Good Lazy vs Bad Lazy

Today’s picture is from a Japanese Garden I visited. It was beautiful, relaxing, and I was quite lazy. I was lazy in a good way. I wondered, is there a bad lazy? I think so.

For instance, I try to regularly evaluate the patterns in my life. I ask myself - how is this working for me? If it’s working well for me, then cheers and I keep doing it. If not, then it’s quite exciting because I get an opportunity to improve my lot in life. I always like the results of breaking a pattern, but I don’t always like the work. There is this unfortunate cost in acting to make the change, and sometimes the cost is rather daunting. This doesn’t sound like a game winner, so I decided to change the rules.

I was looking at how hard it would be to make the change. I decided I’d shift my focus to the end, and look at all I’d miss out on if I did NOT make the change. Once I had the end in mind, starting seemed easier.

I face the decision moment of life with two choices:
Choice A) persist in the current pattern – which I already identified is worse
Choice B) change the pattern – to something which I already identified is better

If I’m just picking things that make my life better – that seems pretty lazy to me. Lazy in a good way.

How about you? How have you been good lazy?

Theory X vs Y

Today we solved a problem. Normally not much to write about, except today we solved it for the second time. That's red flags for me. What to do?

Fortunately I just finished Peter Drucker's book on People and Performance. He's written a zillion books on management and is oft cited, so going in I had high expectations.

Drucker constantly compares the history of the world as measured by the standard of living. Being a big fan on case studies, I ate it up. In the book, he discusses Theory X and Theory Y:

Theory X assumes that people are lazy, dislike and shun work, have to be driven, and need both carrot and stick. It assumes that most people are incapable of taking responsibility for themselves and have to be looked after. Theory Y assumes that people have a psychological need to work and that they desire achievement and responsibility and will find them under the right conditions.

Depending on one's assumptions, different action is required. If I assume Theory X to be valid, then a good coarse beating is in order. If Theory Y, then I recognize the problem is not with the person with whom I am angry. Eg. If only everyone knew everything in my head...well they don’t...and probably my head is filled with bunk anyway. Point is - if Y is valid - what to do?

Let us examine the root cause. The problem was not lack of documentation. After we solved it the first time, we wrote it down in the instructions. Clearly more writing or yelling at people to read the manual won't help.

The problem is that it's a complicated procedure with a hundred steps. If you mess up any of them, game over start again. We’re reading instructions off a web page. That’s dead documentation. The root cause is lack of living documentation. There's only so many things a human can do without messing up, and it's for sure less than a hundred. The ideal solution is self-documenting code - that is: automate it.

So now we ask: How likely is it to occur again? Very. What's the cost of failure? A few hours. What's the cost of our solution? A few hours. Hmm...seems like we're gonna fix this. The question now is when, and that's another topic.

So theory X vs Y - to which do you ascribe?

Transportationally Challenged

Thus far I have been in accidents on foot, rollerblades, scooter, bike, car and basically every single form of transportation that I’ve operated – so it’s with some trepidation that I announce I just completed my first flight toward my private pilot’s license. I’m hoping that I’ve grown up some and can take rules at face value without discarding them as mere suggestions. It’s a challenge to myself: can I take this seriously enough to do it? At the first inkling of trouble, I’ve got to be out because you don’t get many second chances up in the air.

For the curious, I’m flying a Cessna 172. I flew for about 45 minutes today. I took off, flew to Liberty Lake and back to Spokane, and then brought it in near the runway until my instructor took over and landed it. My understanding is it goes about 100 to 125 mph. They have some bigger, faster planes – even a few that land on the water. That’d be a cool commute, huh? It’s really quite beautiful and freeing up in the air. It’s a completely different perspective.

My goal is to see some more of the area. I’d also like to visit the capital of every state. This would be a great way to take off on the weekend, go somewhere exotic like – Little Rock, Arkansas – and then back to Spokane. Of course I’d visit them in the order they joined the Union – just for some added joy. Obviously I’m not there today. I’m going to mull it over, see if it pencils out, and if so - it’ll take a few months to get my license, so wish me luck!