Responding to “Misguided Monetary Mentalities”

October 12, 2009

A few quick objections to Paul Krugman’s 10.12.2009 NYT column, “Misguided Monetary Mentalities”: Falling Dollars and Apples Krugman states, “The truth is that the falling dollar is good news.” I object. A falling dollar is an effect of a natural law – the law of supply and demand. From July 2008 to July 2009, the [...]

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4 Things I’ve Learned as a Software Engineer

August 22, 2009

1) Begin with a clear goal. Software developers often work from vague specifications. We’re used to it. It doesn’t surprise us. We’re also used to reworking the products of vague requirements. In software development, ‘firming up the spec’ is one step that’s going to happen. The question is when. It can happen on purpose at [...]

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Have To vs. Can

June 29, 2009

Want to excel at work? Want to delight your customers? Whenever you think, “How much do I have to do?” replace that with “How much can I do?”

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How to make more money

April 30, 2009

There are so many angles for getting/keeping money. Legitimate investments and arrangements like stocks, bonds, options, futures, derivatives, commodities, arbitrage; real estate, commercial real estate, REITs; savings accounts, IRAs, Roth IRAs, HSAs, 401Ks, 403Bs, 529s; I could fill up this page with various financial instruments intended for wealth maximization. And that’s not a bad thing. [...]

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Persistence

April 27, 2009

Take a moment and think of some great achievements. Scientific discoveries, engineering feats, athletic victories, wealth, business, service, philanthropy – any fields you like. What accomplishments do you admire most? Now consider the characteristics of the people behind those achievements. What did they have in common? Superior intelligence? I doubt it. Access to capital? Try [...]

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Why Goldman is golden

March 19, 2009

I believe this week’s drama over the AIG bonuses is a diversion. It’s meant to distract from the unveiling of AIG’s counterparties. The media and some Washington demagogues got Americans all fired up over $165 million in executive bonuses. This sum is a little less than 1/1000th of the bailout money AIG has received so [...]

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Advice For New Parents

February 24, 2009

Molly and I had our first son last August. It’s been great. Nothing is more fun for me than spending time with my family. It’s also been challenging. I’m a fanatic planner/preparer. Before Ejay arrived, we went to the classes, read the books, watched the videos, etc. etc. All that helped. But babies are very [...]

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Dale Carnegie Course Review – Wrap Up

January 14, 2009

I first read How to Win Friends and Influence People in 1996.  I did all the stuff it said, made a lot of friends, got along better with people, etc. etc.  But after a while I began to get tired.  It was taking too much energy to be positive all the time.  I got tired [...]

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Dale Carnegie Course Review – Session 12

January 1, 2009

Session twelve of the Carnegie course was graduation.  Guests were invited (I brought Molly).  We each spoke about: What we originally expected from the course How we’ve applied the principles and how they’ve helped us Where we see ourselves in six months Our instructor spoke some kind, encouraging words about each of us in turn. [...]

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Dale Carnegie Course Review – Session 11

January 1, 2009

In session eleven of the Carnegie course we worked on inspiring others.  We each recounted an incident where we’ve used Carnegie’s human relationship principles.  We used the persuasion magic formula (there I was, if you will x, the benefit will be y) to describe the incident, how we handled it, and what our classmates can [...]

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