Process Control
I may have taken a break during the holidays (hard to babysit a 3-year-old and work, too), but Terry Blevins got a post in on process characterization. A second one went up this morning.
Don’t Be an Idiot
Julien Smith nails it–how to recognize an idiot. He concludes:
Look, here it is right here. Everyone needs to get better at the following phrase. Repeat it out loud with me now and use it 5 times today.
“I don’t know.”
“I haven’t really informed myself.”
“I wish I knew more about that.”
You see how you’re not stupider, smarter, or anything after using that? You see how no one ridicules you? Get used to that phrase, people, because it’s true about almost everything.
We need to do ourselves, our peers, and everyone in our lives a favour and stop being proud of our own ignorance. Maybe read a book, even. Learn a thing or two before we open our mouths.
The world would be a better place.
Economics
From an article in the Asian Times, “Capitalism: Getting it right” by Martin Hutchinson.
“The German economic model works very well for a country with perpetually high labor costs. Education and training are of great importance, as are engineering skills – engineers have a much higher social position in German societies than in Anglo-American ones – while housing finance is given a low priority, since it is correctly regarded as unproductive.
“Finance plays little role in the system – it was notable during the 2008 debacle to what extent the German banks were helpless victims of Anglo-American shenanigans, with little creative role of their own. The typical successful German company is both smaller and longer-established than its US counterpart, with powerful shareholders who prevent management from engaging in self-dealing and mindless empire-building.”
Maybe a focus for 2011, let’s promote the value of engineering.
