Photo courtesy of usnavy. Licensed under CCLC2.0 I was inspired today by a TED Talk by Carol Dweck. It struck home since I had just been to a school site council meeting where the Advanced Placement (AP) History scores were…

Photo courtesy Nic Redhead I’ll be the first one to point out that having a standard doesn’t automatically give you better quality in your products, but standards can multiply your efforts to produce quality products in several ways. Sure, someone…

Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/jronaldlee So often the biggest barrier to better is me. I know the hard work that will have the big payoff. I find it hard to discipline myself and wish for the dramatic to push me there. Or…

Sometimes you realize after a project that your efficiency boost cost more than it is worth. I experienced this on a home project and have seen it from overzealous engineers. I’ll share a few examples and explain how you can…

My top two bathroom pet peeves: wasted energy and annoying fans. Our downstairs bathroom fan was so loud it would annoy the entire house, so solving that problem would surely lead to energy waste. So in the spirit of working…

I love to share photos. As a chaperone on a school trip to Washington DC, I figured it would be simple to shoot the trip and show our progress live on a WordPress site as gallery posts for each location.…

Photo courtesy of Michael Coghlan We’ll talk about various topics related to maddening inefficiencies that make life a pain. Then I’ll share some of the things I’ve done to make life run smoother and more efficiently and invite your participation.…