Francis Shanahan[.com] » reason

The Evolution of Problems

Francis — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:05:00 +0000

The key to success…in life…is… problems.

First there is just you.

Someone will hand you a problem, and ask for a solution. You’ll give them the answer when it’s fait accomplis. How long it took is how long it’d take.

Time passes, you grow smarter. Estimation develops. When someone hands you a problem, you know ahead of time how long it’ll take.

Soon you’re fixing problems predictably.

Then the problems get bigger. The problems themselves contain problems. When you encounter an unexpected problem, you can fix that too.

Before long you don’t need someone to hand you the problems. You start finding them yourself. Of course these get thrown over the wall because you’re the "problem finder", not the "problem solver".

Folks appreciate this and it’s fun. Before long you can spot a problem a mile away. Folks come to you for advise, as if you are some kind of "Problem Oracle at Delphi".

It’s a comfortable place to be. No responsibility. No hard problems to solve. Adoration from the needy.

This is where MOST people get stuck.

Next time you’re wondering why your career is stuck ask yourself these basic questions:
"What types of problems am I working on?"
"Do people HAND me problems? Or do I seek them out?"
"Why don’t people give me BIGGER problems?"
"Am I a Problem FINDER? or a Problem Solver?"
"When I escalate, do I share Problems with others? or do I share SOLUTIONS?"
"How can I share a BIGGER solution? (answer: find a bigger problem)"

This might seem like a BS "The Secret" type posting but there’s a grain of truth to it.

Logic and Stupidity

Francis — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:01:00 +0000

There’s a great quote by Pierre Boutroux who said

"Logic is invincible because in order to combat logic it is necessary to use logic."

Makes sense right? Unfortunately there are a few corollaries to this.

Logic can battled by Stupidity
You cannot combat Stupidity with Logic.
Only Stupidity can battle Stupidity.

Which brings me to another quote, this time I don’t know the author:

"Never argue with a fool, they will lower you to their level and then beat you with experience."

The Moon

Francis — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 01:43:00 +0000

I woke last Sunday evening at about 1AM. It was Easter Sunday evening, the day Jesus is supposed to have risen from the dead. The moon was shining into my bedroom, onto my face with as much light as a high powered torch. It was a full moon and I could easily have read a book by it.

The bed is positioned with my head about 8 feet from the window. The curtain was closed and the angle was acute such that the moon stayed like that only for about 10 minutes before rotating out of sight. It’s never happened before.

I had just turned 33, the same age Jesus was when he died. Yikes!

So why is this note worthy? Well in today’s fast paced world I’m surrounded by technology yet I still find I’m fairly superstitious in some things. It struck me that in days gone by, even as recent as 50-60 years ago, in rural Ireland, such an event might have been viewed as having some significance.

What are the chances that the sky would be clear, the moon be full, that there be no leaves on the trees outside, that it would shine in at just the right angle and that I would wake on the morning of my birthday?

Maybe it meant something, maybe it didn’t but it’s as close to a "sign" of something as I’ve had of late. As with many things lately, the issue is not noticing it but understanding what it means.