Don't Confuse Memo with Reality

Martial artist Bruce Lee said, "Observe everything, take what you can use."
All my adult life, I try to do that. I read books trying to find things that can help me in my career and in my life in general.

My wife works in a library. She came home one day and showed me a very small book. The book is Never Confuse a Memo with Reality (And Other Business Lessons Too Simple Not to Know) by Richard A. Moran; ISBN 0-88730-669-1.

Of all the self-improvement books I have read, this book inspired and helped me the most. It is full of wisdom; it communicated the wisdom succinctly. I pondered over writing my thoughts on what the author communicated, but decided against doing so. I contemplated about explaining them to my children, but decided against doing so. The reason: Whatever I try to do will just spoil the wisdom. What I decide to do is to copy down the ones that inspired me the most and put them in a place that is most available to me, so that I have access to them wherever I go.

Every bullet below is verbatim from the book.

Complaint
• If you're going to complain about something, have a solution in mind and make clear what you want.
• Never take a problem to your boss without some solutions. You are getting paid to think, not to whine.
• Never complain about jet lag.
Communication
• Learn how to give first-rate presentations so that the message you're trying to deliver is the same one the audience receives.
• Share the credit for successful projects and make sure everyone's supervisor knows of everyone's contribution.
• Brag about someone to another person; that someone is bound to find out.
• Learn how to run a meeting well, and learn how to prepare a good meeting agenda.
• When giving a talk or a presentation, always consider what thought you want the audience to walk away with.
• Create a great opening to speeches and presentations-use it often or until you get sick of it.
• A little self-effacing humor can be an effective icebreaker; just don't use too much.
• Whatever initiatives you are communicating, remember to tell your audience three things: What it is and why, how it will affect them, and when they will know more.
• Send thank-you notes to people who help you.
• Never try to accomplish more than three things in any one meeting.
• Ask questions at company meetings, but don't embarrass anyone.
Mind Set
• Worry more about implementation than strategy-it's harder to do.
• Develop a high tolerance for ambiguity-you'll be more satisfied.
• Never miss deadlines. Ever.
• Never in your life say, "It's not my job."
• Read your job description but never be restricted by it. Do what needs to be done.
• Learn what finished work looks like and then deliver your own work only when it looks the same way.
• Learn how to involve people in your work.
• Be honest with yourself about your strengths and weakness and manage accordingly.
• Being in the right place at the right time is never an accident.
• Never underestimate the ability of people to develop strange interpretations of anything you write, say, or do.
• Don't make people feel bad when they make a mistake.
Management
• Don't micromanage your people, your projects, or your own life.
• Make decisions in a timely fashion, even if you're not 100% certain that it's the right decision. Not deciding is a decision, too.
Priorities
• Focus on the most important things to do to help your department or organization to be successful. Don't focus on the easiest things.
Personal Protection
• Be prepared for performance reviews-do your own review in advance and give it to your boss.
• Always have an answer to the question. What would I do if I lost my job tomorrow?

Solving the Greatest Scientific Problem of the 18th Century

July 12, 2007

Every day in London, England by the Thames River at 12:55 p.m, a red ball climbs halfway up a mast, hovers there for 3 minutes, then ascends all the way to the top and waits another 2
minutes. At precisely one o’clock, the ball drops. The act has been in practice since 1833.

Madam Toastmaster, my fellow toastmasters, and most welcomed guests:

There is a story behind this and it is very relevant to you and me and everyone else. Let me tell
you the story. Since the ancient times when humans started to sail, people have been asking: "Where am I?"

We specify our location by a grid system; that’s longitude and latitude. The Latitude lines run horizontally. Each line is called a parallel. The Equator is the 0 degree parallel. The North Pole is the 90-degree north and the South Pole is the 90-degree south parallel. When you know your latitude, you know where you are North-South-wise.

The Longitude lines run vertically. Each line is called a meridian. There are 180 lines, i.e. 180
degrees, to the east and 180 lines to the west. When you know your longitude, you know where you are East-West-wise from the 0-degree meridian.

It is easy to find the latitude, because there is always a fixed reference point: The Sun is
almost always directly above the Equator and never wanders beyond the 23.5 degrees north and south. When you know the angle between the horizon and the sun , you know your latitude. That’s the technique Christopher Columbus used in his 1492 journey. In which he followed a straight path across the Atlantic by “sailing the parallel”.

To find the Longitude position is a very different story. Because there is no reference point: as
the Earth turns, the heavenly bodies you see change as the time goes, even if you stay at the
same place.

In a foggy day in 1707, four British war ships ran aground and killed nearly 2000 sailors in one
day, because they did now know their longitude position. All major European nations offered high rewards for a way to find the longitude. The British Parliament, in its famed Longitude Act of 1714, set the highest bounty of all, naming a prize equal to several million dollars in today’s
currency for a “Practicable and Useful” means of determining longitude. Finding the longitude
became the hottest scientific problem of the century.

Many great scientists tried to find a way to determine the longitude by mapping the heavenly
bodies without much success. Palatial observatories were founded at Paris, Berlin, and London for the express purpose of determining longitude by the heavens. They were not very successful.

Another approach was needed.

We know the Earth makes a turn in 24 hours and there are 360 longitude lines. 360/24 = 15.
Therefore, for every hour difference in time we have a 15-degree difference in longitude
position. If you are one hour off with your home port, you know you are 15 longitude degrees away from your home port. If the difference is 2 hours, it’s 30 degrees away.To know the time difference, you need to know the local time and the home port time.

It’s easy to know the local time—you set your watch to 12 o’clock noon when the sun is at the
highest point. It is not easy to know the time of the home port. The ship tosses around in the
ocean and makes all pendulums useless; the salty sea air rusts the watch’s components; the
drastic temperature changes at sea, make the watch gain or lose time accordingly. To make a watch that can withstand the hostilities of the sea and keep the time of the home port became the solution to the problem.

Many people have tried but failed. An English man, named John Harrison, designed and made a few watches that overcame those problems. Therefore, at precisely 1 p.m., all sea-going captains would set their watches when the red ball dropped to the Thames River. That’s the home port time. And, if you have a John Harrison watch, you can bring the home port time with you.

In 1773, Mr. Harrison was awarded the prize. Thus, by constructing watches that overcame the hostilities of the sea, a man with very humble upbringing and no formal education solved the greatest scientific problem of his time that is determining the longitude position.

The British government decided that the 0-degree meridian shall be the line running through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. In 1884, the International Meridian Conference declared this line to be the Prime Meridian of the world. To this east of this line is the East Hemisphere; to the west, the West Hemisphere. The space of the Earth is now defined. We say Iraq is in the
middle east and Japan is in the far east. It is with Greenwich’s point of view.

Since the time defines the position (or space), so is the space defines the time. Every day
starts at Greenwich, 15 degrees to the east, you are one hour ahead of the standard time; 15
degrees to the west, you are one hour behind. Thus, the world’s time and space are both defined by Greenwich. This is not because of the British Empire’s political or military power, not because of its many world-renowned scientists, but because of one English watchmaker, who had a very humble upbringing and had never had any formal education. He solved the greatest scientific challenge of his time. He is Mr. John Harrison.

Madam Toastmaster

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Longitude--The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time; Dava Sobel; ISBN: 0-14-025879-5