Data-driven support

The case for workflow as part of customer support.  Obvious points, but ... sometimes not so very obvious as all that.

How to write a BOM

A fascinating post series on specifying things for production at small industrial scale in China (or anywhere).  How It All Works.

Spaced repetition

Add spaced repetition to a lengthy (and configurable) set of very small programming challenges, and you have a programming teaching tool that would probably be pretty useful.

Derek Sivers on Anki for fact memorization.  [Anki] Refers to useful techniques for knowledge structuring for this purpose by Piotr Wozniak.

Probable time for basic system: a week.  For lesson construction: arbitrary - couple of months?

D-U-N-S numbers

A good trick for getting a D&B D-U-N-S number quickly for Apple's iStore.  This is the kind of thing a startup support service would do for you, tricks and all.

RiR: the Process Myth

From Rand's in Repose, a really nice article on how documented processes are intended to preserve the culture of a company, why engineers don't like them, how they should be ready to defend themselves, and so forth.  Good background on why process as she is wrote doesn't always work well for people even though they desperately need it above the level of - well, let's say above the level of zero people in the company.  My company is just me, and I still suffer from lack of process, which is why I'm automating.

But I think it's important to think hard about what process means, how it can be tied to its origin stories better, and how it can be integrated into the human more effectively.  I'm going to have to reread this article a few times.

Post from HBR on why business matters

Well.  They don't actually say why business matters so much as they baldly assert that it's the only thing that does matter.  Actually, from a philosophical viewpoint, there is a lot to scratch your head about in this article, but it's still thought-provoking, so read it.  (Their actual goal is marketing for business school students, I suppose.)

The business world is kind of strange, really.  As a more engineering kind of guy I can't help but be astonished at their self-important gushing, but then on the other hand, as the kind of guy who wishes he had more money, I can't deny that they have most of it.  I can't think of anything better than to automate their jobs out from under them.  (Yeah, I know it's already happening no matter what I do.)

Patrick McKenzie's 2012 in review

Lots of figures and thoughts.

Patrick has documented the Bingo Card Creator so thoroughly that it ought to be relatively straightforward to describe it in terms of workflow.  Then ... iterate.