Monthly Archives: June 2017

Beginnings: Never Too Late

We celebrated the 2017 AIM graduates last week and look forward to starting a new cohort this week. In a way, these are beginnings for both groups. Our new students are just starting their AIM graduate careers with perhaps some uncertainty as to their new journey. Our newest alumni now have options open to them in terms of discretionary time and they will possibly pursue a passion or career position or even choose to continue their academic journey.

I think we often tie beginnings to specific events such as graduation or a new job or starting a degree program or any number of life events. In reality, we can declare fresh beginnings at any time for any reason. In this blog post I would like to explore ways we can move beyond our self-limitations and break out in new and productive ways.

Simple Steps

I have written about this topic before but I feel it is important to revisit. This message is as much for myself as it is for my readers. Beginnings do not have to be large undertakings. It can be as simple as taking a class on something you are interested in that is completely outside of your career field. If you have goals to improve your health and fitness, it is not necessary to run a marathon tomorrow but a simple step would be to get out and walk and enjoy nature. That can lead to other greater goals that could lead to running a marathon someday, or it can simply lead you down the path of better health. Sometimes it takes just simple steps.

One of the dilemmas of a new undertaking is devoting time to it. This could require giving something up. If you are like me, you may have habits and routines and commitments that fill your day. If you were to pursue something new, which of those routines would you be willing to give up? Sometimes this is the hardest part of starting down a new path and requires an examination of goals and values.

Thoughts

Congratulations to all of this year’s AIM graduates. I am proud of your accomplishments and am honored to have played a small part in getting you to the finish line. This is not an ending or a final resting place as such, but a beginning. Take advantage of your new knowledge and relationships that you forged and create the world that you want. Often, it starts with a simple step.

Author Kelly BrownAbout Kelly Brown

Kelly Brown is an IT professional and assistant professor of practice for the UO Applied Information Management Master’s Degree Program. He writes about IT and business topics that keep him up at night.

Congratulations 2017 AIM Program Graduates!

Below is the transcript of AIM Director Kara McFall’s commencement address from June 19, 2017.

To our 2017 AIM graduates, their families and supporters; our AIM faculty and staff; and all others who are here to join in the celebration of our 2017 AIM graduating class—welcome. I’d like to start as I do at each graduation luncheon by asking the graduates, faculty, and staff to stand and join me in honoring the families and friends who supported our graduates throughout the AIM Program. Every one of our AIM graduates has worked hard to achieve the right to stand here today as a graduate of the program; but every graduate also had the help and support of their families and loved ones, who agonized along with them over proper APA citations, assignment deadlines, and countless rounds of edits in Capstone 1. The role that each of you played—as supporters of our AIM graduates—is an important one, and I would like to say thank you.

I will admit that I procrastinated in writing this address—I always do. There is always plenty of work to do in higher education so it’s easy to prioritize other work ahead of sitting down to write. Those of us who make graduation speeches feel the urge to say something profound and memorable, and I spend a lot of time searching for inspiration and the perfect words to say. Eventually, the realities of the calendar impose, and I’m forced to put the words on paper. As I pondered this annual ritual of procrastination, it occurred to me that I could take inspiration from this struggle and pass on a related and valuable lesson I’ve learned: the power of good enough.

The fact that all of you are here today as graduates of a demanding master’s program indicates that you are all high achievers, so the idea of settling for good enough may seem like an odd choice of inspirational themes for your commencement address. I know however that each of you were forced at some point in the program to settle for good enough instead of perfection; the demands of attending class, working full time, and meeting family and other obligations while still squeezing in sleep necessitates completing some assignments to standards that don’t meet your vision of perfection. My intention today as you head out as AIM alumni is to convince you that not only is the practice of sometimes settling for good enough acceptable, it is actually a best practice.

I was first exposed to the idea of good enough by my doctoral dissertation chair, who described the best dissertation as a finished dissertation. Writing a dissertation can be a paralyzing experience; you feel obligated to bring forth some amazing bit of knowledge that is brand new to the world, and to do so in a way that is brilliant and profound; this idea may strike a chord with those of you who recently went through Capstone 1. The result for me was a hesitation to put anything to paper, and my meetings with my chair were frustrating for both of us due to my lack of progress. We finally settled on the approach of setting hard deadlines for different sections, and when I left her office after each meeting she often reminded me that “The best dissertation is a finished dissertation.” In her own way she was advocating that I settle for good enough. This change in my approach is what enabled me to finally start the writing process in earnest and eventually earn my doctorate. Similarly, being forced by the calendar to complete this address is why I am reading a finished speech rather than standing up here winging it.

Some tasks benefit from a systematic approach to completion, while others benefit from a more fluid approach that may include procrastination. You don’t need to be creative when doing your taxes unless your goal is to be a tax evader; a systematic approach in this scenario is best, and it’s obvious when you have reached a point of completion. It can be hard to identify when you have finished a task that requires creativity, as the urge to edit, rewrite, and strive for perfection can be strong. In these cases, procrastination can force us to let go of whatever doubts have been holding us back and achieve a level of brilliance that might have otherwise eluded us. Sometimes pushing ourselves to the point of good enough actually results in a better outcome.

The realities of our schedules dictate that we make the decision to settle for good enough on a regular basis. One of the insights I’m hoping you take away today is to realize that the results of these decisions are not causes for regret, and that you will actually achieve more in life by giving up the standards of perfectionism that cause us to agonize later about not turning in the perfect paper, planning the perfect vacation, or throwing the perfect birthday party. While research backs up my advice, there are challenges all of us face that keep us chasing perfection. In addition to having more choices today than in previous times, we also have more opportunities to compare ourselves to others, through the media and especially through social media. But comparing your decisions and actions to the unreal and sanitized versions we see online doesn’t lead to improved decision making; it inevitably leads to regret. Don’t fall into this trap.

More than ten years ago, psychologist Barry Schwartz coined the terms “satisficers” for people who settle for good enough and “maximizers” for people who always try to choose the very best option. Schwartz’s research was anchored in the idea that all of us now face overwhelming choices for even simple decisions like which brand of cereal to buy. This kind of paralysis can be even more striking when the consequences of a decision are higher. I hold my own versions of the “good enough” discussion with many of my Capstone 1 students who admit they are stressed about picking the right topic, and are worried about the consequences of choosing the wrong topic. If you were one of those students, I hope you will soon discover a fundamental principle of the theory of good enough: you don’t need to achieve perfection in order to succeed. I hope you take the time later, when enough time has passed to put your time with AIM into context, to discover that all of the occasions when you were forced to turn in a paper that did not meet your ideas of perfection are not cause for regret, but instead enabled you to achieve your ultimate goals of gaining new knowledge, learning valuable skills, practicing innovative ideas, and ultimately becoming AIM graduates.

I want to close by clarifying one point: I’m not advocating that you give up high standards and start taking a lackadaisical approach. Instead, I’m suggesting that you recognize the limitations of time and energy and do the best job you can in the time allotted, even if you fall short of your version of flawless. Balance is achieved by learning when to go all-in on a task and when good enough is a smarter goal. You can’t achieve perfection in every task and striving to do so is counterproductive. Doing your best is different from seeking perfection, and if you make doing your best your goal you will find that your sense of satisfaction and of a job well done will rise.  One of the key findings that Dr. Schwartz found in his research is the fact that satisficers, those who pursue good enough, are much happier than the perfectionist maximizers.

AIM class of 2017, I am proud of each one of you and wish you well in doing your best and pursuing the satisfaction that comes with good enough. I hope you will take the opportunity to keep in touch with us as you move into your next phase as AIM graduates. Congratulations to you, AIM class of 2017!

Regulating The Internet

With the latest terrorist attacks in London there are renewed calls for regulating the internet in order to prevent the spread of extremist views. British Prime Minister Theresa May said recently, “We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed – yet that is precisely what the internet, and the big companies that provide internet-based services, provide.” My goal for this blog post is to open a dialog on how the internet could or should be regulated. By regulating the internet, would we be regulating free speech? Would it just spawn an alternate internet, or would it fuel the dark web that already exists? What kind of international cooperation would it take to actually pull this off and hopefully stop the spread and growth of terrorism?

International Cooperation

Theresa May recently also said, “We need to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements to regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremist and terrorism planning.” I believe that will be one of the largest hurdles to overcome if we are to provide any internet policing. The European Union can’t even agree on next steps so it may be impossible to get countries around the world to cooperate. Britain recently passed the Investigatory Powers Act which gives British security the ability to view and monitor all internet connections made within the country. It also binds internet providers to make connection and browsing records available to various British agencies. If this is truly going to be successful it will take a lot of expertise to sift through all that data to find nuggets that could help stop the spread of terrorism. It’s one thing to gather the information, another to make sense of it and detect important patterns. That will take a combination of software applications and technical expertise.

Free Speech

At the heart of it the internet is a communications medium just like the telephone and postal mail. Governments have long had the ability to tap into phone conversations or monitor mail as they try to anticipate and stop nefarious plots. These older mediums carry commercial as well as personal messages, as does the internet. The big difference is the fact that the internet is much faster and has the ability to broadcast a one-to-many message, in some cases to millions spread around the world. It is also searchable, meaning that if people want to align themselves to a particular ideology they can easily find like-minded individuals and activities that support their ideology. This is a whole new world and it is going to take new thinking and not just new regulatory powers. New proposed powers border on free speech infringement, which is near and dear to many. How do we establish that line between free expression and intentional malice?

Thoughts

If we truly want to regulate the internet, we need clear, unbiased thinking, technical expertise, and hardware and software technologies. We need to understand the line between freedoms and potential threats and tread that line carefully. Most of all it is going to take a lot of international cooperation to develop a strategy that will work for everyone.

What are your thoughts? Is it even possible to regulate the internet or is it too late? Is it possible to monitor internet traffic and patterns without infringing on basic privacy rights? Let me know your thoughts.

Author Kelly BrownAbout Kelly Brown

Kelly Brown is an IT professional and assistant professor of practice for the UO Applied Information Management Master’s Degree Program. He writes about IT and business topics that keep him up at night.

Technology for Technology’s Sake

process-preparation-fresh-juice-juicerI am preparing for our upcoming AIM innovation course “Creating Business Solutions with Technology” and have been researching the use of technology in new consumer products. Whether the use of technology extends an existing product or category or develops a totally new product, it is important to balance the ability to apply technology with the actual need. Just because we can do something does not necessarily mean that it is right for the consumer and will make a better product or service. Sometimes the consumer is best served by simplicity vs. feature-rich technology. You can probably think of examples of products that miss the mark in terms of features or options that will most likely never be used, or worse yet, impede the consumer from using the product in the way they would like to. In this blog post I would like to explore that balance point between technological ability and need.

Too Much Technology

The makers of the Juicero juice maker came under fire in April when Bloomberg discovered they could make the same juice by hand that normally requires their $399 machine. The Juicero press requires proprietary prepackaged bags of chopped fruits and vegetables. However, it turns out that you can squeeze the same bag by hand and get similar results. The Juicero is wi-fi enabled so that it can read the bag’s QR code to ensure that it is legitimate and proprietary, and compares that code to a database to check that it is not past the expiration date or has been recalled. This is the Kuerig of juicers but with more limitations. I am sure that someone is working on a Juicero hack as I write this, so that you can press a freezer bag of your own produce. If the Bloomberg investigation is correct, I don’t need the machine at all. Yet, I can’t buy the bags unless I own a machine, so I am stuck. Granted, this machine does save clean-up time and effort but it also promotes waste from nonreusable bags. This company is trying to create a future revenue stream by requiring proprietary bags and providing subscriptions for automatic replenishment. There are some advantages to this product but it appears to be a case of technology gone crazy. All I want is a glass of juice.

Sensor Overload

I write often about automobile technology and I think that we are in an awkward transition period right now between traditional cars and autonomous vehicles. A lot of technology being put forward will be useful for self-driving cars. Although, will it keep us safe in the meantime? Sensor technology is being introduced to warn us about upcoming traffic or obstructions or dangers. Some vehicles even automatically correct for you if there is a present danger. I love the safety aspect of these sensors,but I am concerned that they are turning us into lazy or inattentive drivers who are lulled into a false sense of security. Until fully autonomous vehicles are commonplace, it is important to not over rely on the technology and to continue to be focused on the road and our surroundings.

Thoughts

Technology has its place, but occasionally we miss the mark in terms of what we think the consumer needs or wants. It is possible to create a technology-laden product just to create revenue without considering the end customer. This is a case of technology for technology’s sake and sometimes low-tech offers better solutions.

Which high tech products or services leave you scratching your head? Nominate your favorites here.

Author Kelly BrownAbout Kelly Brown

Kelly Brown is an IT professional and assistant professor of practice for the UO Applied Information Management Master’s Degree Program. He writes about IT and business topics that keep him up at night.