not caring for that answer, asked the question again, phrased a different way.

"Sir, I cannot connect you with that department."

A third time he asked, again in a different way. This time he threw in there something about him recording the conversation, perhaps thinking that I was giving him wrong information.

"Sir, for the third time, I cannot directly connect you with our customer care department."

The definition of insanity is doing something over and over again, expecting different results. At this point the customer became very sarcastic (you know, more than he already was) and downright rude.

I advised him that I did not care for him being rude, reminding him to keep the conversation on a professional tone. I then asked if there were anything else I could address.

The call ended shortly thereafter. However, this is a common ocurrence in my business. I just think that...some of these people...at which point in time does their medula oblongata (brain stem, which controls basic bodily functions) say that the intelligence quotient is so low that it just stops working?

Come on, this tactic isn't even intelligent. It's the same kind of thing that 8 year-olds use when they are trying to get their ways. Surely, a lot of these people aren't having the same mental capacity as 8 year-olds.

Are they?

This is what leads me to confirmation bias. For some reason, due to some event that shaped this person's life during their past up to this point in time, they believe that a certain course of action will provoke different responses in a situation, especially after repeated attempts.

...Or do they need to be reminded with the smack to the head with the big newspaper and following with the stern "No!"


Monday, September 05, 2005

Us vs. Them: The Promotion Fight

You go to work on a daily basis, sometimes even take it home with you in the form of thoughts or actual work, and you feel like you're just spinning your wheels and not getting anywhere in your organization. You give 110% and you are consistently among the best at what you do, but it is all to no avail.

We have all faced this problem in our workplace...and now we can view this problem through the perspective of a new survey done which, among others, is being reported at (one of my favorite sites) Slashdot.org.

American workers were polled and several revelations were among the findings:

o The average worker openly admits to wasting 2.09 hours daily outside of lunch and scheduled breaks (adding up to a total of $759 billion annually)

...on a side note: Remember the scene from Office Space where the main character is meeting with "The Bob's"?

o From the article: [O]ne of the reasons people gave for wasting time is they feel that they're not being paid appropriately for the work they're doing. And so it is sort of quid pro quo, in that an individual employee's ability to increase his or her pay is limited, but their ability to decrease the number of hours they actually work is not as limited.
o Not all nonproductive time that an employee spends is a complete waste. Some of it is creative or constructive waste.

Okay...so here is what I propose: Around your workplace make it known how you are the person that counteracts these trends. You don't waste time at work like other people do; you efficiently do your work as to not create constructive and non-constructive waste.

There's some food for thought in your fight for that next promotion.

My Take: Cell Phones and Kids

"What on Earth are elementary students doing carrying cell phones to school? Better yet, why do parents think their child needs one? Our children today need to focus on education while in school and save the conversations for after-school activities."
--Thanks to
Juliann Williams from Anderson, IN

Yep. I exhibited some pretty strong thoughts at reading that one, too.

By now I've established that I work in the wireless industry and don't much care for cell phones due to people using them with blatant disrespect regarding their usage.

Just like I said yesterday: Just because you have the right to do so, doesn't mean that you should forget all of your other morals (assuming that is, that the person has some), manners, and that it gives you a free ticket to go over the line with it.

Anyways, let's look at some cold, hard numbers:

o A recent U.S. study shows that fifty percent of 12 to 17 year-olds have cell phones
o The average cell phone user spends about $87 dollars per month on their cell phone
o Thirty three percent of teens have text messaged with a phone
o Twenty five percent of teens have used their wireless phone to connect to the Internet
o Trust me, by my experience, that the average teenager does not spend $87 per month on their cell phone. This figure is much higher (which, in turn, skews the statistics for everyone.


If I had a dollar for every parent who called in and said "yeah, my child ran up a bunch of charges..." I would be able to spend $87 a month on a cell phone. This last condition would also be able to be met if I were getting government subsidies in California.

Let's throw another quote in here at this point:

Lindsay Shepardson of New York comments: "I was sixteen when I got my first cell phone and I think as long as you're responsible you can get a cell phone when you're like twelve years old."

Emphasis is mine.

Remember when I said last night that children shouldn't be allowed to raise children? Yep. Anyone who gives what should be an intelligent answer to a growing problem by using the work "like" outside of the traditional grammatical sense should, well, be smacked with a newspaper and their opinion (most likely) their opinion dismissed categorically.

I mean, really, when you were twelve years old, were you ready to handle a cell phone with 2 dozen features, third party content provider charges, understanding of various multimedia charges, and the like. Cell phones are that age are like sex: If you're not ready for the entire package, don't even get your feet wet.

During the opening 6 weeks of enforcing a new ordinance, Chicago Police officers issued 841 tickets recently to motorists. Yep. Twenty-one tickets a day. And studies also show that these kinds of drivers are much more likely to have a serious car accident than their non-cell phone using counterparts. Numbers escape me right now.

Upon reading this study, a colleague of mine replied in two words that say it all:

"Well, duh."

Let's put these two together. Kids are being raised by parents that impress upon them that certain behaviors, such as those exhibited by the above cell phone statistics, are alright. When they grow up, who's to say that the kind of situations that we're having today with drivers who use them aren't going to increase and, in all likelihood, get worse?

I would like to end on a note on an instance I had as a floor representative several months ago. She made more sense than most people do on a daily basis. This person indicated that she would never give her kid a cell phone, but she decided instead to give them walkie talkies.

A perfect answer to a not-so-perfect problem.

My Take: Hurricane Katrina

Now that Hurricane Katrina happened roughly a week ago and every news source has put their two cents into the fray, I figure I might as well throw in my two cents, also.

While reading through my various news materials and intelligence analyses I recall that Katrina was likened to a nuclear bomb going off in the vicinity. The more I think about it, the more that I think it is true (sans the radiation).

Regarding the building/re-building New Orleans debate...a city that sits below sea level...both sides bring up good points: On one side, it's just plain dumb. On the other side, an economic infrastructure has grown there for more than 2 centuries. Anne Rice, the famed author of the Vampire Chronicles (think Interview With the Vampire), even penned a piece regarding the rich cultural and artistic background of the area.

However, being the budding economist that I am, let's strip the emotional out and get down to the nitty gritty:

The Port of New Orleans is the 5th largest in the world and the largest in the United States in terms of tons handled, at 52 million tons outgoing and 17 million tons incoming annually. Most of this is the export of U.S. agricultural products due to the Port's proximity to the farmland of the U.S. southeast. Imports range from fossil fuels to building materials.

Can you see the pattern yet? Yes: Agricultural commodities leave us, while industrial materials come to us...all through this one location. Let's say that this flow of goods stops: The price of goods will shift due to the increased scarcity of products either in their raw form or as part of a manufactured good. We're looking at a re-shape of the entire global economy. Remember? up to twenty percent of all the world's goods flow through this one port.

Now, let's take into account shipping alternatives. You can use semi trucks, but the price of fuel is high right now and this would further a fuel problem that are are having right now. Air is too expensive and rail is generally too slow. What about using this natural waterway?

If you're thinking that this is the way that it is...you would be right. This waterway--so many rivers flowing into the Mississippi River and onward to the Gulf of Mexico--is what historically built this part of the country up. In retrospect: Had the U.S. lost New Orleans to the British in 1815 then the Louisiana Purchase would have became obsolete and the south would have little to any economic capacity at all (even think to what the Civil War would have been like, had we even had one at all given this scenario). There was even talk amongst scholars during the Cold War about which city the Soviets could nuke and be the most efficient about it. New York, Washington D.C., Detroit: All of these were viable alternatives, however at the end of the day...imagine the fallout of the destruction of New Orleans.

...or do we have to imagine anymore?

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Who Am I?

"If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind that robots will be doing soon."

Who am I? I want to take this opportunity to put down, for all of my audience in the world, what empirical and non-empirical characteristics comprise who I am. This list, by no means, will be comprehensive; however it (hopefully) will be a good primer on getting to know me better.

People should be less stupid. This I know for sure. The rest...well, it's conjecture based on who I am and what I believe.

I was raised half in (what I consider) a small city and half on a farm. I believe myself to have a high level of integrity and a strong set of morals. I have a strong work ethic but couple it with the "work smart, not necessarily hard" ethos. I am a strong believer in efficiency and effectiveness of effort which has been developed in me as the ability to know which tasks should be delegated (and to whom, another key ingredient) and which ones I should undertake myself or up-train someone else on.

"Give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime."

By teaching others the knowledge and assisting them with developing the abilities to complete tasks, you produce synergies that have the capability to propel you and everyone else on your team into a higher order of doing business.

I am a firm believer in common sense, free markets, state's right's with a balance of a handful of federal government programs (read: highway money, not necessarily welfare money...you shouldn't be able to afford to have a cell phone if it is a lifestyle being subsidized by the government). I believe in the american way, apple pie, and white picket fences. I believe in having a good education--whether that be in the halls of a school or the school of hard knox. I believe in working for what you earn and that you aren't entitled to anything but.

I don't believe in excess, gas prices over $2.00 (I remember when they were much, much, much less expensive), or crooked politicians. I believe that my father is the best judge of character I will ever know and that my brother is one of the toughest. I believe in holidays for the sake of tradition and reasons to get the family together: Turkeys at Thanksgiving, presents at Christmas, Easter egg hunts at Easter, and barbecues in the summertime.

I believe in cars with more than 2 horsepower, but anything bigger than what you really need (read: SUV's as status symbols) is just stupid. I believe that athletes and actors get paid too much and that teachers, police officers, firefighters, soldiers, or anyone else that I'm forgetting that fits into these categories needs more pay.

I believe that the focused human mind is the most powerful tool or weapon in the universe. I believe that you can accomplish anything if you put your mind to it. I believe that the collective IQ of the gene pool must be a constant, and the gene pool is getting larger.

You must have goals and aspirations. You have to know where you want to go and be able to develop a game plan on how to reach that place.

Set your standards higher than other people set for you. If you do this, I guarantee that you will get ahead.

If you do something stupid you should be smacked with a rolled-up newspaper. If you keep on doing things that lack common sense the newspaper needs to get bigger.

If you can't control your environment, it will control you. Do you want your environment to be a product of what you believe, or do you want to be a product of your environment?

I believe that Patton and Bradley were two of the greatest generals that this country has ever known. On my list, furthermore, are Washington, Pershing, and Schwarzkopf.

I believe in having a strong national defense, the right to bear arms, freedom of press and religion, that our government don't be plain dumb in administering policy.

However, I feel that the freedom of all these things doesn't allow abuse of them: For instance, freedom of speech doesn't give a person the right to be mean and rude to other people. It's a license to be an agent of change, not the person that people don't like being around or talking to.

I believe that physics can answer most matters in the universe, that prayer works, and that people need to remember how things worked before modern life made them automated, replicated, and moving between places on the face of the planet instantaneously.

I believe in human space flight because of the sheer thrill of it. Basic science needs for funding because that is where the great stuff comes from.

I believe in real things: Butter, sugar, sodas, and people. I don't like the fake things too much: Fake butter, fake sugar, diet sodas, and fake people with fake parts.

I believe that parents should raise their children, that children cannot raise children (what are they going to raise their kids based off of?...both years of their experience?). I believe that violent video games don't make kids kill people. I believe that guns don't kill people, people kill people. I believe that people should learn to shoot a weapon, but learn the elegence of a sword.

Lastly, I believe that when it comes down to it...most people have a fundamentally good nature; however people shouldn't project their feelings on how the universe works onto other people. I don't know, maybe I have it all wrong.

Trust me on the stupid people thing, though.

Supplemental

Since I can't sleep, it's my Friday night, and I need to take a break, albeit a short one, from playing C&C Generals (think Real-Time Strategy game), I decided to write a little bit. Get this blog back onto a happier note.

Dark times, too, shall pass. On the other side we are stronger and more elastic to the demands that life places upon us. This has been something I have developed since being ripped out of the "bubble" that I grew up in.

Miles City, MT in the late 1980's. I had lived there for 9 years and had finally established the roots that a child should be allowed to establish. After moving to Wolf Point, MT, it only took a couple of years to do the same thing.

Then Bowman, ND happened. I started growing less as the "popular kid" and more as the outcast. In retrospect I know that I tried too hard. I tried too hard to make friends, make people laugh, and answer the questions. A cocktail for social disaster.

As the years passed, I became more reclusive and studied schoolwork and beyond. I became extremely interested in the television show Quantum Leap which led me to being engrossed in teaching myself physics: Light on the classical mechanics, heavy on the relativity, high energy/particle physics, and cosmology. By the 9th grade I could recite any number of physical principles and describe them to the layperson as well as discuss them intelligently. I could recite anything from the textbook definition of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to the 4 Fundamental Forces of Interactions in Quantum Physics.

My love for knowledge grew, fueled by my bouts of self-examination and deep reflection. I realized that my love for knowledge and the ability to soak it up like a sponge had existed since several years earlier, but the drive to expand on that through personal development was just budding. I delved into computer science, anatomy & physiology, basic pharmacology (I was wanting to develop a pre-medical background), neurology, chemistry, basic linguistics, and anything else that I could get my hands on. It was a golden age of sorts.

Around the same time I started developing several different ideas for research projects and the need to be able to bring more minds into the mix. My first R&D organization was formed as a non-profit in the mid 1990's. Over the course of the next 5 years we considered hundreds of project concepts and developed a good third of them. A handful of them became my pet project. At it's height this organization spanned 5 states and 50 people with positions in 50 different departments representing a different area of science or technology. Each department was then broken down into relevant areas. The Physics Department, for instance, was broken down into 11 different parts ranging from low temperature/solid state physics to relativity.

Wanting to develop the business entity more, a for-profit entity was formed in the late 1990's to capitalize and develop several business concepts we had been playing with, conceptually, for several years. At first a former Vice President of mine took the helm. I eventually took the helm in 1999 and held the post until we dissolved the entity in 2001 to focus our efforts toward a more succinct project.

From 2001-2003 South Dakota Technologies operated as a general partnership with myself acting as managing parter/chief executive officer. We had a total of about 12 people led by 4 executives being directed by myself. We did well until I learned the ultimate rule of business partnerships: If you get a bad feeling in your gut about one of your business parters...listen to it. Thus, due to a technicality the partnership was dissolved. I was able to walk away with my dignity, some developed projects in my hip pocket, and a couple of very good executives and friends that will hold places in any future entities that I lead if they want the jobs.

By this time I had graduated with the Associates in Business Management and Marketing. I developed keen interests in corporate strategy development based on strategies and tactics that I had learned in the Army in both "grunt" and headquarters positions. I also delved into history sometime around this time.

All my life I have been seeking wisdom; a prolific writing stint in journals since my youth had, by this time, blessed me with a striking level of awareness both of myself and of my surroundings. Multiple opportunities for leadership training had gone a long way to help with this journey.

So, after positions in sales and marketing for a high-tech defense contractor, a concierge at a well-known resort, a general manager for a pizzeria, and a cook back at the same resort I decided I needed to settle down somewhere and start a life. By this time my only association with the Army as sitting on the inactive ready reserve roles in St. Louis, MO, so I decided that I would move to the state that I have always dreamed that I would flourish in since my youth: Colorado.

Now, for those of you that have not been to Grand Junction, CO, before...let me tell you: This place is one of the most beautiful places on earth. I have been halfways across the world: Seen the waterfalls of Central America, the Swiss Alps from Bavaria, the Black Hills of South Dakota, and one of the largest lakes in North America, just to name a few: And I was at a loss for words and breath when I first saw the scenes around this great city.

I applied for this and that upon moving to Junction. My first time here was when I actually moved here: I was quick to be able to produce enough satellite imagery of the area to familiarize myself with it. When it came down to it I ended up with a job--a job that I considered to be only filling a gap at the time--with a contractor for a major wireless service provider.

In my training class I didn't finish my test first; I was close, however. I wasn't the first one to take the first receivables management call, either. I was the guy that had a firm knowledge of business and leadership principles and had learned how to adapt quickly to any given situation. This was new for me, however: Taking money and solving basic billing problems for people calling into me.
For what it's worth: I'm not much of a person for talking on the phone. I call my family about once a week, but that's it. I owned a cell phone once upon a time, but that's ancient history.

However, I attribute my quick rise in success to a number of factors: I had what many people considered the best trainer in the company; I had a first-rate mentor my first two weeks taking calls, but not yet on the floor; and I came into the company at a time when a person could ride a wave of change to the next level.

My first few months on the floor were the stuff that legends are made of. $80K collections my first two weeks, nearly $180K my first full month (second-highest grossing in the call center, in fact.) I began to memorize and learn to adapt rote policy and procedure after being told that I should push for the next level in the hierarchy. I was then selected to go on an away mission to assist in training half of a call center of new RM agents in systems at another call center.

Upon coming back to my site, I was on an interim basis in my current position. Within about 4 months of being in that position I, and several of my colleagues, were made permanent.

My progression in this position was made possible by the friendship and help of many people in my department. S.J. helped get me started and into a position that I could actually compete with her metrics and other abilities; Cliff with his experienced words of wisdom and soft-spoken way of pointing you in the right direction; Joy for "keeping me motivated;" and Rick to teach me the ropes that only a person of his tenure could.

During this time I rode the wave of change: Developing many of the call center standards for how we deal with our new line of business. Training aids. Applications (with my good friend and colleague, Rick (The Wonderful Richard of PAR).

So, that's the short version of the road that got me here, sans the military stuff.

Questions, comments, and bad jokes are always welcome.