What Are You Reading?

[xSilverPhinx]

How We Learn - any good?

It's fucking fascinating. I think I found my calling in life. It's talking about memory first off. And second, you know that girl I go on about sometimes? She has short term memory loss which this book talks about in the first chapter. xSPx you gotta learn me some of that neuroscience right NOW!

A convert!

Neuroscience is fascinating. Two books I enjoyed very much are Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior and Sleights of Mind. They don't have to do with memory per se, but there are plenty of scientific papers and textbooks regarding that topic.

One book to get started on the topic of memory is the Nobel prize winner Kandel's In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind. I haven't read it myself, but the guy is basically a pioneer in the field and very well respected.

 

[Arturo]

How We Learn - any good?

It's fucking fascinating. I think I found my calling in life. It's talking about memory first off. And second, you know that girl I go on about sometimes? She has short term memory loss which this book talks about in the first chapter. xSPx you gotta learn me some of that neuroscience right NOW!

A convert!

Neuroscience is fascinating. Two books I enjoyed very much are Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior and Sleights of Mind. They don't have to do with memory per se, but there are plenty of scientific papers and textbooks regarding that topic.

One book to get started on the topic of memory is the Nobel prize winner Kandel's In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind. I haven't read it myself, but the guy is basically a pioneer in the field and very well respected.

Great! I was looking into subconscious mind power when I came across these books. Fucking great shit.

[hermes2015]

For you music lovers, I can recommend Eric Siblin's The Cello Suites. I am halfway through it now and love the way he uses the structure of Bach's cello suites to introduce biographical details of Pablo Casals, and J, S. Bach himself, while describing his own discovery of the cello suites.

I also urge everyone here to give the suites a try - some of my all-time favourite pieces (does this belong here or in the What Are You Listening To thread?)

[solidsquid]

For a class I'm taking this semester.  Text is decent but quite basic, not a lot of detail.  Instructor is very disorganized.  No worries though, I'm switching programs in the fall anyhow.

[Arturo]

For a class I'm taking this semester.  Text is decent but quite basic, not a lot of detail.  Instructor is very disorganized.  No worries though, I'm switching programs in the fall anyhow.

What exactly is this for? I read some of the wiki, just says it's techniques for process improvement. I assume it's for engineering?

[Dave]

For a class I'm taking this semester.  Text is decent but quite basic, not a lot of detail.  Instructor is very disorganized.  No worries though, I'm switching programs in the fall anyhow.

What exactly is this for? I read some of the wiki, just says it's techniques for process improvement. I assume it's for engineering?

Six Sigma (sometimes stylized as 6σ) is a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. It was introduced by engineer Bill Smith while working at Motorola in 1986.[1][2] Jack Welch made it central to his business strategy at General Electric in 1995.[3] Today, it is used in many industrial sectors.[4]

It seeks to improve the quality of the output of a process by identifying and removing the causes of defects and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes. It uses a set of quality management methods, mainly empirical, statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization who are experts in these methods. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has specific value targets, for example: reduce process cycle time, reduce pollution, reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction, and increase profits.

Wiki

Sounds a bit like when I improved a process and almost eliminated rework by simply adding a cheap rubber O-ring as a spacer and using an exact length of solder (and a pair of tweezers) to attach two components together. They had been making this item for 20 years with a 40% first time failure rate on testing! Then I rewrote the manufacturing instructions and rededigned the test results sheet (simplifying the maths) so that even a non-chemist (like me) could cope with it.

The courses cost about £2500 over here, guessing they concentrate mainly on ways to look at things and some form of "lateral-" or "out of the box-" thinking.

[Davin]

[Dave]

Looking at Six Sigma again, Arturo, looks like it should be applicable to all "systems", accounting, engineering, selling, servicing, even cooking and councelling!

As I said, more a way of observing and thinking - one more step in the history of people revamping old ideas to try to make money out of them. I still have a copy of Edward de Bono's "Lateral Thinking" from the late 60s. They say he invented "lateral thinking" but I would say that he merely attached a catchy name to something that people have done since we started thinking. There is often more than one way to look at things and not all solutions are logical at first sight - intuition, hunches, oddball mental associations etc. are very important.

My favourite word, "serendipity" - the fortuitous accident - has often also been beneficial. But you have to be able to spot the fortuosity, the serendipity, in the first place. Not just cuss 'cos you broke the damn thing again and chuck it in the bin!

[Arturo]

Looking at Six Sigma again, Arturo, looks like it should be applicable to all "systems", accounting, engineering, selling, servicing, even cooking and councelling!

I didn't know that it would be useful in all those fields. I wonder if this is just a western practice then? They do things very differently in places like, say, Japan for instance.

As I said, more a way of observing and thinking - one more step in the history of people revamping old ideas to try to make money out of them. I still have a copy of Edward de Bono's "Lateral Thinking" from the late 60s. They say he invented "lateral thinking" but I would say that he merely attached a catchy name to something that people have done since we started thinking. There is often more than one way to look at things and not all solutions are logical at first sight - intuition, hunches, oddball mental associations etc. are very important.

Yeah being able to easily identify things helps your short term memory. So if you ever want to remember some process, give it a catchy name.

My favourite word, "serendipity" - the fortuitous accident - has often also been beneficial. But you have to be able to spot the fortuosity, the serendipity, in the first place. Not just cuss 'cos you broke the damn thing again and chuck it in the bin!

I see where you are going now. It helps to count the positives yes. That helps us out a whole lot in the long run. There is something I read about the subconscious mind that I think could be of use here. To be able to use your subconscious to make something happen, let's say, you tell yourself it it over and over for a few minutes and then stop and move on to breakfast or some shit. This puts it to your subconscious and you make things happen without much effort. So if you want to notice the serpendipity, tell yourself that you notice it like some Buddhist Monk trying to reach enlightenment.

[Dave]

Hmm, I think thst a "frame of mind" is sometimes more important than any specialist knowledge. I am a technician at heart, like digging into the gubbins, but my "frame of mind" allows me to be flexible in many other areas. Like setting up a library and archive in an area, inland waterways, that I have never had experience of before.

It is often not only the nitty gritty, the specialist techniques, that are important, there are things that bridge disparate areas.

[Arturo]

Hmm, I think thst a "frame of mind" is sometimes more important than any specialist knowledge. I am a technician at heart, like digging into the gubbins, but my "frame of mind" allows me to be flexible in many other areas. Like setting up a library and archive in an area, inland waterways, that I have never had experience of before.

It is often not only the nitty gritty, the specialist techniques, that are important, there are things that bridge disparate areas.

I should look into that then. I feel everything I know is centered in it's own category.

[solidsquid]

For a class I'm taking this semester.  Text is decent but quite basic, not a lot of detail.  Instructor is very disorganized.  No worries though, I'm switching programs in the fall anyhow.

What exactly is this for? I read some of the wiki, just says it's techniques for process improvement. I assume it's for engineering?

It's a set of "tools" for process improvement of basically any process.  It makes use of various charts and diagrams along with some statistics to make processes less wasteful.  It's often paired with lean management techniques and you'll often see people refer to Lean Six Sigma and the two methods complement each other.

[Papasito Bruno]

For a class I'm taking this semester.  Text is decent but quite basic, not a lot of detail.  Instructor is very disorganized.  No worries though, I'm switching programs in the fall anyhow.

What exactly is this for? I read some of the wiki, just says it's techniques for process improvement. I assume it's for engineering?

It's a set of "tools" for process improvement of basically any process.  It makes use of various charts and diagrams along with some statistics to make processes less wasteful.  It's often paired with lean management techniques and you'll often see people refer to Lean Six Sigma and the two methods complement each other.

I had to deal with this process often in my job as a manufacturing representative for the automotive field with regards to quality issues, not so much now because I only deal with wheels, but years ago when I was representing different types of DC motors it could be a pain in the ass (Seat and window motors).

It takes constant monitoring and adequate management systems...one of the  management systems that replaced the Total Quality Management (TQM) from the 80's.

I don't deal with it anymore, but I read an article recently I believe from Crain's Detroit Business that suggested process management can drag some organizations down and dampen innovation, so though you may improve efficiency you run the risk if the process management programs are misapplied to areas where you want employees to be innovative.

Maybe you'll get your black belt one day.

[Icarus]

Gloucester, I also have the book Lateral Thinking.  It is the stuff of competent and inventive engineering  states of mind. 

I am constantly puzzled by the tendency of ordinary humans to fix a problem with "Band aid" patches rather than exploring the root causes of whatever problem exists.

My US health care system is a case in point.  The cost of health care is prohibitive for all but the most wealthy. It has not always been that way. Why the hell don't we address the problem at its root, not with insurance programs that we can not afford and that is not within the financial capabilities of the poorer of us.

This is not to say that we should relegate physicians and others in the medical community to equivalent squalor.  We can make great modifications to the damned system if we examine the basic details and do something about the capricious (and greedy) billing absurdities. 

[Dave]

Gloucester, I also have the book Lateral Thinking.  It is the stuff of competent and inventive engineering  states of mind. 

I am constantly puzzled by the tendency of ordinary humans to fix a problem with "Band aid" patches rather than exploring the root causes of whatever problem exists.

My US health care system is a case in point.  The cost of health care is prohibitive for all but the most wealthy. It has not always been that way. Why the hell don't we address the problem at its root, not with insurance programs that we can not afford and that is not within the financial capabilities of the poorer of us.

This is not to say that we should relegate physicians and others in the medical community to equivalent squalor.  We can make great modifications to the damned system if we examine the basic details and do something about the capricious (and greedy) billing absurdities.

Yup, sometimes you have to strip it down to essentials, look at the purpose of every individual component, then reassemble it in a way that it works properly.

With regards to Obamacare: good idea overall but the idea of fining someone because they might be too poor to already have medical cover is just insane! As bad as, in the UK, fining, by denying benefits, those too ill or poor to make it to an interview, with a benefits officer, on time.