Making systems work: The psychology of business systems

This is the title of a book by William C. Ramsgard, Wiley, 1977-09-29 and the quotes that follow are from various scraps of paper that have been gathering dust on my desk.

“The successful information system provides all the related and general xpj requirements for operating personnel, based on normal organizational activity.  New information requirements are always modifications to the existing information system and are fulfilled by a minimum caretaker staff without disruption to existing informational and organizational structure or substantial additional resource allocations.”

From a note in ABC Stenoscript and http://books.google.com/books/about/Making_systems_work.html?id=RkBZAAAAMAAJ

From another note on this book

“Peasecod’s Parameter
When the time recorded in the maintenance log approaches the original systems development time, the existing system is dying and the systems cycle should be repeated for a complete new development of the system.”

From another note in ABC Stenoscript

“Systems should be built not to solve problems but to provide opportunity.”

Stop creating jobs and start creating Jobs!

Politicians measure their success by their claims of creating jobs. But is that how we should measure our success as a society, how many people have a 9-5 job with benefits?

If so, maybe we should ban push-button elevators and bring back elevators run by a full-time operators. The push-button elevator destroyed lots of jobs. If we measure success by jobs, maybe we should ban direct dialing. Direct dialing greatly reduced the need for live operators to place long-distance calls. If we measure success by jobs, maybe we should legislate how long buildings may be used. The demolition of old buildings and the construction of new buildings will create jobs.

The real question is what are the true costs of creating jobs. Are we creating a better, safer, healthier environment or are we merely doing the same old, same old over and over again? And as we do so, are we training people to keep looking for the same old, same old jobs rather than looking for new opportunities.

Instead shouldn't we be looking to create more Steve Jobs, entrepreneurs with ideas for change? Not every innovator is going to become a billionaire or even a millionaire, but a society which promotes innovation by individuals will be "wealthier" than one that just seeks to create jobs.

I think there is at least one major impediment to creating entrepreneurs and others who will create a society with beneficial change.

The desire for benefits keeps many people from starting something by themselves. Health insurance is one of the top reasons people prefer a regular job to going out on their own. If someone has a great idea, he or she may not mind a low cash flow for awhile, but many do not want to spend a day without health insurance. Note in the articles about people who do start businesses how many of them have a spouse with a full-time job, with benefits.

See also "If you really want to create jobs…" and "Where have all the jobs gone?"

Are we hummingbirds or eagles?

As I was doing my singing practice, my mind wandered to two other activities that I could do. The image of hummingbirds flitting in and out around a feeder sprang into my mind.

Do we act like hummingbirds, darting from one task to another? Do we assume that the feeder will always be there with no thought of how it came to be?

Or do we act like eagles, soaring high above the ground, searching for just the right opportunity? Do we also realize that we will fail most of the time, but we will go back into the sky to look again for the right opportunity?