Bag-Aholism – Umberto Tunesi

I sincerely thank Greg Hutchins, a fairly recent and very promising acquaintance of mine, for having introduced me to this terminology.

It is often said – among males – that the human equivalent of snails – obviously not in terms of slowness, since the human equivalent tend to move disturbingly too rapidly, especially when driving their male partner’s car … – are women.

When a woman moves, she takes more stuff from her house with her.

My wife and me went to Croatia for a two weeks summer sea holiday in Croatia, with two friends, a he and his female date. While he brought with him a – normal, according to males’ statistics – one by one by two feet bag, she had a one by two by four feet bag … My car, on which we travelled, was packed to the limit.

My wife: she’s a good, wise woman; but she starts packing her things two weeks before departure, which makes the journey planning a bit awkward. And, once more, two thirds of the garments she brings with her stay unused.

LESSONS LEARNED
But we – professional men – have to learn from these lessons.

What risks are bag-aholic ladies afraid of? Were they mothers, they would be expected to maintain  their children presentable. But when they are no mother? Or when their “children” are grown up enough to wear worn jeans and T-shirts, and don’t give a damn when they are dirtier than pigs?

There must be some deeper motivation.

Let’s do some analysis.  Ishikawa permitting, I allocate the bag-aholism effect to the following key causes:

  • Machines:  Any piece of equipment is a potential risk for garments, it can cause any damage. As in any wisely designed chemical plant, a three-times redundancy approach is strongly recommended, though expensive and space consuming may be.
  • Manpower:  There is a basic interaction approach: the she and the others. Just think of a bar or restaurant waiter spilling a drink or a sauce on the lady’s dress. She has to change, as soon as possible.
  • Materials:  Ladies’ dresses are nowadays light-years apart from Nature; cotton, linen, wool are unknown to fashion designers, especially Italian and French. Pity that they are too trendy, they live on stains, and they cannot be quickly and easily washed, like a male’s T-shirt or jeans. They need change.
  • Methods:  This is a quite difficult cause to detect; but when a lady, like my wife, or my mother, breaks a coffee cup every week, or her leg when biking against a car, you do expect anything to happen. And  bandage and hospital pajamas must not be forgotten, in a wise lady’s travel bag.
  • Environment:  Meteo’s are becoming more and more like football or baseball news. “What will be the weather like? “ is the most common question when adventuring in any journey. So ladies put in their travel bag one inch thick pullovers when flying to Maldives, and even much thicker when flying to Iceland.

A friend of mine went to Santo Domingo with his “fresh” wife for their honeymoon. After dinner, they romantically walked along the seaside; he was wearing shorts and slippers, breast-naked; she wore long cotton trousers, shoes, T-shirt, shirt and a wool sweater – and she was feeling “just right”.

In short, what males think of risk is totally different from women. And traveling bags are a meaningful sign.

A friend of mine, when he left for his one-month summer holiday, just brought a toothbrush with him, nothing else: he would find all he would need “on site”.

Let’s be careful on this, dear risk-processing friends: if a rose is a rose is a rose, not for any- and every-body a risk is a risk is a risk.

Thank you.

BA FLIGHT 38, January 17, 2008, Heathrow – Umberto Tunesi

The National Geographic Canada “Mayday” reconstruction of the above accident is quite dramatic.

But it is much more than that, when we think that the key cause of the accident, in spite of the many millions and months spent, and all the technicians involved, was found by mere chance.

Quite often it is like that, when practicing problem-solving and / or error-proofing: the technician(s) can be diligent as possible, think of any possible cause and solution, but the ultimate cause and solution are often found by chance.

Why is that?

I am no expert of human thinking processes; but I know of one striking example: the Nobel Prize Winner James D. Watson recounts in his book “The Double Helix”, how he “saw” the DNA structure in an english pub, drinking beer.

UNGUIDED PROBLEM SOLVING
And J.G. Bennet, in his book “Creative Thinking”, guides us on solving a problem simply not working at it: he says to pose yourself the question, then let your mind work; just sample your thoughts from time to time, until the bright idea is born.

I myself – and many people I know tell me they share the same experience – have the brightest ideas when not thinking of “the problem”: it’s just like with Bennet, I pose myself the question, then I – seem to – forget about it. Then, totally unexpected, the solution, the idea, is there, in my mind. Showering in the morning is an effective catalyst, for me.

No time-consuming free-wheeling or brain-washing teams and meetings, therefore.

It seems that – unlike Shakespeare’s Shrew – the human brain cannot be tamed. On the contrary, the more one forces it, the less it produces.

Bertrand Russell writes that after having written “Principia Mathematica”, his co-author A.N. Whitehead almost forgot how to count. It may be an exaggeration, but it says much on how “wild” human brain  is. Put it in chains, and it will rebel.

Let’s stay in the Risk farm: a key series of input is surely knowledge, experience, lessons – “to be” – learned. But when working at something really new, or that we know very little of, how do we go about it?

In times when Innovation is the Economy and Industry password, the available information and data on which to build a project are not that much – quantitatively; and qualitatively they may even be less.

Therefore we have to rely on our imagination, intuition processes.

But where and how do we learn to be imaginative, intuitive, in a world where there are more and more – and almost only – “golden rules”?

One of my “bibles” is surely John Steinbeck’s “The Log from the Sea of Cortez”.

By the way, on last February 27 it was his 110 birthday anniversary.

In this – to me mentor – book, Steinbeck’s writes at length on his friend Ed Ricketts’ non teleological mode of thinking.

Abstruse and completely abstracted from aims, ends, goals, targets, non teleology poses itself just a question: what is it? The “why” has no relevance at all.

RISK FARMING
Surely it’s no easy job, for us Risk farmers, to shift our thinking mode from “why?”-type questions to “what?”-type questions; we are too used to the former. But I think the gain is worth the pain. And by gain I don’t mean any aims, ends, goals, targets, I mean “what it is”.

When working at sampling and analyzing ores – iron, aluminum, zinc, coal, whatever – we were used to the “as-is” characteristics’ figures. As compared to the german “Sollwert” (should-be, or expected figure), the “as-is” figure made our work much easier. It was a kind of configuration management – when it works, it’s OK – rather than “make it like the design specifications”.

I really wish some of you do try the as-is, non teleological approach, whenever and however you will, and feed me back on your experience.

Bio:
My e-mail address is umbertotunesi@gmail.com

Thank you.

 

#8 – DISRUPTIVE RISKS IN EDUCATION – IT’S EVERY WHERE – JERRY BRONG

Let’s look at your investment in education.  If you graduated from high school, you spent about twelve years in a structured, organized, and a managed school program.  Excluding homework and travel to-from your school your in class time may have consumed 2,100 to 2,200 days or about 10,800 to 11,000 hours of your life.  If you have a four-year university or college degree, you may have spent another 36 to 45 months in school.  Add to your school time hours of your life spent in other training and education programs for specialized work related certifications, licenses, and professional recognitions and four  things become evident. Continue reading

#8 – GETTING THE RAISE YOU DESERVE – ELIZABETH LIONS

Elizabeth Lions PixMy client looked at me a long time across the table in Starbucks and said, “I can negotiate for others, but not for myself.  For whatever reason, talking about money really stresses me out”: she said.

This surprised me a great deal.  Highly competent woman, educated and who had an admirable career path.  Certainly well accomplished and in a critical sales role to boot!

“Why is that?” I asked.

“It makes me uncomfortable talking about money.   I don’t want to leave any on the table and want the employer to do the right thing.  Especially around review time.  Certainly, they know all that I do for them.”

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#8 – EXECUTIVE ORDER – IMPROVING CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE CYBER SECURITY – ED PERKINS

IMPROVING CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE CYBER SECURITY 

US President Barack Obama signed the long awaited Cybersecurity Executive Order on Feb. 12, 2013. The full text of the Executive Order can be found on the White House website here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/12/executive-order-improving-critical-infrastructure-cybersecurity

For months, the Obama administration had been floating the issuing of an executive order on cybersecurity. With the failure of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) to get traction in Congress they have delivered – the “Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity” Executive Order was signed on February 12. [For details of CISPA, see this link:

http://intelligence.house.gov/sites/intelligence.house.gov/files/documents/HR624.pdf]

The focus of the Order is protection of Critical Infrastructure. The Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General, in coordination with the Director of National Intelligence are the responsible officials.

This article describes the basic sections of the Order and the timeline that is laid out for implementation.
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