Clarke Ching - More Chilli Please

Rude words ii

From today's times:

Pupils are being rewarded for writing obscenities in their GCSE English examinations even when it has nothing to do with the question.

One pupil who wrote “f*** off” was given marks for accurate spelling and conveying a meaning successfully.

His paper was marked by Peter Buckroyd, a chief examiner who has instructed fellow examiners to mark in the same way. He told trainee examiners recently to adhere strictly to the mark scheme, to the extent that pupils who wrote only expletives on their papers should be awarded points.

Mr Buckroyd, chief examiner of English for the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA), an examination board, said that he had given the pupil two marks, out of a possible 27, for the expletive.

You say potatoes, I say Feck off.

Different parts of the world have different reactions and beliefs to swearing.  I'm still surprised at the use of swear words on TV here in the UK.  It only happens after 9pm ... but I find it refreshing.  It's just a shame the English can't swear properly.  Well, not compared with the Irish anyway.

Contrast:

1 - My wife was visiting a friend in Ireland this weekend.  At breakfast on Sunday morning her friend's daughter announced that her mum's favourite word was "Bollocks". 
2 - Back here in Scotland ... when my eldest daughter was 2 she struggled saying words starting with the letter "J" and we got taken aside by her nursery one day and told that she had said the word "damn" ... which turned out to be "jam".  The nursery workers were horrified. We were bemused.  Now, three years later we are amused.

I'm really worried now though, because our youngest, currently 2, struggles to say words with "L" in them (she'd say "bite" instead of "blight", if her vocabulary was that large) and I have a watch which glows green in the dark.  A dangerous combination.  Each night when I put her to bed the watch glows in the darkened room, she spots it and she says, in utter amazement,  "Daddy.  You've got a green clock" which doesn't come out quite like that, but I can translate by putting the L back into Clock.  I'm not looking forward to the next chat with her nursery.  They already look at me funny.

Back in Ireland again, I find this quote from Ryan Air's Michaol O'Leary when discussing the possibility of Ryan Air doing transatlantic flights, just fantastically funny and witty: "In economy no frills; in business class it'll all be free - including the blowj**s".  Others no doubt will find it a bit rude and think I have a potty mind. You've gotta smile though, don't you, when you think of the adverts.

Back in Scotland, I still smile at the memory of when I first saw the sign in front of a BJ's Fruit and Veg shop in Stirling (home of Braveheart) which read "BJs - Fresh Daily".  I suspect I'm the only one who saw that sign and smiled. 

I still haven't figured out whether I'll remove the word "fuck" from my book.  I'm almost definitely relocating it back in either Scotland, Northern England or Ireland ... if I go with Ireland then I could also substitute "feck" which isn't quite the same, but it does flow easily in natural conversation.  Or, so I find.

shhhh

My little secret: almost everyone I know, knows more than I do, but they don't know it.  I'm scared what might happen if they figure it out. Don't tell anyone.

Ever have the same feeling? 

What is Inherent Simplicity?

Jack has a nice overview of Eli Goldratt's new book Inherent Simplicity.

The key idea of the book and TOC, for me, is that every complex situation is inherently simplicity (hence the title).  If you believe this then when confronted with a complex situation you will, because of your belief, go looking for the simplicity hidden in amongst the complexity.  You may find it easily, you may not, but if you don't go looking for it then you're very unlikely to find it.  Eli believes this, he says, because he is a scientist ... and that's just something scientists believe. 

I've heard Eli talk about this before, both in real life and on DVD, but it wasn't until I read the book that I realised something that is blindingly obvious in retrospect: both the complexity and the simplicity exist at the same time.  The complexity is easier to see because it is all around us.  The simplicity ... you have to go looking for it.

An example:

The next time you are flying long-haul whether it be on business or for pleasure, spend a little bit of time, looking for the complexity.  It's everywhere isn't it. You are sitting in a huge aircraft that took years to design and months or perhaps even years to construct.  It is made up of thousands and thousands of interacting components.  It flies through the air - something that seemed impossible a century ago even if it seems mundane today - carrying hundreds of people, each paying a different price and travelling from different origins to different ultimate destinations.  The pilots have hundreds of flying hours under their belts, with years of training.  They are supported by a trained crew, all of them pretending to be nicer and more tolerant than you'd expect of normal human beings, and by thousands of people working on the ground in dozens of different roles.  The minds does boggle at the complexity - the huge amount of detail.

Once you've filled your mind of all that detail ... go looking for the simplicity.  It's there if you go looking for it.  Ignore the thousands of components which make up the aircraft and think of the pilot who controls this beast.  Think of the joystick (do they still call it that?) and of how he or she can control much of the aircraft's movement with just a few pounds of pressure.  Think of the pilot engaging the autopilot with (I presume) a push of a button or two causing the aircraft to fly itself.  Just think of those two tools - the joystick and the autopilot - and what can be achieved by them ... and most of the complexity disappears ... even though ... it's still there. 

That's the point: you can look at the same situation and see both the complexity and the simplicity at the same time; you just may not see the simplicity if you're not looking for it.

Classic Music

When I talk about TOC and Agile I get all passionate and excited and my hands start to fly around all over the place.  I can't help it.  I find myself apologising for it, which I suppose is a bit daft.

Frank links to Benjamin Zander's excellent Ted Conference talk.  Go have a look ... you'll see an inspiring combination of passion, belief and skill that may just make your eyes water. 

The Theory part of Theory of Constraints - a new resource

The T part of TOC often gets overlooked.

Tom Kemp, a TOC thinker, emailed me earlier this week about a new TOC initiative he's working on:

I'm for a few people who really want to think about the Theory, rather than the practice, of TOC, but who also have deep knowledge of other areas such as mathematics or a scientific discipline. I'm personally missing the 'academic' component of my work (having come from a strictly academic background) and am casting around for people to get involved with thinking through some of the deeper, quieter issues with a view to writing some papers.

If this sounds like you then Tom has set up an online forum/wiki at tocwithacapitalt.wikidot.com.  Go visit or email him if you'd like to chat.

I know - from experience - that Tom knows his stuff.  He gave me some excellent feedback on my book.

Inherent Simplicity

Since some of you have asked:

Eli Goldratt's new book is called Inherent Simplicity.  It's not available to the general public yet, but it will be soon.  Let me tell you a little bit about it.  It's written as a novel, as usual, but it is quite different to Goldratt's prior business novels.  It's written from the perspective of Efrat, who is trying to understand how and why her father - a business genuis - thinks so differently to everyone else.  Although Efrat's father is never named, he is obvious Eli Goldratt. 

Inherent Simplicity is a magnificent book. I received it on Thursday and I finished it on Friday.  I'll probably read it again next week.  I didn't realise it until I finished the book that 10 years ago - before I discovered TOC - I thought in a different (very differently) way to what I do know.  Some of Eli's ideas have obviously rubbed off as I've used his tools.  Don't get me wrong, I'm no genius, but there is a certain way of thinking that you learn from TOC that is different.  I couldn't see that, though, until I read the book.  The last 2 pages which sum up the differtent way of thinking, are fantastic.

I'm beginning to think of it as Eli's version of Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time", which a lot of people (me included) bought, but never read, let alone understood.  I read Inherent Simplicity with a strong TOC background ... and I had light-bulb moment after light-bulb moment after light-bulb moment ... I suspect that people who read it without the TOC background will struggle.  I hope not though.

The book isn't published yet but once it becomes available, I'll let you know.  If you are in the UK then I may even be able to procure a few early copies.  Send me a note if you are interested, but I can't make any promises.

Cash

I'm currently sitting on a picnic table at the Royal Highland Show reading Taiichi Ohno's book "Toyota Production System". As you do - call me old fashioned but there are only so many cows and tracters a modern man can look out with having to read a book written by a dead Japanese guy. If you are wondering ... it is 2 cows and 3 tractors.

I've just gotta share this bit from the forward - since everytime I reread it the world becomes a little clearer:

When asked, "what is toyota doing now?", Ohno answers, "all we are doing is looking at the time line from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducig that time line by removoing the non-value-added wastes."

Where would we be without books and blackberries?

How to achieve your goals by making someone else win ...

One-hundred-and-fifty years ago the stink from sewerage in London's Thames river was so bad that it the politicians decided, at long last, to do something about it.  Still ... they only became truly motivated once the stink made it's way into the House of Commons. 

You can learn a lot about getting your own way from sewerage: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4152023.ece. 

Google maps instructions

... 5. At the roundabout, take the 3rd exit 0.1 mi 6. Make a U-turn 0.1 mi 7. At the roundabout, take the 5th exit onto A904/Earls Rd ...

Make a U-Turn?