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Posts selected fromManagement Blog - Engineering Blog - Investing Blog and other blogs

• Glacier National Park photos

  I have posted photos from one of my most enjoyable days: photos from hikes in Glacier Waterton International Peace Park

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• Most Valuable Companies in the USA Compared to the Total Market Capitalization

  In general investing in low cost index funds (like Vanguard’s index funds) is a very sensible strategy. I personally invest mostly in individual stocks. I see stocks such as Microsoft and Costco that are attractive businesses to invest in but the stocks are so costly I hesitate to invest. In addition, I already am over-invested in mega-cap companies (my largest holdings are Apple, Alphabet and Amazon, about 36% of portfolio). So avoiding other mega-caps makes some sense to me.

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  10 year returns: Apple (up 1,068%), Alphabet (up 424%), Amazon (up 693%) and Microsoft (up 1,090%). FYI, the total USA market index fund (VTI) was up 187% for the same 10 year period and the S&P 500 index fund (VTI) was up 204%.

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• Innovation at Toyota

  While targets and goals can distract from improvement some guidance is useful. If the desire to is have incremental improvement one strategy may be reasonable but if the desire is to aim for huge improvement another strategy is likely required...

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• The Current Republican Party is a Huge Risk to the Future of the USA

  I am very concerned about the extremism that dominates the USA Republican Party. Far too many people are complacent...

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  The Republic Party has been on a long term effort to destroy the rule of law in the USA. The continued tolerance of those that openly tried to overturn the results of the election they lost is a critical issue that anyone that cares about the rule of law should not tolerate.

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  The long term efforts of the Republican Party to disenfranchise voters is another completely unacceptable behavior...

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• Remembering Brian Joiner

  I knew Brian Joiner as a child growing up in Madison, Wisconsin. He and my father worked together and our families spent time together. As I grew I interacted with Brian in my professional life and that relationship made my life better.

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  His book, Fourth Generation Management, is one of the top handful of books I most recommend for those interested in improving the practice of management in their organization.

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• Society fails to invest in long-term solutions to long-term problems

  I respect John Green and his brother, Hank. Their Vlogbrothers YouTube Chanel is a regular, enjoyable and educational part of my online activity. I recommend watching a few of videos and seeing if they should also be part of your online activity. Here is a screenshot from when John liked one of my tweets :-)

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• Using Design of Experiments

  Design of Experiments can seem complicated but at the core it is fairly simple and powerful. By applying the proper techniques it allows you to gage the effect of several variables and, very importantly, the interactions of those variables with a small number of experiments (or tests or pilots)...

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• Expand the View of the System to Find Ways to Improve Results

  By expanding the system view and looking at the results of the entire system it is often possible to find improvements that are not possible by only looking at “your” system. These changes can sometimes be more challenging to accomplish as they may require convincing others to make changes.

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• The Growing Use of Apprenticeships in the USA

  Apprenticeships are a great option for many people. For one thing you don’t have to take on a huge debt burden (previous post: Personal Finance Considerations for Going into Debt for Education). Also for many careers and apprenticeship is what is needed, not a college degree.

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• We Should Put Solar Panels Above Parking Lots

  It is more expensive to build the solar arrays and infrastructure above existing parking lots (compared to an empty field) but it is a great use to space. We should be encouraging such development.

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• How to Build a Great Software Development Team

  "Without confidence, honest debate about ideas is suppressed as people are constantly taking things personally instead of trying to find the best ideas (and if doing so means my idea is criticized that is ok).

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  This is also one of many areas where the culture within the team was self reinforcing. As new people came on they understood this practice. They saw it in practice. They could see it was about finding good ideas and if their idea was attacked they didn’t take it nearly as personally as most people do in most places."

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