npudar

Also known as a Decision Record, as described by Russell Ackoff in many of his books. Another critical component to include in the Decision Record is not just the decision made, but also the other alternatives that were considered. The documentation should also describe why the other alternatives were not chosen.

Since we can only ever learn from our mistakes, a Decision Record helps us be honest with ourselves when we are evaluating things when they don't go as expected.

I worked with Ackoff. Brilliant man. An extremely important video to watch: https://vimeo.com/148192220 29 minutes is a tiny investment for the returns.

This would be a great time to see this obituary of John Karlin, one of the early phone UX pioneers:

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/09/business/john-e-karlin-wh...

My experience has been that almost all of our remote jobs were occupied by existing local employees who needed to become remote for various personal reasons. Only those that were most highly valued were accommodated.

The advice in the article seems reasonable, but I'm not sure how many jobs are looking for a remote worker.

Smalltalk is still a thing of beauty.

I met Dr. Coase at a small meeting/conference that a consulting firm put together for its clients back in the mid-nineties. It was my first encounter to his thinking, and it was transformative for me. Today when I think about blockchain technology, I can't help but imagine how Coase would jump all over it and theorize about the further disintegration of large companies and how they will be organized. Reading about this tech with a Coasian mindset will also lead one to conclude that blockchain tech without an open digital token has limited value.

Another thing I just remembered on this topic of what "focuses" you, there is a clever and interesting way to learn which of the three forms keeps someone else focused.

It is in how a person tells you they don't understand something. A visual person will say "I don't see that." An auditory person will say "I'm not hearing you" or "You need to say that again." A kinesthetic person would say "I don't get it" or "That doesn't feel right."

Interesting. And small hints.

Around 20 years ago, I met Dawna Markova at a conference where she spoke about the work she had done in learning styles. My recollection is that the Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic forms was not about how you "learn", but rather on how you stay "focused".

Researchers found that there were three brianwave patterns that corresponded to your level of focus. For me, Visual stimuli kept me focused. Auditory stimuli practically put me to sleep. And Kinesthetic stimuli are transitional for me. In meetings where there is just discussion or words on a chart, I find myself fidgeting, and that helps me stay focused. So I am V-K-A. (The first letter for what keeps you focsed, the second letter for the transitional mode, and the third letter for what causes you to drift into la-la-land.) The research found that the six combinations of these three types of stimuli was equally distributed in the population.

The lesson for teachers and presenters is that you should provide all three stimuli in your presentation so that all people get what they need to stay focused.

Markova wrote a wonderful book called "How Your Child Is Smart". It was fantastic resource for bringing up our children and helping them stay focused in all of the ways they actually learned.