Gish Galloping with the GOP
AI Generated image of Donald Trump leading a herd of MAGA in a Gish Gallop
AI Generated image of Donald Trump leading a herd of MAGA in a Gish Gallop
March, 2000 witnessed a crisis in the gun industry. I’ve been researching and teaching about business operations for 40+ years and I can’t think of any other industry-wide event that exhibited the sheer savagery of the gun industry’s collective public destruction of Smith & Wesson. […]
This is a reposting of a blog article and corresponding PDF White Paper that I wrote in April, 2015. Click the following image to view the original PDF White Paper in a popup window. Problem Statement Figure 1 shows a distance-time diagram that depicts a […]
Please take a moment to watch a bit of the following video: A LOT of things in this scene might be worth measuring: The information to estimate answers to these questions is evident in the clip … but you have to extract it and the data […]
I was a late convert to Twitter. I dabbled about a year ago and then I discovered that Ukraine war news appeared there first. Everyone in the media, government and big business already seemed familiar with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and the like. Everyone seemed […]
Everyone is eager (arguably desperate) to understand how Vladimir Putin can be convinced to shut down his catastrophic invasion of Ukraine. Behind the urgency lies the fear that Putin may resort to nuclear weapons … initially as a threat, then with limited tactical use, but […]
Around the world, people wonder how to help the people of Ukraine. Our governments can provide arms, humanitarian aid and apply sanctions. That will help while the war is underway, but when it’s over, history tells us that these well-meant efforts will quickly fade away. […]
I previously shared maps based on data from The New York Times showing how COVID-19 cases and deaths had spread across the US. It has infected nearly every corner of the US, although public perception probably links it more with urban centers like New York […]
Since I have more time on my hands than I really wanted or planned, I’ve been working through various analysis and visualization options in the R statistics ecosystem. The latest exploration exploits the fine data collection that the NY Times makes publicly available at its […]
About 30 years ago, I sat outside a seminar room at a product design conference. I recall meeting Tom Matano. In the 1990s, Mr. Matano was an icon and rock star in the industrial design world. He was the head of Mazda’s West Coast design […]
I haven’t written a post for nearly two weeks because I was engaged in a small project to stretch and enhance my skills. It’s been a year or two since I built a decent statistical analysis in R and Shiny. My most recent work product […]
In this post I strongly recommended that people read two articles by Tomas Pueyo that lay out a context and strategy to beat COVID without totally trashing our economy or allowing millions to die. Now, I would add a link to a podcast at Harvard […]
I’ve been privileged to work on many projects, studies, designs and commercial ventures in many fields … and I’ve worked with impressive set of collaborators.
Until recently, I was bogged down as President of my HOA. Freed from those obligations, I can refocus. This blog has been on my roadmap for a couple of years, but I’m only now finding time to bring it to life.
See my “About” profile to understand where a lot of these ideas come from. In particular, I’ve been working with “systems” my entire (nearly 50 year) career. Over that time I was privileged (or cursed) to deal with complex systems in a wide range of settings and activities: Multiple industries. Academics. Multiple disciplines within organizations.
Added: Now that I’m formally retired, this is my “professional memoir” … where I can share random insights that I picked up and I can analyze current events in terms of my understanding about the systems issues that drive them. After working with so many different problems, new situations usually remind me of stuff I saw or did in some previous context.
Vic Uzumeri, PhD
P.S. This site is dedicated to my son David … who has an equally keen (albeit very different) understanding of complex systems.
This article derives from my long-held interest in exploring video technology as a routine business tool … not just entertainment. For example:
25 years ago, these were futuristic dreams. Now they’re mainstream. Witness the YouTube “how-to” videos that most companies feel obligated to make for their customers.
I spent 25 years in higher education: four years as a PhD candidate at Rensellaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and 21 years on faculty at Auburn University School of Business. My experience was a bit schisophrenic:
For 20 years, I looked for any way to reconcile and please both masters … and I ultimately failed.
Nonetheless, my desperation caused me to look at strange things in weird places and I still believe that some of the ideas I explored would make a positive difference.
Whether the Higher Education Industry would tolerate these improvements is another matter.
How to run a small, high tech business … with no money and both hands tied behind our back.
From about 1998 to 2018, I was a founder and CEO of a small, bootstrap technology company named interactive Point of View (iPOV). I ran it while I simultaneously taught at Auburn and for a while after I retired from Academia. It lasted longer than many small businesses and it had more than its share of ups and downs.
What I value most from the experience are the lessons that I learned. iPOV was a pure bootstrap tech company. Virtually no capital investment. Everything was built by sweat equity and the proceeds from selling services to Fortune-100 class companies. We grew, lived and died almost solely on fees for services rendered … paid in arrears and only when the job was well done. Over a 10 year period from 2000 to 2010, the company earned about $4M and I ploughed at least half of that back into R&D trying to stay up with the big boys. For quite a while, we could stay even, but not pull ahead.
That is about as tough a business course as there is. We were always on the verge of failing … but we stubbornly refused to die. In the process, we helped at least 50 students pay their way through Auburn … most going on to great careers in a wide range of fields. Many are still Facebook friends.