Mike Schubert

I recently read Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. I originally picked this up as a result of it showing up as a recommended item in my Amazon Recommendations. I initially looked at the first chapter - one that talks about all the benefits of exercise and the brain. This struck a chord with me and I decided I wanted to read more. Notice that the hyperlink to 'exercise' above goes to brainrules.net - the book's companion site with additional content and videos to help reinforce topics from the book.

The book goes on in detail to discuss the differences between how short term and long term memories work (and tricks to help improve them), differences between male and female brains, and a host of other interesting topics. At times the material is dry - Medina uses the medical terms for the different areas of the brain. If you're not into that or wanting to go to that depth, it can become difficult to follow. If you hold on through a few pages of this at a time, you will be rewarded with a rather informative read.

There are numerous takeaways I had from this book that helped me understand more about myself. Here are a few:

1. The brain can only focus on something for about 10 minutes at a time. It then needs a diversion.
2. Exercise increases brain function / power and significantly decreases the risk of dementia. That brings new meaning to the saying "Running is cheaper than therapy."
3. Sleep is vital to committing what has been learned to memory. The brain is very active while you are sleeping.
4. Multitasking is a fallacy. You are only able to focus on 1 thing at a time. If you are familiar with single core computing, you will recognize what we refer to as multitasking (conference call and email at the same time) is actually pre-emptive multitasking.

Chapters:

1. Rule #1: Exercise boosts brain power
2. Rule #2: The human brain evolved, too
3. Rule #3: Every brain is wired differently
4. Rule #4: We don't pay attention to boring things
5. Rule #5: Repeat to remember
6. Rule #6: Remember to repeat
7. Rule #7: Sleep well, think well
8. Rule #8: Stressed brains don't learn the same way
9. Rule #9: Stimulate more of the senses
10. Rule #10: Vision trumps all other senses
11. Rule #11: Male and female brains are different
12. Rule #12: We are powerful and natural explorers

Girl Trail Running
Originally uploaded by RyanSaul

I recently read Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall, an inspiring tale of an epic adventure pitting the greatest ultra marathoners you've never heard of against runners that might as well have been from Mars. There are dozens of stories within this story, all weaved together to make one heck of a tale. You'll meet a mystery man, a couple of wild college kids, and a tribe of Indians wiho live nowhere near a regular highway, much less the information superhighway. Inside. McDougall asserts through stories that:

1. Humans have tremendous natural endurance
2. Everything we have learned about running is likely wrong
3. If you're not having fun, you're working too hard

Obviously I've oversimplified this synopsis but you get the point. The book is as much about the individual spirit as it is anything else. I found myself looking forward to reading this book after work and thinking about its message on my long runs and even in my last Ironman event. "Run like a Tarahumara" I'd tell myself. I'll tell you that too. If you're a runner looking for inspiration this winter, look no further than Born to Run.

I am Born To Run.

One of the challenges we face in software development is driving adoption. Anyone who is involved in IT has likely been involved in building a 'ghost town' or two. The project that had executive buy-in, a great business case, and resulted in a system that no one used. In some cases the project was fundamentally flawed (requirements, vision, timing), in others it's a matter of not getting the message out (or not getting the right or a compelling message out).

I read Malcom Gladwell's The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference with the goal of learning some characteristics that separate the hits from the misses. I was not disappointed. Gladwell likens social adoption to be like viruses, and maps characteristics of people (connectors, messengers, mavens, etc) into the delivery system to make his point. Anyone interested in viral marketing should read the first few chapters of this book to gain his perspective on how social messages spread.

One of the very interesting concepts Gladwell explores is his Rule of 150. He quotes various academic research on the matter and constructs a very interesting view of the number of social interactions an average person can maintain. He then shows examples of the rule of 150 in the real world and talks about Gore factories in New England. Evidently, they have found an ideal factory size employs no more than 150 people, at which point performance indicators begin to show a decline. I am not sure whether it was an anecdote or actually true, but he says that they only put 150 parking spots at each factory and when people start parking on the grass they know it is time to add a facility. This is only one of the"tipping points" explored in the book, but is certainly interesting to see in practice.

My main take away from the book in terms of software delivery mapped more into the change management aspects of project delivery and less to the actual development of the software. It is simply not practical or necessarily appropraite within every application to put word-of-mouth actions (e.g. Invite a Friend). When rolling out any new system, it is important to get the buy-in of your Mavens (so they don't poo-poo you) and construct a message that your connectors can buy into and repeat. Getting these folks on board early in the process can help avoid building another ghost town.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

One of the first books that I read on my awesome Kindle was The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama. First, a little about my Kindle. You see - I wasn't going to buy one. I could not justify spending $350 on a device to put books. It's kind of like when the iPod first came out. I was content with whatever I had. Once they came down in price, I finally got one. But then my awesome sister decided to upgrade her Kindle when the Kindle 2 came out. And voila - she GAVE it to me. Free. As in beer. How awesome is that?

So I had the audacity to read Obama's book. It was an interesting read and gave me some insights into the man who is our 44th President whether you voted for him or not. While I can't say I recommend rushing out to read it, it did provide some good insight to him and his way of thinking. My take away is this - He listens. His mind is already made up, but he listens. He's kind of like Bill Clinton in that regard, only I think I trusted Clinton a little more.  Oh well, only time will tell. In all, this book was basicly an outline of his liberal way of thinking - you can see it in action now, so there's not really much reason to read it. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

Today's Best of Mike series post comes from August 17^th, 2004. It's the last of the ones centered around the Strengths Finder tool. Enjoy!

Finding Strength (continued - Maximizer, Learner)

It's funny how things in this life all seem to tie together in the end. Things that have little or no meaning standing on their own become larger than life when you couple them together. That brings me to the final 2 of my 5 dominant profiles as described by StrengthsFinder.

Maximizer -

Strengths, whether yours or someone else's, fascinate you. Like a diver after pearls, you search them out, watching for the telltale signs of a strength. A glimpse of untutored excellence, rapid learning, a skill mastered without recourse to steps-all these are clues that a strength may be in play. And having found a strength, you feel compelled to nurture it, refine it, and stretch it toward excellence. You polish the pearl until it shines. This natural sorting of strengths means that others see you as discriminating.

Although I'm apparently obsessed with strengths for the past couple of weeks, I wouldn't say that they 'fascinate' me. Identifying and leveraging strengths is a good pattern for accomplishing both regular and irregular tasks. Businesses would call this their strategy. Wal-Mart is a low-cost strategy. You can leverage them for consumer staple type items knowing that they will have the right selection at a reasonable price. My friend Dave is excellent excellent at research. I know that if I ask him a question, if he doesn't know the answer, he'll be able to find it doing some really quick and dirty searching. I see leveraging the different strengths of people as an efficient way of providing a valuable product.

Learner -

Your excitement leads you to engage in adult learning experiences-yoga or piano lessons or graduate classes. It enables you to thrive in dynamic work environments where you are asked to take on short project assignments and are expected to learn a lot about the new subject matter in a short period of time and then move on to the next one. This Learner theme does not necessarily mean that you seek to become the subject matter expert, or that you are striving for the respect that accompanies a professional or academic credential.

I start working on my MBA/Finance degree next Monday. I've been in a consulting role for 6 years, which leads me from project to project - each with its own new twists and challenges. I enjoy reading books that would probably put a majority of people to sleep.

Tomorrow, I'm going to look back on these 5 dominant strengths and how they were determined. The question I have in my mind is "How much does a person's experiences affect the way you answer the question?" Are there quetsions that I answered strongly one way or the other that were based on a small, biased sampling of the experience the question was asking?