[MBZ] OT: In praise of misfits
Why business needs people with Asperger's syndrome, attention-deficit disorder and dyslexia IN 1956 William Whyte argued in his bestseller, The Organisation Man, that companies were so in love with well-rounded executives that they fought a fight against genius. Today many suffer from the opposite prejudice. Software firms gobble up anti-social geeks. Hedge funds hoover up equally oddball quants. Hollywood bends over backwards to accommodate the whims of creatives. And policymakers look to rule-breaking entrepreneurs to create jobs. Unlike the school playground, the marketplace is kind to misfits. Recruiters have noticed that the mental qualities that make a good computer programmer resemble those that might get you diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome: an obsessive interest in narrow subjects; a passion for numbers, patterns and machines; an addiction to repetitive tasks; and a lack of sensitivity to social cues. Some joke that the internet was invented by and for people who are on the spectrum, as they put it in the Valley. Online, you can communicate without the ordeal of meeting people. Wired magazine once called it the Geek Syndrome. Speaking of internet firms founded in the past decade, Peter Thiel, an early Facebook investor, told the New Yorker that: The people who run them are sort of autistic. Yishan Wong, an ex-Facebooker, wrote that Mark Zuckerberg, the founder, has a touch of Asperger's, in that he does not provide much active feedback or confirmation that he is listening to you. Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, says he finds the symptoms of Asperger's uncomfortably familiar when he hears them listed. Similar traits are common in the upper reaches of finance. The quants have taken over from the preppies. The hero of Michael Lewis's book The Big Short, Michael Burry, a hedge-fund manager, is a loner who wrote a stockmarket blog as a hobby while he was studying to be a doctor. He attracted so much attention from money managers that he quit medicine to start his own hedge fund, Scion Capital. After noticing that there was something awry with the mortgage market, he made a killing betting that it would crash. The one guy that I could trust in the middle of this crisis, Mr Lewis told National Public Radio, was this fellow with Asperger's and a glass eye. Entrepreneurs also display a striking number of mental oddities. Julie Login of Cass Business School surveyed a group of entrepreneurs and found that 35% of them said that they suffered from dyslexia, compared with 10% of the population as a whole and 1% of professional managers. Prominent dyslexics include the founders of Ford, General Electric, IBM and IKEA, not to mention more recent successes such as Charles Schwab (the founder of a stockbroker), Richard Branson (the Virgin Group), John Chambers (Cisco) and Steve Jobs (Apple). There are many possible explanations for this. Dyslexics learn how to delegate tasks early (getting other people to do their homework, for example). They gravitate to activities that require few formal qualifications and demand little reading or writing. Attention-deficit disorder (ADD) is another entrepreneur-friendly affliction: people who cannot focus on one thing for long can be disastrous employees but founts of new ideas. Some studies suggest that people with ADD are six times more likely than average to end up running their own businesses. David Neeleman, the founder of JetBlue, a budget airline, says: My ADD brain naturally searches for better ways of doing things. With the disorganisation, procrastination, inability to focus and all the other bad things that come with ADD, there also come creativity and the ability to take risks. Paul Orfalea, the founder of Kinko's and a hotch-potch of businesses since, has both ADD and dyslexia. I get bored easily; that is a great motivator, he once said. I think everybody should have dyslexia and ADD. Where does that leave the old-fashioned organisation man? He will do just fine. The more companies hire brilliant mavericks, the more they need sensible managers to keep the company grounded. Someone has to ensure that dull but necessary tasks are done. Someone has to charm customers (and perhaps lawmakers). This task is best done by those who don't give the impression that they think normal people are stupid. (Sheryl Sandberg, Mr Zuckerberg's deputy, does this rather well for Facebook.) Many start-ups are saved from disaster only by replacing the founders with professional managers. Those managers, of course, must learn to work with geeks. The clustering of people with unusual minds is causing new problems. People who work for brainy companies tend to marry other brainy people. Simon Baron-Cohen of Cambridge University argues that when two hyper-systematisers meet and mate, they are more likely to have children who suffer from Asperger's or its more severe cousin, autism. He has shown that children
Re: [MBZ] OT: In praise of misfits
Yep, not being able to concentrate can be a good thing. As can the hyper-focusing when you need to get things done. The procrastination, I could live without though... It's who I am though, and I don't feel like changing it at all. Walt On Jun 8, 2012 5:46 AM, Gerry Archer arche...@embarqmail.com wrote: Why business needs people with Asperger's syndrome, attention-deficit disorder and dyslexia IN 1956 William Whyte argued in his bestseller, The Organisation Man, that companies were so in love with well-rounded executives that they fought a fight against genius. Today many suffer from the opposite prejudice. Software firms gobble up anti-social geeks. Hedge funds hoover up equally oddball quants. Hollywood bends over backwards to accommodate the whims of creatives. And policymakers look to rule-breaking entrepreneurs to create jobs. Unlike the school playground, the marketplace is kind to misfits. Recruiters have noticed that the mental qualities that make a good computer programmer resemble those that might get you diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome: an obsessive interest in narrow subjects; a passion for numbers, patterns and machines; an addiction to repetitive tasks; and a lack of sensitivity to social cues. Some joke that the internet was invented by and for people who are on the spectrum, as they put it in the Valley. Online, you can communicate without the ordeal of meeting people. Wired magazine once called it the Geek Syndrome. Speaking of internet firms founded in the past decade, Peter Thiel, an early Facebook investor, told the New Yorker that: The people who run them are sort of autistic. Yishan Wong, an ex-Facebooker, wrote that Mark Zuckerberg, the founder, has a touch of Asperger's, in that he does not provide much active feedback or confirmation that he is listening to you. Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, says he finds the symptoms of Asperger's uncomfortably familiar when he hears them listed. Similar traits are common in the upper reaches of finance. The quants have taken over from the preppies. The hero of Michael Lewis's book The Big Short, Michael Burry, a hedge-fund manager, is a loner who wrote a stockmarket blog as a hobby while he was studying to be a doctor. He attracted so much attention from money managers that he quit medicine to start his own hedge fund, Scion Capital. After noticing that there was something awry with the mortgage market, he made a killing betting that it would crash. The one guy that I could trust in the middle of this crisis, Mr Lewis told National Public Radio, was this fellow with Asperger's and a glass eye. Entrepreneurs also display a striking number of mental oddities. Julie Login of Cass Business School surveyed a group of entrepreneurs and found that 35% of them said that they suffered from dyslexia, compared with 10% of the population as a whole and 1% of professional managers. Prominent dyslexics include the founders of Ford, General Electric, IBM and IKEA, not to mention more recent successes such as Charles Schwab (the founder of a stockbroker), Richard Branson (the Virgin Group), John Chambers (Cisco) and Steve Jobs (Apple). There are many possible explanations for this. Dyslexics learn how to delegate tasks early (getting other people to do their homework, for example). They gravitate to activities that require few formal qualifications and demand little reading or writing. Attention-deficit disorder (ADD) is another entrepreneur-friendly affliction: people who cannot focus on one thing for long can be disastrous employees but founts of new ideas. Some studies suggest that people with ADD are six times more likely than average to end up running their own businesses. David Neeleman, the founder of JetBlue, a budget airline, says: My ADD brain naturally searches for better ways of doing things. With the disorganisation, procrastination, inability to focus and all the other bad things that come with ADD, there also come creativity and the ability to take risks. Paul Orfalea, the founder of Kinko's and a hotch-potch of businesses since, has both ADD and dyslexia. I get bored easily; that is a great motivator, he once said. I think everybody should have dyslexia and ADD. Where does that leave the old-fashioned organisation man? He will do just fine. The more companies hire brilliant mavericks, the more they need sensible managers to keep the company grounded. Someone has to ensure that dull but necessary tasks are done. Someone has to charm customers (and perhaps lawmakers). This task is best done by those who don't give the impression that they think normal people are stupid. (Sheryl Sandberg, Mr Zuckerberg's deputy, does this rather well for Facebook.) Many start-ups are saved from disaster only by replacing the founders with professional managers. Those managers, of course, must learn to work with geeks. The clustering of people with unusual minds is causing new
[MBZ] Fwd: Telephone poles
Original Message Subject:Telephone poles Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2012 15:44:26 -0700 (PDT) From: burton anderson burt7...@att.net To: mercedes-ow...@okiebenz.com Telephone poles were called that because they were the only utility on them at the time. When the power companies expanded into the rural areas they placed their own poles. Subsequently both companies recognized they should and finally did share poles, although taller ones. The telephone wires were on 10 pin cross arms and which were a tenth of an inch diameter of steel and capable of each supporting 1 or 2 inches of ice. Each pair of wires was capable of transmitting 1 telephone circuit. The power wires also used cross arms for the higher voltages while using 3-wire vertical sets called secondary racks of user voltages. As the poles became overcome with cross arms, cable was conceived and eventually reaching to the 3000+/- pair size, capable of 3000 circuits. All of this in an approximate 3 inch diameter. In the early years New Haven, CT, home of first telephone company, had loads of cross arms in the downtown area. Doctors and businesses were their first customers because they could afford it. There are, if you can find them, great old pics of dozens cross arms loaded with steel 109 steel wires in downtown New Haven. These we so dense that birds might have had a tough time flying near them. Currently with multiplexing, fiber optics and digitizing, amazing numbers of circuits are utilized. There is a fortune in copper wire on poles and in conduit. Don't tell the gutter thieves. Burt Anderson Car Nut No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com http://www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.2178 / Virus Database: 2433/5056 - Release Date: 06/08/12 ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
Re: [MBZ] Fwd: Telephone poles
Note of interest.. Each pole had a set of spikes with special heads on them... One for the date the pole was installed [age of pole item] one had the pole number on it [problem area identification] some of them had brass plates that gave pole ownership info. There is a group of special people who now collect these things... believe it or not.. same system was used for telegraph poles back in the day Question: When the pole climber set his spikes and the big leather belt at the top of the pole and leaned back into it to work, was that the basis of the term Tip Ring since that is what he did at that point to find the broken circuit [tip back and ring each line] ? Anybody have that answer? Grant.. Who collects lots of fun stuff On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 7:22 AM, Striplin Admin account m...@striplin.netwrote: Original Message Subject:Telephone poles Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2012 15:44:26 -0700 (PDT) From: burton anderson burt7...@att.net To: mercedes-ow...@okiebenz.com Telephone poles were called that because they were the only utility on them at the time. When the power companies expanded into the rural areas they placed their own poles. Subsequently both companies recognized they should and finally did share poles, although taller ones. The telephone wires were on 10 pin cross arms and which were a tenth of an inch diameter of steel and capable of each supporting 1 or 2 inches of ice. Each pair of wires was capable of transmitting 1 telephone circuit. The power wires also used cross arms for the higher voltages while using 3-wire vertical sets called secondary racks of user voltages. As the poles became overcome with cross arms, cable was conceived and eventually reaching to the 3000+/- pair size, capable of 3000 circuits. All of this in an approximate 3 inch diameter. In the early years New Haven, CT, home of first telephone company, had loads of cross arms in the downtown area. Doctors and businesses were their first customers because they could afford it. There are, if you can find them, great old pics of dozens cross arms loaded with steel 109 steel wires in downtown New Haven. These we so dense that birds might have had a tough time flying near them. Currently with multiplexing, fiber optics and digitizing, amazing numbers of circuits are utilized. There is a fortune in copper wire on poles and in conduit. Don't tell the gutter thieves. Burt Anderson Car Nut No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com http://www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.2178 / Virus Database: 2433/5056 - Release Date: 06/08/12 __**_ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/**archive/http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/**mailman/listinfo/mercedes_**okiebenz.comhttp://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
Re: [MBZ] Fwd: Telephone poles
On Fri, 8 Jun 2012 12:18:19 -0700 G Mann g2ma...@gmail.com wrote: Question: When the pole climber set his spikes and the big leather belt at the top of the pole and leaned back into it to work, was that the basis of the term Tip Ring since that is what he did at that point to find the broken circuit [tip back and ring each line] ? Anybody have that answer? No. The term tip and ring came from the 1/4 phone plugs and jacks that were installed on switchboard. One connection was the separately insulated portion of the plug at its tip. The other connection was the shank which mated with the visible ring of the jack on the switchboard's panel. Craig ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
Re: [MBZ] Fwd: Telephone poles
Thanks !! On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 12:26 PM, Craig diese...@pisquared.net wrote: On Fri, 8 Jun 2012 12:18:19 -0700 G Mann g2ma...@gmail.com wrote: Question: When the pole climber set his spikes and the big leather belt at the top of the pole and leaned back into it to work, was that the basis of the term Tip Ring since that is what he did at that point to find the broken circuit [tip back and ring each line] ? Anybody have that answer? No. The term tip and ring came from the 1/4 phone plugs and jacks that were installed on switchboard. One connection was the separately insulated portion of the plug at its tip. The other connection was the shank which mated with the visible ring of the jack on the switchboard's panel. Craig ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
Re: [MBZ] yellow torpedo
...I found one of those things that I think must have been some sort of voltage or current detector -- it looked like a little torpedo about 6in long, was yellow. It had no buttons or anything else so I was never sure what it was. I probably have it tucked in a box somewhere... It's an inductive tone detector. RLE ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
Re: [MBZ] OT: In praise of misfits
On Jun 8, 2012, at 4:59 AM, Walt Zarnoch zarnoch...@gmail.com wrote: The procrastination, I could live without though... Hopefully you don't end up with projects that are over 30 years old, sitting, waiting to be completed. (like some of mine) Rick Who is working on becoming an EX-procrastinator. Sent from my iPhone ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
[MBZ] No More Tappets
The Tappet Brothers are retiring! No more Click and Clack after October of this year! Poo. ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
Re: [MBZ] No More Tappets
They will be recycling their old content though. I read earlier today its NPR's most popular program. On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 7:19 PM, Dan Penoff lwb...@yahoo.com wrote: The Tappet Brothers are retiring! No more Click and Clack after October of this year! Poo. ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
Re: [MBZ] No More Tappets
YAY! But i never listen to them. never any intelligence concerning MB. Often wrong about DEETriot arn. The Tappet Brothers are retiring! No more Click and Clack after October of this year! Poo. ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
Re: [MBZ] No More Tappets
Everybody is retiring. Boortz is retiring too Sent from my iPhone On Jun 8, 2012, at 8:19 PM, Dan Penoff lwb...@yahoo.com wrote: The Tappet Brothers are retiring! No more Click and Clack after October of this year! Poo. ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
Re: [MBZ] 92 300E Lamp Out Indicator
You know if an indicator is not working, ya know instead of blink.blink...blink it's blink..blink..blink. Pretty sure it would not be the fog lights but the little park lights in the headlights do like to play up now and then. Hendrik who has all lights working On 08/06/12 07:22, Craig wrote: On Thu, 7 Jun 2012 16:58:06 -0400 Dan Penofflwb...@yahoo.com wrote: Any ideas what else it might be? The lamp-out indicator won't know a bulb is out until you try to use the bulb. Start up the parked car and note that the lamp-out indicator is not lit. Press the brake pedal and see if it is now lit. If it's not lit, try the turn signals first one way and then the other. If it's not lit, press on the brake pedal and put the transmission in reverse. Continue on with whatever lights are available until the indicator lights. Craig ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
Re: [MBZ] This list could certainly use some drama...
So you'll be the one to dress in some lingerie and ride a bike around? Hendrik who is a drama queen On 08/06/12 14:25, relng...@aol.com wrote: http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/316AzLYfAzw%26autoplay=1%26rel=0 RLE ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
[MBZ] Linux is where it's at
The US Navy has signed off on a $27,883,883 contract from military contractor Raytheon to install Linux ground control software for its fleet of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drones. While the US military has been a growing user of Linux, the contract might also have something to do with the swabbies learning from the mistakes made by the flyboys and girls in the US Air Force. After a malware attack on the Air Force's Windows-based drone-control system last year, there has been a wholesale move to Linux for security reasons. If I would need to select between Windows XP and a Linux based system while building a military system, I wouldn't doubt a second which one I would take, F-Secure's security researcher Mikko Hypponen pointed out at the time. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/08/us_navy_linux_drones/ ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
Re: [MBZ] Linux is where it's at
On Jun 8, 2012, at 10:00 PM, Gerry Archer arche...@embarqmail.com wrote: After a malware attack on the Air Force's Windows-based drone-control system last year, there has been a wholesale move to Linux for security reasons. Which sucks because now the Chinese, Russians, and anyone else that writes virii will be coding for Linux now. Great. Rick Sent from my iPhone ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
[MBZ] RARE!! MUST SELL!! 1971 Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3 6K EVER MADE!!
This looks nice http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/cto/3066582449.html -- Sent from Craigslist Pro for iPhone and iPod Sent from my iPhone ___ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
