about changes in the market and drives innovation. Comes up with a lot of new and unique ideas; easily makes connections among previously unrelated notions; Is good at bringing creative ideas of others to market; has good judgment about which creative ideas and suggestions will work;
Roadblock – Shuts down discussions before they begin, focuses only on what has been done before, Closed judging language versus focusing on questions and learning
To this day, I am known for connecting people and seeking out relationships to work through challenges and opportunities. I stalked a person for a year, who is now a good friend, and more importantly, a master Organist… and knew some Bach works that I should feature this week…
Where I was raised in Texas, we didn’t do a lot Surfing…. but we did do a lot of water skiing. As I was graduating from High School, my parents bought a small “fishing shack” on a local lake – including a “ski boat”. It BARELY qualified, and probably by a factor of 10 to 1, I spent more time working ON the boat than USING the boat… but no matter. Like Surfing, the basic principles are the same – a wing gliding on top of the water, and unlike snow skiing, you lean back…
As I started this series on Surf music, today’s song is probably what came to mind first. The song—this version as well as cover versions—has been featured in over 20 films and television series since 1964, appearing at least once a decade since. You may not know the name of it, but the opening and ongoing drums instantly identify it as one of the most well-known songs of that era….
An exercise we did this week was to find a picture of ourselves before 10 – hopefully, around 6 or 8 – before many of the “worlds” voices have had a chance to change the “music” in your life. Pictures were posted of “little kids” invariably smiling, many of them twirling, dancing, playing… enjoying life. The concept is that is your natural self …
As I hope you have noticed, the “talent” that gave us Surf music came from all over. By the early 60’s, globally the availability of relatively inexpensive amps and guitars, along with the popularity of radio and TV created a tidal wave of kids trying to figure out how to put that all together into something that would Surf them into fame.
For this workshop, we needed at least 3 others who would contract to partner with us. “The Pod” had to commit to meet weekly for at least half an hour… and also to check in daily on our progress. At first, this seemed a bit over the top,
We were recently out at a pond with our daughter/granddaughters… and of course, we started skipping rocks. The delicate approach of first finding a smooth, flat rock, and then throwing it sidearm so it would land nearly parallel with the surface of the water came back to me….. after a few misses 😉 Watching the rock bounce 2, 3… 5… 15 times…
One of my favorite “memes” is Captain Piccard with his head down, captioned, “Damage Report Number 1”. Every day, a new wave crashes over us. I have at least stopped consuming ‘news’ ….as there isn’t much that is, and that that is… is mostly beyond my control… and reminded me of one of my favorite types of music and the perfect soundtrack for our times… so… Let’s Go Surfing!!!
I rarely run across a song and a group that I have never heard. And not bragging… just when you make it your business to notice and know music, it is a shock. Recently people have given me the tagline “… and his encyclopedic knowledge of music” It is why I love listening to Sirius XM Deep tracks… and Wikipedia 😉 Between them, I can still occasionally reward my brain with something that it has to process for the first time… and, wonder is something that only gets better when you use it… often…
As we deplaned in Atlanta, we were looking for directions to the private jets section of the Airport. Catching a taxi across the tarmac, we arrived where the Powerful people fly, and waited for our Division President to arrive. We were due for an important update on the project he was the Executive Sponsor for, and the only time we could find was to fly back with him from Atlanta to DC… So if you are wondering, we flew down from DC to fly back with him … to DC.
Having poured a good portion of my life into the “Circus” project over the last 6 years, I was not going to simply sit back. It may or may not have been renewing, but I stayed up all night polishing our “appeal” of the Division edict demanding the use of older hardware, and turned it into a Clever and compelling approach. The net was that we had a very cost-competitive bid because of the savings on ground systems, the easy access to commercial off-the-shelf tools, and the general market appeal of the PC. I walked our exec through it, but I couldn’t go with him. Imagine what that must have felt like to him – once again taking a Clever and risky approach into a President’s office…
The code name for the series of PC’s that were the centerpiece of our Space Station Demonstration Lab was appropriately: “Circus”. All the Clever code names were things having to do with “circus” – like the network was “Ringmaster”, which is what I had now become. Our proposal would incorporate all of the elements simulating execution of the whole computing infrastructure. We had Fiber Optic Networks, Color Displays, real-time test equipment, all coordinated with a simulation environment that leveraged IBM’s PC’s in every element. Sadly, we had just been told, our proposal was mandated to bid the Division Standard 1750 chipset – or don’t bid…
One of my constant refrains was “how can we compete with our cost structure so out of line??” As we had finished our prototype to great accolades, we were now in the process of putting together a real proposal to get this system sold and installed into the Shuttle. I priced out an “empty” box – that is NOTHING in it, and NO actual design work. In 1983, that was $250,000 for each piece of equipment, and a Non-recurring cost of over $4 million. Finally, someone pointed out what I was missing… and no wonder. “This is a cost-plus based business – your profit was 6% of your costs… “
August 18, 1981 would change the world – the day the IBM PC was announced. Built by a small, Clever team at their Lab in Boca Raton where Dad had worked when I was in junior high, the impact on all of us is still profound. For me specifically, I had grown up around microcomputers, having built one around the previous version of the Intel processor, and had been observing since then what would be coming. As I came home excited and talked about the new computer that we would get at home, my wife observed, “Does this mean we are getting a raised floor?”