Plan A is Usually Not Enough

I read a very interesting article this weekend in one of my sailing magazines. The story could be summarized in a couple of paragraphs but the author lengthened it by talking about the problem-solving process while on an extended sailing trip. The article talked about 3 boats sailing together and one lost its rudder in about 15 feet of water. Now a rudder for a large sailboat is not something you can just swim down and pluck off the bottom. The crews of the 3 boats gathered together and developed a plan A, a plan B, and a plan C. Why? Because plan A rarely works on its own. In the story, the crews ended up using a combination of plans A and B.

Last week I had my own sailing problem to solve and also came up with multiple solutions in case my first choice didn't work. The Great Salt Lake is shrinking due to years of drought in the American southwest. It is now too shallow for sailboats and so I need to pull mine out. Fortunately I have a trailer to put the boat on but I needed to prepare the trailer to receive it. The last time I used the trailer, I put the boat on it and the tires all went flat. We pumped them up and they held air long enough until the boat went back in the water. With the tires being 20 years old, I figured they needed to be replaced.

So how do you replace the tires for a boat trailer? My first thought was to just bring the trailer down to the local tire store and have them do all of the work. An alternative is to pull the wheels off the trailer and bring them to the tire store. Finally I had the option of just inflating the tires to the proper pressure and hope they would continue to hold air. So like the story I started with, I had 3 plans that I could use.

My preference, or plan A, was to just take the trailer to the tire store. My justification for this is that I have submerged the trailer in the Great Salt Lake and I convinced myself that the lug bolts had welded themselves to the hub and would require serious work to remove them. The downside to this plan was that I would have to do the necessary work to make the trailer safe on the road. That means making sure all of the lights work (questionable because of trailer dunking) and that the hitch lock worked correctly.

The night before getting new tires, I couldn't sleep. Ultimately I prepared to execute all 3 plans before heading to the marina where I keep the trailer. The simplest solution was to just pull the wheels off and so I started with that. The trailer surprised me and the lug bolts came off without too much difficulty. It only took 30 minutes to jack up the trailer, remove the wheels, and put them in the back of my truck.

I easily got the wheels to the tire shop and they thanked me for not bringing the entire trailer. They installed the new tires in just a few hours and I had them back on the trailer that evening. Now my trailer is prepared to receive the sailboat. Once the boat is on the trailer, we will store it at the marina until the lake level comes back up enough to put it back in the water. There is no need to take the trailer on public roads.

So why is it that I always come up with multiple solutions for sailing but only one for computer issues. Part of that may be that when you have a sailing problem, failure is very expensive and sometimes lethal. With a computer, you can always turn it off and think about other solutions. If you find yourself constantly frustrated by your computer problems then it might make sense to come up with multiple solutions before starting any work. While it may seem like an inefficient use of time, it will force you to think more about the issue and your plan B or plan C may actually be more efficient in actually solving of the problem.

Video Game Review: Ghost of Tsushima

This morning I woke up early and finished my latest video game: Ghost of Tsushima on my PlayStation 4. I enjoyed the game so much that I achieved every trophy and platinum'd the game. That means I actually finished the game several days ago and just had a few extra tasks to do.

Ghost of Tsushima is an action adventure game, which is my favorite style. It compares well to the Far Cry series, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Red Dead Redemption. Basically you run around as a Samurai warrior trying to repel the Mongol forces attacking your island. The game is broken into 3 parts or acts. Each act takes place on different parts of the island with their own weather and unique features. I enjoyed the 3rd act as it takes place in the snowy section of the island.

As with the other games of this genre, you start off with several tutorials in the form of flashbacks to when you were a young boy learning how to become a Samurai . As you progress through the game, you learn how to collect resources that will be used to upgrade your equipment. You also acquire skills, new types of weapons, and different armor. Initially you will feel overwhelmed with all of the various combinations but it will become clear when to use certain items and when to use others. Sometimes I felt like I was constantly changing clothes.

One of the nice things about the game is that it tells you how long you have been playing each time you go to save your progress. It took me 75 hours to finish the game and another 10 hours to complete all of the trophies. That is a great value for a $65 video game. I got a free copy of the game as I work for Sony Interactive Entertainment and Sucker Punch is part of our World Wide Studios. I gave that copy to my youngest son and then purchased a disc copy for myself for only $15. If I didn't have a huge backlog of games to play, I would probably run through the game again and really get my money's worth. Yes, it is very re playable.

Sucker Punch did a great job creating the visuals for the game. All of the scenes are very cinematic. There are also some great character stories that make the game very enjoyable. If you are looking for a game that allows to to escape from reality and enter an historic world, Ghost of Tsushima is worth a play.

Ghost of Tsushima has an ESRB rating of M for mature. As you find hot springs around the island, you see the main character's naked backside as he enters the water and increases maximum health. I asked my wife if she found it offensive and she just ignored me. There is also a lot of graphic violence as you use a sword and will sometimes take the heads of your enemies clean off. There is also a lot of spurting blood with such close combat. I would not recommend the game for young children but teenage boys will love it. You may feel differently for your own kids.

Ultimately I enjoyed the game significantly more than I thought I would. I highly recommend the game and think most video gamers that like action adventure games will enjoy it.

Work From Home Tips: Daily Exercise

I am a huge fan of daily exercise and enjoyed using my company gym while working from the office. For those that are not familiar with my work setup in the Bay Area, I live on my sailboat during the week. Using the company gym is also how I showered daily. While my marina has a nice shower facility, the one at the office is much better. Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I would ride the 3 miles from the marina to the office, use the company gym, and then clean up for the day. That all changed when I started working from home because of COVID-19.

It is impossible for me to look forward to exercise unless it is fun or required transportation. I claim that I have to trick myself into exercise or I won't do it. Skiing is fun and so it is easy to wake up early every morning and spend an hour or so on the ski hill. Sometimes I am up long before lifts even start running so I can hike to the top of the mountain, ski down, and still make an early-morning meeting. Other times I will ski for an hour on the lifts and then rush home to start my day. It helps that Snowbird is only 15 minutes away and that I work California hours so I don't have to be in the office until about 10:30am local time.

In the summer, I try to get up and ride a bike. I have a loop that is slightly over 16 miles. It takes me a bit less than an hour and includes a significant amount of climbing. With Snowbird shut down for the summer, I have started riding my bike. I miss the skiing but biking seems to be better for me. I also make sure to get my 10,000 steps in daily. All of this amounts to a significant amount of exercise.

There are a lot of others that frequently used company gyms and working from home has led to the meaning that COVID-19 actually refers to the 19 pounds gained during the pandemic. It also refers to 19 pounds lost for a lucky few people. While I have not lost that much weight, I am down about 10 pounds from my weight before working from home.

Daily exercise is a great way to start your day. It gets the blood flowing and helps clear your mind so you are prepared for the day. Others may find that evening exercise suits them better. The important takeaway is that you shouldn't neglect your physical health while working from home.

Work From Home Tips: Creating Good Habits

One of the best things you can do to help improve your work-from-home productivity is to create good habits. If you find yourself sleeping in, not starting work until after 10am, taking a long lunch break, and quitting work at 4pm, then you might need to adjust your habits or may find yourself looking for a new job. You also have to be careful about spending too much time working. That will lead to burnout and your family may hate you.

I have discovered that the best way to make sure I start each day is to have a daily meeting at 10am where I check in with people on my team. That allows me the morning to go through e-mail and prepare for the day before my first meeting. Should I have something such as a doctor's appointment, I can still make the meeting. That 10am meeting serves as a great way to force me into my home office at the beginning of the day.

To help remind me when it is time to leave the office, I make sure to add "dinner time" to my work calendar. I love food and have no problem quitting work to go eat. I also make sure to communicate this time to my wife so that we can eat together. Sometimes it is necessary to have after-dinner meetings with my colleagues in Japan. In those cases, I try to schedule activities during the day that would normally be reserved for my evenings such as working in the yard or other home chores. I just have to be careful to make sure those activities fit within the time allotted.

Scheduling the start of my work day and the end of the work day are a good start to creating good habits for working from home but there are more. Working through the entire day is a very necessary habit to form. You will need to figure out what works best for you. It is very easy to get distracted by personal e-mail, text messages, or random YouTube videos. To help combat these distractions, I try to limit these activities to no more than 10 minutes every couple of hours. I also find that if I keep a running task list of work-related items on my computer, I spend less time trying to figure out what to do. The list allows me to remain focused on tasks that need to be completed and things don't get forgotten.

With regards to forgetting things, I find that there are ways to remind myself of what needs to be done. The task list helps but there are other things you can do as well. If I am working on something important but need to walk away from my desk, I will leave a sticky note on my computer keyboard to remind me where to start when I return. This keeps me focused after an interruption. I will also place things in my walking path so I trip over them and am reminded to take care of them. One example of this is if I need to refill my water glass. When I leave my desk, I am reminded it is empty and that I need to fill it.

I have mentioned leaving my desk several times now and that is an important habit to get into. When there is a natural break in your day, get up and walk around. If you have time, don't hesitate to take a short walk and change your surroundings. It will help with your thinking process. I find that I often come up with solutions to problems much quicker on a walk than by sitting at my desk, trying to pound something out. While working in an office with your co-workers, this happens much more naturally as you physically walk to meetings or meet with colleagues. When you are at home and all meetings are done through video conferences, it is easy to stay at your desk all day long.

I am sure there are many more good habits that will help but these are the ones that stand out the most to me. The important thing is to create good ones and not those that will keep you from being productive.

Work from Home Tips: Having a Comfortable Work Area

This afternoon I had a video conference meeting and one of the participants listed that this is the 60th week of working from home. Some are counting down the days until we can return to the office. I have actually thrived in the current work-from-home environment and so I thought I would share some of the things that have helped me. Not everyone will be able to use all of these tips but I am hoping that one or two of them will help you out. The one I would like to highlight in this post is that of having a comfortable work area.

I have worked from home for a large part of my career. I have always had a home office and it has evolved over the years. I originally started in one of the bedrooms but then found I needed more space. Ultimately I migrated to the basement where I have a rather large-windowless room. I lined one of the walls with bookshelves, added a number of tables to complement my desk, and good lighting. We had a rather large scrap of carpet to lay on top of the concrete floor and it is a comfortable room for me. My wife would hate it but I enjoy the not-quite finished feel of the room. One added benefit of being in the basement is that it stays very cool during the summer months. It is also cool during the winter ones but I make sure to dress for the conditions and keep a space heater under the desk.

I have a neighbor who is envious of my home office. When he started working from home, he moved into his boys bedroom while they are at school. I also notice that a lot of people are utilizing their own bedrooms for their home office. One of the people I meet with on a regular basis is using a closet as his home office. While these accommodations work, they are not ideal. 

Unfortunately not everyone has the luxury of a spare room in their basement away from the family and the rest of one's personal life. People can only make due with what they have and so that leads me to my next point: make sure you have the tools you need to do your job. Last year I wrote about having a 43-inch 4K computer monitor. This is one of the tools that helps me get a lot done. A 4K monitor is the equivalent of having 4 HD monitors on your desk. It really allows me to keep a lot of applications open all at the same time. If you spend a lot of time on the computer, I highly recommend one. I also have a color laser printer, my laptop with its screen and a 2nd HD monitor. I use all of this equipment and it helps to create a better work environment than I have in my office in San Mateo.

The final piece of equipment I want to mention is that of my office chair. Sony recognized that not everyone has a great office chair at home and allowed us to come grab our expensive-yet-comfortable chairs and bring them home. I have a great chair already and didn't need the loaner from Sony. If your work doesn't provide a comfortable chair, spend a little money and pick one up. A good chair really helps with productivity.

My home office doesn't have a door but I don't really need one. I am the only person home during the work day and don't need to worry about little children needing entertainment. I know it can be a delicate balance between being able to work from home and also caring for your children. About the only advice I can give is to train your kids that a closed door means mommy or daddy is at work and cannot be disturbed. The door won't make your office or work area more comfortable but it will keep the distractions down a bit.

Having a comfortable work area is only a start. I hope to have more tips on working from home over the next several posts. Perhaps you will find them useful.