I recently attended a 2-day offsite with mid-level executives at a large client of ours. The evenings were general social events of dinner, drinks, and non-work discussion. I was so surprised to observe how often people talked about their devices or technology as a topic of discussion, referenced their devices in the midst of discussion to look something up, or dropped out of a discussion entirely to read off their devices.
In a rare night away from spouses and kids, in an intimate and friendly environment with interesting people, lubricated by drinks - we couldn't make it 5 minutes without the devices crutch being leaned upon.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Technology/Device Social Crutch
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Consultant Ninja
at
1:36 PM
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Sunday, July 29, 2012
Resiliency, Panic, and Anxiety
"Resilience is a precious skill. People who have it tend to also have three underlying advantages:
- a belief that they can influence life events;
- a tendency to find meaningful purpose in life’s turmoil;
- and a conviction that they can learn from both positive and negative experiences."
"Panic occurs if and only if three other conditions are present, Quarantelli concluded.
- First, people must feel that they may be trapped...
- Second, panic requires a sensation of great helplessness - which often grows from interaction with others...
- The final prerequisite to panic is a sense of profound isolation.
"As it turns out, people with higher trait anxiety are more likely to rip out their air supply, Morgan found.... he could predict who would panic with 83 percent accuracy. Essentially, he found that certain people are slightly more likely to lose touch with their reality when under physical stress.... They have overreacted, in the purest form of panic.
– Amanda Ripley, The Unthinkable
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Consultant Ninja
at
4:34 PM
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Friday, August 26, 2011
Women and Complaining
Researchers say it isn't clear why in numerous studies women tend to complain more about their sleep, saying they don't get enough shut-eye and find it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep. Sleep studies might not be picking up the whole story, some researchers say, adding that more investigation is needed... "This isn't going to be popular, but some studies show that mothers get more sleep than fathers," he says. - "A Sleep Battle of the Sexes", WSJ, 8/23/2011Seems patently obvious, doesn't it? Women complain more than men, despite having less reason to complain.
What a shock.
Posted by
Consultant Ninja
at
1:13 PM
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Analysis
Saturday, August 13, 2011
The Math of Jefferson County, Alabama's Sewer Bond Bankruptcy
Jefferson County, Alabama, might declare bankruptcy on a $3.1B bond for their sewer system. How come?
"...126,000 of the county's 658,000 residents use the Jefferson County sewer system....Median household income in Birmingham is $31,704 a year."126,000 x $31,704 = $4.0B
$3.1B / 126,000 = $24,729
Who's the moron who thought this was a supportable debt load?
Source: WSJ, Consultant Ninja Analysis
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Consultant Ninja
at
3:19 PM
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Analysis
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
America's "Lost Decade" of Housing
"In real terms, the National index is back to Q4 1999 levels, the Composite 20 index is back to August 2000, and the CoreLogic index back to March 2000. In real terms, all appreciation in the last decade is gone."
Source: Calculated Risk
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Consultant Ninja
at
1:44 PM
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Analysis
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Consulting Verbatims
From: Client
Sent: Monday, 11:32 PM
To: Consultant Ninja
Subject: RE: Market Data Sources
Ninja-
Please make this high priority. Good oppty to get some solid data
Tx
(Sent while mobile)
-----
[forwarded email follows with thread of random musings]
From: Consultant Ninja
Sent: Monday, 11:45 PM
To: Client
Subject: RE: Market Data Sources
Understood, I will deprioritize my current reports, until you advise a status upgrade to them, and make this a primary action item.
Posted by
Consultant Ninja
at
1:58 AM
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Bitterness,
Consulting
Monday, May 16, 2011
Why the US Housing Market is still royally screwed
Consider that US Owner-Occupied Households fall into 1 of 2 categories:
- Without Mortgage (~33% of the market, ~25M households): They own their house free and clear, owning 100% of the equity value of their home
- With a Mortgage (~66% of the market, ~48M households): They own their house, but have a mortgage. Assuming a normal distribution, you'd expect the average homeowner to have perhaps 60% (halfway between 20% and 100%) of the equity value of their home.

Posted by
Consultant Ninja
at
2:01 PM
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Monday, September 27, 2010
How Consultants Manage Frequent Flyer Miles
When you are in consulting, you rack up a lot of frequent flyer miles and hotel points, but you don't have a lot of time to manage them. Every consultant I know has lost points due to weird expiration rules, and I once tried to redeem my Delta miles for a flight, only to find out that my miles had expired 8 months earlier (and Delta, of course, never told me that they had expired).
What would be really helpful is a site that allowed you to track and manage all your frequent flyer miles and points in one place. A single place that shows me all the relevant promotions and deals out there for my programs. A single place to tell me when my miles are going to expire, and shows me how to protect them from expiring.
Turns out there's a site that does that today - GoMiles.com.
It is still in private beta, but I like what I see and I'm using it to manage all of my (and Mrs. Ninja's) frequent flyer, hotel, car, and AMEX accounts. Check it out.
https://www.GoMiles.com
Referral Code: NINJA-FRIENDS
(Full disclosure: I know one of the founders from when he was in NYC.)
Posted by
Consultant Ninja
at
9:15 PM
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Consulting,
Productivity,
Visualization
Friday, July 23, 2010
Why PowerPoint is Bad

There are a million examples of bad PowerPoint slides, but this one is special. Understanding why it's bad is like unraveling a Mobius Strip. Get to the end, and you're back at the beginning - kind of.
Posted by
Consultant Ninja
at
1:16 AM
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Visualization
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Recommendation: Long BP Based on impending fix of Oil Leak
Since the blowout preventer is going to be fixed very soon thanks to this man's work, I'm recommending a strong buy of BP.
Fuermann said his desire to use meditation to activate the blowout preventer -- and his belief that visualization could actually work -- is rooted in his own life experiences and in a global movement called the Intention Experiment.I love how the reporter got him to concede that all he knows about are "the law of physics."
"I'm very known for fixing things and making things work," Fuermann said, adding that he believes his meditation helped fix a friend's Flip video camera. "I visualize things working and hold the belief that they actually work."
Dwayne Bourgoyne, a deep-water mining expert at the Colorado School of Mines, said Tuesday that he has "never heard of such an attempt to stop an oil spill or any other kind of mechanical failure." But he also conceded that while he is familiar with the known law of physics he is "unfamiliar with the telekinetic potential of meditation." - Boulder Daily Camera, May 4, 2010
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Consultant Ninja
at
10:35 AM
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