Conversation with a 5 year old
Here's basically how the conversation went this morning over breakfast:
Abby: Do you know what my favorite number is?
Daddy: 5?
Abby (matter of factly): No, 28
Daddy: Why's that?
Abby: Because it's a really big number
I love my kids.
Posted by: James Farrer on March 10, 2010, 8:36 pm - 0 Comments
Complete Reorganization at Work
On Friday at work I had an interesting experience. The CIO sent out an email to all of the department saying the organization had essentially been dissolved and reorganized. So with no warning my office was split into three and I now have a new boss in a new group.
For the most part I believe I will be doing essentially the same thing that I am currently doing but there are some aspects of my job that I'm sure will change. All of management was essentially removed and they are in the process of putting it back together. They may or may not use some of the same management. Most of the upper management has been replaced. There have been some challenges and I think this is a much needed change but wow this is a crazy way to do it. I think people have been so comfortable for so long that this really is the best way to do things without starting to fire people. I have been moved to a new group completely and will be part of the Infrastructure Services department. My group will be responsible for a lot of the underlying technology like the network, phones, and virtualization (i.e. servers). We will also be responsible for the department tools. This has essentially been what I have been working on and so I expect to continue working in this area. It will be interesting to see how things come back together. Over the next week and a half they will be putting a management structure in place. Who knows what that will mean, but it's sure to make a lot of people nervous for a bit. :-) I'm not too concerned. I'm pretty easy going and I think I'll be fine no matter what happens. From what I have been told, my new boss (who used to be my boss's boss) worked pretty hard to get me as part of his organization. It's nice to know that even through a major reorg they appreciate my work.
Posted by: James Farrer on February 28, 2010, 6:20 pm - 0 Comments
President Monson Announces New Temple in Payson, Utah
We're getting a new temple. How cool is that!
Posted by: James Farrer on January 26, 2010, 9:12 pm - 0 Comments
Simplicity vs. Complexity
I've been pondering the question of where the balance between simplicity and complexity should lie. At work my team is building a new site using an existing tool from another company. We actually work on several different sites, most of which are very customized and significantly complex.
While I fully understand how nice it is to have something that does exactly what you need it do, I think about the huge number of hours that it took to get to that point and am almost dumbfounded. The other side of it is how much effort we have to go to in order to replace the functionality. Two of our systems are built using technology that is outside our range of expertise. While I don't necessarily have a problem expanding our horizons, it doesn't make much sense to support several websites in different technologies that do almost identical functionality in many ways. Each system has its own super-customized sections, but on the whole, it's generally the same.
So whether the functionality is the same or it really is, and needs to be, different I find the same question coming up again and again. When is exactly what we need too complex? When is keeping it simple just not close enough? I think in general we underestimate or simply don't consider the cost of getting closer to what we need.
The cost comes in a number of forms. There is often a straight forward cost to obtain something (e.g. buying some software that does what you need).
There is the cost of implementing it in man hours. This is often overlooked because the people will be working the same hours either way, but in this case it is really an opportunity cost. If we do activity A then we can't do activity B.
There's also the cost of managing the stuff. The more customized something is, it generally means there are more data points that need to be managed. For example, if you just track computers for checkouts, then you have one item that you need to assign out and check back in. That's good and simple. What about the mice, power adapter, extra disk drive, etc. that come with the computer? Should those be tracked as well? All of a sudden it's not a simple system anymore, there are 5+ items that may or may not be checked out together. These tend to get lost or broken more often so is there extra fees, fines, or other information. There's a lot more questions that need to be answered, and more information to maintain. How do you take inventory on those? What happens when there's a new peripheral? How about replacing them?
Another blurring of the cost comes when a relatively simple system is created and then over time things are added here and there. Additional functionality and rules are added. When taking into account the cost to create it things don't seem too bad. But often this is done with little thought given to the long term strategy.
If we add this now, we're done right? Wrong! 6 months or a year down the road someone realizes the process has changed and the system needs to be updated to accommodate it. That's going to cost twice as much as it took to create it in the beginning, and now we've got 18 new points to configure or update just to keep things running.
Now after a number of years of minor tweaks and changes you look back and realize you've got this great system that is getting brittle and really needs to be replaced with something that looks at the bigger picture and you realize it's much bigger and more complex than you want to deal with.
But the catch comes in the fact that no one wants to give up the functionality that they've grown so close to over time. Even if you want to redo it and make it all more manageable AND have the resources to do it, now you've got to figure out if you're going to cut back to simplify or expand to make it do exactly what you want. Keeping exactly the same functionality usually isn't a real possibility because it's a lot of money and effort to get exactly what you've got.
So there you have the constant tug-o-war of technology. Simple or complex and customized. At a conference a few years back for a seriously complex piece of software they repeatedly said to tell users "no" 3 times before considering any customizations because they better really want it and be able to justify it or it's probably not worth the effort.
It's the rare occasion when someone steps out of the box and finds a truly great way to simplify and make it better. We need more people to do that. Now the question is how...
Posted by: James Farrer on January 12, 2010, 8:33 pm - 0 Comments
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
So here's the news of the week. William has had an increasing fascination with trains. Over the Christmas break Shauna's dad had his train set going around the Christmas tree and we have had Shauna's train on display in our living room. After getting home from our Christmas travels we got the train layout out and put it up in our room. William has loved just sitting and watching it. He's spent hours with it. At the same time Shauna was trying to figure out how to potty train him so she decided to offer him a train if he could go potty on the toilet enough to fill up a potty chart. From that moment forward he has been working hard at it. It's not been totally without accident, but for the most part he's done a fantastic job. It's been cool to get a glimpse into what makes the kid tick. He's also become much more helpful at identifying what he needs. For example he'll come up to us and let us know when his nose is running with a "notty no Daddy, notty no" (i.e. snotty nose).
It's pretty cool to see him growing up so much.
Posted by: James Farrer on January 10, 2010, 11:39 pm - 0 Comments
Christmas Activities
So what did we do Christmas Eve? Last night after the kids went to bed my brother-in-law got out a couple of buckets of Legos and we all went to town building all sorts of stuff. Boats, planes, houses, cars, magical dungeon lair complete with escape route and escape vehicle. Definitely a fun family activity.
This morning was fun. The kids had fun opening presents and have been bouncing from toy to toy. For the most part they've been pretty good natured and pleasant about it all. It's been a nice relaxing holiday so far.
Posted by: James Farrer on December 25, 2009, 11:43 am - 0 Comments
Dano's in Norway
After two months in the Mission Training Center my little brother just got to Norway. He's serving a mission there for our church. It's really cool. He's close enough to the part of the world that I served in that I think I've got a good idea what he's heading into. Except they are significantly more modern than the Baltics. It's all good though. I got to talk to him yesterday for a few minutes while he was in JFK airport on a layover. He was excited. It sure is tough going into a new country, culture, and language with only a couple of months preparation for it.
I remember having no clue what everyone was saying for several weeks. Eventually it got better and I was later able to speak very comfortably with everyone there. It's been fun to go back through some of the pictures and think about and share some of the experiences that I had on my mission. I don't think I've ever met someone who was so excited to hear the stories. I'm excited for him. I'm sure it will be a great experience for him.
I just got an email saying he'll be serving in Oslo. Awesome!
Posted by: James Farrer on December 15, 2009, 10:36 pm - 0 Comments
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
I went out this morning to go to work and there was 6 or 8 inches of snow in the street. I shovelled the driveway and as I was finishing a truck got stuck in front of my house. I tried to help get him out but with relatively bald tires the guy was pretty much out of luck. Even with another guy who stopped to help we were doing good to get him to the side of the road. Then I helped get the other guy who stopped to help going again. Just as I was about to head in another car got stuck. I got him moving again and am now trying to give it a little time before attempting it myself. A light, small, two wheel drive pickup is not the best thing for the snow. Oh well, it keeps life interesting.
Oh yeah, after last night and this morning the snow banks are four feet high and there was almost enough snow on the driveway to be worth shovelling again. Good day!
Posted by: James Farrer on December 8, 2009, 9:22 am - 0 Comments
Abraham Lincoln on Remembering God
Words written by Abraham Lincoln as part of a resolution in 1863:
“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in number, wealth, and power as no other Nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us.
“It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our … sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.” (John Wesley Hill, Abraham Lincoln, Man of God, 4th ed., New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, p. 391.)
Posted by: James Farrer on November 28, 2009, 10:10 pm - 0 Comments
Shooting Stuff
We got the Christmas tree put up today. It's surprising how small it looks in this place compared to the others. But it's nice to have christmas decorations up.
The weather was pretty nice today so I decided to go shooting. When Abby found out I was going she decided she'd rather go shooting with me than stay and scrapbook. I was hesitant at first but figured she did great shooting the pellet gun last night at Nana & Papa's and Shauna thought it'd be fine so took her with me. We went up the canyon and hiked off the road a little ways. We had fun following dear tracks and ducking through trees. We finally found a good spot (there are lots of rocks up there) and went to town. With a single shot .22 it doesn't take a lot of rounds with a 5 year old (15 to be exact) but it was really fun to see her and explain how things work and how to be careful. She had lots of good questions and clearly understood that they are dangerous and what the rules and consequences of not obeying them are. I think we both had a great time with the whole trip. And it sure beats going alone. After spending that time with her it amazes me how so many people get so worked up over guns. I think all those people that think restricting guns is a good idea ought to go out with some friends and family and try it.
Posted by: James Farrer on November 27, 2009, 6:36 pm - 0 Comments
