A puzzle is a problem that one cannot solve because of a self-imposed constraint. Creativity is shackled by self-imposed constraints. Therefore, the key to freeing it lies in developing an ability to identify such constraints and deliberately removing them. Russell Ackhoff So many books, so little time! When Steve recently recommended The Art of Problem Solving by Russell L. Ackoff, I promptly ordered it from my friends at Amazon. Originally published in 1978, this book retains its relevance. The book has two parts: The Art

This system must have 99.9% availability.” Says who? “We’re in financial trouble, and there’s going to be a lay-off.” Says who? “Management won’t let us purchase the new tool like they said we could.” Says who? Any statement that doesn’t include “Who Said”, needs to have “Says who?” as a response.

I would say that the root of the problem or “cause” was the pure and simple fact, that a poor decision was made to “band aid” a poorly designed system. If the correct decision was made in February of 2004 …

How do you know what you know? More importantly, how do you know what other people know?

I found more information on view points. These are referred to in NLP as Perceptual Positions.

I met George Dinwiddie so long ago, CompuServe ruled the online world. We participated in the Software Development Forum. He recently added to the context switching discussion.

I usually have 3 or more things going on at any time. Right now I’m doing exploratory work for one client (lots of try this, try that, well, how about trying something else?), upgrading a system for another client (I’ve already done three of their systems), and preparing for a class.

We recently pruned the fruit trees in the backyard. I did it by myself the previous time, and the results were, well, interesting.

As Pogo said, “We have met the enemy, and they are us.” I started writing this entry as a rant about losing a blog entry. And here I am going, “Yeah, I’ve done it too.”

I saw the forest, and all the work that needed to be done. Ed saw the trees, and noticed that our task would be easier if we could find a way to let the computer do the dull, error prone, highly repetitive tasks.