January 13, 2018
Honey Chicken Delicious
Yes, I know you can't eat it, but you can imagine what it tastes like.
Had this at L'Chaim Asian Cuisine and Steak House in Hollywood, Florida.
Absolutely to die for!
That was a lot of honey over the dark crispy chicken.
It's been a few months and I still haven't been able to get it out of my mind.
That is quite a recommendation I would say.
See you there! ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
July 27, 2017
When You Need To BLUF
________________________
BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front).
This means that you start with the ending--in mind, on paper, verbally, and in digital format.
You provide the conclusion and/or recommendations right up front.
Rather than first wadding through all the details--context, analysis, considerations, assumptions, risks, etc.
Let the reader know right away what it is you want.
Generally, this is different than an abstract or summary that provides a synopsis and leading evidence for the argument put forward.
Tell me what I need to know and get right to the point! ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
When You Need To BLUF
April 15, 2015
The Wrong Way To Test
In Atlanta, 8 former public school educators were sentenced to prison--three were sentenced to as long as seven years--for a conspiracy inflating student scores by "changing answers" to the tests.
Interestingly, in another article today, we see that not only are students put to the test, but so are job applicants.
In fact, "Eight of the top 10 U.S. private employers now administrator pre-hire tests in their job applications."
While testing can certainly show some things, they can also miss the point completely.
I know some people that test wonderfully--straight A students, 100+ on all exams, 4.0 GPAs--and for the most part, they are wonderful at memorizing and prepping for the test...but sometimes not much else.
Some of them have no practical knowledge, little critical thinking or creativity, and are even sort of jerky.
And others who test poorly may be well thought, articulate, hands-on, and good with people--I'd take a million of them.
"Failing the test" is not necessarily getting it wrong...it may just be errant to the current educational and professional testing system that values memorization and spitting back over insight, innovation, and practical skills.
The challenge is how do we compare and contrast students and professionals competing for schools and career advancement, if we don't easily have something standardized like a test to rally around.
Maybe there is no getting away from more holistic assessments--where we look at bona fide life and career experience, a wide range of recommendations from teachers, coaches, and supervisors, hard and soft skills (including communications and interpersonal), professional and personal ethics, genuine interest in the pursuit, and the motivation to work hard and contribute.
Tests--students cheat, educators game the system, memorization and robotic answers are the name of the game to get the A, and boring homogeneity prevails--but it's often the easy way out to evaluating candidates for a phony success. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
The Wrong Way To Test
January 6, 2015
Interned On The Aisle Of Man
I found this amazing letter to my dad from 1940.
He was interned during the war as a child with his mother in the Rushen Internment Camp on the Aisle of Man, a possession of Britain.
My father was only 12 years old, but already worked as a messenger for the camp Superintendent.
Here is probably one of his first letters of recommendation for a job very well done.
"On His Majesty's Service"
How incredibly awesome for a child during World War II and the Holocaust.
Love you Dad!
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Interned On The Aisle Of Man
September 2, 2011
Vizualize Yourself
I tried out this new visual resume online called Vizualize Me.
Vizualize Yourself
May 5, 2008
Personalization and Enterprise Architecture
Everyone likes to have things personalized for them. Personalization appeals to our desire to be unique and distinct—special in our own ways.
Online, we have the ability to personalize our portals, like Yahoo, so that we get the information (content) that we are interested in and the look and feel for the layout (format) and navigation that we are comfortable with.
We also like to get personalized recommendations (advice and offers) for things we might be interested in, assuming that the suggestions are pretty darn solid and hit the mark.
MIT Technology Review, May/June 2008, reports that “people do buy more when you help them find what they need”
Generally, while advertising often gets bothersome and we tune it out, people do like “that internet companies have dedicated such ingenuity, memory, and processing power to offering me good suggestions.”
Hence, the ever growing amount of:
- “Customers who bought this item also bought…” (Amazon)
- “Just for you” (Apple iTunes)
- Pop-ups
- Context-sensitive advertisements
On Amazon, for example, “reviews, recommendations, and rankings become an essential part of browsing and shopping.”
And the larger the number of users that the recommendation engines can infer from (the “network effect”), the better the personalized suggestions become.
Where’s all this personalization going?
“Perhaps Google’s Gmail will tell you—to whom you should forward that urgent email to, or remind you to keep in touch with a friend you’ve inadvertently ignored…[or] imagine Facebook suggesting what information should be shared with whom—or who should be sharing more with you.”
Those companies and organizations that can architect personalization and recommendations right for their consumers and end users stand to profit hugely. For example, “Netflix is offering a million dollars to anyone who can improve the efficacy of its (exceptionally successful) recommendation engine. That’s a small price to pay for a company who future depends on its ability to compete with Blockbuster and the digital video companies of the future.”
Time is money, and both are scarce and valuable. Enterprises that are able to develop personalized recommendations that speed up the shopping experience and help us get better value for our dollars—and at the same time aren’t “in your face” and annoying--will have an architecture that will pay off in terms of strategic competitive advantage.
The target enterprise architecture here is increased sales and profitability (performance); focused sales and marketing (business); greater personalization and useful recommendations (information); systems processing automated suggestion algorithms (services and technology), all done securely and with privacy assured (security).
Personalization and Enterprise Architecture