Posts By: Thom Quinn
Be Prompt
If you want to be very productive, you must make sure you are on-time for all appointments. Business Woody Allen once remarked that “90% of life is just showing up”. I’d like to modify this truism to state to “…showing up on-time”. Imagine that you are just five minutes late to an important meeting with […]
Read MoreConstraints and Catalysts
Question: Why do traffic jams occur, even when no accident has taken place? It turns out such slow-downs are simple manifestations of physical rules, meaning that the slowest car becomes the speed constraint on the cars directly following it. This is because of all the cars behind the slowest one can only travel at the […]
Read MoreWork, Passion, Mission
“There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers…To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, […]
Read MoreWrite Your Epitaph
Joseph J. Luciani is a clinical psychologist and author who has stated that he would like his epitaph to say ‘I’d Rather Be Reading This’. That is his statement to demonstrate how much he enjoys his own life, even with the minor trials, troubles, and tribulations that everyone encounters. Question: How do you want to […]
Read MoreBehavior as a Mirror of Self
“Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Behaviors, unlike thoughts, are observable to other people. Although a witness will often not understand the reasons why someone acted a certain way, they will know how someone conducted their affairs. Your behavior is measurable and can be compared and contrasted in the following […]
Read MoreDo You Kaizen?
There are two basic kinds of changes: 1) Explosive Innovation 2) Small Incremental Alterations Often, it is believed that explosive innovation is necessary to improve a system, a process, an organization. Innovation is wonderful, especially when the current way is failing; however, if a current methodology is not ‘broken’, then small incremental alterations are often […]
Read MoreThe 80/20 of the 80/20 Rule
Although the Italian sociologist and economist, Vilfredo Pareto, provided the foundation for the 80/20 rule (often called the Pareto principle) when analyzing income distributions in the 19th century, it was Joseph Moses Juran who applied the idea to quality management theory. It is a very valuable idea; however, one must be careful not to oversimplify […]
Read MoreThe Rule of Five
Learning is based, in part, on repetition. Most of what you see and hear on a daily basis will be forgotten if there is only the single (or initial) stimulus. One method to improve your overall memory is to employ the ‘Rule of Five’ review technique for important material. Research suggests this works as multiple […]
Read MoreLearn to Learn (Metalearning)
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him think… The first 15 years of the 21st century has certainly made two things abundantly clear: Change is the new constant. Change will continue at an ever-increasing speed. This means the any skills you have today will become obsolete sooner than could have […]
Read MoreHow Practice Makes Perfect
Psychologist Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949) proposed the “Law of Exercise” which stated that the more times a response is made in a given situation, the stronger it becomes. As a behaviorist, he suggested that stimulus-response associations are strengthened through repetition. This was an early idea about learning, based on animal studies. In other words, he […]
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