Tech companies pay people to try to break through their security layers. They call these people ethical or “white hat” hackers. The thought process being that highly-skilled hackers can try to exploit their defense in a simulated environment so that vulnerabilities can be addressed and cyber attacks are less likely when the stakes are real. …
Author: Brandon
Role Players – Part 2
I recently wrote about the importance of roles on a basketball court, and the similar importance in the work place. I now want to dig a bit deeper into a hidden assumption buried within this idea. When we think of roles, we tend to think that a person fits a particular role. A scorer excels …
Reflecting – Life after Schooling
Kids in school are kind of like employees of a company where someone else is the CEO. But no one is the CEO of your life in the real world, or of your career path—except you. And you’ve spent your whole life becoming a pro student, leaving you with zero experience as the CEO of …
Role Players
There’s only one ball in a basketball game. It doesn’t work if everyone on a team needs the ball in their hands to contribute. An effective offense certainly needs scorers, but it also requires players who can distribute and are comfortable working off the ball. Similarly, a work team can’t be made of group of …
No Easy Answers
Hybrid vehicles are obviously better for the environment. Right? Electric motors don’t produce emissions, so it makes sense that it would be better to utilize electric power to minimize the power needed from emissions-producing gasoline engines. And since electric motors are very efficient at low speeds (which happens to be the least efficient operating conditions …
If fake news is bad now…
Fake news has become a part of modern culture. We regularly see cutting-edge stories outed as being inaccurate, and we see the ability for anyone to claim that a story is fake if it paints them in a bad light. It feels like this is all new. We blame social media and the open platform …
Fundamentals
Talk to a youth sports coach for longer than five minutes, and more likely than not you’ll hear about “the fundamentals.” It’s cliché, but they’re a key part of any sport. You can’t be a good basketball player without a decent shooting form and the ability to dribble. Transition to other, more traditional, work and …
Reflecting – Importance
Nothing in life is as important as you think it is, while you are thinking about it. Daniel Kahneman – Thinking, Fast and Slow -Brandon
Writing “Rules”
There are countless “rules” for writing. Paragraphs are supposed to flow a certain way, sentences should have a set structure, numbers should be written “6” sometimes and “six” others, commas should be used in particular ways, etc. Generally, it’s a good idea to follow the rules. They were developed to create a standardized method of …
The Pam Technique
I recently wrote about the dangers of unofficially assuming a role. There’s also a positive spin on this scenario that is worth exploring. In The Office, Pam is unhappy with her role so she “assumes” the responsibility of Office Administrator. She entrenches herself in the role such that, even when she is eventually questioned about …