New: Architecture Blog

  • Chart of Manufacturing Output from 2000 to 2010 by Country - In 2010, China took the lead as the world's leading manufacturing country from the USA. In 1995 the USA was actually very close to losing the lead to Japan (though you wouldn't think it looking at the recent data). I believe China will be different, I believe China is going to build on their lead.
  • Liberty Again Denied, It is Sad How Little We Seem to Care - The sad fact is, today I am in the position of our founding fathers and much more worried about what the government will do to us that inspired by what the government provides us. This is sad. The types of behavior Homeland Security has been engaging in can be stopped if we elect people that care about liberty.
  • Taking a Look at Some Dividend Aristocrats - The stocks in this index are companies within the S&P 500 that have increased dividends every year for at least 25 consecutive years. After 10 were added and 1 removed, this month, there are now 51 companies included...
  • Taking What You Don't Deserve, CEO Style - As shouldn't have to be explained (but maybe does) leadership isn't about avoiding being indicted. The levels to which these people take from the organization they are suppose to be leading is a very sad commentary on our leaders.
  • I was Interviewed About Encouraging Kids to Pursue Engineering - Ask questions. Answer questions. Explain how things work. Explain why things are done the way they are.
  • Manufacturing Employment Data: USA, Japan, Germany, UK... 1990-2009 - Interestingly the USA has increased output per hour much more than any other country since 2002. The USA index stands at 146, the next highest is Sweden at 127 then the UK at 120. Italy is the only country tracked that fell since 2002, to 94. Japan (the 3rd largest manufacturer and 2nd largest of the countries include, China isn't included) only increased to 113. Germany (4th and 3rd) increased to 111.
  • Psychology of Improvement - It is important to not just solve the current dilemma but to improve the organizational capacity to improve in the future. And for me that means increasing people's understanding of the ideas I explore in the Curious Cat Management Improvement blog.
  • Looking at the Value of Different College Degrees - The authors of the report found that all undergraduate majors are worthwhile, even taking into account the cost of college and lost earnings. However, the lifetime advantage ranges from $1,090,000 for Engineering majors to $241,000 for Education majors.
  • Practical Ways to Respect People - Assist people when they need help. Provide encouragement when people try new things. Support risk taking. Support and build upon their natural intrinsic motivation. Provide the right tools to do the job...
  • Netflix is Well Managed, People are Overreacting to Short Term Issues - "But I still think Netflix is very well run. I tend to believe we make a mistake when jump all over short term issues for companies that have long term positive track records."
  • Encouraging Curiosity in Kids - The biggest difference I see between adults and kids is not maturity or responsibility but curiosity (or lack thereof in adults) and joy (versus adults who seem to be on valium all the time - maybe they are).
  • Epigenetic Effects on DNA from Living Conditions in Childhood Persist Well Into Middle Age - you may carry genes in your DNA for processing food in different ways. If you have very limited diet the way your body reacts could be to express genes that specialize in maximizing the acquisition of nutrition from food. And it could be that your body sets these expressions based on your conditions when young; if later, your diet changes you may have set those genes to be expressed in a certain way.
  • "Rethinking" or "Moving Beyond" Deming Often Just Means Applying More of What Dr. Deming Actually Said - If the issue is one of the system performance (no indication it is a special cause) the most effective strategy to get better results is to improve the system, rather than approach it as a special cause issue (examining individual data points, to find special items in that event to be improved).
  • Don't Neglect Your Dreams: Strive to Make Your Dreams Come True - "Deferring your happiness to the future is a terrible idea..."
  • Anti-Market Policies from Our Talking Head and Political Class - When people get the message that collusion, anti-competitive markets, political special interest driven policies... are what free market capitalism is we risk losing more of the benefits free markets provide. That so few seem to care about the benefit capitalism can provide that they willingly undermine capitalism, to pay off political backers by supporting anti-market policies, is dangerous.
  • Disability Insurance is Very Important - An office worker should have a very low risk of something happening that qualifies you for receiving benefits (even with fairly serious injuries for a hunter-gatherer or farmer they can earn a living). That is actually the perfect situation for insurance. Insurance should be cheap when the risk is small. You want insurance for unlikely but very costly events. You don't want insurance for likely and inexpensive events (paying the middle man just adds to the cost).