Author: Jason Cox

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Thankfulness

Fall Colors

“Gratitude doesn’t change the scenery. It merely washes clean the glass you look through so you can clearly see the colors.” – Richelle E. Goodrich.

As we roll into this Thanksgiving Holiday, I pause to reflect back on this unprecedented year.  It has been a tough year for all of us.  With the headwinds we have seen due to the pandemic, the challenging consequences, and the toll on our families, friends and businesses, it may be difficult to spot those golden nuggets of thanksgiving in what seems to be a 2020 mine of despair. Nevertheless, there is still reason to be thankful!  Look for that glimmer and you will find it:  Those sacrifices of others to help. Those kind words and gestures to those struggling. Heroes emerging. Incremental wins. Awakenings. Project completions, team accomplishments, and personal achievements unlocked.  Those are all blessings to be celebrated.

Take time to pause, reflect, appreciate and enjoy the beautiful colors of blessings this Thanksgiving Holiday season.

Stay safe and stay well!

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Illusion of Knowledge

Avianca 747 Plane

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” – Daniel J. Boorstin

Avianca Flight 011 took off from Paris on its way to Spain’s Madrid-Barajas International Airport.  It was a routine flight.  Upon reaching the Madrid airspace, the pilot asked and received landing clearance.  The pilot then unwittingly made a wrong turn on his approach vector.  As the aircraft dropped to 2248 feet, the ground-proximity warning systems started sounding.  “Terrain! Pull up!” filled the flight deck.  The pilot was sure they were on the right path and the altitude was appropriate for the descent to runway 33, so he ignored the warning system.  After all, the airport approach controller would surely inform them if they were on the wrong path.  Moments later, the outer starboard engine impacted the top of a hill at 163 mph causing the right wing to dig deep into the ground, pitching the plane into a “cartwheel”.  The entire airframe spun violently and disintegrated.  All 19 crew members and 162 of the 173 passengers perished. In addition to the negligence of the pilot to heed the warning systems, investigators showed that the airport failed to inform the crew that their radar service had been terminated and they were unable to monitor their craft.

This is a tragic story of the illusion of knowledge.  So strong was their illusion of what they thought was true that the flight crew dismissed the ground-proximity warning system that could have saved their lives.  We often see things like this and blame the pilot for irresponsibly ignoring the clear warning signal.  But how often are we guilty of the same thing?  There is a tendency for us all to elevate our own mental models to the point of silencing anything that contradicts.  Challenging our perceptions or established views is difficult and painful.  We like to form simple models for the world, our work and our systems to make our lives easier. With a model, you don’t need to think, you just act.  Like muscle memory, we fall into the lowest cognitive energy state.  That can be extremely helpful in allowing us to process vast amount of information every single day, but unfortunately, those models can be wrong.  And sometimes, those differences make all the difference in the world.

Last year, when we were able to travel, my family and I spent several days in London.  We traveled around the city using the Underground railway.  As you bounce between Waterloo, Jubilee and Bakerloo among the various cavernous stations, you often hear the public announcement system remind you to be observant and diligent about reporting anything unusual, “See it.  Say it.  Sorted.”   It is to raise awareness of the vital role we all play in keeping ourselves and others safe.  That isn’t just appropriate for riders of the London Tube, it applies to all of us, including our jobs.  

Seek the truth and strive to see problems clearly.  As engineers and scientists, we should always be in pursuit of evidence and truth.  When data presents itself, like an early warning system, don’t dismiss it, report it.  Investigate it.  Adapt to it. Be a warning signal to others.  Make it safe for others to approach you with truth.  Do you feel safe calling out problems or issues to your leaders and others?  Are you hesitant to report or responds to indicators that something may be wrong?  Don’t!  Truth is gold. Leaders need that insight.  Seeing clearly and embracing data, even if it is inconvenient or breaks our illusion, will help us all become better.  I challenge you this week, look for truth, honor the truth and speak the truth.

Note: Photo from Creative Commons (link).

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To everything there is a season…

Fireplace

“To everything there is a season…  a time to plant and a time to reap… a time to weep and a time to laugh… a time to mourn and a time to dance.” – Ecclesiastes 3

A time to reap…

“It’s cold outside!” I received that text at 4am this morning when one of my IoT devices detected temperatures in our backyard dropping into the frost zone.  It seemed like a great idea when I built the device, but at 4am, it wasn’t so hilarious.  We did manage to harvest the last tomatoes and peppers from our garden before the cold hit.  Despite the cold, we did enjoy the weather here in Santa Clarita this weekend.  Sunny rain showers with gusty winds visited our neighborhood. The fires are out and the air is clear. We even had a few doses of hail cover our yard like a sparkling winter wonderland.  And just like that, the leaves on the trees in our neighborhood began to change.

A time to laugh…

I know it is only November, but with the nice weather and all that is going on, Saturday felt like Christmas.  I hung the lights and lit a fire in the fireplace.  There was even a rainbow or two that streaked across the sky as if to welcome the new season and bid farewell to a long and emotionally draining week.  Regardless of where you are along the US political spectrum, there was news made and records broken.  Related to that, I fully appreciate the emotion, the exhilaration and the disappointment that some may be feeling right now.  We should recognize that and be kind to one another.

A time to dance…

In other news, Pfizer and Biotech are reporting positive results from their COVID-19 vaccine trials.  That’s encouraging news!  Most of us have family or friends personally impacted by the virus.  We still have a long road back to pre-pandemic “normal” but any progress is cause for celebration.  Speaking of celebrating, I often talk about the need to recognize our accomplishments and wins as a team.  I love seeing the updates and one-off notes that my team sends me so I can celebrate with them.  If you are not doing that, you should!  Reflecting back on this year, it is amazing to see how much we have accomplished despite the challenges the pandemic threw our way.  I am incredibly grateful for my team and the hard work we continue to do to help each other and our company weather this difficult time.

A time to heal…

Even with the good news, we are still facing challenging times.  This is a good time to remember to breathe (and not just because your Apple Watch tells you to).  Take a moment today and let your mind and body heal.  Let go of the tensions that the pandemic, remote work and life pressures bring your way.  Breathe.  Rest.  Renew.  A new season is here… drink it all in and enjoy!

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One in 7.5 Billion

Girl on Beach

“One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.”

A man was walking along a deserted beach at sunset and saw a young girl in the distance.  The girl kept bending down, picking something up and throwing it into the water. Over and over she kept casting things into the ocean. As he approached, he was able to see that she was picking up starfish that had washed up on the beach.  One at a time, she threw them back into the water. The man asked what she was doing.  She replied, I’m throwing these starfish back into the ocean, or they will die.” The man laughed, “There are thousands on this beach, and many other beaches like this.  You can’t possibly make a difference.  You can’t possibly save them all.”  She smiled, bent down and picked up another starfish and replied as she threw it back into the surf, “I made a difference to that one.”

We have a big family.  I have four kids, a relatively higher than average size family.  But that is nothing compared to the 7.5 billion people in our human family across the world.  With such a huge number of kin, is it any surprise that we sometimes feel insignificant?  How can we possibly make a difference in such a huge ocean of humanity?  With coronavirus, we may feel even more distant and helpless.  Is there anything that we can do that can possibly matter? 

It turns out that we can indeed make a difference.  We don’t need to shift continents or singularly help millions of people.  By helping just one other person, we make a difference.  It can be as simple as a kind word.  Help someone carry their burden, show some compassion, bring some light.  One on one, a donation of time, care, resources or attention can change a person’s life.  If we all make that effort, it becomes even greater.  Collectively we are a formidable force of 7.5 billion points of light that can illuminate and change the world. 

Look for an opportunity to help someone this week.  Be encouraged.  You can make a difference, one person at a time.

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Tune In

Antenna of NASA Near Earth Network

“Always remember, your focus determines your reality.” – George Lucas

It is like static, a quiet noise, a low hum or a faint crackling sound.  That’s how some of us may describe 2020. It feels like someone pushed pause and we are all in time out.  We are caught in the current of the void, the stream of random indistinguishable flutters and rings.  

Back in the 1990’s, my dad decided to get a satellite TV dish.  Forever a can-do and frugal engineer, he signed up for the “self-installation” package.  Naturally, that translated to us being on the roof with a bag of bolts, parts and indecipherable instruction manuals. The kit included a simple compass and directions to mount and orient the dish toward the geosynchronous satellite.  A cable ran from the dish into the house to a receiver hooked to the television.  The setup screen displayed the signal strength with an audio signal that went from a low static hum to a solid high-pitched tone when the dish was correctly oriented.  Getting the dish oriented correctly before cell phones was an hour long comedy skit with my dad monitoring the TV yelling out the status to my sister in the yard who was yelling up to me on the roof.  I made slight adjustments left and right then up and down until we finally had a clear solid tone, indicating success.  We had the dish locked on to the satellite.

Getting a good signal during this pandemic has been difficult.  About the time we adjust to the new rhythm, the timing changes.  Some news we didn’t want to hear arrives.  Projects change to match new business conditions. Pandemic tidal forces ebb and flow.  All the while, we keep working and living life remotely with facemasks and limited interactions to keep everyone safe.  A low hum, a static, a faint noise.

Tune in. I don’t know about you, but I’m looking for a clear signal.  It’s time to focus and lock in.  This past week and this weekend reminded me of how important it is to have solid structure, rhythm, traditions and habits. I’m convinced that those are important geosynchronous targets that we can launch to help orient our days, even during this pandemic.  It could be something as simple as events on the calendar, a checklist of to-dos religiously made and cleared, or a purposeful goal with clear directionality.  

This week, I challenge you to a tune-up.  Examine the structures of your week and life.  Do you need to add some framing?  Give yourself the edifice of a clear target.  Focus on clear steps and proceed forward purposefully.  Yes, these are challenging times, but our focus can shape our reality.  It can help us manage and thrive during difficult times.  Focus, lock in and win! 

Photo: Antenna of NASA’s Near Earth Network at the Alaska Satellite Facility

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See Problems

“Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be.” – John Wooden

On June 4, 1942, the Japanese Navy arrived at the island of Midway to battle the United States Navy.  They had twice the number of pilots, planes and firepower.  Clearly with this much difference between these two forces, the Japanese should have won.  But that’s not what happened. In a surprising turn of events that became lore and even feature length movies, the United States won the Battle of Midway and that catastrophic defeat devastated the Japanese Navy.  It led to their inability to wage war in the Pacific for the remainder of the Second World War. 

Dr. Steven Spear from MIT, tells this story and asks the question, “When do you suppose the Japanese lost the Battle of Midway?”  Books have been written on the exact details of each maneuver during the battle to try to determine the exact moment that spelled the loss for Japan.  Prepare for a surprise.  The Battle of Midway was lost in 1929, not 1942.  Over a decade before!  Here’s the deal, by 1929 the Japanese Admiralty had locked in their assumption on how wars would be fought and won on the sea.  Everything was built upon the assumption that the entire fleet of one nation would face the entire fleet of the other head on. That doctrine dictated how they designed their aircraft, their carriers, their procedures and tactics.  They scripted the entire battle plan for Midway and conducted war games to rehearse it.

During the war game they set up a huge table with the layout of the two sides.  The Japanese Admirals sat on one side of the table and brought in junior officers to play the side of the US.  Both sides used sticks to push the wooden ships around the map.  After a few back and forth moves, a referee blew a whistle and accused the junior officer of not playing according to the battle plan.  He was kicked out and another junior officer was recruited.  This officer did the same thing as the former one, he looked down the table, realizing he was significantly outmatched, he too deviated from the battle plan and began to win against the Japanese side.  Once again, he was accused of not understanding the battle plan and dismissed.  This same thing happened until they went through all the junior officers, then petty officers and even brought in noodle vendors off the street.  Each time the US side won and the Japanese Admirals were frustrated that nobody was playing by the battle plan.  Instead of seeing the problem that these exercises were showing, they fixated on pathologically rehearsing their failed plan.  That is how the battle was lost.

The lesson here is powerful.  We often believe we know the best way to solve problems.  We can go to great lengths and details in defining and prescribing the solution.  But if the solution is not tested or we are unwilling to observe and build ways to see problems and learn, we can suffer catastrophic failures similar to the Japanese Admiralty.  We should design and test our systems in such a way that we can clearly detect problems, learn from them and alter course when discovery is made.  Avoiding that is effectively setting a course for failure.

A growth mindset seizes upon unexpected events or failures as golden moments of learning.  I believe this applies to all of life, not just our engineering efforts.  We all make plans, sometimes elaborate plans, and yet how do we react when those plans are thwarted?  Do we dismiss the opponent and try to get back to plan, or do we learn and alter our course?  I know this is a growth area for me.  I often want to push ahead with full force to get something done.  This pandemic has thwarted and change a lot of our plans.  But do we surrender or do we embrace the discovery as new opportunity?  Don’t become discouraged, fatigued or apathetic.  Convert problems into energy and redirect it towards a positive direction.  The secret power of successful businesses, teams and individuals is the ability to quickly learn and adjust to discovery. 

Are you struggling with your own plan failures?  Don’t give up!  Look at those failures as opportunities for learning and adopt the change.  The battle is not lost.  Glean the learning and become better.  You can do this.  Keep learning!

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Road Construction Ahead

“We believe that people with passion can change the world for the better… and those people that are crazy enough to think that they CAN change the world, are the ones that actually do.” – Steve Jobs

Road work ahead!  For the past two weeks we have had road construction in our neighborhood.  Like a marching band, the big equipment moved in with all the familiar drumming, scraping, cutting, dumping and rolling sounds.  In the past, I doubt I would have given it much thought as I commuted to and from the train to get to work.  But this time I have the pleasure of soaking it all in.  On our morning walks I get to see it all up close, greeting the workers moving about in some sort of construction choreography, adorned with branded masks and new coronavirus safety rules.  Watching this work, I’m reminded of the incredible value of building and maintaining this vital infrastructure for our society.  Roads, bridges, utilities, vehicles and buildings all create a platform for our communities, country and world to live, connect, conduct business and shape new ideas into reality.  Infrastructure propels us forward. 

I love technology.  Right out of college, my dad convinced me to join his civil engineering firm to help him, as he called it, “computerize the business.”  I didn’t know anything about civil engineering, but leaned into my science background and learned the complexities of land surveying, hydrology, material science, logistics and structural engineering.  I was amazed at the work that was done manually calculating, planning, drawing, erasing and drafting again.  I introduced the staff to AutoCAD and the coordinate geometry tools I had built to help accelerate their work.  But I was about to learn a big lesson in change management. 

“You’re crazy!”  The engineers were adamant that they didn’t want those “darn computers” (and other colorful adjectives) anywhere near their projects.  I couldn’t understand why everyone wouldn’t want to embrace new technology.  Instead of giving up, I pivoted and took on a housing development project myself.  Working with a skeptical but supportive colleague, we loaded all the elevation data to build contour maps and went to work planning streets, utilities, houses and storm systems.  The client loved the initial plans but after a review by the city, a major rework was required to expand the housing lots and add a park.  This is where the magic happened.  In the past, that would have been a start over scenario, but by having the entire project in the computer we only needed to make a few modifications to the model and the entire set of plans were ready to be released for construction.  The skeptics were blown away with the turnaround.  All the initial resistance gave way to aggressive adoption as they all saw how the computer had chewed away the toil, tedium and time to deliver plans. 

Technology amplifies human ability.  We leverage information technology to connect, to accelerate and displace manual steps, to elevate our capabilities and extend our horizon.   As technologists, we have an incredible opportunity to build a better world.  Through our trade, we can construct next generation digital infrastructure, better connect people to people, people to ideas, and ideas to reality. 

Technology builds upon technology.  Prior generations of tools stack to scaffold us up to the next level, which becomes the platform for the next.  Despite the entire world being in time out for COVID-19, people are still working, business is still being conducted, things are still moving forward, because of technology put into place by people like you. 

As technologists, we can make a difference.  Our human family is counting on us to help keep the information roadways maintained and improved.  Our companies are counting on us to use our expertise to power our businesses, to ship value better, faster, safer and happier. 

What crazy ambitious ideas do you have to help change the world?  What can we do to better help each other through technology?  I challenge you this week to give that some thought.  Let’s be some of the crazy ones who want to change the world.  Who knows, we might actually do it!

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A Pocket of Curiosity

“I’m just very curious—got to find out what makes things tick… all our people have this curiosity; it keeps us moving forward, exploring, experimenting, opening new doors.” – Walt Disney

Percy Spencer only had a fifth-grade education. His father passed away when he was a toddler and he left school to get a job to support his family when he was only 12. His formal education may have been cut short but that didn’t stop his learning.  He began to experiment with electricity and learning at night, after work.  He became intrigued with wireless radio when he read how it was used to direct the ship Carpathia to rescue the Titanic passengers. He joined the Navy and managed to get ahold of textbooks to teach himself mathematics and science. After his service, he was hired at Raytheon, a newly formed company designing and manufacturing vacuum tubes.  Percy was particularly interested in producing radiation, specifically the use of magnetrons to generate signals used in radar.  That was something the US Government was keen to get for the war efforts.

One day in 1945, Percy showed up at work with a chocolate candy bar hidden in his pocket. While standing in front of the magnetron he was working on, he noticed the candy bar was melting.  He was fascinated by this behavior so he sent out for some unpopped popcorn and put it in front of the magnetron.  When it popped, he knew this small wave radar radiation could be used for cooking. He put the magnetron in a metal box and thus was born the first microwave oven.

Curiosity leads to discovery.  A disadvantage can often lead to a profound benefit.  What makes the difference?  In the case of Percy Spencer, his self-guided education taught him to ask why, to experiment and learn.  An unexpected occurrence, which by all rights could be viewed as an embarrassing disaster by many of us (melted chocolate pocket anyone?) turned into a critical discovery that has brought about an amazing benefit to humanity.  His creative idea was born out of curiosity, observation and action.

This year has been challenging for all of us. The new ways of working and the difficulties before us can be perplexing and discouraging at times.  But don’t give up.  Turn that melted chocolate bar into a discovery.  Ask, what can we learn from this crisis?  What experiment can we conduct to lead us on to discovery?   Are you limiting yourself or your thinking by the echo chamber we can easily find ourselves in?   Don’t.  Try something new this week.  Observe, ask why and then seek to answer it.  I suspect we are all sitting on a goldmine of new discoveries that we have yet to entertain.  Tap your opportunities and explore the unknown to see where it leads.

The next time you heat something up in the microwave remember how a melted candy bar and an inquisitive person handed us that useful invention.

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Transforming Hope

"Light in the Darkness" by Julia R. Cox

“You will do something outside yourself, something to repair tears in your community, something to make life a little better for people less fortunate than you. That’s what I think a meaningful life is. One lives not just for oneself, but for one’s community.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Fall begins tomorrow. There are just 66 days until Thanksgiving and 95 days until Christmas!  Can you believe it?  As I thought about it, I felt a sense of joy.  I love the holidays!  I’m looking forward to the festive fall decorations, family gatherings, seasonal food, menorah lighting and Christmas lights.  It is a time when the world turns from its selfish bent to a time of giving and giving thanks.  It is a time of joy and a time of hope.  It is a hope that we as a people can be better, be just and kind, truthful and compassionate, strong and loving, cheerful and optimistic.  It reminds me of a community, a world that “can be”. It is a hope.

Hope.  It is a powerful thing that is often underestimated, undervalued and underused.  Hope powers us to go beyond ourselves, shatter artificial ceilings, endure painful hurdles to reach the finish line and wake up each day renewed to go on.  Hope is transformational fuel.  Fixing our mind on hope literally changes us.  Our outlook, efforts and character are changed when we hope.  The science behind hope is real. Hope causes the brain to release neurochemicals called endorphins and enkephalins. These chemicals allow the brain to overcome barriers, manage pain, accelerate healing and bring happiness.  Hope is nitrous oxide for our brains!  

Do you want to see a change in yourself or the world?  Unleash some hope. But what do you hope for?  Have you thought about it?  By faith we can believe there can be a better tomorrow.  Take a moment today and think about what could be, what should be.  Can you believe it?  If not, there is no hope.  Hope requires faith and step by step perseverance.  It knows the road ahead is challenging but the destination is real. When we believe, we can make a difference. Everything we do can be transformed by hope: our projects, our businesses, our families, our world and ourselves.  Apply your mind to hope.  Plug in and feel the power surge propel you forward.

It’s coming! The future is ahead and tomorrow is one more step towards our dreams.  Take hope!

* Image Note: This painting is “Light in the Darkness” by the incredibly talented Julia R. Cox.

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Make a Difference

Aurora see in Wisconsin

“If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” ― Fred Rogers

Joan loved science.  When she was 8 years old, she declared to her family that she wanted to be a scientist.  Her mother scolded her, “Women’s brains can’t do science.”  She was crushed and went sobbing into a pillow, wondering if she had to let go of her dream.  On her 14th birthday her brother, Richard, gave her a college textbook titled “Astronomy” which included an impressive chart of scientific data produced by a female astrophysicist.  That was what she needed to encourage her to pursue her career. 

Joan earned her doctorate in physics in 1958 and went on to work at NASA and JPL where she made critical discoveries about the nature and cause of auroras, specifically the interaction of the Earth’s magnetosphere and the magnetic field of the solar wind.  She was recognized and awarded many honors for her contributions to astrophysics, sunspot cycles, environmental hazards to spaceships and climate change.  Before passing away this past July, Joan Feynman had pushed through the barriers of bad advice she had received as a child and went on to make a dent in the universe of human understanding, space travel and our world.  

We are often told what we can and cannot do.  Our families, others and our jobs can intentionally or unintentionally cast us into roles that limit our potential.  I think many of us can relate to bad advice that we have received from others or have given to ourselves.  There is a tendency for us to undervalue our significance or limit our own potential. We are surviving but are we thriving?  We turn the cogs of the machine, but are we living our potential?

You are important.  You make a difference.  The truth is that you individually bring a distinctive value to our human family.  Your individual contribution, diverse traits, history, strengths, challenges, specific talents and nuanced skills fit together into the unique puzzle that is us.  You belong.  Our teams, our organizations and our world would not be the same without you.  That is the incredible truth.  The collection of our uniqueness builds the fabric of who we are as individuals and as a group.  When someone leaves, we become less. 

What are you doing to challenge the barriers you or others have placed upon you?  What would you change?  Are you hiding any of your talents or distinctives that could make us better as a group?  Please don’t!  Bring you.  Make us all greater by being greater yourself.  Embrace the strengths and unique talents of yourself and others as part of our collective power.  Our gaps and our strengths combine to make a diverse spectrum of formidable capability that will help us, our companies and our human family become even greater.  

Each one of us has a unique opportunity to make a dent in the universe.  Encourage yourself.  Encourage others and leave a bit of yourself behind at every encounter.  Together, we become even greater.