engineering
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My father’s recent passing has me reflecting on some of the things that he taught me that I am only able to begin to fully appreciate as I get older. He owned and managed a plumbing, heating, and air conditioning business for decades. On breaks and during the summer, I worked in various jobs for him until…
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Years ago, I decided to accept a position that led to me transitioning from a high-volume industry with frequent product changeover and intense market forces to a low-volume industry with greatly reduced connectivity to market dynamics. My boss at the time provided me a bit of perspective and advice that has stuck with me over the…
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Real systems are messy, noisy, difficult to measure, and can be a challenge to control. Organizations and organizational dynamics often exhibit analogous behavior. In control systems, it is common to analyze linear single input single output systems. There is a lot that can be done with those tools. However, applying these tools comes with accepting some compromises. Addressing complexity…
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Organizations, like spacecraft, rockets, and airplanes, rely on guidance, navigation, and control systems. Recently, I have been thinking about the similarities between guidance, navigation and control (GN&C) systems, the management and leadership systems in organizations, and how learnings from one type of system might be useful to the other type of system. At their core, GN&C…
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Years ago, my first boss after I finished graduate school shared his beliefs that “all learning applies to everything else” and that “more brains are better for every job.” I learned more from him than I have probably learned from any of my subsequent bosses. Maybe that was him. Maybe that is because of where I was then…
Musings of an Analyst 