Category: Mindset

Mindset Monday: Practice Makes Perfect, or At Least Better. Part 1 of 2.

Earlier last week I opened a computer program I hadn’t used in a while. Even though it was a program I’d used frequently in the past, it took me a few minutes to get my bearings. I had to look through menus and find where the menu options and commands I wanted to use were located.

Fortunately, I was working by myself and had the time to rediscover where everything was located. Every program has a logic to how the menus are organized and how actions are named. I had time to remind myself of how all that worked.

But what if I had been asked to demonstrate this program for someone else. What if I had been asked to teach someone else how to use this program?

I definitely would need some time to practice.

It is not unusual to practice a skill.

It is not unusual for myself or anyone else, even though I know many people who expect themselves and everyone else they work with to load into personal memory the use of a program as quickly as that program loads into computer memory.

I believe this is a relatively new attitude. I recently read a book about couture sewing, which is very high-end and expensive sewing, usually done by hand. And the recommendation in that book was to practice on a piece of scrap fabric before working on the actual garment. It’s quite common for crochet and knit patterns to recommend swatching to practice the pattern with the yarn being used.

It’s not unusual in many areas of life for practice to be recommended, or even mandated. For high profile jobs in technology, classes and books will often recommend practicing before performing in front of crowds or clients. It is usually people who use technology only in passing who expect that no practice and no reminders are needed.

Monday Mindset: Help and hindrance, standards

At one time I read product standards as a full-time job. I left that job years ago but I still look at what standards a product says they comply with, or are expected to comply with.

Simplistic description of standards.

Many standards do serve a useful purpose: they set expectations for a product. Depending on the standard and who issued the standard, those expectations might cover safety, features, performance, reliability, or other things.

Some standards are free, some cost a bit to purchase, some cost hundreds of dollars to purchase. Some are fairly straightforward to read, some are very dense. The trickiest seem straightforward when reading them, except there are certain terms which have a specific meaning in the industry or market covered by that standard, and that meaning isn’t well known to people outside that industry or market.

Standards can become a hindrance when the market expects or insists a product has to meet a certain standard. A person might have a good product idea but find themselves in an industry or market where the required standard is very expensive to buy or very expensive to comply with.

Standards are by definition reactive and a reflection of the past. Standards describe what has already been made and how it should be made going forward. I don’t know of any standard which was written about an imaginary product, in the hopes someone would read the standard and create a product to meet that expectation.

Standards are a really good way to show the limitations of language in describing the world.

Standards are initially written with an ideal something-or-other in mind. As time goes by, there are revisions which are almost organic in growth. These revisions usually come from someone trying something which didn’t work, or didn’t work as expected.

If a standard is written very precisely and explicitly, it’s easy for someone to avoid if they want to: find a way to describe their product which is different than that precise definition. Then the standard doesn’t apply. And if the definition is written more broadly, then someone who wants to avoid it can argue about the meaning of the words or the intent of the writers. And the standard still might not apply.

Any product or facility which was built or designed more than five years ago, and is being held to a standard whose initial edition was written more than five years ago, will have at least one place where the language or practices have shifted and it’s possible someone could claim the standard possibly wasn’t being met.

The best way to I found to learn a standard is to write a summary of each clause. That’s also very painful and arduous.

Why am I talking about all of this?

I don’t get to turn my brain off because somewhere a product standard got mentioned. I don’t get to turn my brain off because a product says they comply with a certain standard. And I don’t get to turn my brain off because a product doesn’t say it complies with a certain standard.

Standards can be helpful. Like any other tool, they can also be a hindrance.

Monday Mindset: Technology which is supposed to be magic, isn’t.

I regularly talk to people who are frustrated the piece of technology they bought isn’t doing what they wanted.

I ask what they wanted. What they wanted is not what they bought because they wanted something which can’t be bought. They wanted to create something beautiful, they wanted to impress someone else, they wanted to make something people would pay money to buy, they wanted to make something which would have all the family names and family tree on it and “would bring the whole family together.” (Yes, those are all true stories and that quote is an actual quote from a conversation I had.)

The technology they bought was expected to do this, because — and that’s where the reasoning starts to get shaky.

Usually, if I ask long enough what the reasoning was I’ll find an assumption that the technology they bought should be able to do this because technology can do anything. Technology is magic.

But it really isn’t magic. Whether software, hardware, digital, electronic, old, or new, it’s a tool. It can help the user achieve a goal. The user still has to choose the goal. And that gets back to what is the goal and why is that the goal?

Mindset Monday: Know what you want to achieve before you start asking for assistance.

I often talk to people who say “Hey, you’re good at computers, how do I . . .”

Over decades of experience, I’ve learned to ask why they want to do whatever-it-is they are asking about.

Frequently the answer to “Why?” will reveal a belief that computers and digital technology are magic. They must be magic, because the questioner has no idea how it works, but the technology can do all these amazing things. Someone who can work with one part of the magic must be able to use any of the magic, right? The answer is “No.”

Usually the assumption isn’t exposed and challenged until it’s too late. A friend, co-worker, or relative was begged, cajoled, or drafted into helping with one technological project because they’re comfortable with a different type of technology. No set goal was specified. The person asking didn’t know what was reasonable to ask. The person trying to help wasn’t sure what was possible or how much effort and pain any of this would require, especially if it was a type of technology they weren’t familiar with. It ended with everyone being vaguely frustrated.

This is why ComputerGear has a t-shirt for sale which says “I’m a {Programmer}. I write <code>. I don’t fix computers.” and used to have a t-shirt which said “No, I won’t fix your computer.”

(Yes, I still need to look up what is the correct citation format for citing websites.)

Mindset Monday: The tool is not the skill.

Way back at the beginning of this blog, I wrote about the importance of knowing what I want to achieve when I start working with a piece of technology. That post was about the importance of knowing my goal and motive.

My post today is the importance of not confusing the tool with the skill. There are lots of drawing and art software programs available, but none of them make me a good artist when I buy them. There are lots of software programs for music and sound available, but none of them make me a good musician, composer, or sound technician just because I bought them.

Becoming good at a skill takes a lot of work. It takes practice, and research, and looking at other examples in that same field, and more practice, and more research. It’s a slow process. I have to put in the work. I can’t trade money for the software program or electronic gizmo or whatever and have that also be a trade of money for time and effort. The tool is not the skill.

Mindset Monday: Do some weeding on your technology.

I’ve often read it’s a good practice to look through all my online accounts. And then to see which ones are still active and where I can log in. Lastly, it’s a good practice to cancel any accounts which aren’t likely to be used again.

Those are all good practices. And they are things I don’t make a regular habit of doing.

In episode 388 of the Software Defined Talk podcast, Coté and Schafer had a different way of describing it. Systems which are never pruned and always grow would be called a tumor in the body. They suck up resources and create additional risks for the system in the long term.

Now I feel much more motivated to clean those old accounts and old programs. And yes there are lots of risks from old unused accounts hanging around. Those are accounts which can be hacked and it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have that risk for something which won’t be used again. I did know that, but I wanted to avoid weeding through my old accounts.

Mindset Monday: Occasionally Read the Experts

What makes someone an expert is often not only their skill, but their experience. This includes knowing what shortcuts to take, when, and why, and what shortcuts to avoid.

Being an expert can also include knowing what basic requirements of success are absolutely essential, but are often lost in the details. Or, they know how often the forest gets missed for the trees.

I just finished reading the book Couture Sewing Techniques, Revised and Updated by Shaeffer. Do I intend to make a couture garment? Not any time soon. Do I intend to buy a couture garment? Not unless I have a lot more money than I have now. Did I learn anything useful? I sure did. Among other things, I learned some things about how shirts and jackets are supposed to fit when they fit correctly. I learned some things about making pockets.

The biggest thing I learned was why that level of tailoring and dressmaking costs so much: it’s not because of all the handwork, but because the handwork is combined with expertise in appearance and construction to make garments which are comfortable to wear and really flatter the wearer.

The word “technology” can apply almost any skill or craft. From the Online Etymology Dictionary, the etymology of technology:

technology (n.)
1610s, “a discourse or treatise on an art or the arts,” from Latinized form of Greek tekhnologia “systematic treatment of an art, craft, or technique,” originally referring to grammar, from tekhno-, combining form of tekhnē “art, skill, craft in work; method, system, an art, a system or method of making or doing,” . . .

D. Harper. “Etymology of technology.” Online Etymology Dictionary. https://www.etymonline.com/word/technology (accessed November 22, 2022).

For the purposes of this blog, I usually use “technology” to mean electrical, electronic, or computer technology.

But there lots of fields, lots of “art, craft, or technique” which have varying levels of skill and expertise. It’s still a human creating something. And the end user of the created thing is usually a human.

“If it’s expensive, it had better be comfortable for me to use, or make me look good in front of others”: that’s why it’s worth reading the experts.

Mindset Monday: What is being accomplished?

How it started

The other day I was talking to a small business owner and a couple of the small business’s employees. We were discussing local business, small business, and business in general.

I said that when it comes to technology and people with technological skills, I think there’s a question which is impolite but still important.

How many apps do we actually need?

Not as individuals, but rather as users existing within a technological system. Specifically smartphone apps, which seems to be most of what programming and company announcements and startups are focused on currently, “and we created a new app for that,” how many apps do we actually need?

The small business owner replied that he has about fifteen apps to run his business and it seems like each one has its own associated fee.

How it’s going, now that I’ve thought more about this

Fifteen apps, which I’ll use as a starting point. Fifteen user IDs, fifteen passwords, fifteen apps to keep updated, fifteen apps which can break if an update goes wrong, and so on.

No, I’m not advocating for one-stop-shopping all-in-one apps that contain everything and do everything. Those work wonderfully until that one things breaks and then everything breaks. That’s why I stopped using PDAs back in the Palm Pilot days.

What I am advocating is for all of us, myself included, to stop and look at the technology we use from time to time. How much of what I use or have downloaded or installed is to monitor or fix a potential problem created by something else? Or if the potential problem isn’t directly created by something else, how much of it is created by my bad habits using something I already have?

What is actually being accomplished?

Mindset Monday: Don’t let technology destroy your physiology

I’m not merely a brain. I have a body too. Technology is usually designed to be useful in the moment for its purpose. It’s not designed to keep the user’s body in good shape during an extended period of use.

I’ve been working at a computer a lot the last couple of weeks, and I can tell. I’m taking extra time to stretch my back and shoulders, and to rest my eyes.

My goal when using technology is to get done with a project and move on with other parts of my life, pain free.

Mindset Monday: What is old might be new all over again.

Every skill has multiple levels to it. I learned to write in school and did fairly well with school assignments. Learning to write emails while I was working in office jobs required learning new things about a skill I thought I knew. I’ve written in different ways for different reasons since then, each time I learned something new about a skill I learned a long time ago.

Technology is like that in two ways.

Being comfortable with technology, learning new technology, deciding what I will and won’t trust technology to do is one skill. And it’s a skill that has new levels every few years.

Learning how to use a particular piece of technology is also a skill in which I find new layers every few years. This last week it was a camera. I’ve enjoyed taking pictures for over 30 years. I’ve used this particular camera for well over a year, maybe two or three years, and have taken many photos with it. And I still found something new to research and try.