mindfulness is a dopamine trigger

The mechanics of what constitute mindfulness however, need to be technically elucidated for a common audience. It's not too complicated if you have the details of memory management explained.

aim lower

You should ask for things you want.

Others will ask for things they want.

Asking for things others want, and expecting others to ask for things you want, is a luxury.

Expecting luxuries to be baselines is folly.

Aim lower.

Distance and influence in the long run

 I should spend a few years distancing myself from the common folk. 

1983-2001 : near

2002-2004 : far

2005-2008 : near

2009-2012 : far

2013-2023 : near

2024- ?

Career strategies and biases

\\Career strategy and ethical bias

Say we each begin our careers with a preferred end-game of what the state of the world will be in fifty years.

Some of us see an end-game where grey market activities are rife, so we spend the early parts of our career in the black, because we can tolerate the risk.

Some of us prefer and end-game of white market governance across the economy, so in early life we allow ourselves to study the grey. 

Myself, I align with the borg and am more of the latter variety. I might even get into black markets but the end I prefer is a total enforcement of the economy by centralised government.

\\ Career strategy and financial bias.

Many of us do not plan to accept a state of poverty.

Some of us accept poverty, or being penniless. The result being such that ... we can take ridiculous risks with money. It doesn't matter much if we lose the game, but it will matter if we win.

play at work

A director was expressing amusement from learning in coached environments. I proposed that all their staff would be amused by learning in coached environments. The difference is most of the staff were more stressed than their director, and hence unable to be amused in the same way solely for that reason. I left it as an option to the director, if they wanted to run a business with staff unamused by learning opportunities, or otherwise.

dumbing down abstract business ideas

Case study : a business owner enjoys using the scorecard management tools they have acquired from a consultant. But they don't know how to move the needle on staff disengagement with the tools ( or direct orders in general ).

Discussion : 

Talking about "business functions" and "strategic approaches" with many people will be counterproductive, as their normal everyday lives do not support that level of abstraction. Instead, business languages, tools, and models, which are more similar to their everyday lives can be implemented.

It is usually easiest to introduce a model of stakeholder management. Every business has only four major stakeholders : 

1. government : "god"

2. financiers : "first payer"

3. talent : "first paid"

4. customer : "final payer"

Nearly all members of the broader workforce can understand the notion of personal offense. Negative feedback then takes the form of "this is who you hurt, do you understand how you hurt them? if yes, what are you going to do to fix it?"

That's really all there is to explaining abstract business functions, to the plebs.

department of cringe

In case you've ever wondered why I do cringe things in public, bear in mind I majored in Philosophy only because it seemed to require the minimum effort. Philosophy, questions, cringe, trolling, risk management, are really all the same meme.

Business realities

I don't look for "we'll always be there for each other" in any of my relationships.

And I would really appreciate it if people stopped telling me I want it, or that I asked for it.

I am ok with people wanting it from me ( it is generally not available ), or that it is expected of normal people ( I generally don't care what normal people do, as long as it doesn't get in my way ).

Why must people assert, that relationships must be complicated? No need lah.

Desk Operations : dodging procrastination - note step 3

1. Reexamine universe of tasks.

2. Cluster tasks in useful dimensions.

[ [ 3. Clear working memory. ] ]

4. Load next cluster.

5. Resolve cluster.

6. Capture failed tasks.

7. GOTO 1.

Case Study. Bakery. B2C. COGS control

 Case Study. A B2C bakery chain was looking for an AI/ML solution for cost savings, to reduce COGS.

Discussion : 

Case Study. A B2C bakery chain was looking for an AI/ML solution for cost savings, to reduce COGS.

1.

The retail bakery business has the structural concern of needing display cases to look 75-90% full at all times.

This is solvable via (a) constant refilling of cases which is expensive and wasteful or (b) agile addition and removal of display cases, based on stock available for display ( the tiny shop approach ).

In summary at the retail merchandising / interior design / process design layer - the big shop should try to behave like a small shop. Because that is what is cost effective, per unit of revenue.

2.

The AI/ML bit for performance marketing is always possible - but it doesn't solve the cost problem, if there are too many cases to fill anyway.

With regards to the performance marketing aspect - it's just A/B testing on what people want to buy. There's an interpolated variable ... some products, with inelastic demand will sell even if their case looks mostly empty. Other products with elastic demand may be more sensitive to the empty case.

Main concern :

AI/ML solutions which are implemented to forecast sales and traffic based on external factors ... will simply not help as much. They can help, if other links in the value-chain are already optimised.

Household Solvents : toxicity & application

This is a very rough introduction, intended to disambiguate some common substances.

You can try the following solvents in sequence from weak to harsh; toxicity tends to increase with strength; you may also want to pre-test each one on the material to avoid damage:

/// most COMMONLY available in bold ; typically, POLARITY, STRENGTH, and TOXICITY increase together ///

///
/ RELATIVELY MIXED composition, LESS POLAR /

1. diesel ( C8-C21, evaporates slowly, oily )

2. kerosene ( C10-C16, evaporates less slowly, oily )

3. white spirit @ mineral spirit ( C7-C12 )

4. turpentine ( from trees ... but not less toxic )

5. heavy naphtha ( upstream, C7-C12 ) 

6. gasoline ( C4-C12, evaporates quickly )

7. light naphtha / "white gas / lighter fluid" ( upstream, C4-C6, evaporates TOO quickly )

///
/ RELATIVELY UNIFORM composition, MORE POLAR ( "paint thinner" is typically a mix of these )

1. ethanol / denatured alcohol

2. IPA @ isopropanol

3. xylene @ xylol ( aromatic hydrocarbon, non-polar, less toxic )

4. acetone / "nail-polish remover" ( ketone, polar, less toxic )

5. MEK @ methyl ethyl ketone @ butanone ( ketone, boils slower than acetone, more toxic ) 

6. toluene @ toluol ( aromatic hydrocarbon, non-polar, more toxic )