I’ve played guitar since I was 5 years old and am always looking for and finding new guitarists that impress me. I found John Scofield’s a go go last month and was really impressed by it. I’ve listened to and known about Scofield for years, but never actually listened to any of his releases front to back. If your into jazz guitar, check it out.
What Is Your Management Philosophy?
I was listening to an interview with a CEO and he was discussing the weight they put on the interviewing process. One of the questions he asked potential managers was what their management philosophy was. I had to think for a minute how I might answer that. It would be something like this:
- Treat management of your group like a democracy. Everyone gets to participate.
- Properly incentivize your teammates so that their efforts are focused on the correct goals.
- Encourage your teammates to take risks. Improvement can’t happen without risk. And understand that they will make mistakes and that you can’t come down too hard on them for it.
I would probably leave it at that. Nice and simple.
Collapse Of The Soviet Union
I listened to a documentary by DW while driving the other day. It was good enough that I will watch it later. Check it out if you have an interest.
Best Of 2015
Despite the bad condition of the global steel industry (excluding China) and the very bad condition of electrode companies, 2015 was a decent year for me. I started thinking about a “best of” list for some reason and so put it together for the things that came to mind right away.
Best New Tech: Evernote
I know that it has been around for several years, but I didn’t start using it consistently until a few months ago. Evernote has made it much easier for me to stay organized. Dump everything into it and forget about it for a few weeks and see how easy it is to find it later. I like it so much that I upgraded to premium ($50 / yr) even though I didn’t need the features. I just wanted to support the company.
Best New Steel Tech: My colleague Dirk Riedinger from BSE gave a paper at the METEC conference. The presentation was titled “a new dimension of designing arc furnace high current systems” and detailed research he and his team have conducted into EAF secondary magnetic induction. I felt like I was the only person in the room that understood the potential of this technology. This is a big deal and I expect very good things to come from this.
Best Travel Trip: Berlin
I was stationed in Germany for 3 years in the USAF but never had the opportunity to visit Berlin. I finally made it there for a few rainy days over the summer. It is an awesome city and I would really like to spend a lot more time there.
Best Book: Capital in the 21rst Century
This was the summer book to read in 2014, but I didn’t get around to reading it until 2015. It’s an excellent book and I can highly recommend it.
Best Movie: Lone Survivor
I read the book and watched the movie. I don’t like reading/hearing about US servicemen/women becoming casualties. I’m glad that the military allowed Mr Luttrell to tell his story. Hopefully the military learned from this and incidents like this don’t happen again.
Best TV Series: The Americans
Season 3 aired in 2015 on FX. It just keeps getting better. Season 4 starts in March.
Best Music: Mastodon Leviathon
This was released in 2004 but I bought it this year and was blown away. This was a really tough choice between this and Dream Theater’s Metropolis Pt 2 which I also bought this year and was blown away by.
Best Meal: Tacos at Taqueria El Paisa
This is a small taqueria in Celaya Mexico. A colleague took us there for a late quick supper. The tacos were outstanding, and cheap.
Best Fitness Lesson: Be careful with protein
This year I learned that certain proteins such as whey and amino acid supplements can cause spikes in insulin levels. This is similar to the response from high glycemic carbohydrates and results in fat storage. I started losing weight (fat) as soon as I reduced my whey intake to <25g / day and eliminated amino acid supplements.
Leviathan
I recently watched a multi-part series on VH1 Classics about the history of metal. They had a cool interview with a couple of the guys from Mastodon. Mastodon is a metal band who I have heard of but never listened to. They were talking about reading Moby Dick and recording a concept CD that is loosely based on the novel. I’m always looking for new music and so thought I would roll the dice and check it out. I have listened to it many times over now and can say that it totally rocks. If you are into heavier music then I highly recommend it.
I remember reading a summary version of Moby Dick when I was in High School. Listening to Leviathan got me interested in the book again and so I picked up a copy of the full version and will start reading it this weekend and am really looking forward to it.