Life is open book, so why do we memorize?

When I think back to my public school education, I try to determine how it prepared me for my life. What was the one class I took that was pivotal in making me a successful adult?

My success can't be due to math classes. In fact, I have a confession to make. I still haven't memorized the multiplication tables. The system I use, is to pick an easy number, and work from there. So if you ask me what is 7 times 7, I don't pull the answer from memory. I know that 6 times 6 is 36, so 6 times 7 is 42, because if I add another 6 to 36, I have 42. If I add 7 to that, the answer is 49, which is the same as 7 times 7. I can also work with large numbers this way. My system relies on a broad view, not on the details of the numbers.

When I was attending college, calculators were allowed in math tests, but not notes. So I would use a scientific calculator, and save the equations in the text function. I had a hard time memorizing long equations. When I sat for my Project Management Professional certification, I memorized the equations, and as soon as I sat down, I wrote them on the index cards provided by the test monitor. Whenever I need them now, I reach up to my bookshelf and look them up. Some would argue that I may not have a calculator at the moment I need to do the math, and memorizing the equation helps you better understand why the calculation is the way it is. This may be a valid point. If this issue comes up once in my life, I will reconsider memorizing the equations.

Some people refer to the above approaches as common sense. Which is something we don't seem to teach anymore. We line kids up in rows, and teach them all the same stuff. Our focus appears to be on having children pass standardized tests, but life isn't standard. Life is far from standard.

I slept through English. My vocabulary and grammar are honed from a voracious appetite for reading. I'll read a cereal box at breakfast if there's nothing else handy. Make me pancakes and invite me over, you can see for yourself. Ask anyone who knows me. I read. And then I read some more. Now I also write, which is very similar to reading.

In many ways we have a world of knowledge at our fingertips. We are able to quickly find answers to the most trivial questions within seconds by using our cell phones. Is your refrigerator broken? Look up the solution online. Do you have an ache or a pain? Look it up. We can scare ourselves half to death by typing our symptoms into WebMD. Admit it. You've done this. I have.

Before computers, books were our sole source of information. Many of us would walk to the library, search the index cards for the subject we wanted to learn about, write down the book location on a scrap of paper using a stubby pencil, and wander off down the aisles hoping to find the book we needed.

Before libraries, it was even harder to retain knowledge, since books were expensive and heavy. Of course our ancestors lived in a primarily agrarian society, so all they needed to know was what a weed looked like, and what was a vegetable. No one had to find a book to figure out how to kill a deer for food. Life was simpler.

Before a written language became common, many civilizations used songs to transfer information. The Mongols had a simple tune (sometimes called a ditty) they used, and would just add verses with the information they wanted to transmit. Everyone knew the tune, and the new orders were communicated by having the messengers learn the new verses.

Some historians think the tune they used was actually the Flintstones theme song. Imagine that bad song plant. Endless hours of riding horses across the steppes, marauding, killing, sending refugees running in fright, with the Flintstones running through your head. "Kill them, just kill them, we're a modern marauding family. From the, town of ..." you get it. (This song will now be in your head for a few hours. Thank me.) Years of this song would make you hungry for warfare also. The birth of the printed word has almost ended all of that.

So as I think about this more, what was the single best class I took? What time investment did I make in K-12 that made the largest impact on my life? Besides lunch, I'd say it was typing. These days it is called keyboarding, but when I was in school, computers were ... different than that they are today. I am now able to bang out a quick e-mail, text message, or blog. I can almost type... I mean keyboard, as fast I think. Well, almost.

What was your most valuable class from growing up? Feel free to comment. And if you like this post, please subscribe using the buttons on the right, and share with your social circle using the buttons below. Your friends will thank you, and think you are real smart.

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The middle class author is emerging

I love to read Penelope's blog, until I don't anymore. Then a few months later, I read her blog again and love to read it. And this cycle repeats.

Penelope's Guide to Blogging | Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist

When I started blogging in November, I was just playing with social media, getting a better understanding of how they all relate to each other. Suddenly, my traffic doubled, and I started having fun.

I haven't picked a main theme yet, but do have topics I enjoy writing about. I'd write more about office politics, and management dysfunctions, but it might sound too real to people I work with who may read this blog. So for now, I pick a topic that interests me, and just dump my words on the paper.

Writing my blogs have been great for helping me get my thoughts down in a coherent format quickly, and I think my writing overall has improved. I have two books kicking around in my head, where they've been waiting for the right time to come out. A few weeks ago, I started writing one of them. I won't provide any teasers, but my honey loves me, and if it sucked she'd have told me when I read her the first chapter. But she said it was real good, so I will keep writing.

I know a literary agent, and he once said that in order for a book to be successful, it must be about dogs, self help, weight loss, sex, exercise, or business. We once sat on a sailboat during a sailboat race without wind, and tried to change the "or" to "and", coming up with a book that was about dogs, self help, weight loss, sex, exercise, and business. It was very hard to mold these topics into a story.

The other book bouncing around in my head is a business book, outlining how to perform specific processes in project management. I can probably get it on paper in a few weeks of part time work, and self publish. But one successful author of a business book (Peter Taylor) I corresponded with, provided me an outline he used to get a book deal, and invited me to write my idea in his format to submit to a publisher. He also said not to write the book until I had a publishing deal. I haven't done this yet. Indecision is the key to flexibility. 

Penelope would disagree with his wanting to use a publisher. Her New rules for self publishing blog post outlines the cold hard facts. Publishers help very few people get their books published. Self publishing is a perfectly viable path for writers.

Think of what MySpace and iTunes did for musicians. They created a marketplace for a middle class of musicians to gather a following, and sell their music. I really believe that self publishing, and digital distribution will do the same for writers. People who can write engaging and/or useful stuff, will be able to make a living writing. 

What do you think? Is self publishing a viable option? If I author a book, would you be interested in buying it? You'd probably want to know what it's about first, and I understand this. I promise it will be good.

If you like this post, feel free to use the clever social media buttons below to share this.

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The self-sufficient individual and bureaucracy

In 1984, northern New Jersey experienced some of the worse flooding the area had ever seen. At the time, I was a Private First Class in the NJ Army National Guard. I was called up on state disaster orders, and spent about 5 days as part of a team evacuating people from their homes.

It was a surreal experience, sitting in the passenger seat of a 5 ton truck as we drove on what we hoped were streets. I had two jobs while the sergeant drove, one was to help him identify where the road hopefully was, and to keep an eye on the floor of the truck to monitor how much water was coming into the floor drain holes. Yes, the water was coming into the cab through the floor drain holes.

At one point in Pequannock Township, the wake from our truck blew out several store windows. I bet that wasn't something the store owner ever expected to happen. Many of the visuals are etched clearly into my memory. An old man weeping, and saying "I lost everything" as we helped him into the back of the truck from a rescue boat. A couple waving from their window yelling for rescue. A flat bottomed rescue boat loaded with people, one holding a cat in her arms. The cat freaked out and tried to jump. The woman stood up to control the cat. The boat broached, filled with water, and dumped everyone and their possessions into the water. I still see that cat fighting to swim as the current swirled it away along with all of the luggage.

At the time, I was frustrated. People had been warned the waters were going to rise, yet many stayed behind in their homes. Some had to be rescued in dangerous conditions. Our lives were put in jeopardy from the poor choices the residents made. At least that was how I felt then.

As I grew older and gained perspective, I realized that these people were protecting their property. Like the old man who was weeping, everything most of these people had was in their home. What would you take with you if you had to leave?

I thought of this past experience as I read Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers. This book is about a Syrian born contractor named Zeitoun, married to an American woman, with four children and a thriving business.

As Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans, Zeitoun's wife and four children left to stay with friends. Zeitoun stayed behind to protect their home, the several rental properties they owned, and their business. The author wrote the book from the perspective of Zeitoun, and from the perspective of Zeitoun's wife. Then he went and found many of the people who were in the story to get their accounts of what happened, and the pertinent facts were confirmed by the interviews.

In a nutshell, Zeitoun spent his days after the levees broke paddling his canoe around the neighborhood. He fed abandoned dogs, coordinated rescues for neighbors who stayed behind and had run out of food and water, and checked on his properties. In his travels, he tried several times to flag down the heavily armed "rescuers" who were buzzing around the city in boats. They didn't stop to see what he wanted or needed. According to his account, at one point, he headed to a hospital, and armed National Guard soldiers aimed rifles at him, and warned him off.

Zeitoun and three other neighbors were meeting on a daily basis to share stories of the people they had assisted, and to coordinate the use of one of the guy's boats for rescuing neighbors who had run out of water or patience. The home they met at was a rental owned by Zeitoun, and one of the men was his tenant. Each day Zeitoun would call his wife to provide an update. About 8 days after the levee broke, armed soldiers entered the home, and without any explanation, hauled the four of them off. Two of them were of Syrian descent, and the other two were your typical Americans. Zeitoun and his three friends were held for 28 days without the benefit of legal counsel, or a phone call, and for about a week without any protection from the elements.

I don't want to give too much of the story away, but it was amazing to Zeitoun how quickly FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security could construct wire confinement areas, and all of the infrastructure to cage people in such a short time. The government was also able to lease jail space, establish transportation routes, and process detainees. Yet the feds never thought to focus these resources on saving people in the flooded areas, or on moving supplies to the stadiums where they told people to evacuate to.

I am in no way removing any culpability on the part of the local and state government in what I am writing here. It has been almost 6 years, and residents are still waiting for someone else to rebuild their homes for them. But we'll leave this topic for another time.

This book was a chilling read. I always think that when the chips fall, our fellow citizens are the people wearing the uniforms. Our neighbors will have empathy, and be the people coordinating our rescue and relief in an emergency. Just as it was in 1984 when we went into the neighborhoods we were familiar with to rescue our neighbors. After reading this book, I lost much of my confidence that citizens would be anything more than objects to be dealt with by a cold and bureaucratic government.

I have been pondering what right the government has to forcibly remove someone from their home, if the residents are staying in it willfully. One of the book genres I like, are ones of rescues on the seas, as well as pretty much any story about humans against the elements. This led me to think about the many stories I read, and some of the aspects of rescues.

In the times before EPIRBs and satellite communications, when someone got in trouble, the odds were against their survival if they couldn't fend for themselves. Being lost for months at sea was not uncommon, and often times people would just turn up months after they were given up for dead. Even back in the old days, if a rescuer offered assistance, and the person in trouble declined, they did this at their own peril. Rescuers will not return for a second attempt.

Technology has provided the ability for people to call for help from anywhere on the planet. In fact, you can purchase a personal emergency locator beacon to take hiking with you, just in case you get lost in the woods and need to have a helicopter come save you. Is your life worth $370? I would probably die from the humiliation of getting lost in the woods.

Several of the books, including Perfect Storm, outlined how the Coast Guard would offer rescue, and if the people on the vessel refused assistance, the Coast Guard would let the vessel captain know that if they refuse now, they would not return later. The captain of the vessel would have to put on his big boy pants, and make the decision right away, and live with the consequences of the decision. Or in some cases, die with the decision.

So how should the policy differ in the case of a flood? If a citizen decides to stay behind, isn't it their choice? But if the choice is made to stay, they need to be prepared to face the consequences, if a later rescue would jeopardize the lives of the rescuers. Some may argue that allowing people behind allows for the opportunity to loot. Would you loot if you were left behind? I wouldn't. So why should we assume anyone else would loot?

As I thought about the story, I began to see the difference in why the response to Hurricane Katrina was so impersonal, and the response to the floods in New Jersey were much more personal. When the federal government declares an area a disaster, FEMA steps in, and takes over all... yes, all agencies and efforts. This bureaucracy assumes command of all of the local first responders (like your local police), the state relief agencies, all public transportation facilities, and coordinates with the local prisons to deal with the criminals they expect to arrest. They generally have little or no ties to the victims, other than they are all "items" that must be put in their proper place.

This dawned on me as I thought of my time in the National Guard later in my career. I was serving in a unit that ran simulations for state and federal agencies to train them in how to deal with disasters. The computer spit out reports of victims, displaced people, food shipments, disasters, crime, and all of the bad stuff that can possibly happen in the aftermath of a disaster. This is what these people became accustomed to, and they were trained to not just be ready, but to expect the worst.

Having to transport, feed, house, safeguard, and protect citizens became a theoretical exercise. The humanness of the victims was lost in the bits of data, and paper printouts of the simulation. When all you know how to use is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. I began to see how jails were built before people were fed. Few of the feds left the command centers, and all of their information probably came from network news, which of course only reported the crime.

So what is the take-away from all of this? Read this book, and then be prepared to fend for yourself in the case of an emergency - the government responds in days when hours count. Have food and water on hand to last you and your family a week. Designate an easily identifiable landmark well outside of the area where you live as a rendezvous point in case you are separated from your family during an emergency. Have a plan for how to deal with pets, and keep a bail out bag handy. The bailout bag should contain a few basic items of clothes, and some of the basic necessities. Keep a copy of any prescriptions in it. And don't panic. Being prepared for the bad stuff should make you calmer, not more nervous. 

So many books, so little time...

Back in April, my honey and I were excited to have a buyer for our home, and were looking forward to getting out of the tyranny of NY. We ended up escaping to the hope and change NJ Governor Chris Christie was offering. Of course, with both of us from NJ originally, this was a return home in many ways.

As Project Management Professionals (PMP), we approached the move in a way that comes naturally to us - as a project. We went through our house, noting what we hadn't used in a long time, and decided to sell as much as possible to save the cost and effort of moving extra stuff. We then estimated how many boxes of stuff we had left, and how this translated to boxes. We then determined how much time it takes to pack a box, and from this calculated how long it would take us to pack. Pretty simple.


One of the categories of items we decided to sell was our massive book collection. I'm not sure how we accumulated so many, but as a couple without a television connection, books and reading are a passion for us. We have a great collection of reference books, and along the way we picked up a wide array of other types of books. 


Most of the time we use the library for our reading material. But where we lived in Rockland County, we were treated as pariahs in the member libraries, forcing us to drive to Spring Valley to get books out. If you've never been to Spring Valley, good for you. So we ended up with books.


I started selling them on Amazon.com, where I have had much success in the past. The collection quickly decreased, and as it decreased, I consolidated the books, and began to disassemble the empty shelves for the move. As the move date came closer, I had about 15 books that wouldn't sell - at any price. So my honey mentioned this to a friend, and she told me about Paperback Swap. 


I read the information related to the site and how to become a member, and decided to give it a try. The concept is pretty simple. A member offers 10 books online. This entitles the new member to 1 credit. As they ship any other books, they receive an additional credit. These credits are used to order books from other members. The person shipping the book pays the shipping, so you pay for your books to go elsewhere, and when you order a book, that member pays to ship to you. Shipping is via Media Mail, which is a little more than $2 a book. 


It took about 3 weeks for 12 books to be ordered from me. I shipped them out, and watched the credits accrue. I packed a small stack of unwanted books with the keepers, and we got ready for our move. After we moved, I began to order books with my credits. It has worked great for me. I have a small stack of unread books, and as I read them, I repost them to the site, and as I ship them, I get more credits. 


Check the site out - www.paperbackswap.com, and if you register, please credit "surlyrider" as the person you learned of this site from, and I will get book credits for each of you. This is a much better way to get a book than buying them at full price. They hae an inventory of almost 5 million books. I still use the library, Bergen County has a great system, but this site has provided me with many great reads. I can take my time with them, and if traveling, can swap them on the road, and keep reading. 


Give it a try, if you like to read, it is a great resource.