Without getting all hyperbolic on you, I want to say that traditional training (ILT, WBT, Blended learning, yadda yadda yadda) is the equivalent of Neanderthal Persons while Performance Support is the equivalent of Homo Sapiens Persons. Which is to say, the speed and complexity of most business processes can no longer be served by taking employees out of the productive workforce for training (even for a few hours) then plopping them back in their jobs. The distance between knowledge and action is just too great.

Here’s the immediate example. I’m sure I learned the difference between Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens at many points in my education, but just a moment ago when I wanted to use that example because I was pretty sure it fit, I paused mid-sentence, went to Google, and looked it up. Two things happened:
1. I look like less of an idiot than I would have if I had gone with my first thought which was to compare Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon. I would have just been wrong (and nobody wants that).
2. I would not have seen the NEW research that indicates that Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens weren’t actually separate species but that they inter-bred for some time before Neanderthal died out. This, of course, is a MUCH better metaphor for the relationship between traditional formal learning and performance support.

See what I did there? I used performance support to get the job done. Really folks…why are we still talking about this?

I haven’t validated the scale, although it appears to be 1 – 100, nor do I have any idea where the data comes from. But if you can keep yourself from being too distracted by that, take a moment to engage with the image. Note that Iraq is the darkest green, indicating the highest cost of living.

The most important component of this data (of any data) is not simply the statement “Iraq has the highest cost of living”, but the story that should be told from that statement. “Iraq has the highest cost of living because they’ve been at war for 10 years and bread is really really expensive.”

What other stories can be told from this data?

 http://xkcd.com/320/

I looked into the glass, through the protective screen to try to catch a glimpse of the microwaves being released from (I imagined) their pen in the housing. The little buggers flew pell-mell around the interior making the food heat itself up until it was, well, pasty and dry (ever try to cook a chicken breast in the microwave?).

These days, I still don’t yank the door open while it’s running because of my secret fear that the microwaves can indeed escape, but I do have one in my home and still manage to sleep at night.

Every morning, my coffee ritual involves microwaving about a cup of water until it’s just before boiling (I’ve managed to come up with the right volume of water to be able to hit the 30 second button twice and get what I need), but lately I’ve discovered a new bit of microwave magic!

No matter how many seconds I put the timer on, the turntable always returns my dish (measuring cup) exactly to where I placed it! I never have to reach in the back to get the dish! What amazing microwave technician determined the algorithm that makes this possible?

I may be more impressed with this than with the microwave itself, I don’t know.

~Geek~

Only 240 calories! 12g of fat! Dude, this is HEALTH FOOD! Must be the peanut. Makes it sort of like a vegetable, sort of like having a bag of green beans.

Wait. 240 calories per serving.
Wait. This is two servings.

Who gets to decide how big a “serving” of M&M’s is?

Bastards. Makes me want to cover my body image issues in an avalanche of peanut M&M’s. That’ll teach ‘em.

~Geek~

• Litre-to-gallon conversion is 0.264172051:1
• About 40% of crude oil is converted to gasoline
• So we’ve wasted about 19,126,056 gallons of gasoline*
• It’s 5000 miles from Fairbanks, AK to Miami, FL
• Assuming a conservative average of 20 miles per gallon, a fleet of 38,250 cars could make the round trip from Fairbanks to Miami.
• This is more than the population of Fairbanks. We could have sent them all on a spectacular vacation (in separate cars).
• Sent in Priuses, think of the side trips.
• What else could we have done with this resource?

*Not to ignore or discount the myriad other real costs in lives (11 at the explosion) or natural resources.

]]> http://metricsgeek.com/2010/06/reasons-to-be-forgetful/feed/ 0 http://metricsgeek.com/2010/04/national-metric-day-what/ http://metricsgeek.com/2010/04/national-metric-day-what/#comments Sat, 10 Apr 2010 01:22:36 +0000 Geek http://metricsgeek.com/?p=164 National Metric Week is the week including October 10th, which is (obviously) National Metric Day! (10/10/10) What?! How have I missed this so long?

How shall we celebrate?! I have only a few months to plan…

~Geek~

Apparently, while Toyota has some 19% of the market share, they had more than 40% of the complaints about unintentional acceleration. One could make the assumption that if they had 19% of the market…all other things being equal…they shouldn’t have significantly more than 19% of the complaints, right?

Who should have been paying more attention here?

~Geek~