The car that drives you there...not quite a jetpack, but close

Somehow in the press of meeting deadlines on the 25th, this story escaped me:

California Legalizes Self-Driving Cars

Presumably, the real complications are yet to come. As noted in the linked story, insurance companies will need to use models to price the risks of automation (pun unavoidable). Surprisingly, the data show that driving ourselves is more likely to cost the insurer a mint than letting the car make the judgment calls. Raising the specter of a future in which driving your own car is a luxury that many of us can't afford. Because humans are just too unpredictable to be trusted with the awesome responsibility of steering, changing lanes and using turn signals.

Even E.B. White Felt Overwhelmed by His Inbox

The beloved author of <i>Charlotte's Web</i> suffered from inbox overload too.

Even E.B. White Felt Overwhelmed by His Inbox - The Atlantic

The best argument for using email management techniques? That email itself is not the problem.

These techniques that are policy at SJN Sales:

• Check email at scheduled times of day
• Reply immediately only to urgent items
• Sort incoming items into urgent, important and neither
• Emphasize transparency about the above with ALL clients, setting the expectation accurately for what you're going to deliver

 Does time management, which is really all we're doing with these techniques, solve all problems related to email? Of course not--there's volume and tone to contend with, too. This excellent little book can be digested into a set of policies, and the reasoning behind them, in about 2 hours. You won't regret the time it takes to grab the reins and stop email from running away with your business.

Science speaks: Googling yourself is normal

In the current issue of Archaeology mag, a report on how people in the past spent their time with media. Using the density of grime on the pages of surviving books, we learn that medieval Dutch readers indulged a similar impulse:

In one manuscript that had been enhanced with custom illuminations, the owner primarily looked at pictures—in particular one that depicted the owner himself.

 They all spent quite a bit of their prayer-book time asking for protection from disease or the consequences of sin.

While technology has come a long way, it would be interesting to compare those findings with the most common themes of status updates...

Beer Geeks Want the White House Recipe

Beer Geeks Determined to Unlock Obama's Home-Brew Recipe

No, really, with all the issues and topics that might be interesting to know more about, an FOIA filing asking for POTUS' homebrew?

Really.

Software Runs the World: How Scared Should We Be That So Much of It Is So Bad?

The paragraph we're printing on the napkins for our next SJN Sales picnic:

The underlying problem here is that most software is not very good. Writing good software is hard. There are thousands of opportunities to make mistakes. More importantly, it's difficult if not impossible to anticipate all the situations that a software program will be faced with, especially when...it is interacting with other software programs that are not under your control. 

Software Runs the World: How Scared Should We Be That So Much of It Is So Bad? - The Atlantic

Whenever we meet to discuss a software development client, this is always the focus: Does the product work? What breaks the product? Under what conditions has it (not yet) been tested? And, critically, How does the client's sales or marketing side respond to the answers to these questions?

There's a lot of software out there. And this is exactly why we're selective about what we present to our contacts: Most software is not very good.

No-Vacation Nation

No-Vacation Nation: 'As Long as There's WiFi ... I Am on the Clock' - The Atlantic

There's a lot to dig through at the link, and as it's vacation season, feel free to dive down that rabbit hole instead of working on something productive. Because what you'll see pretty quickly is that our national commitment to working ourselves too hard is ubiquitous, compulsory and unproductive.

With my company, even if I am sick or on vacations, I have...my laptop and mobile phone. I've gotten out of bed with 104F fever to speak with clients. I've left my mother's hospital bedside to return a call about a shipment. I've been in a kayak on a mountain lake and had a text...!' 

Emphasis mine. So who thinks that this worker's best abilities were brought to bear on the phone call from the hospital? How about the call returning the text, from the kayak? One of the most frustrating and least effective meetings we held this year was around the table at main office with a partner conferenced in from her own health care.

I like what I do, and it's (mostly) a pleasure to deliver results to SJN's clients. But I've also been in an ER, on the table, after a mountain bike crash that left me with 2/3 of a working lung.

The highly trained team of people who made a purpose-built port in my chest wall, got me breathing again, and set me up for a long life with a floating rib within 30 minutes after I came through their doors dying? They need to be on call 24/7, unless someone with similar skills is available to take over the tiller.

For the rest of us, the urgency we feel about being available for work is just a feeling.

"Can Software Prod Us Into Being More Civil?"

A nudge toward civility, professionalism and the kind of manners Mom would be proud to see?

Might not be a bad idea. For the whole team, not to single out anyone particular.

Nudge, Nudge: Can Software Prod Us Into Being More Civil? - The Atlantic