Thursday, October 11, 2012
Friday, September 14, 2012
Building Computers
I'm attempting to showcase Emily's new build and the process behind it. One could dedicate a whole gigantic post with lots of numbers and specs, but I'm trying to keep it simple; we'll see how that goes... If you're interested in building your own pc, here are a few links to get you started.
What's inside your computer?
Power Supply (PSU). The single most important part of your computer. The first thing you should never, ever cheap out on. Remember, this part is the one powering the rest of your expensive components. A cheap or faulty power supply puts your entire computer at risk. There's two things you need to keep in mind when looking at power supplies: 1. Wattage and 2. Efficiency. Wattage is how much power the PSU is rated to supply to all of your parts. A typical low-end non gaming computer can get by in the 350 W range. A typical mid-range gaming computer wants about 500-600 W, and a high-end rig with multiple graphics cards can climb into the 750W ++ range. Efficiency is the other thing we want to look at here. I won't get all electrical engineer on you right now, but converting from AC power (what comes out of your wall outlet) to DC power always has some power loss. Say your supply is 80% efficient ("80 Plus" is a standard certification for power supplies, don't get one that doesn't have it). This means that your PSU will pull 100W from the wall to supply 80W to the computer. Cheap power supplies can dip into the 50s percentage-wise; a zone you don't want to be in. I could go on forever about power supplies alone, but long story short: never cheap out on a PSU, know your load demand, get an 80 Plus certified unit. I promise not to nerd out for the rest of the components, I swear!
Motherboard. This is the part that everything else goes in. It's the second-most important part of your computer, after the power supply. The motherboard is the foundation of your computer; you want the best foundation possible. Your motherboard dictates everything in your build: what kind of processor you can use, what kind of memory you can use, graphics card(s) capabilities, how many hard drives you can use, how much room you have for expansion, etc. After not cheaping out on a power supply, getting a solid motherboard is the next thing to not cheap out on. Spend good money here...if you lay a good foundation down, you can always upgrade the processor later, get a new graphics card later, add more memory later, etc. If you plan ahead, getting a future-proof motherboard can lengthen the longevity of your system by years.
The processor (CPU). This guy's the brains of your computer. I won't delve into how they work or everything they do, just know that this part is the guy who does all of the thinking. Dual core processors are pretty standard for your low-mid range PCs these days. They handle all of your standard computer uses with no issues (they're completely overkill for your Office/email/web browsing everyday user). A bit more money gets you into the quad cores, which can, as the name suggests, do twice as much thinking as the dual does. These are great for doing multiple intensive things at once (I've compressed a video for my tablet while playing a video game with no significant slowdowns in either). You can go past quads into the realm of stuff like Hyperthreading and whatever stuff AMD puts out there (I haven't been an AMD guy forever...), but I'll leave that to you and Google if you're really interested.
RAM (memory). This is the short-term memory of the computer. All of the temporary stuff that your computer needs fast access to sits here. The more you have, the more tasks your computer can hold on to at once. This storage, though, is not persistent; when the power goes off, the information inside goes away. It's cheap as heck nowadays, one can find 8 GB for < $40 no problem. There are different kinds and different speeds of memory, and lots of numbers that would take another post to explain, but unless you're doing some overclocking, as long as you match your memory to your motherboard's requirements, you're good to go.
Hard Drives. These guys are your long-term permanent storage. You've got two kinds: your regular old mechanical hard drives, and your solid-state drives (SSD). Your standard mechanical drive is cheap, high capacity, and slow (compared to SSDs). They basically have a super-dense CD/DVD/whatever you want to imagine inside, that spins around and has a mechanism that reads data off of it. If it's not fans that are making the noise you hear, it's going to be the hard drives. A few years ago, along came the SSDs. These guys are (ballpark-similarity) like RAM that doesn't clear when you turn the power off. They're much more expensive (dollars per gigabyte) compared to regular hard drives, but are significantly faster. Noting the properties of each of these kinds of storage devices, it's becoming more common to put your operating system and programs (that you want super-fast access to) on an SSD, and store the rest of your programs and files such as music, videos, and documents on a mechanical drive. This allows for super-fast loading into your operating system, nearly instant loading of programs, and faster load times on video games. SSDs are becoming much more cheaper as time goes on, but to give a comparison, a good quality 128 GB SSD goes for ~$100, and Emily's computer has a good quality 1 TB (~8 times larger) hard drive that was $80.
Graphics Card. This is the guy that processes and outputs everything you see on your screen. It's becoming extremely common for processors these days to have built-in graphics (integrated). Integrated graphics are great for everything that your average user does. They are (mostly) terrible for (modern) games. And you wouldn't try to run something like CAD on one, either. There are too many kinds to go into any detail (a common theme I keep repeating, eh?). The offerings go from super cheap cards for computers that don't have integrated graphics, to low-end (<$125) cards good for playing today's games at ok settings, mid-range ($150-$250) that play today's games at good settings and spank yesterday's games, to your high end ($300 per card) setups that max today's games without breaking a sweat. One can do crazy things like daisy-chaining multiple graphics cards together to get more performance, or have multiple-monitor setups that stretch your games across multiple screens.
So now you're thinking one of two things:
Emily's New Computer
We can go on to what I made for Emily. The first thing I did when planning this build is found out what she wants. I can do a really good job on judging what she needs. It's very important to find out what the user plans to do with their computer. In this "field" of building computers, too many people confuse want and need. Users want, builders need (unless the person is the same). Emily's usage: your standard web browsing, emailing, video watching, office programs, some programming/web design, and a few games. All but the last function could be preformed on a $300 computer. But a $750 computer could be really shiny and neat! STOP. She doesn't need that. She's not going to have 6 hard drives, expansion cards for 14 USB ports, and a toaster. She plays one video game, with very middling graphical requirements. She wants a not "gigantor" computer. It's not supposed to look gaudy or flashy with tons of fluorescent lights and weird colors.
I started with a rock-solid power supply. Gave a little bit of wiggle room with the amount of power it can supply, one that will handle anything and everything she throws at it. Keeping the small theme, I decided on a mITX motherboard (it's about 7"x7", much smaller than your regular motherboards are). I went with a higher-end motherboard that had built in Bluetooth and WiFi. Due to the small form factor of this kind of board, there's only one slot for a graphics card, and no other expansion slots for stuff like adding a wireless card. Since she's not a super-big gamer, one graphics card is enough (it's enough for 95% of gamers, anyway...) Still, it's a very high quality board with the capacity to use much more high-end parts than she currently has. We went with a dual core processor for now, since that does everything she needs very well; an upgrade to a blazing-fast quad core processor is nothing more than a credit-card bill and 2 minutes of work away. She used the same case I used in my new build because she liked it a lot. I tried to reuse her old graphics card from her previous computer, but since it was a half-size card, it wouldn't fit without some creative bending. Since I'm the electronics pat-rack that I am, I just happened to have an old GIGANTIC graphics card in my stash of spare parts that I lent her (pictures to follow). It's old, it runs hot and noisy, but it'll kick the pants outta anything she does. Still, the system I chose allows her to go wild and throw a $400 graphics card in there if she so desires.
If all of these words made no sense to you, have some pretty pictures!
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the finished computer in its natural habitat, but I can get some of those later!
What's inside your computer?
Power Supply (PSU). The single most important part of your computer. The first thing you should never, ever cheap out on. Remember, this part is the one powering the rest of your expensive components. A cheap or faulty power supply puts your entire computer at risk. There's two things you need to keep in mind when looking at power supplies: 1. Wattage and 2. Efficiency. Wattage is how much power the PSU is rated to supply to all of your parts. A typical low-end non gaming computer can get by in the 350 W range. A typical mid-range gaming computer wants about 500-600 W, and a high-end rig with multiple graphics cards can climb into the 750W ++ range. Efficiency is the other thing we want to look at here. I won't get all electrical engineer on you right now, but converting from AC power (what comes out of your wall outlet) to DC power always has some power loss. Say your supply is 80% efficient ("80 Plus" is a standard certification for power supplies, don't get one that doesn't have it). This means that your PSU will pull 100W from the wall to supply 80W to the computer. Cheap power supplies can dip into the 50s percentage-wise; a zone you don't want to be in. I could go on forever about power supplies alone, but long story short: never cheap out on a PSU, know your load demand, get an 80 Plus certified unit. I promise not to nerd out for the rest of the components, I swear!
Motherboard. This is the part that everything else goes in. It's the second-most important part of your computer, after the power supply. The motherboard is the foundation of your computer; you want the best foundation possible. Your motherboard dictates everything in your build: what kind of processor you can use, what kind of memory you can use, graphics card(s) capabilities, how many hard drives you can use, how much room you have for expansion, etc. After not cheaping out on a power supply, getting a solid motherboard is the next thing to not cheap out on. Spend good money here...if you lay a good foundation down, you can always upgrade the processor later, get a new graphics card later, add more memory later, etc. If you plan ahead, getting a future-proof motherboard can lengthen the longevity of your system by years.
The processor (CPU). This guy's the brains of your computer. I won't delve into how they work or everything they do, just know that this part is the guy who does all of the thinking. Dual core processors are pretty standard for your low-mid range PCs these days. They handle all of your standard computer uses with no issues (they're completely overkill for your Office/email/web browsing everyday user). A bit more money gets you into the quad cores, which can, as the name suggests, do twice as much thinking as the dual does. These are great for doing multiple intensive things at once (I've compressed a video for my tablet while playing a video game with no significant slowdowns in either). You can go past quads into the realm of stuff like Hyperthreading and whatever stuff AMD puts out there (I haven't been an AMD guy forever...), but I'll leave that to you and Google if you're really interested.
RAM (memory). This is the short-term memory of the computer. All of the temporary stuff that your computer needs fast access to sits here. The more you have, the more tasks your computer can hold on to at once. This storage, though, is not persistent; when the power goes off, the information inside goes away. It's cheap as heck nowadays, one can find 8 GB for < $40 no problem. There are different kinds and different speeds of memory, and lots of numbers that would take another post to explain, but unless you're doing some overclocking, as long as you match your memory to your motherboard's requirements, you're good to go.
Hard Drives. These guys are your long-term permanent storage. You've got two kinds: your regular old mechanical hard drives, and your solid-state drives (SSD). Your standard mechanical drive is cheap, high capacity, and slow (compared to SSDs). They basically have a super-dense CD/DVD/whatever you want to imagine inside, that spins around and has a mechanism that reads data off of it. If it's not fans that are making the noise you hear, it's going to be the hard drives. A few years ago, along came the SSDs. These guys are (ballpark-similarity) like RAM that doesn't clear when you turn the power off. They're much more expensive (dollars per gigabyte) compared to regular hard drives, but are significantly faster. Noting the properties of each of these kinds of storage devices, it's becoming more common to put your operating system and programs (that you want super-fast access to) on an SSD, and store the rest of your programs and files such as music, videos, and documents on a mechanical drive. This allows for super-fast loading into your operating system, nearly instant loading of programs, and faster load times on video games. SSDs are becoming much more cheaper as time goes on, but to give a comparison, a good quality 128 GB SSD goes for ~$100, and Emily's computer has a good quality 1 TB (~8 times larger) hard drive that was $80.
Graphics Card. This is the guy that processes and outputs everything you see on your screen. It's becoming extremely common for processors these days to have built-in graphics (integrated). Integrated graphics are great for everything that your average user does. They are (mostly) terrible for (modern) games. And you wouldn't try to run something like CAD on one, either. There are too many kinds to go into any detail (a common theme I keep repeating, eh?). The offerings go from super cheap cards for computers that don't have integrated graphics, to low-end (<$125) cards good for playing today's games at ok settings, mid-range ($150-$250) that play today's games at good settings and spank yesterday's games, to your high end ($300 per card) setups that max today's games without breaking a sweat. One can do crazy things like daisy-chaining multiple graphics cards together to get more performance, or have multiple-monitor setups that stretch your games across multiple screens.
So now you're thinking one of two things:
- Wow, this guy knows a ton! This stuff is really neat!
- Or: zzzzz this is so dumbed down I fell asleep.
Emily's New Computer
We can go on to what I made for Emily. The first thing I did when planning this build is found out what she wants. I can do a really good job on judging what she needs. It's very important to find out what the user plans to do with their computer. In this "field" of building computers, too many people confuse want and need. Users want, builders need (unless the person is the same). Emily's usage: your standard web browsing, emailing, video watching, office programs, some programming/web design, and a few games. All but the last function could be preformed on a $300 computer. But a $750 computer could be really shiny and neat! STOP. She doesn't need that. She's not going to have 6 hard drives, expansion cards for 14 USB ports, and a toaster. She plays one video game, with very middling graphical requirements. She wants a not "gigantor" computer. It's not supposed to look gaudy or flashy with tons of fluorescent lights and weird colors.
I started with a rock-solid power supply. Gave a little bit of wiggle room with the amount of power it can supply, one that will handle anything and everything she throws at it. Keeping the small theme, I decided on a mITX motherboard (it's about 7"x7", much smaller than your regular motherboards are). I went with a higher-end motherboard that had built in Bluetooth and WiFi. Due to the small form factor of this kind of board, there's only one slot for a graphics card, and no other expansion slots for stuff like adding a wireless card. Since she's not a super-big gamer, one graphics card is enough (it's enough for 95% of gamers, anyway...) Still, it's a very high quality board with the capacity to use much more high-end parts than she currently has. We went with a dual core processor for now, since that does everything she needs very well; an upgrade to a blazing-fast quad core processor is nothing more than a credit-card bill and 2 minutes of work away. She used the same case I used in my new build because she liked it a lot. I tried to reuse her old graphics card from her previous computer, but since it was a half-size card, it wouldn't fit without some creative bending. Since I'm the electronics pat-rack that I am, I just happened to have an old GIGANTIC graphics card in my stash of spare parts that I lent her (pictures to follow). It's old, it runs hot and noisy, but it'll kick the pants outta anything she does. Still, the system I chose allows her to go wild and throw a $400 graphics card in there if she so desires.
If all of these words made no sense to you, have some pretty pictures!
Front view of the computer. The case is ~ 10"x16"x14"
Inside. Power supply is on the bottom left, above it is the motherboard, and on the right: plenty of room for hard drives
Rear view. Power on the bottom, motherboard connections in the middle, and a nice big fan to keep it all cool
Oh snap, old graphics card was built for half-height ("desktop" as opposed to "tower") computers. Where's my pliers??
Never fear, some quick thinking (and prior experience with the case). Flip around that hard drive rack...
...and make room for my old GIGANTOR graphics card!
A rat's-nest of cables everywhere!
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the finished computer in its natural habitat, but I can get some of those later!
Friday, September 7, 2012
Hey it's Friday
Well shoot, I was linked to on Emily's blog today, so I had to figure out something to write about. If you stumble here from there, please let me know and leave any suggestions concerning stuff to write about. I swear, it seems like only people who I communicate with on a daily basis read my blog, so it kinda feels redundant.
Going to Ada this weekend to visit old friends and my brother who still goes to school there. Excited to see the little old place; it just felt weird not going back this year. Definitely miss being there, everything but the schoolwork! I really miss being able to walk everywhere, and have all of my friends super close by.
Something that's really effected me since graduation is the "security blanket" being in school afforded me. Being in school gave me a huge goal: graduation. If you've read my blog before, you've read about a lot of the struggles I went through in school, and graduating despite all that adversity is my proudest achievement in life. Some days when I'm feeling down, I look back and think about how poorly I did in school, or what opportunities I missed out on in school. It's so hard to not live without regret. I like this random saying (from where I can't remember):
It's hard to move past that mentality. It's toxic, but at the same time, reminds you to live. I've posted this picture before (from my super-duper ADD-countering little notebook):
It sits on the inside cover of the little book I carry in my pocket every day. Every time I open that book to write down some trivial task I'd forget otherwise, or to record my gas mileage, or to hold on to some random brilliant thought that would otherwise escape me, it reminds me. It reminds me that the past is over, the future will come, but that I need to live where I'm at, right now. My past is behind me, my future is in front of me.
Back to that safety blanket thing (I always go off on a tangent...). That huge goal of graduating...it's what kept me going throughout school. I struggled a lot in school. I made bad choices. I didn't make a lot of friends. I was afraid to live. I felt like I was fighting myself (subtext: I had to not only fight the difficult coursework, but my ADD as well). That singular purpose of not only getting that piece of paper saying I had finished my coursework, but beating myself, was so huge, that it pushed me over the top. I got that diploma. Even with my bottom-of-the-barrel shitty GPA, nobody could take that away from me. Nobody could be happier than I was.
Fast forward three months. I don't have that goal anymore. I have an engineering job that pays well enough, but I don't like it. It's not in the field I want to be in, and every day I feel like all the hard coursework I went through was for nothing. It feels like every day its: wake up, go to boring dead-end job, come home, eat, sit on computer for 3 hours, sleep, repeat. That feeling of there being an end is gone. "Welcome to being an adult!" I guess? I have to go out of my way 99% of the time to stay in contact with my friends from school (almost never the other way around). Every time I try to start a new relationship, I end up pushing a friend farther away. I try to come home from work every day positive, so that I can keep the people I still talk to on a daily basis smile.
I feel so lost when I think about things. A lot of times I just like to shut down that part of my mind that thinks about things that aren't in the immediate future. But whenever I think about more than a week ahead, I feel terrible. So what I'm asking is: how do I get out of this rut?
Wow, outpouring of negativity. Very good for the random strangers that read this, right? HAPPY THINGS!
I went out to Pittsburgh last weekend, this time tohang out party with an old friend from school. Had a really great time, got to see other parts of the city that I haven't seen before. Reminds me more and more how boring Columbus was/is. Too much food, too much drinking, too little sleep. That's how you have fun, though!
Went out with Emily Thursday to pick up a part for her new computer that I'm building. Microcenter is such an awesome place to look around at. It's like clothes shopping for men. Only trying on stuff is a bit awkward there. :P
We have a case-copycat on our hands here! It's a really cool small case, though. So good choice! We went to a very yummy frozen yogurt place afterward. Cashier couldn't believe that we weren't a couple, insisted that Emily wait for me to pay. It's pretty funny when that happens, but as long as someone doesn't say we're a cute couple, I can laugh it off. She didn't want a sticker from there, though. Laaaaame. When asked, I was like "Of course!" I'm not weird :P
Uh, what else do I have to write about? I feel like I have a nearly weekly feature on Emily's blog about funny pictures? :P
Life advice and recipes involving paprika would be much appreciated right now, thanks!
Going to Ada this weekend to visit old friends and my brother who still goes to school there. Excited to see the little old place; it just felt weird not going back this year. Definitely miss being there, everything but the schoolwork! I really miss being able to walk everywhere, and have all of my friends super close by.
Something that's really effected me since graduation is the "security blanket" being in school afforded me. Being in school gave me a huge goal: graduation. If you've read my blog before, you've read about a lot of the struggles I went through in school, and graduating despite all that adversity is my proudest achievement in life. Some days when I'm feeling down, I look back and think about how poorly I did in school, or what opportunities I missed out on in school. It's so hard to not live without regret. I like this random saying (from where I can't remember):
"You will regret more in life the things you didn't do, rather than the things you did do."
It's hard to move past that mentality. It's toxic, but at the same time, reminds you to live. I've posted this picture before (from my super-duper ADD-countering little notebook):
It sits on the inside cover of the little book I carry in my pocket every day. Every time I open that book to write down some trivial task I'd forget otherwise, or to record my gas mileage, or to hold on to some random brilliant thought that would otherwise escape me, it reminds me. It reminds me that the past is over, the future will come, but that I need to live where I'm at, right now. My past is behind me, my future is in front of me.
Back to that safety blanket thing (I always go off on a tangent...). That huge goal of graduating...it's what kept me going throughout school. I struggled a lot in school. I made bad choices. I didn't make a lot of friends. I was afraid to live. I felt like I was fighting myself (subtext: I had to not only fight the difficult coursework, but my ADD as well). That singular purpose of not only getting that piece of paper saying I had finished my coursework, but beating myself, was so huge, that it pushed me over the top. I got that diploma. Even with my bottom-of-the-barrel shitty GPA, nobody could take that away from me. Nobody could be happier than I was.
Fast forward three months. I don't have that goal anymore. I have an engineering job that pays well enough, but I don't like it. It's not in the field I want to be in, and every day I feel like all the hard coursework I went through was for nothing. It feels like every day its: wake up, go to boring dead-end job, come home, eat, sit on computer for 3 hours, sleep, repeat. That feeling of there being an end is gone. "Welcome to being an adult!" I guess? I have to go out of my way 99% of the time to stay in contact with my friends from school (almost never the other way around). Every time I try to start a new relationship, I end up pushing a friend farther away. I try to come home from work every day positive, so that I can keep the people I still talk to on a daily basis smile.
I feel so lost when I think about things. A lot of times I just like to shut down that part of my mind that thinks about things that aren't in the immediate future. But whenever I think about more than a week ahead, I feel terrible. So what I'm asking is: how do I get out of this rut?
Wow, outpouring of negativity. Very good for the random strangers that read this, right? HAPPY THINGS!
I went out to Pittsburgh last weekend, this time to
Went out with Emily Thursday to pick up a part for her new computer that I'm building. Microcenter is such an awesome place to look around at. It's like clothes shopping for men. Only trying on stuff is a bit awkward there. :P
Uh, what else do I have to write about? I feel like I have a nearly weekly feature on Emily's blog about funny pictures? :P
Life advice and recipes involving paprika would be much appreciated right now, thanks!
Friday, August 17, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
TGIFF
My little bro had surgery this week to correct his Pectus Excavatum. It's a pretty invasive procedure, here's somebody's blog about it (WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES AND DESCRIPTIONS).
Here's Matt an hour after they wheeled him into his recovery room. Poor kid, the epidural didn't quite work all the way, so he was in some pretty intense pain after coming out from the anesthesia until they got things under control. He's gotten to sitting and walking, and he hopefully will be out of the hospital and home this weekend!
Got to go home the previous weekend to see the family and celebrate Matt's birthday before his surgery (his actual birthday is next Tuesday). Got to see my dog and cat, too!
Here's Matt an hour after they wheeled him into his recovery room. Poor kid, the epidural didn't quite work all the way, so he was in some pretty intense pain after coming out from the anesthesia until they got things under control. He's gotten to sitting and walking, and he hopefully will be out of the hospital and home this weekend!
Got to go home the previous weekend to see the family and celebrate Matt's birthday before his surgery (his actual birthday is next Tuesday). Got to see my dog and cat, too!
Sleeping cat picture
Oliver in one of his favorite chairs
Cat tolerating being held, just barely
Got woke up at 7 am Saturday morning to go around to garage sales all over Columbus. That's a bit more sleeping in than I do on the weekdays, but still not cool! My youngest brother, Mike, is obsessed with going to garage sales and thrift stores. He makes some pretty good money from this hobby, though (he mostly obtains old video games and collectible toys for resale). Got a pretty sweet Super Soaker out of the trip though! The Super Soaker is one of the really good old ones, pretty coveted, pretty rare. Got it for $5, could easily sell it on eBay for 5x or more the price I paid for it.
Me trying to look badass with my $5 Super Soaker
I won a contest recently, got ~$130 in free stuff. Nice to start building my own toolbox now that I've officially moved out and can't easily ninja dad's stuff anymore. Pretty nerd-cited (c'mon, it's a mashup of nerd and excited, it's Friday morning, gimme a break!)
I also got a Furby. I named it Geno. He is creepy. He had his batteries for a few hours before I got fed up. I have undefined plans on what I'm going to do with it. Probably put an Arduino in it and make it do....things?
I wub you
I hit 66666 miles in my car on Friday the 13th. I'm not superstitious, not one bit, but I found it funny. No completely black cats were seen that day, though I did play with a black and brown cat.
Went to a DMB concert with Maria over a weekend, had a blast! They had this neat photo booth that was powered by a bicycle! Also, Sonic Limeaide, uh, "special edition." YUM :DDD
Work is work. Not very exciting or where I think I want to be so far, but I feel lucky to have a well-paying job today. Life is life.
Been bouncing all over the place for the past month, looking forward to a weekend in which I get to stay at home and rest. (Yeah, I know right. Everyone's like, whaaaat, you're not going somewhere this weekend?). Time for cleaning, organization, and probably some boredom-induced tinkering.
Looking forward to next weekend, though! Going to the Steelers' training camp, never done that before. Also introducing Maria to the Dark Knight trilogy (she's never seen the first two!) before I go see The Dark Knight Rises again (trust me, you need to see the first two beforehand!).
Most of this post brought to you by Google+ Instant Upload.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Professionality
My dad was doing a
writeup for his team of engineers that he shared with me about what I'll call
"professionality." The writeup presents good tips and humor that
presents a sort of shaping guideline for professional success. I am
cutting-and-pasting it here, paraphrasing it, and adding my own quips to sort
of form my own.
Presence!
What we can all learn from mans' best friend:
Teamwork
Lessons from the behavior of geese:
Dilbert's "Salary Theorem"
states that:
"Engineers and scientists can never earn as much as business executives
and sales people."
This theorem can now be supported by a mathematical equation based on the
following two postulates:
Postulate 1: Knowledge is Power.
Postulate 2: Time is Money.
As every engineer knows:
Power = Work / Time
And since:
Knowledge =Power
And:
Time = Money
It is therefore true that
Knowledge = Work / Money
Solving this equation for Money, we get:
Money = Work / Knowledge
Thus, as Knowledge approaches zero, Money approaches infinity, regardless of
the amount of Work done.
Conclusion: The less you know, the more you make.
Communications
Clarity is
expertise. Dr. Beckwith was just a country doctor, but the people of
Tillamook County thought of him as a renowned expert. Why? Because he
communicated brilliantly – in language every injured Holstein farmer or truck
driver could clearly understand. Dr. Beckwith’s clarity made him more than an
expert. It made him the expert.
Clarity cuts through the fog and conveys your value to prospective customers,
to co-workers, to everyone you deal with. Clarity assures them that you will
not cloud or confuse the issue. Clarity helps move people from confusion, which
aggravates every person’s fear of the invisible or unknown, to confidence. To
be seen as expert, be clearer in everything you say. Source - What
Clients Love
Development
You might think that you get a
performance review once a year. Wrong. You get reviewed every day. It’s an
informal, unspoken review that you get in the hallways, team meetings and even
the bathrooms. It’s whenever, wherever, forever. Being watched is how high
potential people are identified. It’s the way low potential staff are
identified as well!
Whether you like being watched and judged or not, it happens. Do what you can
to have people see what you want them to see. It’s a challenge, but it’s also
an opportunity. Source – Executive Charisma
"If you can't do something smart, do something right." -Jayne Cobb, Serenity
Information
Asking
for Help. It is a strength to recognize
when you need help and that you ask for it! Many view this as a weakness, it
clearly is not. Don’t wait until it’s too late and you are already completely
submersed. There are many avenues you can approach; your team mates, your PM,
your Line Manager, your mentor, etc.
· Withholding information can be a very bad habit. Information
is power, and intentionally withholding information has the opposite effect of
adding value. Reflect on how you feel about these events:
· A meeting you weren’t told about
· A memo/email you weren’t copied on
· A moment when you were the last person
to learn something
Not sharing information rarely achieves
the desired effect. In order to have power, you need to inspire loyalty rather
than fear and suspicion. Here are a few unintentional ways of withholding
information:
· Failing to get back with someone
· Forgetting to include someone
· Delegating without proper explanation
So how
do you stop withholding information? Start sharing it!
The above is from the book “What
Got You here”
· Take credit for your work, not for work
of others. Always make sure you share the credit where credit is due. One may
think that creating the appearance of being in the know places you in an
elevated position with your manager, customer, or team mates. You can be
guaranteed that it will catch up with you and often at a moment where you will
be personally embarrassed.
“My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition.”
– Indira Gandhi
Assumptions
· Assumptions are wonderful things as
they enable us to move forward without having all of the answers in-hand.
Without assumptions, most of our efforts would be stopped dead in their tracks.
The danger of assumptions is in not communicating them to those who need to
know. Clearly communicate your assumptions to the appropriate party(ies) and
seek to validate them. The sooner you can validate an assumption, the less
likely that you will need to repeat any work or worse, have to start down an
entirely new path. Let your assumptions be challenged, and be open to the
challenges. And never, ever assume that the other party understands what your
assumptions are if you have not communicated them expressly and directly!
· -Career Tip: Project Emails (IEEE
Potentials, March/April 2009, Vol. 28, No. 2)
Negotiating Your Viewpoint
1. Talk less, listen more. The other person wants
to be heard. Encourage them to talk freely about their viewpoint. This will
provide you insights into why they feel they way they do. Chances are the other
person will reciprocate and be more attentive when you speak.
2. Don't interrupt. Interruptions make people angry and block communication. 3. Don't be belligerent. While it might be more difficult to be soft spoken than harsh, a soft-spoken approach encourages the same treatment from the other person. An argumentative attitude is rarely successful in changing another person's opinion. 4. Don't be in a rush to bring up your own points. As a rule it is best to hear the other person's full viewpoint before expressing your own. Ensure they are satisfied that they have stated their full case. 5. Restate the other person's viewpoint and objectives as soon as you understand them. People like to know they are being heard and understood. This is an inexpensive concession you can make. It forces you to listen better and helps you to frame your viewpoint in the other person's terms. 6. Identify the key discussion points you are interested in and focus on them. Cover one point at a time and avoid trying to overwhelm with arguments. Use evidence to support your viewpoint (e.g. knowledge, legitimacy, time and effort). 7. Don't digress. Try to keep the other person from digressing. It helps to agree on nonessential issues temporarily. Agree to postpone a seemingly difficult issue until later so you can focus on areas where you are more likely to gain agreement. 8. Be for a point of view -- not against one. 9. Instill satisfaction in the other party--satisfaction that you have heard and understand their viewpoint. This way if your viewpoint is the one that ultimately prevails, you will have strengthened your personal relationship with them. And set the stage for future discussions when your viewpoints again differ. |
Friday, July 6, 2012
Living with ADD
No pun intended here, but I've been getting distracted from writing this for a bit :P
As a note, I tend to say ADD. That term has not been "officially" used (by the DSM) since 1994. The disorders ADD and ADHD have been lumped into the general ADHD term, where there are different subdivisions or categories of ADHD. There is ADHD-PH (predominantly hyperactive, your stereotypical hyper-kid), ADHD-PI (
predominantly inattentive , your "old ADD," which I have) and ADHD-C (combination of PH and PI). So technically I was diagnosed with ADHD-PI (I don't exhibit enough of the PH symptoms to be considered ADHD-C), but I call it ADD to everybody because I'm not hyper (usually :P )
I'm hardly an expert now being just through my second week fifth week (see that distracted thing?) of my first "real" (i.e. non-summer) job, but I thought I'd start writing about dealing with ADD outside of school. Get this snowball rolling, see how big it can get, eh?
One thing I hate to hear is "I'm so ADD today." It's just not cool. Nobody says I'm so autistic today, or I'm so multiple sclerosis today. Too many people think they have ADD because they are easily distracted, or are too lazy to put forth a good effort. This disorder is so much more complex than just "mere" inattentiveness; it effects every facet of one's life.
What most people don't realize is that ADD is not pure inattentiveness, but rather a large combination of things that's symptoms primarily manifest in inattentiveness. I'll give my best analogy: ADD is like being in front of a wall of TV screens, each with different shows being played. You want to watch one of those screens in particular. ADD is the inability to tune out the other televisions. The ADD brain literally lacks the ability to filter out new information. Something pops up, it must be given attention now!
One of my biggest issues is a very poor "working memory" (wikipedia link). Basically, your working memory is your active, short-term memory. It's what allows you to add 1+2+3+4 and remember that 1+2 is 3 while you're adding 3 +4. It's what allows you to plan out your next sentence or two, while still remembering what sentence you're currently vocalizing. It's what lets you remember that your phone is on the counter while you're packing your lunch. These are all things I have trouble with. When you have problems with working memory, you have issues holding on to thoughts; it's almost like your memory "clears" itself. Let's say I'm adding 27 + 36 + 58 + 67. Do that in your head. I can guarantee you just did it at least twice as fast as I can. Why? Say I start to add 27 and 36 first. You should get 63. Good. Now go on to the next addition. Do whatever you want next. Say you add the 63 we just got to 58. That's 121. Add 121 to 67 to get 188. Simple math, any fourth grader should be able to do this stuff. I have a terrible time with it mentally. I have to do it on paper. The way my brain works, I simply have the worst time holding on to the the fact that 27 and 36 is 63 while at the same time adding something else. As soon as the brain goes on to the next task, it's as if the first one never happened! Now imagine dealing with tracing electrical subsystems like this (I'm fully aware of what building this is, it was the first plan I could find that was comparable in size to what I work with) at work every day, hour after hour...it's tiring!
That speech thing. Yeah, if you know me, you've definitely noticed I sometimes have trouble just spitting out a single thought. I've often described it as my brain going much too fast for my mouth to keep up with. I have issues getting out my current sentence when I'm thinking of what the next one is going to be. Maybe that's why I prefer to write and type and text and chat your ears (eyes?) off, rather than talk or speak on the phone. That forgetting things thing? Happens to me not as often as it could, mainly because of some compensation habits I've formed over the years. Ever wonder why I'm very, very neat, organized, and have everything clean? It's a compensation habit I formed to counter forgetting things and losing things. Everything of mine has its own specific place, and I know exactly where it is. If it gets moved, I am lost.
Things like my mom moving my lunchbag from the kitchen table to the stand next to the door in the morning - when it gets moved, it just ceases to exist in my mind. If there's a lunchbag where I last put it, I will remember it. If not, I tend to forget I ever packed it until I was halfway to school. Remember those times where I swore that I did something, over and over, but then later realize that I was talking about a different thing? Remember when I call one video game character by another name, over and over, but am actively thinking about the first one? Remember when I keep saying that I passed that restaurant the other day, and know exactly where I'm going, but only get corrected when I'm going in the wrong direction? I had the perfect directions, but I was thinking of wrong restaurant the whole time, even though we were talking about it on the way?
This also happens with homework, chores, a to-do list, you name it. I might walk in the door and tell you I'll do the dishes, but if I get distracted by something else, say a phone call, I will forget about the dishes until something clearly and loudly reminds me. To-do lists are both good and bad. I keep a small notebook on me almost 100% of the time in which I write down little things that randomly pop into my head ("buy tissues," "pay this bill," "call grandma," etc.) during the day. I would totally forget them otherwise, but writing things down is hardly a guarantee of them getting done.
Procrastination is a huge issue. You may say to me "but all people procrastinate! Especially students!" Good for them! When you're like me, procrastination is a serious issue. It isn't driven by laziness, or wanting to watch tv instead of finishing that assignment. It is driven (mainly) by an intense psychological aversion to tasks I perceive as difficult. For every hour you put into a homework assignment, imagine it taking you two, or three. That's me. Imagine for every set of forms you filled out, for every bit of studying you had to do, you had to work twice as long to get the same results. That's me. Now imagine a terrible, self-loathing downward spiral as your frustration builds in these tasks that are taking just too damn long. That's once again, me. The ability to re-focus on anything at that point is practically zero. Procrastination also comes with that huge adrenaline rush when you're right up against the deadline, working hard to finish your task. That helps get things done, and becomes a crutch. "Oh, I can do it later; it'll get done because it has to!"
Another related area is time management. I don't track time well. But I manage time very well. You give me an hour to get ready in the morning, I will take the exact and full hour. You give me 10 minutes to be out the door, I will be out in exactly 10 minutes. I'm capable of both. Other things, though, don't fare so well. Things without a specific time requirement are the devil! Read this book, go on the internet, clean your room. Things I think will take 30 minutes end up taking an hour, or two, or three. Writing this post took forever!
Quoting Dr. Hallowell's article I linked at the top of this post. I could paraphrase these thoughts, but they are so true and clear-cut that I'm just going to leave them as-is:
And finally, this is so very true. It's so true it hurts.
Quoting Dr. Hallowell's article I linked at the top of this post. I could paraphrase these thoughts, but they are so true and clear-cut that I'm just going to leave them as-is:
"In other ways it's like being supercharged all the time. You get one idea and you have to act on it, and then, what do you know, but you've got another idea before you've finished up with the first one, and so you go for that one, but of course a third idea intercepts the second, and you just have to follow that one, and pretty soon people are calling you disorganized and impulsive and all sorts of impolite words that miss the point completely. Because you're trying really hard. It's just that you have all these invisible vectors pulling you this way and that, which makes it really hard to stay on task. "
"What is it like to have ADHD? Buzzing. Being here and there and everywhere. Someone once said, "Time is the thing that keeps everything from happening all at once." Time parcels moments out into separate bits so that we can do one thing at a time. In ADHD, this does not happen. In ADHD, time collapses. Time becomes a black hole. To the person with ADHD it feels as if everything is happening all at once. This creates a sense of inner turmoil or even panic. The individual loses perspective and the ability to prioritize. He or she is always on the go, trying to keep the world from caving in on top."
"Often these people are highly imaginative and intuitive. They have a "feel" for things, a way of seeing right into the heart of matters while others have to reason their way along methodically. This is the person who can't explain how he thought of the solution, or where the idea for the story came from, or why suddenly he produced such a painting, or how he knew the short cut to the answer, but all he can say is he just knew it, he could feel it. This is the man or woman who makes million-dollar deals in a catnap and pulls them off the next day. This is the child who, having been reprimanded for blurting something out, is then praised for having blurted out something brilliant. These are the people who learn and know and do and go by touch and feel."
"These people can feel a lot. In places where most of us are blind they can, if not see the light, at least feel the light, and they can produce answers apparently out of the dark. It is important for others to be sensitive to this "sixth sense" many ADHD people have, and to nurture it. If the environment insists on rational, linear thinking and "good" behavior from these people all the time, then they may never develop their intuitive style to the point where they can use it profitably. It can be exasperating to listen to people talk. They can sound so vague or rambling. But if you take them seriously and grope along with them, often you will find they are on the brink of startling conclusions or surprising solutions."
And finally, this is so very true. It's so true it hurts.
"What I am saying is that their cognitive style is qualitatively different from most people's, and what may seem impaired, with patience and encouragement may become gifted. The thing to remember is that if the diagnosis can be made, then most of the bad stuff associated with ADHD can be avoided or contained."
Life makes it nearly impossible to focus on my strengths, or to even see them. I just have to work my hardest with what I've got, to keep up.
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