Innovation and Productivity

The head of Yahoo is making the news because she's telling her employees to come to work; they can't work from home.  Apparently there's research showing there's more innovation when employees meet face-to-face, have casual interactions, etc. (I don't remember which company, Bell Labs, Apple, who, which designed its building to maximize such interactions. On the other hand working from home increases employee satisfaction, enables you to hire better employees, maximizes productivity, etc.

My only contribution: face time and casual conversation is important.  That's also a reason for meetings, national conferences or just meetings in the FSA context.  Perhaps my best contribution to FSA was when I overheard Solomon Ramirez talk about his work with DFU (an early System/36 utility software package) when we were all imbibing after a national meeting.

[update: see article on Google's building]

Parker on the Past and USDA Sensitivity Training

Kathleen Parker, the conservativish columnist for the Post, writes mocking the sensitivity training at USDA.  I understand the mockery, but she grew up in a very different America than I did, when she writes:

There was a time when such lessons, otherwise known as manners, were taught in every American home [emphasis added]. Said homes were not privileged in most cases but they were occupied by a mother and father who, though they perhaps did not adore each other every waking moment, were at least committed to the mutual task of rearing thoughtful, well-behaved children.

The WASPy upper middle class was taught to be considerate of people's feelings; we would use "Negro" rather than "colored", at least to people's faces, and the "n-word" was reserved for the locker room.  But those "good manners", if they were such, are not sensitivity to others.

When I Don't Post, My Page Views Go UP?

Having been traveling for a few days, I find the increase in page views amazing.  I don't really want to face the logic of the message the statistics are sending me: my audience [sic] wants me to blog less.  I take back everything I've written about wanting government websites to publish their statistics.

Even Slower Blogging and the Horde of Dollars

Tom Friedman, the columnist for the Times, is much richer and smarter than I.  But today he wrote about Apple's "horde" of dollars, a mistake which provides a lovely image: convert Attila the Hun's horde into dollar bills on horses.  (He meant "hoard").

It always pleases me when big shots screw up and I can feel superior to them.

Having said that, we'll be traveling for a few days so my blogging is likely to be nonexistent

FamilyFarms Family Farms

I'm sure few people think of  these as family farms.

USDA Sensitivity Training Gets Attention

From the right, see this Daily Caller article.  It brings back memories of my past sensitivity training sessions.  As described, it sounds as if the instructor kept the session lively enough so no one went to sleep. I've mixed feelings about the worth of such session.  On the one hand I feel superior to them: of course I'm above average in sensitivity so why would I need training (a Lake Woebegone trait Mr. Keillor skipped), on the other hand occasional bits stick--I remember being told by the instructor in our ADA training that everyone was only temporarily able-bodied.

It's easy to mock this stuff, and hard to do it well.

Trade Direct Payments for Disaster and No Future Cuts?

That seems to be the deal the Senate Dems are proposing. Sen. Stabenow agrees to chop direct payments in return for funding 2012/13 disaster programs and no requirement for additional cuts in future legislation.

Factoid of the Day: DC Life Expectancy

Spurred by a Coates blog post on Chicago homicides, I found a site with lots of good data.  Perhaps the most startling:

What state has the highest life expectancy for whites?  DC 83+

What state has the lowest life expectancy for blacks?  DC 70+

USDA Is Not an Agency

My title isn't quite true, but here's my point:  Megan McArdle writes about federal regulations here.  In doing so, she mentions the "Department of Agriculture" twice, both in contexts which are vaguely adverse.  The problem I have is that USDA is a bunch of different agencies, each with their own missions and regulations, each with their own attributes.  To write of it as if it were a unitary agency is simply to misunderstand and oversimplify.

Recession, What Recession, Not for Dogs and Cats

This extension piece on careers servicing "companion animals" reports current spending of $50 billion, with an increase of $12 billion in the last 5 years.  That's roughly a 25 percent rate of increase in hard economic times.

I can believe it: we have two aging cats in the household, one of which will be amazingly costly over the rest of her life span.  I keep surprising myself that I love her that much, because she was mean (feral mother) as a youngster.