ROB SYMONDS

Everything Else

Chopping problems down

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My primary training in troubleshooting (and cursing) came at my father’s side, hovering over the engine of every car my parents ever owned, accompanied by his endless appeals to “point the light over here dammit”. That training (more the troubleshooting than the cursing, but ok, both) has served me well in working with technology and systems over the years.

A while back, [Read more…] about Chopping problems down

An elegant answer to a personal question

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While studying web analytics, I was exposed to the work of Avinash Kaushik. His writing is entertaining and always worth the time spent reading it. He could write an article called “The Best Sandwich I Ever Ate” and you would be hooked from the first word, as well as smarter after reading it than before.

During a recent Q and A on Yabbly, somebody tossed him a rather personal question: [Read more…] about An elegant answer to a personal question

Journey vs. Destination

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Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.
— Shakespeare

The other day I was watching a television series which, at the beginning of each episode, had a voiceover announce “Previously on…” before showing a string of clips to recap all the important plot points in the past few episodes.

If you just watched those clips at the start of each episode and skipped the episodes, you could still get the whole story arc and save a heap of time. [Read more…] about Journey vs. Destination

Relearning to Concentrate

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I’ve been studying for my MCTS Examp 70-448 the last month and a half and have found my ability to block things out and focus for long stretches of time to be lacking. And I don’t think it is the somewhat dry nature of the material. I’m tackling an engaging book on a different topic in my spare time and find the same thing — my attention seems much less disciplined than it used to be. [Read more…] about Relearning to Concentrate