Great Movie Review Line from Review of Apparently Worst Move

The New York Post excerpt is classic, although there are a number of good ones on the page. It's always good to read a meta-review of an awful movie.

88 Minutes holds you in a state of acute suspense, keeping you wondering until the very last minute whether this is the worst Al Pacino movie ever made.

Alumni Donations

I am trying so hard to find the text of a column I read in Time magazine about 5 years ago. It really stuck with me. I'm pretty sure it's written by Joel Stein. Joel is talking about the ridiculous amount of money he paid for a Stanford education and the subsequent requests for alumni donations. 

I'll paraphrase about the fictional letter he received from Gillette, the fine makers of the Mach 3 razor: "Mr Stein, I understand you enjoyed our Mach 3, which offers you a very close and comfortable shave. Would you consider giving a small donation to Gillette?"  He then goes on to lament the expensive "art" around the $30,000-a-year tuition Stanford campus which he notes is a private institution.

If anyone knows where I can find the original text of this column, could you let me know in the comments?

Update: I found it.

Something Very Interesting About Speed Dating

I've been thinking of doing speed dating for a while now, if only as a social experiment.

I'm currently reading The Logic of Life by Tim Harford (who I happened to miss when he was in Melbourne Business School last month). He has a very interesting chapter on dating and marriage. A few interesting bits:

• men will usually pick 1 in 5 women to date in speed dating. Women: 1 in 10
• men will select 1 in 5 regardless of the actual talent pool, i.e. we will lower our standards
• young, single women tend to congregate where men earn the most money, i.e. in the cities. This creates an abundance of single women.
• the high incarceration rate of young black males is one reason why African-American females are more likely to go to college.

When Projects Go Wrong: Scrum vs. Waterfall

I was thinking of the comparison between a traditional IT project going over budget or late vs. a Scrum project. In Scrum, we reduce scope instead of moving milestone dates. So whereas a project manager might tell the business sponsors

I need another 3 months and $250,000 to finish this project

a Scrum-master might say

As the product stands right now, a few minor features have yet to be implemented. The software is documented, tested and ready for use. For another $250,000 we could get the other features done.

I know which one I would prefer to say, and which one I would prefer to hear. Luckily, they are the same.

Update: As a I get a lot of traffic to this page, I thought of the problems mentioned in CIO magazine about when Agile projects go wrong is also important. What resonates with me is the tendency to avoid getting into too much detail with the client, even though you probably should.

Still, we just deployed a new CRM system over 1 year in the making, and I think an iterative, agile approach would have been much better (and yes, the project was late and over budget).

A Very Interesting Hobby: The Hidden Mickey Finders

Did you know that Disney hides references to Micky Mouse throughout their movies and theme parks? Neither did I. But there is a whole site dedicated to documenting this.

Who are the people who want to be my Facebok friend?

I mean, seriously, I'm all for Facebook. But you can't just click a button and expect to be my friend. Just like I will not connect with you on LinkedIn if you if I hate working with you (yes, I'm talking to you, guy-I-hate-working-with), I will not be your Facebook friend if I don't like you. 

Hint: I like people that send me Facebook messages. I'm not sure about the poke... it tickles.

On Tibet: If you're Chinese-Australian, Should You Protest?

On my tram ride home today, I noticed a few dozen young Chinese protesting. They were holding long banners that read "Tibet was, is, and always will be part of China." There were at least 3 such banners held up by aournd 8 people so everyone could read it several times on the their way up Swanston Street.

My first question is: what exactly were the people protesting? Were they taking issue with some of the comments by Kevin Rudd the other day? If so, I believe his statements were more about human rights than geopolitics; I don't think he was disputing the borders of China.

Perhaps these people were simply showing solidarity with the Chinese government. On first thought, this seems fairly innocuous. Certainly I believe that these people have the right, in Australia, to speak out in favour of any policy they want, whether of the Australian government, or of some foreign regime. 

Here's where the contradiction arises. You see, the Chinese government doesn't believe that foreigners should interfere with what is essentially (according the banner of the protesters, to be sure) an internal matter for China. How then does it make any sense for those on Australian soil to essentially intefere with an internal matter, even by showing their solidarity? It seems the Chinese goverment would be prefer -- whether you're for or against their behaviour -- to keep your mouth shut. These protesters are trying to have it both ways, but make sense in neither realm.