Design

By Mark Christiansen | Published: February 12, 2010

It is easy to make a program that is right, faster. It is difficult to make a program that is fast, right.
— Michael A. Jackson (1936- )

When you work on a solution to a problem, you should first aim at creating something that works. Concentrate on doing it right. Include everything that comes to mind in your design and make it all work together. After you have a design that works, that accomplishes your desired end, then go about the business of making it fast, making it lean, making it fit.

A designer knows he has arrived at perfection, not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away. — Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900-1944)

Once you have made it right, you will want to eliminate everything that does not directly help your design accomplish its purpose. This includes works of art as well as works of engineering. That book you wrote? Remove all that does not help the story. That painting you want to do? Remove all that does not portray the message of your work. That program you wrote? Take out the bells and whistles that a user will never use.  That life you live? Take out the clutter and excess action. This process make take some time. The time you spend will make your efforts worthwhile.

The result of a year’s work depends more on what is struck out than on what is left in, on the sequence of the main lines of thought, than on their play and variety. — Henry Brooks Adams (1838-1918)

Strive to make every one of your designs a focused piece of work. Make it right, make it strong, make it clear, make it simple, make it meaningful. Nobody will misunderstand your design when you do that.

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Why Do We Fall?

By Mark Christiansen | Published: November 26, 2009

In Batman Begins, Alfred Pennyworth said, “Why do we fall, sir? So that we might learn to pick ourselves up again.” Although this line sounds good, it fails to capture the real reason for the fall. We fall because we act on some incorrect premises. We have made bad assumptions about the situation; acting on those assumptions resulted in a fall. Think about any fall you have had. Stubbed your toe? Embarrassed yourself by something you said to your friend? The program you wrote fail to work properly for your customer? In all these instances, you mistakenly assumed some untrue things about the situation. You assumed that you had a clear path to walk. You assumed your friend would react more understandingly. You assumed that you had found all the errors in your code.

Although Pennyworth’s statement does not really explain why we fall, it points out a very important fact—we should learn from our falls. What should we learn? We should learn which of our premises we need to change. The fall gives us the opportunity to examine our premises and make adjustments. If we realize that acting on incorrect premises or bad assumptions caused our fall, we then can search for better premises to use in the future. We must then adjust our premises or we may fall again in much the same way.

After you pick yourself up from your next fall, take a moment to think about what you assumed prior to the fall. Determine more appropriate assumptions and then move forward with confidence that your previous assumption will not cause you to fall again. At the same time, realize that other assumptions may still cause you to fall again and prepare yourself to learn from future falls, as well.

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Focus and Concentration

By Mark Christiansen | Published: November 21, 2009

Where do you focus your attention? Do you focus on one thing or does your focus jump from one thing to another, never staying in one place long enough to really accomplish anything? Focus does not mean the same thing as concentration. Concentration means sustained focus combined with intense mental effort. Concentration involves time, focus does not. Think of a pair of binoculars. You look through them and adjust the focus to your eyes and the distance of the thing of interest. Focus involves pointing the binoculars and sharpening the image. It does not require sustained looks in the same direction. You can change your focus quickly or slowly. Concentration, on the other hand, involves sustained looks in the same direction while examining and trying to understand what you see.

You should include both operations when you work to solve problems. Concentrate on the problem to understand what you know and do not know about the problem. Then draw on your instincts and let inspiration give you an idea of where to start. Scan the environment for hints about how other people have solved the problem, focusing on everything you can find. Concentrate on synthesizing a potential solution. Then concentrate on your work and solve the problem.

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Strict Frameworks

By Mark Christiansen | Published: October 25, 2009

When forced to work within a strict framework the imagination is taxed to its utmost—and will produce its richest ideas. Given total freedom the work is likely to sprawl. – T.S. Eliot

Eliot suggests here that we produce better results when we work under the pressure of a strict framework. How does this happen? If we have an open ended project to work on, we will continually try new things to get better results. This seems like a good thing, but having a lot of  freedom also leaves us open to try things that may take us down paths that do not lead us towards our long term goals. To keep ourselves from having this happen, we should set specific short term goals and milestones that focus our efforts continually in the direction of our long term goals. We will want to create some goals that will keep us focused in the right direction.

If you find yourself in the role of team or project lead, sit down with your team as a group and with each member individually. Set some goals. Specify some milestones.  Create a strict framework for them to work in. Encourage your team to prepare  for inspiration. Then trust each member to apply his or her talents to do great work and produce the richest ideas. Follow up on any commitments they have made. Encourage a productive environment. Then do everything you can to make it possible for the team to succeed.

As a team member, often a team or project lead will work with you to set goals and milestones for you. In that case, take those goals serious and keep them in front of you every day. If you find yourself on a project without milestones worked out for you, you can set some for yourself. For example, suppose a manager comes to you gives you a nebulous goal of killing that problem. The manager tells you that this project does not have a deadline because it does not belong to any current products. When this happens, sit down and outline a path to go after the problem. Set some milestones for  yourself with the purpose of showing your progress to your manager on some kind of periodic basis. Go over your plans with your manager so that he or she knows what you plan to do. This will help you keep your focus on producing something that will benefit the company and away from all the other interesting, but non-product related paths you may end up on without proper focus.

A strict framework will help you produce better results. It will help you come up with creative solutions to problems that will benefit the company and its products. The time spent setting up such a framework will more than pay for itself in the results you get.

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Inspiration

By Mark Christiansen | Published: October 14, 2009

In her book, The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers, Ayn Rand defines inspiration in the following way:

What is colloquially called “inspiration”—namely, that you write without full knowledge of why you write as you do, yet it comes out well—is actually the subconscious summing-up of the premises and intentions you have set for yourself. All writers have to rely on inspiration. But you have to know where it comes from, why it happens, and how to make it happen to you. — Ayn Rand

Inspiration that we get when working on any problem, not just writing, comes from the “premises and intentions” we have previously stored away in our memory. Let me use a sports example to illustrate this idea. During his career, Michael Jordan made some truly inspired moves to help his team win games. We watch in awe as Jordan and other basketball players do the unimaginable and we wonder how they could even think to do it. They do not think about it. They have no way of knowing in advance how things will go during the game. They must rely on inspiration to perform as they do. It turns out well because they have prepared themselves beforehand so that they can make inspired moves in the game. They can make those moves because they spent the time to store away in their memory the premises of movement and intentions of getting more points and blocking the opponent from getting points.

Let us step back and look at something that comes natural to most of us: walking. We walk without thinking. We can navigate around a room thinking of what we plan to do when we get to our destination, never thinking at all about the steps along the way. Our foot avoids stumbling over a book left on the floor without more than a glancing thought when we see it out of the corner of our eye. How do we do that? We have stored away in our body all the information necessary for us to use to avoid or overcome physical challenges in the room. Yet we cannot explain how we do it. While you walk across the room, somebody tosses you a ball and you catch it before realizing what has happened. Try tossing a ball at a two year-old and you will realize the inspiration you use to catch the ball. Your past experiences prepared you for that moment of inspiration.

If you want to ensure that inspiration comes when you need it, you need get away from the idea that inspiration comes from some magical source that you have no control over. You do have control over it. The inspiration comes from inside you.  If you find that you cannot come up with a solution to your problem, it means that you do not yet have a good background. What do you do in that situation? You look at what others have done. You review past problems you have worked on and look for similarities. You discuss your problem with a co-worker or manager. After some time, a light suddenly comes on in your head, perhaps in the wee hours of the morning, and you get inspired with a solution.

Where did that come from? Most people cannot explain it. It came from somewhere, though; it came from your intense activities to find a solution. If you understand this, you will realize that you do not have to wait until you have another problem to work on. You can get a head start on the next problem by simply brushing up on your current skills and studying everything you can find in your area of work. Engage yourself in meetings. Talk about your work with others. Study and exercise your brain and body to solve many different kinds of problems. Take refresher classes in your discipline. Get the basics down. Repeat them daily. Practice. Inspiration comes to those who prepare themselves.

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Do It Once

By Mark Christiansen | Published: October 6, 2009
“I don’t do more, but less, than other people. They do all their work three times over: once in anticipation, once in actuality, once in rumination. I do mine in actuality alone, doing it once instead of three times.”
– Henry Ward Beecher
When you begin a task, start it in actuality. Focus your energy into getting it done. Concentrate on your end and you will surely attain it. I do not suggest that you skip the planning phase. I do suggest that you skip the anticipation phase, that phase often included in planning where you live out in your mind the entire development process. You do not know in advance what problems you will encounter, so skip the anticipation and get started. The human mind can make decisions very well on the fly if it has a clear goal to focus on. Spend your planning time defining that clear goal and outlining a path that you believe in to get you there, then get started. Remember to work persistently so that you can successfully attain your goal.

I don’t do more, but less, than other people. They do all their work three times over: once in anticipation, once in actuality, once in rumination. I do mine in actuality alone, doing it once instead of three times. – Henry Ward Beecher

After planning your next project, start it in actuality. Focus your energy into getting it done. Skip the anticipation phase—that phase that often happens right after planning where you live out in your mind the entire development process. You do not know in advance what problems you will encounter, so skip the anticipation, the mulling over all the potential problems and what you will do in the event any of them happen. Just get started. The human mind can make decisions very well on the fly if it has a clear goal to focus on. Do not waste time beforehand anticipating things that do not end up happening. Spend your planning time defining that clear goal and outlining a path that you believe in to get you there, then get started. Work persistently so that you can successfully attain your goal.  Concentrate on your end and you will surely attain it.

After you finish the project, stand back for a moment and admire the end result. Discuss the lessons learned. Then move on to the next project. If you must publish a report of on your work, do not spend endless hours going over all the details of the project. Do not create a massive report that takes weeks to complete. Summarize your results and the lessons learned and publish a short report on it. Most likely nobody will read your report anyway, and for sure nobody will read a long report. Use your valuable time to start the next great project.

Do more by doing less. Do more productive work by doing each piece of work one time.

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Persistence

By Mark Christiansen | Published: September 28, 2009

Without ambition, one starts nothing. Without work, one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

To succeed at most things in life, you must have persistence.  Persistence requires focus, action, and discipline. Without these three components you will flounder on your way. Focus keeps your mind on what you want to accomplish. Action moves you in the direction you want to go. Discipline keeps your focus and your actions thus minimizing effort you will use to get there.

Set goals to focus your mind. If work related, make sure that goal points you towards the company goals and objectives. Write these goals down and review them every day and any time you find yourself feeling discouraged. Since you will read them when you get discouraged, make sure to write these goals in a way that motivates and encourages you.

Take action towards these goals.  Without action, you have no movement. Plan your day with actions that move you towards your goals. You may want to schedule every minute of your day in the beginning. Just make sure you schedule time for action.

Discipline yourself to do the right actions throughout your day. You may get distracted, but your discipline will take you back to your focus and get you back on track with the right actions.

To succeed, discipline yourself to take action in a focused direction.

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ACK E-mail

By Mark Christiansen | Published: September 20, 2009

When two devices communicate with one another, the receiver of a message responds with an ACK message, acknowledging that it received and understood the sender’s message. If the receiver does not understand the message, it sends a NACK acknowledging receipt and signaling that the message came in corrupted. In either instance, the sender knows that the message arrived when it receives a response.

You should do something like this when you communicate through e-mail. I suggest that any time you receive e-mail from somebody, you immediately respond to the person to let them know you have received the message. If the person asked you some questions and you cannot answer them right away, still let them know that you received the message and tell them when you plan to respond to the questions. Acknowledge that you may forget to respond later and let them know you do not mind getting a reminder if you have not responded in a timely fashion. If you do not know the reason or purpose of a message you received, send a note stating what you do not understand. Do not simply ignore these messages or put them off until later when you have more time to think about them. For example:

Mark,
I have attached to this message a description of a new business idea I want to pursue. When you have a few minutes, please look it over and let me know what you think about it.
- Frank

Dear Frank,
I took a quick glance at the idea you sent me. I will not have time to really examine it until Wednesday. Feel free to send me a reminder note if you do not hear from me by Thursday.
Regards,
Mark

Thanks.
- Frank

ACK or NACK e-mail messages and you will improve communications with everybody who writes you. Without the acknowledgements, the sender does not know if you simply ignored the message, you received it and do not know what to write back, or their message ended up in your spam folder. If you acknowledge that you received a message, you will not unintentionally create the allusion that you want to avoid the other person and the other person will know that their message got delivered to you. This simple step builds trust and encourages continued communication between you and the other person.

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Productivity

By Mark Christiansen | Published: September 13, 2009

How do you define productivity? The word comes from the same root as produce. What do you produce? What does your company produce? Do your work activities lead to your company products? If not, you do lots of non-productive stuff for your company. Sometimes we call some of the things we do busy work. Busy work waists the company’s financial resources. Busy work waists our time. It keeps us from doing productive work for our company.

When somebody asks you what you do, make sure you can answer in terms of the products your company sells. Does your company sell hearing aids? How does your work make life better for the hearing impaired? Does your company make LCD televisions? How does your work make life better for the television user? Does your company make brake calipers for cars? How does your work make life better for the driver? Ask the question and make sure you can answer it in terms of the customer.

When you ask the question, ask it about yourself, not the entire company. Make sure your work contributes to a happier customer. After you form an answer, go through all your activities in your work day. Eliminate the things in your work day that do not lead to your company products. Check your habits and inclinations during your work day and avoid doing those things that do no benefit the users of your products. Strive for productivity instead of doing lots of stuff.

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Core Objective

By Mark Christiansen | Published: September 2, 2009

A few years ago I took a UCLA Extension class called Strategic Project Thinking taught by Terry Schmidt. He taught the idea of logical frameworks for project organization and problem solving. Check out Terry’s site and the web for some great articles that go into this process in detail. If you can, take a workshop or course from him or buy his book Strategic Project Management Made Simple. A lot goes into logical frameworks. Here, I will write about one of the key elements of strategic project management.

As with any good problem solving method, you first want to identify the objective you really want to accomplish. This will take some effort—in the past you may have given in to the temptation to use the assignment given to you by your manager as your objective. The real objective will usually include something about your customer. In the hearing aid world, you want to improve the lives of hearing aid wearers. Your manager may have assigned you to reduce the background noise in the hearing aid. The assignment will help you improve the lives of hearing aid wearers, but it may limit your thoughts when you seek a solution to the noise problem if you focus only on reducing background noise. When you have determined this desired objective, you write it in the form of a verb and object phrase, preferably with a subject, too. Choose your words carefully because those words will bias your thinking. For example, Sonic Innovations has the mission: “Improving life through enhanced hearing.” Keeping that in mind helps every person in the company understands their role and responsibility in the company and on his or her project.

After you have identified your core objective, you will want to break it down to the purpose of your project, the outcomes you want to have, and the key action steps required to accomplish those outcomes. For each of these you will also determine how you will measure your success, how you will verify that you did succeed, and what assumptions you will need to make sure get cleared up to ensure success. In all this planning, always keep in mind your high level objective, otherwise you may ignore some very important ideas you could bring to the world.

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