Obstreperous: Uninformed Opinions, Strongly Held

Poka-yoke

Sun, 29 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A coworker introduced me to the concept of Poka-yoke in the last year or so, and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since. The tl;dr version of Poka-yoke is that processes should aim to implement control poka-yokes that prevent incorrect behaviour, and warning poka-yokes that indicate incorrect behaviour. So here are some stories about poka-yokes in my personal life…

Years ago, I was lived in a house in which each door had both a handle lock and a deadbolt. Each day before exiting the house, I locked the handle, which was only possible from the inside of the house. I would then back out of the house and use the hand in which I held my house key to pull the door shut. One day as I shut the door, I accidentally dropped the key beneath the door’s path, and closed the door locking myself outside. When I bought my first house, I had all of its doors changed to only use deadbolts. These deadbolt-only doors operate as control poka-yokes, ensuring that I need to be on the outside of the door and in possession of a key to be able to lock the door. Simple, and over the years it has saved me more than once.

I used to take a padlock with me to use on lockers at the gym, keeping the key in the pocket of my gym shorts. One day, I forgot the key inside the locker. Thankfully the staff didn’t need any convincing to lend me their bolt cutters. Afterward I bought a combination lock for which I could set a memorable combination, and I keep it locked when not in use. Keeping it locked is both a control and a warning poka-yoke. If I can’t unlock it (control), I don’t remember the combination and shouldn’t be using it. If it takes me several tries to unlock it (warning), I don’t reliably remember the combination and shouldn’t be using it.

Finally, I’ve bought myself a pill container that has both AM and PM compartments for each day of the week. Prior to having this pill container, I only used Google Reminders to tell me when I should be taking pills. While that worked sometimes, I tended to silence reminders and neglect to address them later. To augment Google Reminders, I leave the pill container in a prominent location. The pills being organized beforehand prevents me (control) from taking duplicate dosages. The pills being visible indicates (warning) when I have failed to take a dose.

These are some of the minor changes I’ve made to my life that help protect me against myself. Hopefully they give you some ideas you can use, or at least give some background on why I maintain that Rule #1 is “Mak is not to be trusted.”

Four Weeks of Gymming

Fri, 27 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Today I’m celebrating four weeks of going to the gym every weekday. As part of the Eric-vs-Mak competition, I needed to address my wildly inconsistent and intermittent fitness routine. I started the traditional way, by procrastinating for three months, going to the gym less than once a week on average from September through November. In late November, I had a minor outpatient day surgery that resulted in a sutured incision on my chest and orders to avoid heavy lifting. I asked the surgeon how long I should wait before doing bench presses – I always favour clear and specific examples when seeking medical advice – and was told “four weeks”. Naturally, I procrastinated for another week, not willing to break my streak yet.

There are less than 200 metres (656 feet) between the door to my house and the door to my gym, it’s literally a three minute walk. I still had trouble finding the motivation. The following rules got me to this point:

Go every weekday the gym is open
Be there when they unlock the door (0600h)
Do at least one exercise of any duration

Some days I showed up and walked slowly on a treadmill for 20 minutes and then went home. Some days I ran a few miles or cycled several miles. In the last week I half-resumed previous free weight exercise routines. What I’ve been tackling was my adherence to an exercise schedule. What I do doesn’t matter yet, but it will next week. I can now plan an exercise routine with the confidence that I’ll be in the place I need to be to perform the routine.

Gear Post

Wed, 16 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In December or January of each year, I go to a blog to read its author’s yearly gear post. I have no interest in any of the other author’s posts, but I find it interesting to see what other people, usually those with vastly different lives, find important enough to use and then write about. Another blog I’ve read a lot of posts on is Uses This, but those get repetitive fast. I also find the /r/EDC subreddit interesting at points, but the gems are rare.

The problem with things is that sometimes you want to own them because you want to be the sort of person who owns/uses those things. That usually ends poorly. This is the (personal) ‘gear’ that actually matters to me, that gets used regularly or is a permanent part of my life.

I took all of these pictures myself using a terrible phone, because… copyright?

Kitchen

I’ve been doing a lot of bread baking and other cooking recently, but the gear for that is in flux.

President’s Choice Knives

Shortly after getting married, I decided that I’d do more cooking, so I went to (Real Canadian) Superstore and bought what seemed to be a proper knife. A few years late I came across a cheap online kitchen knife skills course and signed up. I quickly realised that I had been using a carving knife for years. Going back to Superstore, I bought this standard, perfectly fine chef’s knife and a similar paring knife. They totally cut things. These will get replaced in the near future.

Watches

I like watches, especially mechanical watches. I want my computer’s time to be accurate and logged in UTC, but I want my personal time to be fuzzy and local. Mechanical watches are basically magic, and I appreciate carrying that with me. I also appreciate that the watch prevents me from pulling out my phone, looking at the time, putting my phone away, realizing I’ve already forgotten the time, and sheepishly pulling the phone out again… in a loop.

Seiko SKX007

My parents got married when I was nine, and I recieved a watch that was in the style of a dive watch as a present for being in the wedding party. When I decided to wear a watch again, I bought what you could think of as the entry-level field watche, an Seiko SNK809. After wearing that watch for a while, I saw a deal on the watch pictured here, which is what many people choose as an upgrade path. The SKX series are dive watches, which means that they adhere to the ISO 6425 standard. The high-level explanation of that standard is that the watches it covers:

Can be submerged in a sink, a bath, or a pool
Can take a hit, for when I bash my arm on a doorframe or counter, or drop it face-first onto concrete
Are legible at a certain distance with no light
Have a rotating, unidirectional bezel

The first three points mean that I don’t have to worry about breaking my watch, and the unidirectional bezel is something I use regularly to indicate when I started doing something. While I could use my phone for these things, the less I remove my phone from my pocket, the better my life is.

I keep this watch on what’s called a NATO strap, which I find to be convenient and comfortable.

Seiko SKX009

The 007 and the 009 differ only in the design of their bezel inserts. I wear my 009 more in summer, since I keep it on a rubber band, and it’s my ‘water watch’. I frequently swim when it’s warm out, and changing watch bands is involved enough that having two watches is worthwhile to me. I also hope to mod both of my SKXs in the future. The Seiko SXK is the Honda Civic of watches, so there are many aftermarket options available, and many videos and articles to guide me through the process.

Casio F-91W

This is my gym watch. When I’m at the gym, I want a total beater of a watch that I can smash into iron plates and not care about… because that happens.

Fitbit Charge HR

This is my sleep ‘watch’, I wear it only when I sleep. When I wake up early to go to the gym, the less noise I make the better, and the Charge HR has a vibrating alarm. Unfortunately, the firmware on this device is unreliable, so I have to regularly hard-reset it to factory defaults to make it usable again. Sometimes it becomes entirely unresponsive, and I have to wait for the battery to drain fully so it loses its state in RAM, then charge it, then factory reset it. Truly it is a terrible thing. It will be removed from my kit in the near future.

Earbuds

Apple AirPods

These are my audiobook earbuds. AirPods can operate individually, one earbud at a time, letting me conveniently have one ear dedicated to an audiobook while performing other tasks. I feel guilt every time I use them, because I paid Apple money. They are aggressively power-saving and inconsistently compatible with non-Apple devices. Despite the frustration they cause, I have no plans to replace them.

Jaybird X2

These are for the gym. They won’t fall out or get lost, and they are geared towards use during physical activity. Occasionally the firmware gets stuck, and you can’t knock them out of their stuck state until power is momentarily applied via a USB cord. Don’t talk to me about firmware… I just can’t anymore.

Tools

KeySmart Duct-Ling

I don’t remember where I first encountered this simple metal contraption, but I love it. It allows me to conveniently carry around a small amount of duct tape with me. You wouldn’t think that would be useful, but it is. Most recently I taped-shut a take-home container with a dodgy lid when leaving a restaurant. I’ve refilled the duct-ling several times with different tapes. The bottom plate used to unscrew itself in my pocket, but I applied thread-locking fluid to it to correct that.

Leatherman Skeletool CX

I’ve had several multi-tools in the last decade or so, and they were all either too rarely used to justify staying in my pants, or they were too heavy. The Skeletool changed that, and it’s been in my pants every day for about two years. The Skeletool CX differs from the Skeletool by being black, having nicer metal for the blade or something, and not having serrations near the base. It’s very light, my cell phone is heavier.

When I got my Skeletool, it came with two double-sided bits: one in the handle and one on the end in a driver. These bits were the worst, since they were different sizes of flat and Phillips. I replaced them with one bit that has Phillips and flat head, and another bit that has two sizes of Robertson.

As with other things in my gear, you don’t know how much you will use it until you have it with you always.

Input Devices

I love input devices, they move from system to system with you over the years. Computers are temporary, as are output devices. Input devices are forever… or at least a few years longer than computers.

Kinesis Advantage 2

This is an insanely expensive keyboard, and if you type for a living it is worth it. I find it important to keep in mind what you’re actually buying when making a purchase. With my input devices, I’m buying reduced injury from my job. That’s not something you skimp on if you have the choice.

The Kinesis Advantage series has three features which are, in my totally biased fanboy opinion, critical for minimal strain. First, the keys are not staggered, the way they are on most keyboards, so that in a QWERTY layout, the orientation of Q, A, and Z are in a straight line. This means that a simple extension or curling of the fingers is necessary to transition between the rows when typing. Second, the keyboard offers thumb clusters for modifier keys and other commonly-used keys. This prevents scrunching up or angling your hand to execute shortcuts. Finally, the dips in the keyboard facilitate the linear key layout so that as you curl or extend your fingers, they naturally come to rest on the row you want.

The biggest downside of this keyboard is the cost, and how it will ruin all other keyboards for you within a week of using it. I have mine configured in a Dvorak layout, which is supported natively by the firmware — twitches — and lets me keep my proficiency with QWERTY because my brain feels the Kinesis is too alien to overwrite my habits on normal keyboards. Brains are weird, eh?

Logitech MX Ergo Plus

A coworker introduced me to the Logitech Trackman Wheel Optical in 2006, and I’ve hated mice and trackpads ever since. Controlling the mouse cursor with a thumb is incredibly intuitive and comfortable to me. I used to play first-person shooters regularly with my trackball. The newest model of this series is the MX Ergo, which is distinguished by supporting Bluetooth and being tiltable. The MX Ergo can be tilted up to 20 degrees, and the Plus designation means only that it comes with a wedge that provides an additional 10 degree tilt. Also, never order from Logitech directly or you may have to interact with them.

Writing

Field Notes

Notebooks are something I used to fetishize. I loved beautiful notebooks to the point that I felt my words were unworthy of them, so I tended to leave them unused lest I sully them with my drivel. Lucky for you, I don’t feel that way about the Internet…

I had many different kinds of Moleskine notebooks over the past decade, but they all annoyed me in various ways. Every model of notebook would eventually be destroyed before I had filled it, regardless of its size. One of my favourite authors, Warren Ellis, mentioned at some point that he had gotten some Field Notes and enjoyed them. The brand doesn’t seem to be sold in stores where I live, so I eventually bought a few via Amazon, and they worked for me. I appreciate that my Field Notes notebooks don’t get destroyed while living in my back pocket every day, which is the only brand to manage that. So I have a quarterly Field Notes subscription that I share with a friend, and it keeps me well-stocked with a variety of notebooks that I find useful.

So… why not use my phone for taking notes? Honestly, I can’t think on a cell phone. I can think with a keyboard, because to me that’s just talking, and talking is how I think. While using a pen and paper, my brain still feels like I’m talking, to myself at least. But when I’m using a touchscreen, I feel like I’m operating a device, and I’m constrained by the choices made by the designer of the device. It’s probably a generational thing, but that’s how my brain is wired, and I’ve got to live with my brain.

Zebra F-701

For a few years I kept a Sharpie pen in my pocket at all times, but they are kind of a pain to write with — they’re sensitive to angle — despite the nice result they produce. Then I carried around a Fisher Bullet Space Pen for a year or two, but its small form factor drove me nuts, as did the necessity that I remove the cap. Ain’t nobody got time for that! So I upgraded to the much cheaper Zebra F-701. This pen is made of a surprisingly thick metal tube, partially knurled for grip, with a normal clicky mechanism (technical term). It doesn’t annoy me. High praise.

Essentials

Nomatic Basics

As long as I can remember, I’ve kept my wallet in my front-right pocket. For five years or so this was a bi-fold wallet, and then I decided I needed more pocket space, so I switched to using a binder clip as a ‘wallet’, refusing to carry any cards that weren’t essential in my daily life. Now I use a Nomatic Basics wallet, which is the spiritual successor to my binder clip. Its elastic is convenient, keeping the cards snug, and the pull-tab that makes the cards separate is occasionally useful.

Handkerchief

Handkerchiefs seem weird, until you carry one… and live my life. I have used my handkerchiefs to wipe faces, wipe noses, wipe tears, wrap wounds, wrap hands, wrap food, clean glasses, dry hands and more. Have a stack of them, stick a new one in your pocket each day, and you’re good to go.

Ty Beanie Baby Squirrel

Roughly twenty years ago, my little sister was a toddler, and gave me this plush squirrel. I have kept it in the pocket of whatever pants I’m wearing (roughly) every day since then. It gets laundered frequently and intentionally. I’ve even bleached it once or twice, and the colour held. While the squirrel is rarely useful, it is essential to me. It most often functions as a projectile, an improvised stand, or a distraction. Its name is Nuts.

Wedding Ring

While I don’t wear it often, because it doesn’t fit well at the moment because I’d rather resize myself that it, my wedding ring is part of my gear.

Conclusion

I wonder how many people have obsessed over the date discrepancies on the times the watches are showing, trying to figure out if I took the pictures months ago, took the pictures over the course three hours, or intentionally chose times and dates that would aggravate the observant…

Calendaring

Fri, 11 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I’m always worried when I make plans with someone that I know doesn’t have a calendar. I didn’t maintain a calendar until I had been married for a few months, but life tends to get complicated over time. Paper calendars and writing notes work up to a point, but when you need to take someone else’s schedule into account, networked electronic calendars become very useful. So let’s talk about some things that I like to do with calendars, especially the things that friends have told me are weird.

For my work, being a remote employee in a timezone separate from most of my coworkers, calendars are important for my meetings. My bosses have frequently scheduled meetings with me that are far too late or far too early for my timezone. While this isn’t entirely preventable, there are two things that can help reduce off-hours invitations. First, use the subtle availability restriction settings present on both Google Calendar and Outlook 365. They allow you to set your working hours, so that anyone inviting you to an event outside of those hours will receive a warning that they must clear before the invitation is sent. Second, use the far, far less subtle method of having giant recurring events, preferably marked in red that span your entire off-hours. These events will prevent things that ignore your availability restrictions but respect free/busy status from scheduling events during these times. Those giant red spans also send a clear message, which I appreciate.

My personal calendar is far more important to me, and much more heavily used. Before we go in-depth, here’s what it looks like in Google Calendar. Some editing has been done to the image to make it more general.

The Landscape calendar draws a lot of comments, so let’s address that first. I got this idea by misunderstanding someone else’s, but I like my version better, and it’s that the ‘landscape’ is made up of events around me that aren’t necessarily part of my life, but that I still want to be mindful of. Examples are best, in this case, so here’s a list of recurring events in my Landscape calendar:

Birthdays of friends (not family), in the format Name (Born: YYYY).
Anniversaries of friends (not family), in the format Name & Name (Married: YYYY).
Shift rotations for my best friend, mother, and father — all nurses — which are a complicated series of events that repeat over a period of several weeks.
Dates when friends and acquiantances will be in town.
Dates when the Winnipeg overnight parking ban starts and ends.
Dates when local festivals occur (e.g., Fringe festival).
Amateur radio nets occurring.

My Private calendar contains events that no other person ever needs to know about. If I need to call someone, email something, or stop eating because I’m going for bloodwork 12 hours later, it will be on this calendar. Private events are characterized by taking little to no time.

My Personal calendar, represented by my name, is my main scheduling tool for uncategorizable things that need to do, personally. The most important thing on here is the Sleep event. Scheduling my sleep is important, because it’s the largest block of time in my routine, and having it visible means that when I look at my calendar the event will dominate the end of the day. This is important to me because, in the absence of triggers to do otherwise, I tend to stay up late on my computer long after others have gone to bed. Having a sleep event in your calendar also lets me configure a notification in advance of the event, giving me a ten-minute warning that initiates my “stop what you’re doing and get ready for bed” checklist. Yes, a checklist. More on that another day…

The Family (events that the whole family “does”) and Children (events that the children “do”) calendars are what you’d expect, as is the (currently sparse) University calendar. One of the benefits of having these calendars separated is that they become easy to disable, allowing me to view and search for events outside of them. I can also individually share these calendars with my wife, and provide her write access. The Children calendar is also shared with my extended family.

My Work calendar contains recurring events that are useful for my wife to be aware of, since I telecommute from our house. For instance, I have events that state Meeting (Muted) and Meeting (Talking) so that my wife knows, for example, whether one of the kids playing Lego in my office is okay if she needs to do something without them (e.g., go for an prenatal ultrasound).

Finally, the Sunset & Sunrise calendar is just what it says on the tin. Past Mak never understood the usefulness of this, but having kids changed that. Knowing when the sun sets is useful in my calendar because it helps me decide whether it’s worthwhile to go to the park given the time, etc.

Always keep in mind that your calendar doesn’t rule your life, because life is never simple. But a calendar, properly used, provides perspective on what you should be doing. So if you get a notification that you should get ready to sleep, and you ignore it, it has still done its job. I sometimes think of my calendar as an opportunity cost tracker. Here’s what an average day in my life looks like, if you’re curious.

Swab The Deck!

Wed, 09 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I need to write more. That’s why this blog is here. This week I celebrated my eighth year working as a remote employee. All of my years as a remote employee, I have worked in different country than the majority of my coworkers. As a result, most of my professional communication is written. I am also a programmer, so my primary non-communication output is written. So I write a lot.

I listen to the Cortex podcast, and the hosts discussed their themes for 2019 in the most recent episode. I have decided to adopt the practice of using yearly themes, and have chosen two: operationalization and unity.

My third child is due nine weeks from today, at which point I’ll have a five-year-old, a three-year-old, and a newborn. When my first child was born, I wrote a blog post — which I may repost to this blog in future — that was about how I needed to be more organized. Five years later, and I can honestly say that I’ve done better, but I’m still not happy with my life’s organization. I feel like my life is “on the rails”, but I’m not consistently doing all the things I should be doing. So I plan to use operationalization as my guiding principle in 2019. The two tools I plan to use are the GTD organizational system and my Google Calendar. Expect blog posts about both in the future.

Unity is harder to explain, and requires some background explanation. I frequently refer to Past Mak and Present Mak. My memory is awful, and that fosters a sense that things I did in the past were actually done by another person: Past Mak. Unless an event was truly special, I’m likely to forget it. A friend once remarked that the reason I talk so much is so that I will say everything I’m ever likely to say, and then “That sounds like something I’d say” will be a reliable heuristic. There’s also a concept called “dynamic inconsistency” and “time inconsistency”, describing the phenomenon of people making different choices at different points in time. So I will aim in 2019 to be unified — not inconsistent — with my choices. Present Mak should be able to put events on the calendar and expect that Future Mak will agree that they are the correct choice when they arrive.

So that’s the plan for 2019. We’ll see how this goes…

P.S.: For many programmers, the first program they ever write displays Hello, World! on the screen. For me, the first program that I ever wrote displayed Swab The Deck!. That message was suggested by the QBasic book I was learning from, whose title is lost to history.