Walking to Work (2006-10-26)

Walking to the bus reminds me of my morning commute in Paris and renews my commitment to venture and work abroad again. In Paris Tuesdays through Thursdays we would awaken in Pigalle. Ryan went to school in Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Jean Claude went to work in Montmartre. I followed Jean Claude out onto Rue André Antoine, smelling the wet cobblestones as the street cleaners washed away the previous day. I heard the sounds of other pedestrian's shoes on the wet cobblestones and an occasional car vibrating along the street. The October air cooled me as I leaned into the steep hill and climbed. One morning in late October I took a photograph of the sunrise in Montmartre. Later on those weekdays I walked back down to Le Chao-Ba-Café for the afternoon sunlight.

On weekends--sometimes long weekends including Friday and Monday--Ryan and I would travel. We visited Montpellier, Nantes and Tours, Chamonix, Berlin, and London. We didn't visit Barcelona or Venice like we had hoped.

Memories and daydreams make me think of "Disappearing Act: How to Escape the Office", chapter 12 of The 4-Hour Workweek. A colleague who also develops software for Geographic information systems is currently in Turkey while his wife teaches. Perhaps I can do the same somewhere while Ryan teaches ESL.

Reading The Diamond Age (2007-08-26/09-03)

Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer has a future earth setting in which nanotechnology has significantly reduced scarcity but artificial intelligence has not been achieved. I enjoyed Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (especially its encryption themes, which are present as well in The Diamond Age) and decided to read another of his books.

The "Diamond Age" is due to molecular control of matter making diamond--with multiple productive properties--a common material. (Wikipedia attributes this idea to "It's a Small, Small, Small, Small World" by Ralph C. Merkle.) It is interesting that the social organization in the story still contains classes, even though matter compilers make clothing, food, and covering available to all. I like to imagine how a just society would work.

The lack of artificial intelligence appears reasonable. The actual achievements of AI have always fallen short of predictions. Alan Turing estimated that by the year 2000 machines would be able to fool 30 percent of human judges during a 5-minute Turing Test. In 1965 H. A. Simon wrote that "machines will be capable, within twenty years, of doing any work a man can do." In 1967 Marvin Minsky wrote, "Within a generation ... the problem of creating 'artificial intelligence' will substantially be solved." Clearly none of these predictions have appeared.

I look forward to seeing how these areas--nanotechnology, scarcity, justice, and artificial intelligence--develop during my lifetime. Perhaps I will see some possibilities fulfilled.

Walking (2007-09-07/14)

Walking has long been and probably will continue to be important. For me it is part of a happy and healthy mobile lifestyle.

Walking was part of my life in various ways in the past. Summer visits to the houses of each set of grandparents involved a daily walk. During a few years of grade school I lived a block from public land in which I hiked and daydreamed short stories I would write. During high school I walked several miles to and from each Medford school I attended, each day choosing a different route than the previous. Later I again lived on the edge of public land. During undergraduate education I walked around Corvallis--especially the Oregon State University campus--alone or with friends, thinking or talking about life. During and after graduate school I similarly liked to walk the University of Washington campus.

My business partner recently revived his own childhood love of walking. A few years ago when my company moved to from the University District to Westlake, I encouraged walking to lunch in South Lake Union the way we had walked to lunch on The Ave. At most we would walk half a mile. Then he purchased a pedometer to compete with friends. Now he tracks his walks, totaling 10,000 steps per day, around the office and his neighborhood. He even ordered an Omron HJ-720ITC pedometer for me.

Consequently I have begun tracking my walking as well. I suspected I already met the guideline of 30 minutes of moderate activity 5 to 7 days per week, in walking to the bus, to coffee, to lunch (e.g., to Paddy Coynes in South Lake Union), and on the elliptical trainers (at the IMA). Now I am carrying a pedometer to verify that.

It is helpful to distinguish moderate activity like brisk walking from other steps. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services cites publications suggesting that 30 to 60 minutes of activity broken into smaller segments of 10 or 15 minutes throughout the day has significant health benefits. The Omron HJ-720ITC has an aerobic step function that displays the minutes walked and number of steps walked at more than 60 steps per minute for more than 10 minutes continuously.

This past week provides me preliminary step estimates for moderate activity. Evidence suggests 30 minutes of moderate activity is equivalent to 3000 to 4000 (aerobic) steps, and that even sedentary adults accumulate 5000 (other) steps. I'm pleased that my average aerobic walking time was 35 minutes per day (3860 steps), but this week only three days had more than 30 minutes (3240 steps). Other (not aerobic) steps ranged from 3310 to 8740 with an average of 6480. An average day for me with 30 minutes of moderate activity therefore would have 9720 steps (though carrying a pedometer may have an effect like the Hawthorne effect). Perhaps I'll join 10,000 steps.

In addition to the health and happiness benefits of moderate activity, there are lifestyle benefits. Walking to and from the bus stop is part of a lifestyle in which I drive cars less and read more books on the bus. It is also part of a lifestyle in which I am fit enough for adventure.

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.]

At Café on the Ave Reviewing Workouts (2007-09-06)

Usually I come to Café on the Ave after cardiovascular exercise, so today I'm reviewing my workout performance, principles, goals, and strategy. I attempted 3 times per week (of 20 to 30 minutes with heart rate in target zone--for me, 125 to 145 beats per minute) and succeeded for the first four months of 2006. In May I went twice a week, and in recent months even less frequently, making the year-to-date average 2 times per week.

The "sharpen the saw" principle (that Ferriss borrows from Covey) for the physical dimension reminds me that I need to be healthy. I want the energy, relaxation, and satisfaction with being fit that working out gives me.

The American Heart Association has goals for moderate intensity activity, vigorous activity, and resistance training. The ranges for the first two categories are similar to corresponding exercise zones based on maximum heart rate.

1. Do 30 minutes of moderate activity 5 to 7 days per week. Moderate intensity is 40 or 50 to 60 percent of capacity, equivalent to a brisk walk.
   
2. Do 20 to 40 minutes of vigorous activity 3 to 5 days per week. Vigorous intensity is greater than 60 percent of capacity; 60 to 70 percent is "fat burn" while 70 to 80 percent is "cardio".
   
3. Do resistance training 2 or more days per week. This means 8 to 10 different exercises with 1 to 2 sets and 10 to 15 repetitions per exercise.
   

I suspect I already meet the first guideline, but a pedometer could verify that. The minimum for the second guideline was the attempt this year that I described above. I usually followed cardiovascular exercise with resistance training, but only 4 different exercises (and 3 sets of 10 to 15 repetitions). These can be additional goals for the remainder of the year.

How do I accomplish this? Ordinarily goals lead to tasks which I schedule, but I feel unmotivated now. Workout buddies help me because usually at least one person is motivated. However, my current workout buddy (Ryan) appears unmotivated as well. I want renewed motivation.

[Added graph and edited hyperlink.]

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.]

Singing About Sailing (2007-07-14/17)

Sunday I noticed that many of my recently-purchased songs mentioned sailing. Beginning with the songs iTunes says I play most, below are my favorites:

1. Blue October, "Into the Ocean", Foiled

   Now waking to the sun I calculate what I had done
   Like jumping from the bow (yeah)
   Just to prove that I knew how (yeah)
   It’s midnight’s late reminder of
   The loss of her the one I love
   My will to quickly end it all
   Sat front row in my need to fall
   Into the ocean end it all
   Into the ocean end it all

   "Into the Ocean" is the top of my list because I like the happy tune (despite the sad lyrics) and rapid verses. It's not merely the mention of flotsam and jetsam that leads me to like it.
   

2. Crosby, Stills & Nash, "Southern Cross", Daylight Again

   When you see the Southern Cross for the first time,
   You understand now why you came this way.

   "Southern Cross" often goes through my mind while sailing, as my quote in an earlier post might suggest. Seeing the southern cross would be new and adventurous.
   

3. Fleetwood Mac, "Landslide", Fleetwood Mac

   "Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?" is the only reference to sailing, but nevertheless "Landslide" is one of my melancholy favorites. I especially like the character of Stevie Nicks' voice.
   

4. Mark Knopfler, "Sailing To Philadelphia", Sailing To Philadelphia

   Now hold your head up, Mason
   See America lies there
   The morning tide has raised
   The capes of Delaware
   Come up and feel the sun
   A new morning is begun
   Another day will make it clear
   Why your stars should guide us here

   I've mentioned my folk rock guitar interest, including Dire Straits, James Taylor, and Mark Knopfler. In addition to guitar, "Sailing To Philadelphia" includes both James Taylor and Mark Knopfler.
   

5. Christopher Cross, "Sailing", Christopher Cross

   And if the wind is right
   You can sail away
   To find serenity
   Oh the canvas can do miracles
   Just you wait and see

   The mellow music and lyrics of this song come to mind when there's little to do but enjoy the wind and water. A breeze and gentle rocking is relaxing.
   

6. Styx, "Come Sail Away", Come Sail Away - The Styx Anthology

   Come sail away, come sail away
   Come sail away with me

   Like "Southern Cross", "Landslide", "Sailing", and "Cool Change", "Come Sail Away" is a sailing song of my childhood. It rocks.
   

7. Little River Band, "Cool Change", Little River Band: Greatest Hits (Expanded Edition)

   Well I was born in the sign of water
   And it's there that I feel my best
   The albatross and the whales they are my brothers
   It's kind of a special feeling
   When you're out on the sea alone
   Staring at the full moon, like a lover

   I was actually born in a fire sign, and rarely go out to sea, or sail alone. However, I do find sailing produces a special feeling.
   

On the Seattle Times Front Page (2007-07-17)

I am amused to learn from Allan and his friends that a photograph in a front page article of yesterday's Seattle Times shows his boat on the far right. The photographer confirmed taking the picture on July 10, so I was aboard--perhaps crouching on the starboard side--with the friends mentioned in my previous post. It appears the sailboats in the photograph are the "half fast" boats of second start positioning to cross the starting line between the committee boat and the duck.

Demonstrating Sailing on Duck Dodge (2007-07-10)

Got out of town on a boat goin' to southern islands
Sailing a reach before a followin' sea
She was makin' for the trades on the outside
And the downhill run to Papeete

Off the wind on this heading lie the Marquesas
We got eighty feet of waterline, nicely making way
In a noisy bar in Avalon I tried to call you
But on a midnight watch I realized why twice you ran away

--Crosby, Stills and Nash, "Southern Cross"

(Despite the lack of link, "making way" in "Southern Cross" is also a sailing term.) As my previous post on sailing may show, after the exhilaration of the wind in my hair and the bouncing bow beneath my feet, the next most enjoyable aspect of sailing may be explaining it, beginning with sailing terminology:

• starboard and port,
• fore and aft,
• bow and stern,
• beam,
• mast,
• boom,
• lines (sheets--main and jib--, halyard, shrouds, stays, downhaul, cunningham),
• parts of a sail (tack, clew, head, luff, leech, foot),
• windward and leeward,
  
• what to do when the skipper calls out "Ready about" and "Helm's a-lee", or "Ready to jibe" and "Jibe ho",
• points of sail (close hauled, reach--close, beam, and broad--, running), etc.

The July 17, 2007 Seattle Times article on Duck Dodge suggests that this aspect of sailing fascinates observers as well. Like the June 6, 2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer article, the Times also mentions the "raft up" party afterwards (like what I wrote about last week).

At last week's Duck Dodge I spent most of my time instructing, since of Allan's usual crew I was the only one present. Allan filled the boat with friends from Banya 5, except for my guest J. Behmer and his friend. (I bring a guest each Tuesday, and whenever else we sail.) In the middle of a tack I announced, "I'm not usually this directive in social situations." My friend responded, "You, get me a beer! You, get some chips! You, make smalltalk!" pointing to a different crew member for each command.

(Switching from sailing geek to technology geek, I'll credit John with a photograph taken by his Treo and located precisely on the map of Lake Union using Allan's eTrex Vista® Cx.)

[Updated 2007-07-18 to remove redundant words.]

Remembering Le Chao-Ba-Café

Schmap added Chao-Ba to its list of Vietnamese restaurants in Paris and received my permission to use our photograph of le café. Driving to the Seattle office, I miss my morning commute in Paris.