Listening to Mandarin (2008-01-05/04-20)

Today I am intrigued by juxtaposition of contrasts in spoken (and written) Chinese:

• to ask, "Is it?" say shì bú shì (是不是), putting "is" next to "isn't";
• to refer to "thing," say dōng xi (东西), putting "east" next to "west";
• to ask, "How many?" say duō shao (多少), putting "many" next to "few"; and
  
• to refer to "size", say dà xiǎo(大小), putting "big" next to "small."

Though not in this blog's goal list, "Chat in Mandarin" is my 2008 non-work mental challenge. I listen daily on my 30 GB iPod to Instant Immersion Mandarin Chinese or Pimsleur Chinese (Mandarin) I, usually while doing 30 minutes of moderate activity. I chose Mandarin because Asia would be new to me and because there are perhaps 1.05 billion speakers. It's the language with the most native speakers (followed by Spanish and English, which I already speak)--an order of magnitude more speakers than other Chinese languages like Cantonese.

I've written about mental self-improvement several times. Recent research into neuroplasticity suggests thinking, learning, and acting actually change the brain. One of the activities Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot: Unleashing Your Brain's Potential consequently encourages is memorization. Since Mandarin is not in the Indo-European language family like Spanish and English, it poses a memorization challenge for me (though thankfully not due to noun declensions or verb conjugations).

An additional memorization challenge is learning Chinese characters or hàn zì (汉字). In fact, some recommend against learning characters at first; others think writing is the main reason Chinese is so hard. (In contrast, to me the four tones don't sound hard so far.) I am studying an average of one simplified character and compound per day from Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters Volume 1: A Revolutionary New Way To Learn And Remember The 800 Most Basic Chinese Characters.

For flashcards I enter hàn zì into Zhongwen Development Tool (zdt)，a program discussed in Chinese forums that has a plug-in to search the CEDICT Chinese-English dictionary. I also downloaded a Pimsleur word list for zdt. The zdt stores hàn zì, pīnyīn romanization, and English definition. Other information (e.g., Learning Chinese Characters visual imagery), I enter into Mnemosyne.

Instant Immersion Mandarin Chinese came with Talk Now! Plus software from Eurotalk Interactive. However, both of the SourceForge programs (zdt and Mnemosyne), like the Pimsleur language learning system, use spaced repetition techniques (an idea I first encountered in Tony Buzan's Use Both Sides of Your Brain). Mnemosyne uses an early version of (and simpler interface to) the SuperMemo algorithm discussed in this month's Wired.

This juxtaposition of modern research and tools with an ancient language and writing may help my memory, but it also provides direction for travel. True immersion may be available in the People's Republic of China, where the official language is Standard Mandarin and the government uses simplified characters.

Reading Agile Software Development with Scrum (2007-12-17/2008-01-01)

"Scrum is built on an empirical process control model which is radically different from the defined model that most processes and methodologies use."
--Ken Schwaber and Mike Beedle, Agile Software Development with Scrum

This past month I attended a Seattle XP Users Group meeting, read Agile Software Development with Scrum (one of two books that are primary sources of information about Scrum), and toured SolutionsIQ (a Seattle-area Scrum training and consulting firm). I wanted to see how my company's experience with small teams compares with our colleagues' in the industry. We'd been using agile development methodologies and tools since before starting the company, due to reading Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change, Planning Extreme Programming, and similar books by Kent Beck and Martin Fowler.

Readers of this blog may recognize in agile development methodologies the management paradigms I profess. My management methods led my company to agile development methodologies like Scrum and Extreme Programming. My blog posts on management books provide the following principles:

1. Update opinions from observations. ("The Map is Not the Territory.")
2. Develop a culture of interdependence. ("Mature from Dependence to Independence to Interdependence," and "People are smarter than you think. Give them a chance to prove themselves.")
3. Prioritize what's important. ("Good is the Enemy of Best.")
4. Jointly determine the course. (See The 8th Habit.)
   
5. Set up and manage systems to stay on course. (See The 8th Habit.)
6. Focus talents on results, not methods, then get out of people's way and give help as requested. (See The 8th Habit.)
7. "Never automate something that can be eliminated, and never delegate something that can be automated or streamlined."
   

The principles above aren't articulated in industry terms, however. Specifically in software development these principles lead to the following practices:

1. Inspect results and update process.
2. Rely on people.
3. Work on highest priorities.
4. Teach self-managing teams.
5. Improve processes.
6. Remove impediments.
7. Automate testing.
   

These practices are agile:

1. Agile Software Development with Scrum emphasizes empirical process control.
2. Agile methods have a people-first orientation.
3. Product backlog and sprint backlog are prioritized.
4. Scrum uses self-managing teams.
5. Extreme Programming suggests various process improvements like spike solutions, coding standards, continuous integration.
   
6. A Scrum Master uses a daily stand-up meeting to learn impediments to remove them.
7. Extreme Programming emphasizes automated unit (and acceptance) tests.
   

I would list examples from our experience (e.g., engineering estimation, comparison to CMM Level 2 and key process areas, serving manufacturing clients, consensus decision-making) but this blog post is already long. However, I'll write that I'm pleased with how agile practice embodies good paradigms and principles.

[Updated FAQ link.]

Reading Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar (2007-12-25)

A New York boy is being led through the swamps of Louisiana by his cousin. "Is it true that an alligator won't attack you if you carry a flashlight?" asks the city boy.
His cousin replies, "Depends on how fast you carry the flashlight."

--Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes

Confusing the cause of an alligator attack is an example of post hoc ergo propter hoc, a fallacy that Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar describes in chapter II, "Logic." (It is a minor spoiler to opine that the punchline of the best post hoc ergo propter hoc joke is, "'Schmuck, that's the way you wave a towel!'") Logic is one of ten topics in the book that together give an overview of the story of philosophy. Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein summarize major schools of thought in each topic, and illustrate them with interspersed jokes. I read their book--a gift from Ryan--on Christmas Day at our apartment and friends'. I found it funny, and finished wanting more details on some philosophers--or at least more jokes.

Reading The Four Pillars of Investing

With relatively little effort, you can design and assemble an investment portfolio that, because of its wide diversification and minimal expense, will prove superior to most professionally managed accounts.

--William J. Bernstein, The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio

A neurologist from Oregon seems an unlikely candidate for financial author and theorist. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that William J. Bernstein, Ph.D., M.D.--author of The Intelligent Asset Allocator: How to Build Your Portfolio to Maximize Returns and Minimize Risk and The Birth of Plenty : How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created--contrasts much of his financial advice with conventional wisdom. He writes, "Your social instincts will corrode your wealth by persuading you to own what everyone else in the market owns."

Of stockbrokers Bernstein writes, "He also occupies the lowest rung in the hierarchy of investment knowledge." Of the financial press he writes, "Ninety-nine percent of what you read about investing in magazines and newspapers, and 100% of what you hear on television is worse than worthless." U.S. stock returns are a "random walk" that no one can predict and few in the industry understand. (See the "drunkard's walk" in Conned Again, Watson!; this concept also inspired the title of Burton G. Malkiel's A Random Walk Down Wall Street, which I have borrowed from the Seattle Public Library or SPL.)

Perhaps some of Bernstein's assertions are not surprising: "Risk and return are inextricably enmeshed." While this stands in contrast to occasional low-risk, high-return offers, most readers know these to be too good to be true. Other authors, too, warn against overconfidence, Mistake 1 in Rational Investing in Irrational Times: How to Avoid the Costly Mistakes Even Smart People Make Today by Larry E. Swedroe (also out from the SPL). Edelman and Bernstein emphasize that "You are your own worst enemy."

However, unlike your coworker on the telephone daily with his broker (a broker who Bernstein writes "services his clients in the same way that Bonnie and Clyde serviced banks"), writers Edelman and Bernstein agree that "Stock picking and market timing are expensive, risky, and ultimately futile exercises." Edelman and Bernstein both follow modern portfolio theory; Bernstein especially believes the market is efficient. And in response to the high-fee funds recommended by your financial consultant, Bernstein warns, "The primary business of most mutual-fund companies is collecting assets, not managing money. Pay close attention to the ownership structure of your fund company and of the fees it charges."

Some authors--like Edelman--look at the 10.40% total return of the S&P Stock Index from January 1, 1926 to June 30, 2003 (while noting that past performance is no indication of future results). Bernstein, however, begins with Venetian prestiti prices from 1300 to 1500. "[T]he odds always favor data gathered over the longest time periods." He proceeds through economic history and then uses the Gordon equation to estimate the long-term expected return of the market as 6%.

Bernstein's combination of theory, history, psychology and business (the four pillars) is appealing to me because of its academic approach and statistical emphasis. The Four Pillars of Investing offers an intellectual investigation into the folksy advice to build portfolio income, written in an equally engaging style.

Rereading The Truth About Money Parts 2-5 (2007-10-11/)

Many people fail to save because they simply don't want to stop spending. Fine. Keep spending. In fact, I want you to.
Just change what you spend your money on:
Instead of buying a bottle of ketchup, buy Heinz stock.

--Ric Edelman, The Truth About Money

Like Kiyosaki, Edelman writes, "instead of buying things that later will have no value (like an empty ketchup bottle or a vacation), or virtually no value (like costume jewelry, clothing, or furniture), make sure the things you buy will retain and even grow in value." What are these things? Unlike a bottle of ketchup, there's no grocery store for investments. Parts 2 through 5 of The Truth About Money explain things that retain or grow in value, with many examples, graphs, and stories. (The cover is right that it's "personal finance that's fun to read!") This grocery store of investments has aisles for cash equivalents, income-producing investments, growth investments, and packaged products:

1. Cash Equivalents have little or no default risk. They can mature in more than one year--e.g., some bank certificates of deposit or commercial paper, U.S. EE Savings Bonds, U.S. Treasury Notes, and U.S. Treasury Bonds--or less than one year--e.g., checking accounts, savings accounts, money market funds, some certificates of deposit, and U.S. Treasury Bills. Ric recommends having six to twelve months' expenses available in less than one year, but otherwise avoiding cash equivalents because inflation erases their returns. Some cash equivalents have surrender charges and tax penalties--e.g., life insurance cash value or fixed annuities. These are not appropriate for cash reserves.
   
2. Income-producing investments are subject to default risk (indicated by the bond rating), event risk, and interest rate risk--which one can reduce by holding to maturity or hedging (e.g., with gold). Ric recommends favoring total return rather than rate or even yield. The Truth About Money discusses these income-producing investments:
   
• U.S. Government Securities include--in addition to cash equivalents--Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae, Sallie Mae, and Freddie Mac. A GNMA repays principal as well as interest, and can prepay in 12-15 years instead 30 years.
  
• Municipal Bonds may be (currently) income-tax-free, but Ric disputes the relevance of this--and the wisdom of insuring them. In addition, municipal bonds are often callable.
  
• Ric recommends against Zero Coupon Bonds because they give low returns, lack payment before possible default, incur taxes on phantom income, and are callable. He also discourages taking physical possession of their certificates.
  
3. Investments that confer ownership or equity instead of (or in addition to) income rely on growth for their value. The Truth About Money discusses these growth investments:
   
• Stocks grow in value, generate income, have returns that beat inflation, and have tax advantages (tax on capital gains is less than the tax on income or interest, tax isn't due until sale, and heirs don't pay capital gains tax). One can purchase stocks through brokerage firms, discount brokers, or dividend reinvestment plans. Although buying international stock adds currency risk exposure, Ric observes that the international stocks and companies are increasing in value.
  
• Real Estate investing adds diversity--but also hassle. For real estate investment Ric recommends lots of cash, for reserves and purchases.
  
• Collectibles don't make good investments due to the possibility of fraud or damage, and inability or unwillingness to sell.
  
• Hedge Positions could help insure against inflation (e.g., gold), deflation (e.g., bonds, dividend-paying stocks, and cash), recession (e.g., oil and gas, minerals, forest products), lack of confidence (e.g., real estate, gold, and precious metals), collapse of the dollar (e.g., foreign stocks and currencies), and stock market crash (e.g., selling short or options trading like covered call writing).
  
4. Just as a real grocery store has prepared foods, the investment grocery store has packaged products--which are really investment companies. These make investments affordable, liquid, diversified, and professionally managed. Open-end or mutual funds have an annual expense ratio and a sales charge (front-end load, back-end load, level load, or no-load). The Truth About Money discusses these packaged products, beginning with six mutual fund types:
   
• U.S. Government Securities Funds exist, despite the perception that mutual funds are mostly a method to invest in stocks. These include Ginnie Mae funds, zero-coupon funds, intermediate funds, short-term funds, and ultra-short funds. Related funds are adjustable rate mortgage funds and global government funds.
  
• Municipal Bond Funds include money market funds, single-state funds (to avoid state income tax), Puerto Rico funds (to avoid all income taxes), insured muni funds, and high-yield muni funds.
  
• High-Yield Corporate Bond Funds (in contrast with short-term and intermediate funds) invest in long-term speculative grade bonds. Investors thus face credit risk in addition to interest rate risk.
  
• Balanced Funds invest in four asset classes: cash and cash equivalents, government securities, corporate bonds, and corporate stocks. There are related fund types: Asset Allocation Funds add other asset classes, Growth and Income funds limit asset classes to stock and bonds only, and Equity Income invest in stocks which pay dividends.
  
• Stock Funds can focus on different categories of market capitalization, different sectors, or different indexes.
  
• International Funds are open-end or mutual funds available in a variety of types: global funds, international funds, single nation funds, regional funds, or sector funds.
  
• Closed-End Funds, while still investment companies, differ from open-end or mutual funds. Shares generally trade on a stock exchange rather directly with the fund.
  
• Unit Investment Trusts are the third type of investment company different from open-end or closed-end funds. They have a fixed portfolio and definite maturity date.
  
• Wrap Accounts are not investment companies but accounts that protect investors from unnecessary trading commissions. However, Ric lists "11 Reasons to Avoid Wrap Accounts."
  
• Annuities are available from insurance companies. Variable annuities are securities products, however. They provide tax-deferred growth and guarantees against loss (in the form of living benefits and death benefits) at the cost of fees similar to mutual funds, plus contract fees and mortality charges.
  
• Real Estate Limited Partnerships are companies that permit investing in real estate with less hassle (for the limited partners). The Tax Reform Act of 1986 retroactively classified their income as passive, so investors cannot deduct losses from active income.
  
• Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) are like Real Estate Limited Partnerships, except that they are publicly traded.
  

This ends the tour of the investment grocery store (complete with links to Wikipedia). See the book for more detail. And have fun shopping!

Rereading The Truth About Money Part 1 (2007-10-10)

It is for all these reasons--to protect against risk; to eliminate debt; you're going to live a long time; to hand such major expenses as children, college costs and weddings; to buy cars and homes; to afford a comfortable retirement; to protect against long-term care costs; and to pass wealth to your heirs--that you need to create a financial plan.

--Ric Edelman, The Truth About Money

Part I of The Truth About Money, "Introduction to Financial Planning," discusses the reasons one needs and wants money. Chapter 1 then lists "The Four Obstacles to Building Wealth": procrastination, spending habits, inflation, and taxes.

Imagine a raise of $100 per month invested in stocks producing a combined 10% return. As Kiyosaki writes, buy an asset the produces portfolio income. Investing $100 per month from age 28 to age 65 (e.g., now until 2044) would be a total investment of $44,400. Compounding would make the investment worth almost $414,000.

This scenario enables calculating an example of the four obstacles Ric Edelman lists:

1. First, reducing the years of contribution from 37 to 25 (e.g., now until 2032) illustrates the effects of procrastination. If the same investment begins at age 40 instead of age 28, the total contributions decrease to $30,000, while the investment value at age 65 decreases to a little more than $123,000. This is almost $291,000 less than original scenario!
2. Imagine celebrating the raise by buying a Starbucks Grande Caffè Mocha on the way to work each day, except two vacation weeks. This spending habit could reduce the $100 raise by about $67, leaving $33 per month for investment. At age 65 there would be almost $135,000, or $279,000 less than the original scenario.
3. The preceding examples ignore inflation. If inflation were nominally 3% per year, $1.00 at age 28 would buy as much as $3.03 at age 65. So the $414,000 at age 65 would only buy as much as $137,000 did at age 28. Inflation would remove more than $277,000 of purchasing power.
   
4. Finally, consider taxes. A $100 raise could have a marginal tax rate of 33%. Kiyosaki notes the US government taxes earned income the most. This could reduce contributions to $67 per month, less than $30,000 total. At age 65--ignoring capital gains taxes--there would be almost $279,000. Withdrawing from the investment each year to pay capital gains tax, however, would reduce the value to about $203,000, or about $210,000 less than the original scenario.
   

In summary, the example effects of the four obstacles to wealth are as follows:

1. Twelve years of procrastination reduces the value of the sample investment by $291,000.
2. A workday mocha spending habit reduces the sample investment by $279,000.
3. Three percent inflation reduces the purchasing power of the sample investment by $277,000.
4. Income and capital gains taxes could reduce the value of the sample investment by $210,000.

The conclusions appear to be start now, buy assets instead of consumable expenses, invest to beat personal inflation, and take advantage of tax deferral. These are beyond the scope of this blog post, however.

(The remainder of this post explains calculation details: As an example--not an endorsement--, First American Mutual Funds FSKSX had a past performance of approximately 10%. The calculations use 9.569% compounded monthly, with no volatility for simplicity. Each scenario has additional assumptions:

1. The future value (37 years * 12 months/year =) 444 months later of a $100 per month annuity at (9.569%/year / 12 months/year = ) 0.7974 % per month is $413,890.79. The future value of the same annuity only (25 years * 12 months/year =) 300 months later is $123,333.15.
   
2. On Capitol Hill, Seattle, 8.9% sales tax makes a $2.95 mocha cost $3.21. Five mocha purchases per week for 50 weeks of the year is an average of 21 mocha purchases per month. The average cost is then $67.41 per month.
3. The inflation calculation assumes 0.25% per month, which is similar to current values but low considering long-term averages. The present value of a future sum of $413,890.79 at a rate of 0.25% per month for 444 months is $136,590.49.
4. A "regular" employee who earns $30,651 to $74,200 per year in Washington state would have no state income tax, but would pay 25% United States income tax plus 6.2% for Social Security plus 1.45% for Medicare. For that tax bracket capital gains taxes are 15%. The calculation assumes this applies to all the gains, which is the worst-case scenario--but still has less effect than the spending habit or procrastination example.)
   

Reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad (2007-10-07)

If you want a lesson in confusion, simply look up the words "asset" and "liability" in the dictionary.... An asset is something that puts money in my pocket. A liability is something that takes money out of my pocket. This is really all you need to know. If you want to be rich, simply spend your life buying assets. If you want to be poor or middle class, spend your life buying liabilities.

Robert T. Kiyosaki, Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids about Money--That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

Being from a middle-class background, the subtitle of Rich Dad, Poor Dad caught my eye in the Barnes and Noble personal finance area Saturday. As several responses to Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight show, I like anecdotes. I read with interest Kiyosaki's contrast between his rich capitalist businessman dad and his poor socialist employee dad during his childhood in Hawai`i.

The folksy capitalist philosophy in Rich Dad, Poor Dad begins with an income statement and balance sheet. Kiyosaki simplifies each into two boxes with a line in the middle: for the income statement the line is horizontal, and for the balance sheet the line is vertical.

In the top of the income statement are earned income ("work for owner"), passive income, and portfolio income. In the bottom of the income statement are taxes ("work for government"), ownership-related expenses, and other expenses. Subsequent diagrams expand on portfolio income (dividends, interest, rental income, royalties), ownership-related expenses (mortgage payments, real property taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities), and other expenses (fixed expenses, food, clothing, fun).

In the left side of the balance sheet are assets which create income--your business, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, income-generating real estate, notes, and intellectual property. In the right side of the balance sheet are liabilities ("work for bank") which create expenses--consumer loans, credit cards, and mortgages.

Poor Dad says, "Go to school, get good grades, and find a safe secure job." In other words, concentrate on earned income in the top of the income sheet. Rich Dad says, "The rich don't work for money, they have their money work for them." In other words, concentrate on passive and portfolio income in the top of the income sheet--with passive income being faster. In the bottom of the income sheet, the government taxes earned income the most, and passive income the least.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad consequently characterizes classes using these boxes. The earned income of the poor pays expenses in the income statement and little affects the balance sheet. For the middle class, expenses and taxes rise with income in the income statement, as do liabilities incurred on the balance sheet. The income of the rich purchases income-producing assets, with less rise in expenses or liabilities. (For example, a corporation deducts expenses from income before taxation.) In this way they practice the "pay yourself first" advice of The Richest Man in Babylon.

The challenge is defining "your business." Kiyosaki writes, "If I have to work there, it's not a business. It becomes my job." Timothy Ferriss has similar suggestions for a "muse" in the "Income Autopilot" chapters in "Step III: A is Automation" of The 4-Hour Workweek.

The goal for both Ferriss and Kiyosaki is freedom. The latter explains his wants:

I want to be free to travel the world and live in the lifestyle I love. I want to be young when I do this. I want to simply be free. I want control over my time and my life. I want money to work for me.

Readers of this blog will recognize this desire to travel and live abroad.

[Added diagram and corrected word.]

Reading The Universe in a Nutshell (2007-09-14/18)

I have several scientific friends so I like to stay informed of recent theories. My physics familiarity extends from Newtonian mechanics to special and general relativity, but not beyond--and there have been more theories since I was in school. Consequently I selected one of Stephen Hawking's latest books, The Universe in a Nutshell.

I find I prefer science I can observe. Quantum scales are too small and relativistic scales are too large for me to see. (Though Arthur Eddington has observed the effects of general relativity.) In most of my life--except perhaps the night sky--classical theory is fine.

Nevertheless The Universe in a Nutshell was entertaining. I'm caught up, and relieved that superstring theory--which I missed entirely--may be superseded by M-theory anyway. I now know a generalist's overview of theoretical physics.

Reading Blink (2007-09-04/13)

Decisions are difficult. A good decision requires work; a bad decision brings consequences. More information sometimes helps, and--with the Internet--much information is available. However, consultant work gives me this perspective: more research delays a decision and increases its fee. Even if the decision is better as a result, the difference may be marginal and of less value than the lost time. During the delay no action is taken, which may have an opportunity cost. So I "sleep on it", stare out the window, or take a walk. I sometimes use these approaches--and my judgment--instead of additional information.

Malcolm Gladwell filled Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking with anecdotes and studies about the effect of additional information on decisions. Some people assume that additional information always improves thinking; Gladwell cites situations in which that is not the case. An example is classical music auditions, which were biased against women until held behind a screen. The additional visual information actually distracted from evaluating the performance.

In the Afterward, Blink asks "When to Blink--And When to Think." The initial answer comes from Ap Dijksterhuis' studies on "unconscious thought" (which BBC News and New Scientist have summarized): think about simple decisions, sleep on complex ones. However, further reflection leads Gladwell to two qualifications: unconscious thought requires training, and statistical summaries suggest significant factors.

Gladwell gives examples of effect on judgment, both good and bad. Training improves judgment in the battle of Chancellorsville and the Millennium Challenge 2002. Biases have a bad effect on decisions we make in the "blink of an eye"; examples are the shooting of Amadou Diallo and the results of an Implicit Association Test.

In addition to training, statistical summaries also improve decisions by suggesting significant factors. The Wages of Wins suggests it is difficult to estimate summaries from incomplete observations of small differences. A report from Cook County Hospital exemplifies how statistics can isolate the factors relevant to a decision.

Statistical summaries also have their role in my consulting. I just completed a project requiring analysis of millions of records I imported from daily data and queried for mapping and evaluation. I use statistics, training, and unconscious thinking to improve the speed of my decision-making.

Reading A Year of Adventures (2007-06-13/07-04)

I feel wanderlust and want adventure. Needing some plan, I purchased 25: Wildlife Adventures and A Year of Adventures: Lonely Planet's Guide to Where, What And When to Do It. The second book has sections for four weeks per month; each quarter also has a section of sevens--seven continents, seven summits, seven natural wonders, seven heavenly objects--for the "missing week."

If, for example, you have time off in December or January, you can turn to those months in the book. In each weekly section are several activities appropriate to that time of the year. Under each activity title is country, type of activity, fitness or expertise level, an explanation as to why that week is the best time, and a description. The following are examples (in late December and early January) of warm activities not requiring expertise:

• go to Micronesia,
• elephant trek in Mondulkiri Province,
• climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge,
• do canopy tours at Santa Elena,
• watch Jigokudani's snow monkeys,
• travel on an African truck,
• go to Robinson Crusoe Island,
• go to Queenstown, New Zealand,
• do gorilla tracking at Bwindi, or
  
• climb Sri Pada.

I found the entire book entertaining reading and read it straight through despite the arrangement. Many activities have seasons that span more than one month.

There's also a Web site with a search of G.A.P. adventures. For example, I searched for the following 15- to 20-day adventures between December 14 and January 8:

• wildlife/nature,
• trekking/hiking, and
  
• yacht/sailing.

The question that accompanies "Where should William go?" is consequently, "What should William do?"

[Corrected punctuation.]

Reading The 4-Hour Workweek (2007-06-19/20)

The 4-Hour Workweek borrows concepts from popular books like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Getting Things Done while adding an attitude of its own. This post compares and contrasts the time management advice of these three books:

1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (The 7 Habits) by Stephen R. Covey,
2. Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen, and
3. The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss.
   

The numbers below illustrate the areas of unique emphasis (1-3) as well as the areas of overlap (4-6) and an area all three books share (7).

1. The 7 Habits begins with principles and time management paradigms, and then proceeds to habits and time management tools. Previous posts have discussed some of these principles, but the concept most relevant to time management is Quadrant II. This concept affects the habits and tools Covey recommends.
   
   Covey notes that activities vary in both importance and urgency. Classifying activities as "Urgent" or "Not Urgent" and "Important" or "Not Important" produces a time management matrix with four quadrants (illustrated both in The 7 Habits and in First Things First). Quadrant I is important and urgent, Quadrant II is important but not urgent, Quadrant III is urgent but not important, and Quadrant IV is neither important nor urgent.
   
   The habit for time management is Habit 3, "Put First Things First". Habit 3 is based upon Habit 1, "Be Proactive," and--especially--Habit 2, "Begin with the End in Mind." "The basic problem is that their priorities have not become deeply planted in their hearts and minds," writes Covey. His time management advice is essentially, "Organize and execute around priorities." His top-down organization strategy begins with a mission statement, which defines roles, which have goals, which require plans, which become schedules.
   
   Covey also classifies time management tools into four generations: notes and checklists (first generation); calendars and appointment books (second generation); and priorities, goals, and plans (third generation). His fourth generation time management shifts emphasis: from efficiency with things and time, to effectiveness with relationships and results. "Subordinate your schedule to a higher value," he writes.
   
   
2. GTD approaches time management from the bottom up rather than the top down like The 7 Habits. The GTD approach is to deal effectively with internal commitments using simple tools. The problem, writes Allen, is new demands and insufficient resources. His process is managing action; time, information, and priorities aren't changed by management.
   
   Allen's tools are primarily notes, checklists, calendars, and appointment books--the first and second generations of Covey's classification. Similarly his plans are informal and focused on the Next Action.
   
   
3. The 4-Hour Workweek focuses on freedom, so its time management advice is in "Step II: E is for Elimination". Ferriss' question is, "How can one achieve the millionaire lifestyle of complete freedom without first having $1,000,000?"
   
   Since The 4-Hour Workweek is about freedom, and Step II is Elimination, Ferriss calls his chapter 5 "The End of Time Management." The chapter begins, "Just a few words on time management: Forget all about it." His strategy follows from the Pareto principle and Parkinson's law: focus on the vital few by shortening work time. His "Questions and Actions" pages elaborate on this principle by clarifying what activities really get one closer to goals in contrast to activities fill time and help avoid more important (and anxiety-producing) activities.
   
   
4. While The 4-Hour Workweek focuses on freedom, both Covey's The 7 Habits and Allen's GTD focus on peace of mind. For Covey, "Peace of mind comes when your life is in harmony with true principles and values and in no other way." Allen promises relaxed, stress-free productivity, a "mind like water." However, their paths to peace differ.
   
   Covey mentions crises more than stress. For Covey, crises are Quadrant I activities:

   [Effective people] also shrink Quadrant I down to size by spending more time in Quadrant II. Quadrant II is the heart of effective personal management. It deals with things that are not urgent, but are important. It deals with things like building relationships, writing a personal mission statement, long-range planning, exercising, preventive maintenance, preparation--all those things we know we need to do, but somehow seldom get around to doing, because they aren't urgent.
   

   For Allen, being stress-free also involves being prepared, but by being in control (see Ready for Anything as quoted in Wikipedia):
   

   Get everything out of your head. Make decisions about actions required on stuff when it shows up — not when it blows up. Organize reminders of your projects and the next actions on them in appropriate categories. Keep your system current, complete, and reviewed sufficiently to trust your intuitive choices about what you're doing (and not doing) at any time.
   

   Covey and Allen also both specifically address knowledge work. Covey's comments are in The 8th Habit.
   
   
5. Neither GTD nor The 4-Hour Workweek spend much time on principles and values compared to The 7 Habits . For Allen, values don't solve the problems of new demands and insufficient resources. For Ferriss, focus on values first requires free time.
   
   Allen writes, "And what created most of the work that's on those [to do] lists in the first place? Our values!" Priorities are also less important than context, time available, and energy available:

   "Setting priorities" in the traditional sense of focusing on your long-term goals and values, though obviously a necessary core focus, does not provide a practical framework for a vast majority of the decisions and tasks you must engage in day to day.
   

   Ferriss, rather than beginning with "big questions" of principles and values, ends with them in chapter 15: "Filling the Void: Adding Life After Subtracting Work." This chapter proposes "the point of it all" as "life exists to be enjoyed and... the most important thing is to feel good about yourself.... to love, be loved, and never stop learning...." This discussion borrows from Covey without attribution, also calling learning "sharpening the saw," Covey's 7th habit.
   
   
6. While The 4-Hour Workweek leaves values to the end, it begins with imagination and goal-setting in "Step I: D is for Definition." Ferriss, like Covey, starts with imagining a motivating state, both "being" and "doing", and sets goals to reach that end result. Both warn against expending effort that doesn't achieve that end. Covey writes, "It's incredibly easy... to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it's leaning against the wrong wall." Ferriss, like Covey, contrasts effectiveness and efficiency:
   

   Effectiveness is doing things that get you closer to your goals. Efficiency is performing a given task (whether important or not) in the most economical manner possible. Being efficient without being effective is the default mode....

   In The 4-Hour Workweek, the end is a state of excitement in the next 6 to 12 months. In The 7 Habits, the end is a life mission centered on principles. Nevertheless both emphasize the need for a motivating vision of the future.
   
   
7. All three authors--Covey, Allen, and Ferriss--discuss delegation. Delegation is both a part of work flow and a way to empower.
   
   Delegation plays a similar role in the work flow in both The 7 Habits and GTD. In The 7 Habits plans become either appointments to schedule or stewardship to delegate. In GTD, after determining the Next Action, the next part of the process is to do it (if it takes less than two minutes), delegate it (if someone else is the right person to do it), or defer it. Consistent with its pursuit of freedom, The 4-Hour Workweek has the following advice:

   Delegation is to be used as a further step in reduction, not as an excuse to create more movement or add the unimportant.... Never automate something that can be eliminated, and never delegate something that can be automated or streamlined.

   The 7 Habits and The 4-Hour Workweek also discuss empowerment. The 7 Habits likens empowerment to leverage, enabling a manager to invest a smaller amount of time with equivalent result--provided the person accepting the task takes stewardship of the desired results, within guidelines, and with accountability and consequences. Similarly, The 4-Hour Workweek emphasizes the time advantages of empowering others, and says, "People are smarter than you think. Give them a chance to prove themselves."

[Added anchor for subsequent post.]

Discussing How to Be An Adult (2007-06-28/29)

I admire my older mentors for the grace and good humor with which they handle adversity, and the ease with which they handle responsibility. I know several others of similar age that react to emotional events the way I remember people reacting in high school. Did these others get stuck somewhere in the maturing process? What made my mentors keep maturing? I don't know. I imagine, however, that How to Be An Adult may be useful to those with the motivation toward maturity.

As a previous post sparked some discussion, I wanted to post more detail on this book. The previous post selected a specific aspect of the book (assertiveness), whereas this post will provide an overview of How to Be An Adult.

Paulist Press published How to Be an Adult: A Handbook for Psychological and Spiritual Integration. Shambhala published How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving. These publishers may show the intellectual trend in David Richo's thinking. I have started How to Be an Adult in Relationships but do not find it as inspiring as How to Be an Adult.

How to Be an Adult has as its metaphor a heroic journey: a departure from containment in conditioned fear (by letting go of neurotic ego), a struggle to move out and to become unconditional and powerful (by building a healthy ego), and a return to wholeness as unconditionally loving (by releasing the spiritual self). The parts of the book are "Personal Work," "Relationship Issues," and "Integration"--and I understand the last part least. These parts, however, remind me of Stephen R. Covey's maturity continuum--from dependence to independence to interdependence--that I've mentioned several times. I end this post with a list of the issues these parts and chapters discuss:

• Personal Work
• Growing Pains and Growing Up
• Assertiveness Skills
• Challenges to Adulthood
  
• Fear
• Anger
• Guilt
  
• Values and Self-Esteem
  
• Relationship Issues
• Maintaining Personal Boundaries in Relationships
• Intimacy
  
• Integration
  
• The Art of Flexible Integration
• Befriending the Shadow
• Dreams and Destiny: Seeing in the Dark
• Ego/Self Axis: Where Psychology and Spirituality Meet
• Unconditional Love
  

Rereading How to Be An Adult (2007-05-10/13)

The art in assertiveness is to ask strongly for what you want and then to let go of it if the answer is No. You tread the fine line between consistent perseverance and the stubborn persistence that can feel to others like abuse. Passive people do not ask for what they want. Aggressive people demand (openly) or manipulate (secretly) to get what they want. Assertive people simply ask, without inhibition of themselves or pressure on others.

--David Richo, How to be An Adult

A copy David Richo's How to be An Adult: A Handbook on Psychological and Spiritual Integration (borrowed a decade ago from someone I no longer know) comes off my bookshelf every few years for my reading. The forward notes, "This book is written in a highly condensed way," and this density provides me greater understanding each read. David Richo frequently quotes thinkers such as Joseph Campbell, Teilhard de Chardin, Émile Durkheim, Meister Eckhart, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Jung, Alice Miller, Virginia Satir, and Shakespeare (Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, etc.).

There are three parts to How to be An Adult: "Personal Work," "Relationship Issues," and "Integration". Within Part 1 is Chapter 2, "Assertiveness Skills". An earlier post quoted this book in a discussion of definitions of emotional and personal maturity. I think the "Helpful Principles" in Chapter 2; and the definitions (above) of assertiveness, passivity, and aggressiveness; are useful as well.

The first "Helpful Principle" is as follows:

Early in life, you may have learned that it is not legitimate to:

• Show your real feelings
• Give and receive openly
• Ask for things directly
• Tell your opinions
• Take care of your own interests
• Say No to what you do not want
• Act as if you deserved abundance

These are injunctions against having power, and to the extent that we have internalized them, we have disabled ourselves and limited our adult capacities. Our journey to wholeness begins from just such a wounded place.

Since I want abundance, this is a good place to begin. Other principles strike me as useful:

• "Check out your feelings, suspicions, or doubts with the people involved."
• "Trying without doing is wishing rather than choosing."
• "You can be informed by others' behavior rather than affected by it."

Finally, David Richo lists "Basic Rights of the Assertive Person". Some of these stand out to me:

• "To say No or Maybe without pressure to decide in accord with someone else's timing."
• "To be illogical in making decisions."
• "To be free to explain your choices or not (includes not having to make excuses or give reasons when you say No)."

These stand out because I sometimes feel hurt when others exercise these rights. Perhaps--as is often the case--I don't really believe I have a right to delay, or make illogical or unexplained decisions, so insist others must be comprehensible. In most relationships, however, I try to practice assertion:

1. Be clear about your feelings, choices, and agenda
2. Ask for what you want
3. Take responsibility for your feelings and behavior

I think these skills are essential to mature adulthood.

Reading Travels with Charley (2007-05-02/07)

Montana has a spell on me. It is grandeur and warmth. If Montana had a seacoast, or if I could live away from the sea, I would instantly move there and petition for admission. Of all the states it is my favorite and my love.

--John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley in Search of America

"In... 1960, John Steinbeck and his poodle, Charley, embarked on a journey across America." Starting in New York he drove counter-clockwise around the United States in a three-quarter-ton pickup-truck with a camper top. Avoiding main thoroughfares he visited nearly forty states, with a stop in Seattle. Among other places, he visited the Badlands, Montana, California, Texas, New Orleans (witnessing an event in the history of desegregation), and then drove quickly through Virginia and back home to New York.

In 1962, my father, after reading Travels with Charley, went to graduate school in Montana. His future wife had refused to marry him until she finished her undergraduate degree, so he decided to study pharmacy in the meantime. In the middle of winter, he found the deep dark nights, white-out blizzard days, and forty below temperatures depressing. So he took a bus to Portland, Oregon, arriving with $50. He bought a newspaper and called a telephone number he saw in a classified advertisement. "Is that room for rent still available? If you pick me up at the bus station I'll rent it."

In 1995 I embarked on a journey across America. Starting in Portland, Oregon I drove clockwise around the United States in an orange 1976 Volkswagen Westfalia. Avoiding main thoroughfares I visited thirty-eight states, with a stop in New York. Among other places, I visited Montana, the Badlands, New Orleans (requiring repair for the Westfalia while leaving town), Texas, California, then drove quickly up the coast to my new home in Seattle.

In 2007, after reading Travels with Charley, I called my father to see if I remembered his story correctly. He was surprised at my memory of the detail. Both Travels with Charley and my father's own story were told to me in a memorable, conversational way.

Reading The 8th Habit (2007-03-26/04-26)

Hopefully you're beginning to see how the 8th Habit--Find Your Voice and Inspire Others to Find Theirs--is another way of saying, "Use the empowering knowledge worker, whole-person model. Apply the 7 Habits (personal greatness), the 4 Roles of Leadership (leadership greatness) and the 6 principles or drivers to execution (organizational greatness) to that model."

--Stephen R. Covey, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness

"Why is the eighth habit longer than the first seven combined?" is a question I heard more than once while reading The 8th Habit. As the quote shows, The 8th Habit applies the seven habits to personal and interpersonal life in "Knowledge Worker Age," and then extends their paradigms into leadership and organizational greatness. Along the way Covey's writing references a confusing number of lists and research.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People proceeds from "private victory" to "public victory." Private victory is essentially making and keeping promises, implemented in the first three habits. Public victory is essentially involving others in the problem and working out the solution together, implemented in the next three habits. Habit 7 (Sharpen the Saw) "embodies all the other habits. It is the habit of continuous improvement...."

To elaborate on the habit of self-improvement for a healthy balanced life (an aim I mentioned in a previous book review), Covey identifies four dimensions: physical, mental, social/emotional, and spiritual. He identifies example activities for each dimension that build a person's productive capacity: exercise, nutrition, and stress management (for body); reading, visualizing, planning, and writing (for mind); service, empathy, synergy, and developing intrinsic security (for heart); and value clarification and commitment, and study and meditation (for spirit).

In Covey's First Things First these dimensions find expression in the subtitle: "To Live, To Love, To Learn, To Leave a Legacy." In The 8th Habit these four dimensions are the "whole person paradigm". The process of "finding your voice" involves answering questions along these dimensions: What drives your economic engine? What can you be the best in the world at? What are you deeply passionate about? What does your conscience counsel?

The entire eighth habit is "find your voice and inspire others to find theirs." Consequently the book proceeds from personal greatness to leadership greatness. From mental vision, physical (or economic) discipline, emotional passion, and spiritual conscience arise Covey's "4 Roles of Leadership": pathfinding, aligning, empowering, and modeling. These roles lead to these leadership activities:

• Jointly determine the course.
• Set up and manage systems to stay on course.
• Focus talents on results, not methods, then get out of people's way and give help as requested.
• Set a good example.

To the discussion of personal and leadership effectiveness, The 8th Habit adds survey results on organizational effectiveness. Covey's survey results suggest that organizations fail in "focus and execution," particularly these areas of execution: clarity, commitment, translation, enabling, synergy, and accountability. Organizational greatness comes from closing these execution gaps.

As its length suggests, there is more material in The 8th Habit than can be easily evaluated and applied after one reading. In fact, Covey suggests it as a yearlong personal growth and development program. Time will tell whether the eighth habit is as memorable as the seven habits were.

Rereading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (2007-03-24/04-21)

Suppose you were to come upon someone in the woods working feverishly to saw down a tree.
"What are you doing?" you ask.
"Can't you see?" comes the impatient reply. "I'm sawing down this tree."
"You look exhausted!" you exclaim. "How long have you been at it?"
"Over five hours," he returns, "and I'm beat! This is hard work."
"Well, why don't you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen that saw?" you inquire. "I'm sure it would go a lot faster."
"I don't have time to sharpen the saw," the man says emphatically. "I'm too busy sawing!"

--Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Last year a friend sent me an email message with this request: "I'm looking for advice on how to become a better contractor/consultant/professional. Any books you would recommend?" Early this year I told him in reply that if he read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People I would re-read it and discuss it with him. As I've made reference in this blog to maturing beyond dependence, putting "first things first", and "sharpening the saw" both mentally and physically; it is appropriate to review this book and present its habits.

Book Review

A list of the seven habits is easy to find, so this review focuses on the underlying principles. (Indeed, being principle-centered rather than tribe- or work-centered is the most significant contrast I see between the writings of Covey and Immelman.) Consequently I have selected a half-dozen of the principles I have found corroborated in other reading and have attempted to practice in my pursuit of a balanced, effective life.

The Map is Not the Territory

The book 7 Habits begins with a discussion of paradigms or patterns of thought. Covey writes that paradigm "was originally a scientific term"; this is probably a reference to The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. Revolutionary changes occur in thought when paradigms shift.

A consequence of this concept is that when one's observations of the territory (reality) differ from the map one holds (one's patterns of thought), one has the opportunity to update the map. This is my pursuit of truth; I want to frequently update my mental maps to better anticipate consequences.

Mature from Dependence to Independence to Interdependence

The seven habits progress from dependence to independence to interdependence. Emotional, mental, physical, or spiritual dependence is a sign of immaturity in the respective area. However, independence is not complete maturity. Maturity is ultimately in relation to others, and consequently is interdependent. (I have often heard the pre/trans fallacy of conflating dependent and interdependent concepts.) In interdependent relating the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Nevertheless, independence precedes interdependence; dependent people are limited in their ability to constructively relate to others.

There is a Gap Between Stimulus and Response

The concepts of free will and responsibility are important to maturity. I endeavor to explain my actions based upon my values and my evaluation of the situation--not as a result of my environment. This is the meaning of "proactive."

Wisdom Anticipates Consequences

Realizing that one can choose a response to a stimulus is part of maturity; another part is realizing that one can not choose consequences. Consequences are a natural result of choices. This is the concept of cause and effect. Covey writes, "When we pick up one end of the stick, we pick up the other," but I don't think that aphorism conveys the idea well. "Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap," perhaps conveys it better. One of my personal measures of wisdom is the length of time considered when evaluating the consequences of one's actions.

Trust Requires Trustworthiness

One of the consequences to consider in choosing is trust. Jim comments that in Immelman's book trust results from an external event, a plot contrivance. Similarly contrived are trust exercises in which participants fall back into the waiting arms of other participants. These approaches assume low trust is more a result of suspicion than a result of untrustworthiness. The solution is then a technique rather than character.

In my experience, however, making and keeping promises is challenging. Breaking one's word depletes the "emotional bank account" of the relationship, in Covey's metaphor.

Good is the Enemy of Best

At work I sometimes say, "When everything is a priority, nothing is." It is better--after consulting the mental map and considering the long-term (particularly relational) consequences of one's choices--to prioritize what's important. Covey distinguishes between importance and urgency, dividing time into four quadrants depending on low or high urgency or importance. Quadrant II, important but not urgent, often has the highest-leverage activities. In Quadrant II are the "Sharpen the Saw" activities illustrated by the quote beginning this post.

The 7 Habits, particularly First Things First, then suggest scheduling one's priorities. If space is limited, put in the rocks, then the pebbles, and finally the sand; doing the reverse uses more space. Similarly, since time is limited, find a time for the "big things" and let the "small things" fill the moments between.

The Seven Habits Paradigm

How does one act on these principles? The book suggests developing the following habits:

1. Be Proactive
2. Begin with the End in Mind
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win/Win
5. Seek First to Understand... Then to be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw

[Added anchors for subsequent posts.]

Reading An Inconvenient Truth (2007-04-03/08)

In 1995/1997, when my graduate research on rainfall predictors for reservoir models required analysis of climate data, friends would frequently request my opinion on global warming. I would reply that there was too much natural variability for me to conclude there was a warming trend.

Global warming wasn't directly related to my research--and my research, as it happened, wasn't directly related to my life. Therefore I was recently interested to see the scientific consensus and new information in the decade since I encountered climate data. Like my friend who wanted footnotes to the nightly news, I wanted footnotes for the film An Inconvenient Truth. I wanted to check the scales of graphs shown in the film (Are they logarithmic?) and the sources for the quotations (Are they peer-reviewed?). Consequently I purchased the book.

The book presents status of the scientific consensus as it appears in the popular press in a style similar to Harper's Index:

• Number of peer-reviewed articles dealing with "climate change" published in scientific journals during the previous 10 years: 928
• Percentage of articles in doubt as to the cause of global warming: 0%
• Articles in the popular press about global warming during the previous 14 years: 636
• Percentage of articles in doubt as to the cause of global warming: 53%

Those who have read Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions will be aware that there are sociological forces at work in scientific consensus. Nevertheless, I suggest we should act upon the best available information, and apply the precautionary principle when future consequences are severe. I also note that the graphs throughout the book suggest ongoing global warming in the decade since I paid attention to climate data.

Of course, there are debates in scientific circles on particular points that the book and film present only in the form of a summary conclusion. The aim of book and film appears to be to present the basic scientific facts in a visual and memorable fashion. The complexity of the relevant thermodynamics is hidden behind the full color and large type.

At the end of the book there is a call to action, particularly to reduce carbon emissions. One of the ways is to "get around on less." Driving less is already one of my 2007 goals, as I noted when writing about simplicity and time savings.

Another of my goals related to An Inconvenient Truth is to spend six days in forest or wilderness. Several of the autobiographical sketches interspersed throughout the book and film show Al Gore's very personal appreciation for the environment. This, and his motivation for public service, have increased my respect for Al Gore while reading this book.

Reading Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight (2007-03-04/15)

He turned to me as if to say, "Hurry, boy, it's waiting there for you."--Toto, "Africa"

Book Review

Alexandra Fuller went to Africa in 1972 with her British parents. Her memoir, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight tells of 1976 to 2001 in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), Malawi, and Zambia. She shares these childhood stories in a series of overlapping vignettes. She writes of her mother, "hard-living, glamorous, intemperate, intelligent, racist." (The book's title comes from A.P. Herbert's lines, "Don't let's go to the dogs tonight,/For mother will be there.") She writes of her father, "taciturn and capable." Most of all, she writes "a love story for the continent."

Personal Memories

I went to Africa in March 2000 for the best vacation of my life. For a month I took photographs, mostly of wildlife, in Tanzania and Kenya. The best photographs are in an album, for reminiscing--or occasional sharing with guests, accompanied by narration. Some of these stories are already on the Web; some photographs and recollections are already in this blog; some I will start to share now.

Africa came to my attention when a friend and his wife moved to Nairobi for a research assistantship abroad. I asked myself, When would I know someone in Africa? Thinking it unlikely to happen again, I decided to visit. (As it happens, my friend's family is again in Africa, and another old friend is there as well.) When I thought of Africa, I thought of Isak Denisen's Out of Africa, Ernest Hemingway's The Snows of Kilimanjaro, and safaris in the Serengeti. As I researched my trip, I discovered that east Africa (Nairobi in Kenya, Arusha in Tanzania, and Masai Mara or Serengeti in both) was the location for almost all of my associations.

I had taken chloroquine for my 1992 trip to Honduras, so I was familiar with antimalarial medication. Chloroquine had been the worst-tasting medicine I'd ever taken; I couldn't throw the pills down my throat fast enough to avoid the aftertaste. Mefloquine was the medicine for east Africa, with its chloroquine-resistant strains of plasmodium. It tasted better but produced vivid dreams. My waking imagination of what the parasite would do inside my body was vivid as well, so I took the antimalarial anyway.

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight opens with descriptions of bugs, and indeed insects were a concern as I prepared for my trip. I asked a friend who grew up in Africa about mosquito netting. What was the best kind? He didn't know; his family never used it. Did he worry about malaria? They just caught it, and got sick periodically. I decided I couldn't afford an absence from work for malaria when I returned.

One of my first nights in Arusha I awoke under the mosquito netting provided over the bed by the YMCA at which I was staying. What had disturbed my sleep was the high-pitched whine of a mosquito's wings. Fearing a proboscis through the tiny holes, I curled myself into a ball so none of my body touched the netting, and went back to sleep.

"I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills," I remembered, both from the movie, and from a British woman's reading of the book by Karen Blixen née Dinesen. (I heard Karen Blixen read another of her stories on tape as well.) In Nairobi, my friends lived in the neighborhood "Karen", and one day we visited that farm.

Bribery and graft have a place in most people's stories of Africa. For me it started before I was officially in Tanzania. The fee for the visa was $20. I handed the guard $50, which he placed in a machine that purported to check for forgery. The machine "broke" and the border guard wrote me a receipt for $20. I thought, "I guess I just paid $20 for a visa and $30 for a bribe." I never argue with border guards; after all, I wasn't yet in the country.

When I wanted a topographic map of Mount Kenya (I love maps), I found they were only available from a Kenyan national agency directly. When leaving their offices in Nairobi, the guard asked for "chai". My friend and I pretended not to know the meaning of this slang for bribe.

Every building in Nairobi had a guard. Every apartment building, every house, every shop had a guard. (There were plenty of people: a drought had brought many rural residents to the capital.) Almost no one called the police. Those who did told stories, repeated by my friends, of the police requesting money to handle the matter. While I was in Nairobi, the news reported that a man stole a mango. The bystanders and vendor chased him down and beat him to death. Corruption and vigilante justice have their price: a death penalty seems steep for theft. This, and the crumbling infrastructure, place Nairobi at the bottom of my list of the world's cities. (Paris, of course, is at the top.)

The drought affected both the human and the animal populations of east Africa. Another news story while I was there told of a fight that broke out between villagers and monkeys when a water truck arrived at the village.

I was briefly chased by a monkey myself. In Mombasa they are pests, attracted to the rubbish of Kenyan tourists. After safely reaching my hut, I took a picture through the sliding glass door of the Procolobus badius on the porch.

[Corrected author's name.]

Reading Great Boss, Dead Boss (2007-02-23/03-03)

"'...[O]nce you understand tribal behavior, it seems to be just about the only workable model for successful social interaction.'"--Ray Immelman, Great Boss, Dead Boss

Book Review

Great Boss, Dead Boss is a book on leadership. In its pages it presents a theory of motivation as well as the management conclusions that this theory implies. It does all this within the context of a narrative. The plot illustrates the principles and the characters exemplify the leadership the book proposes.

Motivation Theory

The concept I had not encountered before I saw Great Boss, Dead Boss recommended is in Tribal Dimension 1: "Individuals are socially, emotionally, and psychologically defined by their tribal membership." (The second half of this long post contains a complete listing of Immelman's tribal attributes and dimensions.) This paradigm purports to explain motivation better than previous models. "[M]any MBA programs are less than optimal in this area," says Butch, who is the voice of the author in the narrative. Butch says, "Indeed, tribes appear to be the oldest organizational form and still exist in this modern day and age. I came to realize how deeply ingrained it was in human behavior through my experience with tribes in Africa."

Immelman applies this tribal model to what is essentially a simplification of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, that individuals seek security and value. Where Maslow proposed psychological, safety, and love/belonging needs, Immelman proposes individual security, "Individuals act to reinforce their security when under threat." Where Maslow proposed esteem, Immelman proposes individual value, "Individuals act to reinforce their self-worth when their security is not under threat." Other authors summarize these needs as "security and significance" or "relationship and impact."

Great Boss, Dead Boss extends the pursuit of security and value to the tribe as the determiner of individuals. Consequently the remaining two tribal dimensions mirror individual needs: "Tribes act to secure their self-preservation if their security is under threat," and "Tribes act to reinforce their self-worth when their security is not under threat." The replacement for the pyramid is a progression from low tribal security and low individual security to high tribal value and high individual value.

Management Practice

In addition to the tribal dimensions, Immelman's tribal attributes contain many good management ideas. A tribe must have a mission: "A strong tribe has a credible, just cause for its continued existence," and "A strong tribe has clear external measures of success." I infer from remarks in the book and in reviews that mission statements have been so commonly poorly developed that there is credibility in calling them something else ("just cause", "measures of success") and contrasting them with mission statements.

Other tribal attributes show the wisdom of sharpening the saw. "A strong tribe celebrates and cares for the skills, tools, and implements required for its prosperity." Greg, the protagonist of the narrative, even demonstrates a "Character Ethic," concluding, " A strong tribe has a leader dedicated to the tribe's success. "

Much of the book, however, could foster what Stephen Covey labels a "Personality Ethic." Greg sets about to apply tribal attributes as human relations techniques, saying, "I'm going to make our common enemy as tangible as possible," and "By introducing symbols, we actually create tribes." These are implementations of tribal attributes 1 and 2.

Greg cynically accepts individuals in a state of dependence: "I concluded that individuals prefer to subordinate their desires to that of the group, rather than take an individual stand." The methods of meeting esteem needs depend on others above or below: "A strong tribe has a revered figurehead," and "A strong tribe knows how it compares to the 'untouchables.'"

Book Narrative

The narrative itself conveys a pursuit of esteem through division between inside and outside, above and below. True to the principle that, "A strong tribe develops its own unique language," the protagonist uses abbreviations (IS, IV, TS, TV) that outsiders would not understand.

The main characters appear motivated by fame, glory, and respect. The story begins with displays of power, executives whose conversations look to me something like, "Go here, do this, do that, satisfy the board, see my secretary, I'm all upset about money." The book's alternative is a tribal guru, an African big-game hunter who mentors through terse answers, silences, and sudden ends to conversations. The book perhaps conveys to management readers that managing a successful company is somehow analogous in adventure to actually going to Africa.

Perhaps as a reflection of the patriarchy typical of tribes, no major character is female. The women (and children) take a supporting role, providing their men with time to pursue business objectives, and with food.

Personal Reaction

Frankly I don't fit the world in Great Boss, Dead Boss. I'm not a joiner. When I read, "A strong tribe expects unquestioning loyalty," I fear the True Believer. I feel belonging to small social connections rather than large social groups. I have responsibilities in my role as business owner, but I value this as one role in a balanced, effective life. For the future of my corporation, I'd rather see us develop a culture of interdependence, following on individual independence, based on character and competence. I'd like confidence based upon achievement independent of enemies, outsiders, and subordinates. Will being a tribal leader aid my company in achieving this aim?

Tribal Attributes and Dimensions

Tribal Attributes

Great Boss, Dead Boss lists twenty-three attributes of a very strong, highly motivated tribe and its leader:

1. A strong tribe must have a common enemy.
2. A strong tribe has clearly defined symbols.
3. A strong tribe offers a superordinate identity to all sub-tribes.
4. A strong tribe has a credible, just cause for its continued existence.
5. A strong tribe has an accepted rite of passage.
6. A strong tribe has clear external measures of success.
7. A strong tribe understands and protects its source of power.
8. A strong tribe knows how it compares to the "untouchables."
9. The criteria for tribal membership are clear and credible.
10. Tribes communicate in a non-traditional, subjective, and intuitive manner.
11. A strong tribe develops its own unique language.
12. Tribal roles are fundamentally different from accepted functional roles.
13. Strong tribes record and celebrate significant events that reinforce their identity and value.
14. A strong tribe has a clearly defined and well-known justice mechanism.
15. A strong tribe has a clearly defined icon that embodies the tribal value.
16. A strong tribe has a walled city--a place of refuge where things of value to the tribe are kept.
17. A strong tribe possesses objects of value that embody the tribe's value.
18. A strong tribe has a revered figurehead.
19. A strong tribe celebrates and cares for the skills, tools, and implements required for its prosperity.
20. A strong tribe expects unquestioning loyalty.
21. A strong tribe has clearly defined roles, responsibilities, values, authority, power structure, and chain of command.
22. A strong tribe has a leader dedicated to the tribe's success.
23. Strong leaders have capable mentors whose psychological limits exceed their own.
    

Tribal Dimensions

The protagonist also examines five tribal dimensions:

1. Individuals are socially, emotionally, and psychologically defined by their tribal membership.
2. Individual Security (IS): Individuals act to reinforce their security when under threat.
3. Individual Value (IV): Individuals act to reinforce their self-worth when their security is not under threat.
4. Tribal Security (TS): Tribes act to secure their self-preservation if their security is under threat.
5. Tribal Value (TV): Tribes act to reinforce their self-worth when their security is not under threat.

[Added anchor for subsequent post.]