Ryminate

Attracting, Retaining, and Motivating

Scott Maxwell has written a great piece on his blog outlining several key elements for landing the best people for your organization.  The article is entitled, "Attracting, Retaining, and Motivating- What’s in it for them?"  I couldn't agree more with Scott's key point as I see it: compensation is important, but very limited in it's ability to create a powerful organization that oozes with innovation, and that is able to execute like fine-tuned machine.

New Piano

Kristen and I have been looking to purchase a good used piano for some time now.  I've kept my eye out for good deals on both craigslist and Ebay. Several weeks ago we found a very very nice one on Ebay, which we bid on and won, but the seller backed out.  We were disappointed.  This week we found yet another, but bid unsuccessfully as the reserve price was not met; however, after the auction I contacted the seller and she agreed to sell her piano for a few hundred dollars. 

Yesterday we went to pick up the piano and were pleasantly surprised by the piano's condition.  It's almost thirty years old, but is in beautiful condition (besides needing a good tuning).  We wrestled the piano out of the seller's house, into a truck, and into our living room.  We are looking forward to having a piano over the holidays.

Generally speaking, I would recommend buying a piano on Ebay.  Because most people are very wary about bidding on a piano sight unseen over the Internet, and also are generally unwilling to pay the large shipping costs, often pianos sell for much less than their fair market value.  I would recommend waiting for a piano to come up in your area.  Then you avoid the shipping costs and can actually go look at it before you complete the purchase.

Fewer skilled graduates may hinder China

Interesting article on a McKinsey report claiming "[a] shortage of well-trained graduates could hinder the growth of the Chinese economy."  The report goes on to point out that are plenty of university graduates, however, they lack the "practical skills" and "English-speaking levels" required to successfully develop international service-based industries. 

McKinsey points to the education many Chinese students receive as a contributing factor for the shortage of practical and team-work skills that global companies require.  They state,“[t]he universities have a theoretical, text-book, fact-based, learn-from-the-master approach," which apparently is not conducive to developing such skills.

I can personally attest to the Chinese teaching style having studied at Peking University, (arguably China's most elite university), during which period I attended classes taught by almost a dozen professors.  For the most part the teaching methods consisted of stationary, sometimes seated, lecture / presentations.  Dynamic interchanges between students and professors are a rarity. 

Rule of 3

There are so many things to do everyday that often I go to bed without the feeling that the day was a success.  I've got a new idea for changing that: the Rule of 3.  Choose three things that are the most important things for you to do everyday.  These should not be things that to be done once a week, (such as washing the car), but things that important for you to do everyday.  Focus on these three things, do them everyday, create a simple checklist even. 

The completion of these three things on a daily basis can be at the very least a benchmark for a successful day.

Running Thoughts

Great run this morning.  It was about 45 degrees (F) outside, which isn't bad for the middle of October.  I ran about three miles--slowly increasing the mileage.  I stopped a bit earlier than intended.  When running there are times when you should listen to your body, and there are times when you should ignore your body.  When you are getting back into shape, building a running base, it's especially important to listen to your body to avoid injury.  If you begin to feel an ache/throb/pinch, run for  30 seconds longer to see if it works itself out.  If not, stop and walk.  Later, once you've established a solid base, you can be a little less conservative, particularly in a race situation.

Law School Political Diversity?

David Horowitz has published a study (Representation of Political Perspectives in Law and Journalism Faculties) (with Joseph Light at the Center for the Student {Ed.: Sic} of Popular Culture) showing that Democrats outnumber Republicans 8:1 on the faculties of 10 elite law schools (and 9 journalism schools).  The study examined the political party registrations of law faculty at these 10 law schools:

Political Party Registrations of Law School Faculty
School	Democrats	Republicans	D/R Ratio
Columbia	46	2	23:1
Harvard	45	7	7:1
NYU	68	5	14:1
Northwestern	29	7	4:1
Stanford	28	1	28:1
Cal-Berkeley	55	6	9:1
Chicago	56	8	7:1
Penn	27	8	3:1
USC	30	4	8:1
Yale	46	5	9:1
Total	430	53	8:1

I couldn't tell you exactly what the ratio is at DU; however,  I would guess we are comparable to Columbia (I wish I could say that more often!). 

Emergency Preparedness Kit

With all the natural disasters that have occured throughout the world in the past month, Kristen and I decided to finally put together an emergency preparedness kit.  While we hope we never have to use the kit, it always good to be prepared. After looking around online compiling a good list (Download 72_hour_kit.xls), we spent an evening at Target and Home Depot gathering some of the necessities.  We placed everything in a backpack so if anything ever happens it's all in one place. 

After all that, tonight I stumbled upon a premade kit sold by Target that contains pretty much everything we just bought all in a very organized package for $99.  I would have bought the Target kit if I had known.   If you are looking for a great start to your emergency preparedness kit, check it out.

Ever want your own planetarium?

Ever want your own planetarium?  Well now you can.  There are many free software programs out there that allow you to navigate the night sky on your computer.  I really like one program called Stellarium.  Using this program you can input your longitude and latitude, and it will match the sky to your exact location and time.  It has many other features, but at the same time is very simple and straightforward.

It would be fun sometime to take the laptop outside and use Stellarium to learn some of the constellations.  Unfortunately, there's not much to see here in the city with all the light pollution. 

Getting your health care at Wal-Mart

This week there was a great article in the Wall-Street Journal on the retail health care concept.  Check it out: Getting your health care at Wal-Mart.

You know when an article like this appears in the Wall Street Journal, things are about to get crazy.  Unfortunately there’s no mention of SmartCare, but it’s only a matter of time. 

Advice from the 2 richest Americans

Yesterday, the two richest men in the United States, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, held a 2 hour question and answer session for a large group of students at the University of Nebraska, Buffett's alma mater. 

Topics ranged from bridge to politics, but both Gates Buffett and Gates concluded by encouraging students not to measure success in monetary terms.  "You have lived a successful life if the people you hope love you do," Buffett said.  So true.

Read more here.