Simply Complex

Posted on January 12, 2007 Written by Leave a Comment

“Making the complex simple through better communication.”

What exactly does that mean, anyway?

If you’re coming here looking for scholarly or hip analysis about communications, you’re going to get it, but not directly.

I want to have fun, and that means I’m going to write about things that intrigue me. Along the way, I’ll try to explain why those concepts are cool (to me, anyway.) And that process of explaining the complex, simply, is really just an exercise in communication.

So, welcome to my sandbox. If, as you read, you find a quirky analogy or concept that hit home or you can use, then by all means do so. The step beyond communicating a concept is the assimilation by the receiver. (Resistance is futile.)

Filed Under: Communication, Personal Tagged:

Lateral thinking

Posted on January 12, 2007 Written by 1 Comment
Hook and Lateral

Words are powerful little packages. We take them for granted, and don’t always consider all of the hidden meanings behind the words we choose. However, we too often look at the written word, and ignore the sounds of the same word as an utterance. Only then do you appreciate the rhymes, the meter, and the possibilities of mistaken pronunciations.

How much of what we call “lateral thinking” — the joining of previously non-adjacent concepts — is really the product of a pun or a bad translation? And how many words or concepts do we take for granted, even though they were steeped in mistake?

For my first example, I take you all the way back to the Fiesta Bowl, where Boise State knocked off the Oklahoma Sooners. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Communication, Personal Tagged: , , , ,

Apple’s big 2008 announcement

Posted on January 10, 2007 Written by 5 Comments

January 9, 2008 – Las Vegas, NV

(AP) First there was iPod, then iPhone, and now the latest addition to the iLife family.

The next phase of Apple’s plan to reinvent itself as a consumer electronics company was unveiled Tuesday at the 2008 CES by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, and it received a warm reception from Wall Street. The touch-screen-controlled device answers the phone, babysits the kids, watches soap operas, shops for groceries, and has a unique killer app: a reminder function.

Jobs received a thunderous applause for the unveiling of iWife, the digital spouse for all of us. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Communication Tagged: ,

Happy Otherversary

Posted on January 10, 2007 Written by 4 Comments
My kids

Deep thinks. Hurt brain. So now for something simple.
I just want to wish a “Happy Otherversary” to my wife, Brenda. We met on the evening of January 10th, 1998, at an office Christmas Holiday party.

Yes, the party was late by a good three weeks or so. Our party planners didn’t get the funding approved until after all of the suitable venues were booked, so we had the party on January 10th. (We weren’t the only ones. Another television station in town had its Holiday Party that same night.)

So… how exactly do you meet a co-worker at an office party?

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal

Let’s Make a No Deal

Posted on January 8, 2007 Written by Leave a Comment
Mandelbrot set

Here’s a puzzler for you.

Let’s say I have two tiles: one painted blue on both sides, and the other painted blue on one side and white on the other. I mix them up out of your view, then randomly place one on the table. You look over and see a blue-sided tile face up. What are the odds the other side is also blue?

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Communication Tagged: , , ,

1 vs. 100 vs. intelligence

Posted on January 5, 2007 Written by 1 Comment

(subtitled: “How to avoid making a fool of yourself on national television”)

I really just wanted to kill some brain cells while straightening up the living room the evening. I certainly had no intention of blogging tonight. But then I saw something so stupid, I couldn’t let it go. And then it got worse. When I first heard about the concept behind “1 vs. 100,” I thought it sounded novel and fun. But that was before I felt like throwing a brick at my screen. Tonight, I found a true sign of the Apocalypse in the things Americans know and don’t know. The NBC television network has succeeded in creating a show that unlike Jeopardy doesn’t make you smarter; it just makes you feel smarter. (Apparently, years of finding new ways to wince at home video crotch shots has taken a toll on Bob Saget.)
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Communication Tagged: , , ,

Elliptical Thinking

Posted on January 5, 2007 Written by 1 Comment

I promised to bring things full circle, and here we go…

The scientific method does us its greatest service when it simplifies the way we think, understand, and apply our collective knowledge to predicting outcomes. The application of Occam’s Razor is meant to be a guide — not an bulletproof truth in and of itself. In the practical world, there are times when we ought to make fewer cuts. The examples I have in mind involve a different kind of epicycle, focused on time instead of space.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Communication, Philosophy Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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