Defining the problem actually takes up a lot of time

I've been flying between Tokyo and Kagoshima for the last month and a half after doing my first 2 month stint in west Japan. I've already manage to take a 1 week process down to 3 days and while allowing 2x more samples to be processed simultaneously, meaning 4x throughput.

By the time I got to Kagoshima, some of  the engineers have been working on figuring out how to get the process to work and determine an algorithm for sample inspection. Armed with the basic information from these guys, I started writing software through the night shift and my work spawned into a project of it's own.

I've already finished writing an application and trained a technician to take over the job. I've started working on the next version of the program to try and have the entire process automated since my program doesn't work in some special cases. Classic example of the 20-80 rule, where 20% of the effort gets 80% of the output.

I am treading into territory where other people haven't gone into with the data analysis and I've noticed that I am spending less and less time writing code and more time trying to better define the problem and the exceptions that my code needs to deal with before writing any code. It's somewhat frustrating to not be writing code to get things done but I guess it's part of the process.


It's odd how the motion of "doing" something is so closely related to progress, though planning and preparation is also a very important part of solving any sort of problem. Being busy for the sake of being busy is detrimental. I generally like disappearing from the office when working on a tough problem that I haven't managed to wrap my head around and go for a coffee. I find that I understand a problem well, I work infinitely faster because everything is in my head and laid out.

There is something called the "drunken sailor's walk" which is a classic problem that nearly all probability courses covers at some point. After n random steps, the furthest you've traveled away from the origin is related to the root on n. If you walk with direction, the distance traveled is n.

In other words, if you plan things out properly and minimize mistakes, you'd be better off by the factor of a square. If you wonder why there can be such a gap in skill or level in the world sometimes, I think that it is the expression of this phenomenon.

For those that have the time, I suggest reading Richard Hamming's book The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn, which is a fairly ok read. There are some interesting notes from a well known researcher, from which I gleaned this idea from.

A disappointing experience at a computer store

I did some more thinking about putting together a server recently and came to the conclusion that even though I would be paying a little more money to run my own server at home, I could get close to 4x more performance and unlimited hard drive space instead of renting one. I also though it would be a good experience to learn to set one up should I need to set one up online using one of the services like Amazon's AWS.

I put down the cash for server parts last Friday and so far, the CPU, motherboard, case and memory arrived. Since I was going for a server system, I didn't need a monitor or a fancy video card for the system which brought the price of the computer down considerably. When going for the slim computer case, I made the mistake of purchasing one without a built in power supply. Thinking that getting a power supply wouldn't be hard enough, I dropped by the closest physical computer store  I could find online only to be incredibly disappointed-- all the power supplies were really expensive and the cheap ones that they were selling were "sold out".

Obviously, I wasn't happy with spending the 20 minute (one way) commute on my scooter to get to the store, spend time looking around to find out that they didn't have what I wanted at a more expensive price.

After getting home, the first thing I did was go online to the Japanese equivalent of "pricegrabber.com" to source a part and I was done with making the order in about 10 minutes. The only difference is that the part will probably arrive in 2 days instead of me having it immediately, but when it comes to being busy, waiting isn't a terrible thing.

Over the past few years, I have been doing more and more online shopping instead of going to stores to buy things instead. It's simply more convenient. I really wonder how much has internet shopping had impacted the retail business and the number of old school stores that have gone out of business as a result of it.

I also move around every 2~3 years making finding new places to buy things fairly important to me somewhat time consuming. Ordering online never ceases to fail me since I get what I want delivered to me quick enough. But back to the computer stores, I really don't understand how they can keep up a business where people have to spend time to go to a place to buy over priced product. The only one possible answer that I can think of is for people that aren't as computer literate to talk to people to get what they need. If that information, too, can be accessed in a manner easy enough online, I think we can kiss the big box computer retail stores goodbye.

If this then that

An interesting automation site, I thought that the idea was interesting when they went into open beta after Sept. I checked after 2 months to see how they were doing and found that they hadn't updated the blog in 2 months. I think they're dead in the water right now and the people that worked on the site are off working on other things.

From the stock market, business and life. Things take time to happen and you should make it a habit of checking old news. So many thing that were at the front of our mind one day become totally forgotten later. I don't know why the time span for ideas is so short, but it would be wise to periodically check old news from time to time instead of just watching the latest headlines; because just tracking the new and not tracking how things go is meaningless.

The Autobiography of Steve Jobs

I haven't read a book in a real long time. Importing books is expensive and I generally abhor having more things to clutter up my room. Then came my desire to tinker with the kindle for the PC and I found reading incredibly refreshing.

After about 3.5 days of reading on both the computer and mainly on my iPhone, I've finished the book. I read of the life of a great man. For once history will have something positive to put among heroes because there just haven't all that many in recent history.

As a person to emulate, I doubt that many people would want to be like him; but to every great man, there are key ingredients. I've turned 30 this year and work life practically ends at about 65. If you really want to make a bang at something, have kids and do everything else, there really isn't a whole lot of time. Every moment is precious and I am reminded of that after reading this book.

Never have I been so consumed with putting my mind to doing something in a long while. After reading the autobiography, you can tell it was put together with care, with countless interviews and decent writing. After finding myself so consumed with reading for the past few days, I just came to the realization at how much the internet sucks; as in "holy shit, it really sucks," because there is so much garbage out there.

Maybe I haven't been going to the right places for content but, I've gotten tired of fishing through the needles in the hay stacks of social sites looking for something good; just simply having a good read was so amazingly refreshing. Yes, I will admit there are some good reads on the internet. Some great essays out there even, but nothing as cohesive as a good book. I missed that, I really did.

The other great thing about reading about Steve Jobs is that he was incredibly intolerant of things that bothered him. I found myself to be quite the opposite recently, being as accommodating and accepting as possible that I noticed that I lost a bit of an edge to life. When you get to the point of accommodating to the sub optimal it just turns into a slippery slope of accepting worse and worse. Sometimes you just need to draw the line even if it means you might have to be an ass.

There is a lot about the book that I really enjoyed, but I feel that I would do no justice to even talk about the story because what really is the point about just saying if something was interesting or not? The act of simply talking about something just feels like it has no value to me and in it's own way is what was the story of Steve Jobs about-- making things happen.

To get good at the stock market, spend time away from it

The stock market right now is one big drama and generally it is usually the people that spend the most time watching dramas are the ones that get the most emotionally involved and start losing money. I made that mistake once before in 2008, just waiting for the perfect time to catch the bottom and doubled up on it because every motion up and down seemed huge to me and when the stock market dropped once in October, I thought "this is it" and it really was "it" for me with a gaping hole in my trading account.

Gone are those days and I've gotten better. To be honest, I think the market in general is on tilt, to use a poker term and it is probably best to leave the table as it is and take a drink while the players sort themselves out. Because really, when everyone is playing weird, you just simply can't control risk (even if you are making logical plays).

I'll admit that I had a few of the equities that I held before the crash over the summer drop by 50% percent. There were people out there talking about being glad that they got out and them going on about how much better it was for them to get out early. Some of those tragically massacred equities I held came back to nearly their original prices and I somewhat regretted not putting some more cash into the market. I can't expect to trade with 20/20 foresight and I'll take the bad with the good.

Sure I am a bit down from the market haywire but I am happy to bide my time, earn money from work and wait. More importantly, instead of waiting, have other things to do :)