"Look before you leap" or "He who hesitates is lost"?

I guess we all know we can't run our lives by proverbs. But they can offer good advice. But what do you do when they conflict? The two proverbs in the title are just two of the ones you hear all the time and, I find, mentioned after you've just made a mistake. You jump into the car to rush to the store and back over a child's favorite toy. "You know what they say," your neighbor explains, "Look before you leap." But surely, if I would have looked, removed the toy and then had to wait at the end of the driveway as a line of cars passes, the neighbor would have said, "You know what they say. He who hesitates is lost." Rarely is anyone there to help when you really need it.

But then you hear about the "morality" test where they ask if you were walking along the railroad tracks and you see five people up ahead in an area where the track is bounded by two steep cliffs and there is no way to get off the tracks. Then you hear a train coming. You are standing by a switch that would allow the train to be switched off the track onto a siding where one person is walking. Is it OK to kill that one person to save the five? Well, according to the test folks, most people say it's OK to switch the train and trade one life for five. But take a moment and think about all the gray areas of this question. How are you sure that the five people couldn't lie down next to the track? Trains and their cars don't hang over that much. Maybe the one person can get off the siding. What happens when the train goes into the siding and wrecks. Who will be killed on the train and in the siding area? These kinds of made-up situations drive me crazy. It seems to me that we rarely have all the facts and these "tests" just hide even more of them.

I remember an old movie about guys being inducted into the Navy during World War 2 (it was an old movie). The officer asks the inductee what he would do if a storm came up from the starboard side. The inductee answers, "Throw an anchor off the starboard side, sir." Then the officer says, "But then a storm blows up and hits you from the stern. What do you do?" The inductee answers, " Throw an anchor off the stern, sir." The officer isn't beat and says, "Now an even more intense storm blows up and starts hitting your port side. What do you do?" The inductee says, "Well, I'd throw an anchor off the port side, sir." The officer gets angry and says, "And where are you going to get all these anchors?" The inductee shrugs and says, "The same place you got all those storms blowing in different directions, sir."

Schedules

This is not about the real-time operating systems or traveling on the train, bus or airplane. It's about the problem you face when trying to come up with a reasonable schedule for a project and specifically for the case when you want to do the project and the company is not enthusiastic about the project.

So, there you are - you are asked, "How long will it take you to do this project?" Of course it's impossible to give an exact answer. Also, you cannot be absolutely impartial. You are faced with a true dilemma. If you give a schedule that is too fast, you risk being late on the project. If you give a schedule that is too slow, you risk that this will be used as an excuse to not do the project or that they get someone else to do it.

The answer is to be as honest and impartial as you can. Using the length of the schedule to decide whether a project should be done should not be your concern (and it's a pretty stupid move on the part of your company if that is their criteria for doing the project or not). Besides the schedule itself, you should be able to offer innovative options. You should be able to show your excitement for the project. You should take the time to develop a well thought out schedule which includes as many ways around sticking points as possible. The schedule should include as large a collection of milestone events as possible.

Perhaps in a future message I'll be able to go into more specific examples.

Great Expectations

Complaints about software quality are easy to find and easy to make. That's because of two things:

1) Many software systems are very complex systems and don't work perfectly
2) We have too high of an expectation on software

Maybe I'll talk about the first reason sometime but people a lot smarter than me have written books, programming languages and design methodologies to try to handle that. The first item can be further broken down but I won't go into that here.

The second reason is that we often expect too much from software systems. Here is an example - you have a cold and need a tissue to wipe your nose. You walk over to the tissue box (one of those pop-up boxes that delivers the next tissue when you pull the current tissue our) and there is no tissue ready to use. You have to dig down and pull up the tissue. In the process, you mess up the next tissue. You can either fiddle around and get the next tissue ready or just leave it so the next person faces the same problem you just faced. There are a combination of "bugs" here and some failed human actions. You might say, "Well, a box of tissues doesn't cost that much and your expectations aren't high for it. Well, hold on to that word "expectations".

So, let's look at something higher priced if that will satisfy you. You get into your car and try to start it. The starter grinds a bit and you release the key but the engine doesn't start. You try it again and this time it starts (of course, if you are in a horror movie the monster is bearing down on you, the car will not start until the monster touches the car!). This was a "bug", too, but we don't call it that. Here, the item is expensive (unlike the box of tissues) but you just don't write a nasty letter to the maker of you car when it fails to start. Your expectation is that once in a while a car just doesn't start the first time you try it. If you remote doesn't change the channel when you hit the button, you just hit it again. If a friend says they will call right back and then they don't, you figure something must have come up or they would have called back. Each time, it is the expectation that allows you to just shrug your shoulders and say, "Oh, well, nothing is perfect." I think we just expect too much of many software systems.

Some people would say that my argument is not fair and just incorrect. They would say that you can't prove that something is OK by saying other things are just as bad. That's OK. Let them start their own blogs and write what they want. This is my blog and these are my ideas.

If someone says I'm a poor athlete because I can't jump (unaided) over a twelve foot fence isn't the best answer that no one can jump over a twelve foot fence? I've used the "limitations" of others as the answer to my "inability". It all depends on your expectations.

Still remembering October, 2004

If you are a Red Sox fan, as I am, this time of year brings back the memory of the World Series win in 2004. What made it special, though, was having to beat the Yankees in the play-offs to get there. Coming back after being down three games to none made it magical and the World Series sweep of the Cardinals almost anticlimactic. When I think back on the American League Championship Series, I remember trying to stay up until the end of Game 7. The Red Sox were well ahead and I was exhausted from the previous nights. So, I went to bed not really being sure if the Red Sox had won or not. A friend wrote me the next morning saying I must be really happy because the Red Sox had won. By then I knew they had won but earlier that morning, I was still trying to find out for sure. Here is the note I wrote back to him explaining how my morning had gone:

I wasn't able to stay up until the end of the game last night but went to sleep when the Sox were ahead 8 - 1. Surely they couldn't collapse that badly. Woke up early this morning to hear how the game ended but [our 2-year old daughter at the time] heard me getting up and wanted to come downstairs with me. She needed something to eat so I thought I'd just give her some formula quickly. No open cans so I had to search for a can. Then I couldn't find the opener for the can. As I'm looking for the opener, I keep slipping on something on the floor. I wipe that up and keep looking for something to open the can of formula.

In the meantime, I put some water on the stove to make tea. Still no can opener. I keep slipping on something on the floor. I wipe up more of what looks like cooking oil. Finally, I figure I'll never find the can opener (and [our daughter] has started yelling for something, anything, to eat) so I try to use the electric can opener but the can is too tall. Finally, I'm able to move the electric can opener over to the side of the counter (after moving a ton of dishes out of the way) so I can fit the can of formula under it.

I'm STILL slipping on something on the kitchen floor and then I notice it's coming from the refrigerator. I open up the refrigerator but see nothing obvious so I go back to opening up the can of formula ([our daughter] is about to tear down the house if she doesn't get something quick). I give her the formula and go back to the refrigerator to find out that some salad dressing has flipped on its side in the refrigerator. It wouldn't have mattered but the cap hadn't been put on tightly so it went all over the place. Then the tea water starts to whistle on the stove.

I run to get the teapot but it's soaking in some dirty dishwater so I use an old teapot with a cracked spout, throw some tea bags in and pour in the water. Then it's back to clean up the refrigerator. I'm finally getting the spill cleaned up (along with a bunch of other things that got dressing all over them) and I hear the dog whining who needs to go out. I get back from that and I can hold off going to the bathroom no longer. I FINALLY get back to the living room about half an hour after I first woke up and turn on the TV to find that the Sox did indeed win the game last night but the station breaks for a million commercials before I finally got the final score!

It was all OK in the end but the suspense almost killed me. But, there were actually some Red Sox fans who waited 86 years to see their team win the World Series again so I guess it wasn't so bad if I had to wait a half-hour to get the results of a play-off.

Living with cats

Here are our two cats doing what they are best at doing. The fluffy ball of blue-gray fur on the left is our older cat Rosie and the short haired black and white one on the right is Henry. Rosie is over twelve years old and is in charge of the entire house. Her jobs are to eat, sleep, hide when anyone comes to visit and use the litter box at the worst possible time. We already had a female cat (who has since died at the age of seventeen) when we went to get Rosie and were thinking of getting a male cat to keep Elsie company. But Rosie had been rejected by her mother and seemed to be terrorized by her brother and hid behind my wife to get away from him. So how could we resist? She is a Persian but doesn't have the squished up face that most Persians do. She's very nice but, after all these years, is still a little afraid of us. She reminds me of a lot of people who had traumatic events in their life and never seem able to recover from them. We all have different handicaps in life and that is Rosie's little handicap.

Henry, our younger cat, is in charge of attacking us when we least expect it and keeping us up at night by chasing after imaginary beasts and making little half-grunt and half-purr sounds. We got him from a cat shelter and picked him because he reminded us of our old cat Elsie who was also black and white. Elsie acted more like a dog (she liked to lick us and used to come out and observe any company we'd get - she'd even sit and watch the repairmen that came to fix things). When my wife reached in to pet Henry in his cage, he licked her hand. That was it. We had to have him. He keeps Rosie active and entertains us all. Henry's little handicap is that he can't seem to purr anymore. He purred up a storm when he was younger (he will be three soon) but gradually lost the ability to purr. You can hear him trying to purr but nothing comes out.

Both cats are fascinated with our dog, Charlie, but they haven't seen him since we've been temporarily living in my mother-in-law's house because she doesn't want the dog in the house nor the cats upstairs. So, we'll be having a big animal reunion when we move into the new house.

This has been a pretty boring post to anyone who isn't in our family. But you need to know these things for later posts to make sense.

Update to an earlier post and hazardous waste

I didn't make two post on Sunday as I'd planned. I'd hoped to make some comments about a review I read about Richard Dawkins latest book but doing a review of a review didn't seem like a good idea when I sat down to do it. Maybe I'll read the book and then I can do my own review. Or maybe I should finish the earlier Richard Dawkins book I have a review that!

Anyway, I wanted to make a note about my "Is it a rule of the universe that there's always a downside?" entry. Well, once again I jumped the gun - I panicked - I didn't look before I leapt. After talking some more with the builders, we found that they did not really need the washer and dryer to be dug out of storage and installed right away. So, we had time this week-end to get rid of all the hazardous waste we removed from our old house and its garage by taking it to a town-sponsored hazardous waste collection site. My son and I loaded up the truck and took it and it turned out to be a somewhat pleasant experience. We always have a good talk when it's just the two of us. And I got lost so we had that to talk about, too. Then, when we got there, there was a huge line and a long (about a half hour) wait so we talked some more. When we finally got to the front of the line, they made it very easy for us. I was sure we were going to be questioned about each item and would be scolded for trying to bring some of the stuff to them. But it wasn't like that at all. They actually seemed glad to see us and were very helpful. We didn't have to do a thing. The only thing we had brought that they couldn't take were some small cylinders of propane that are used in small plumbers torches. Those we'll have to get rid of somehow else. But that was it. Once we got to the front of the line, we were done in about five minutes with a pleasant send-off and a smile as we pulled away. And now we don't have all that dangerous stuff sitting around.

This American Life

I missed posting this yesterday. I couldn't access Blogger because I think it was closed for maintenance. Anyway, I'll try to post two entries today.

I wanted to enter a note about the "This American Life" show on National Public Radio (via Public Radio International and produced by Chicago Public Radio). I've enjoyed this show over the years and it doesn't show any signs of letting down. National Public Radio itself is such a relief when you look at the rest of radio. Most of radio is just the same songs repeated over and over or a bunch of angry idiots screaming at each other about politics or sports. But today I'm talking about "This American Life" and its host Ira Glass. Each week he gives a short introduction to the show. I can't say enough about even this small part of the show. He (or the writers) give a short, tantalizing statement about what you'll be hearing on the show. It draws you in and makes it sound so interesting that I can rarely turn away - even if I have something else to do.

The stories have real variety. You're never quite sure if you'll be hearing a professionally prepared story or something prepared by some kids. Or something created as a joke. Two of my favorites were the recently replayed story about the phone message from a college student's mother (referencing "The Little Mermaid") and a story about a new policeman who goes to a house to investigate noises in the attic and finds more trouble than he expected. But they are all little gems of stories. Usually, they only take up a small part of the hour-long show but can take up most of the show if the story warrants it. If you've never heard the show, you should give it try. You can go to the website to find if it plays on your local public radio station and when. I've listed the website in the list of links but here it is again:

http://www.thisamericanlife.com

You can listen to old shows there, too. Back to 1995. The only thing I can fault about it is that I wish there was a better index to the shows. If you're looking for a specific story, you have to remember the theme of the show (most of the hour-long shows have a theme) and then you can read the description of the show to see if your specific story is there. Give it a try. I think you'll enjoy it. If you haven't listened before, you might want to try their Staff Favorites first:

http://www.thisamericanlife.com/pages/favorites.html

If you want to check for you local station and the times "This American Life" plays, go here:

http://www.thisamericanlife.com/pages/listen.html

I don't think you'll be disappointed.