In the past, I have questioned the extent to which we really suck at math in the U.S. While I’m still a bit skeptical that the average child in developing countries is doing dramatically better than children in the U.S., one thing is pretty clear from our results to date, and that is that the…
I think I need some advice on appreciating how great my life is. I haven’t been posting for two weeks, I realized today. First, I got sick and then when I got better, I was so far behind in working on our games that I just squashed bugs and held design meetings for days. Now,…
Why? Are you kidding me? If you are a programmer, analyst, statistician, professor or student who uses SAS this is an opportunity to get to know your people and to get known. I’m in Dallas for the SAS Global Forum, which I try to attend whenever I can. Yes, I could watch videos on the Internet,…
Is that enough acronyms for you? I’ll be speaking at Celebrating Equity: Women in STEM at ELAC. STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics ELAC – East Los Angeles College It’s 12:15 – 1:15 pm and it is free. There are six panelists (including me). Download Women in STEM Poster I presented last year and…
Any time I hear someone brag, “I’ve never used X in my life,” I automatically assume that whatever it is, they haven’t learned it very well. Just about everything I’ve learned has come in useful, and the better I learned it, the more useful it is. Take statistics, for example. There is nowhere in my…
There is not nearly enough replication in scientific research. It’s unfortunate that funding agencies and academic journals always want to see a new twist – a different technique, a different population. Personally, I’m very interested in reading studies that say: “I did the exact same study as Mary Lou Who and I found pretty much…
We were driving to the hospital to get some tests done and complaining about the traffic with Colorado Ave. closed for a couple of blocks for construction on the new train line. The Invisible Developer, brilliant, as usual, commented, At least we have the luxury of worrying about every day things. He was right, of…
As further proof that God has a sense of humor, my career has been full of reversals. Where I was once the pain-in-the-ass young hotshot who knew everything and thought my boss was stuck in the past century, now I have to deal with people like that. For my first few years as an employee,…
It is unnecessarily cold at 6 a.m. in Minneapolis in the middle of February, just in case you were wondering. If you know me at all, you know that two of the things I hate most in this world are getting up early and cold weather. Despite that, I’m pretty satisfied this morning. I have…
What’s it like starting a company with your spouse? I get this question fairly often. Several times now, I’ve heard investors say they don’t like to invest in couples, while in the same breath saying that they like to invest in companies with co-founders who have known each other a long time. So … starting…