I'm a proud son

When I began this blog, my intent was to share observations of things I have learned from people I admire. But the sad truth is that I'm not plowing through biographies at a steady clip right now, and I'm flat out doing a poor job of jotting down my personal interactions.

However, I can't pass up this chance to brog (brag in a blog?) a bit about my dad.

My dad and I are the best of friends, but the reason for this post is that he is receiving the top award in his field this year, the Computer Graphics Achievement Award, at the worldwide SIGGRAPH conference in Boston this week. This is the latest of an impressive number of recognitions and opportunities he's been awarded lately as a result of his lifelong commitment to excellence. I've learned a lot from him in many settings, but on the occasion of this award, I wanted to share a few habits of his I've noticed in his professional career that have led to his successes.

Preparation

I listened to a speech not too long ago about time and patience. The speaker, Henry B. Eyring, commented on how in life we have early-harvest and late-harvest crops. He said it can be discouraging if we think something in life should be harvested early, but in reality it is a late-harvest crop. So we need to have patience. He mentioned how his dad, a world-famous scientist, spent his whole life investing in “late-harvest” crops---things where he would put a lot of time and effort into up front, and then not worry about seeing the benefits for a while.

I think my own dad has taken a similar approach to life and his career. Becoming a world-class academic doesn't happen overnight, but it takes years of learning, researching, and preparing. I've noticed how when my dad has received special assignments or opportunities at the university or elsewhere, he prepares for them intensely, and the result is that his professional assignments are all carried out with high quality.

Significance

I have often thought about becoming a university professor myself and following in my dad's footsteps (albeit in a different field---I studied economics). I've had a number of talks with my dad about this possibility, and he's shared the positive and negative aspects of being a professor. Although there a numerous parts about his profession he enjoys, one unintentional side effect that disturbs him is the "public or perish" mentality. University professors must have a good output of papers published in journals to keep their jobs. However, because of this emphasis on a quantitative measurement of a professor's competence, many papers are churned out, published, and rarely looked at again.

To be honest, I'm sure my dad has had papers like that. In fact, I once attended a lecture he gave, where he quoted someone else referring to one of my dad's papers as something like one of the biggest mistakes of the year in the field. However, my dad has never given up the vision of producing something of significance, and his award specifically cites two of his major advances that are significant contributions to the field--according to Google Scholar, one of his papers has been cited 730 times in other papers! I'm proud of my dad, not because everything he does is important, but because he always has an eye on creating meaningful things.

Priorities

Upon entering my parents home, you step into the entry hall and behold the lone piece of furniture in the whole room: a single tall bookcase. While doing the latest round of rearranging of the furniture a few years back, my dad was undecided about where to put this bookcase until he realized there was space in the entry hall. "This will provide a good emphasis on learning in our home," I remember him deciding.

Both in his professional and personal life, my dad has a remarkable ability to focus on his priorities and let them take first claim upon his time. It's impossible to do anything worthwhile if you don't know what it is you are wanting to do. I have no doubt about what my dad's priorities, both at work and at home, and it shows by the achievement he has been able to make in these areas, while letting less significant things take care of themselves.

I'm here in Boston with most of my siblings to see my dad get his award tomorrow. We're proud of him and glad that he has invited us to participate in this wonderful moment with him.

eFax--Receive Faxes for Free

As someone who stores nearly all his information electronically, and uses Microsoft Outlook for most of my file organization, I have never understood why people still use fax machines. It seems so much cheaper and straightforward to simply scan documents and send them over email as a PDF. Plus, you have the added advantage of always being able to easily find the document by searching your email.

We don't have a fax machine in our office, and as a matter of principle, I don't want to buy one. To me, it seems like the dinosaur of office equipment, soon to go the way of the typewriter.

I was talking with my employees about this yesterday, and one of them pointed out that, although their days may be numbered, fax machines will likely stay around for quite some time. He pointed out that they are often a lowest common denominator of communication between businesses. Many businesses that aren't high-tech may not have the need for up-to-date computing systems, but they do have a fax machine. I saw his point, and made a prediction: fax machines will be around as long as non-HD television sets. For over ten years, I have been getting advice to not buy a "regular" TV, since soon, everything will be in HDTV. But the truth is, "regular" TV is a standard, and there is always a lot of inertia against change--both in TV sets and office equipment.

So, while I continue to live in my anti-fax world, I still have to have some way to doing business with everyone that is still communicating via fax. Thank goodness for eFax. eFax is a service that allows you to send and receive faxes on your computer (via email). Their free offering includes giving you a fax number and allowing you to receive faxes for free. By upgrading, you can also send faxes. This is a great service that helps ease the transition from paper to digital communication.

Martha Moth Makes Socks

I wonder what my parents did when they lost track of old friends and acquaintances. I suppose they relied on Christmas cards if they had a current address, or else lived off the memories. The other day, my dad was dusting off slides while he was looking for something for an academic presentation, and he found some slides of friends from 25 years ago, just after he married my mom. He had a lot of fun reminiscing with her about the old times.

The neat thing about the Internet is it makes it much easier to come across "lost" friends--even if you're not trying. The other day I was doing some googling, and came across a delightfully illustrated children's book named Martha Moth Makes Socks, published this year by Houghton-Mifflin. It turns out it was written and illustrated by none other than my friend from freshman year at college, Cambria Evans (now surnamed Christensen--rumor has it her husband is artistically talented as well). It was evident when I knew her that Cambria was an amazing artist with a spunky imagination, but it was neat to see that she has finally "made it big." I promptly dropped Cambria a line and invited her to join my LinkedIn network (which is one way I keep friends from becoming "lost")--I would love to be able to work with her when we need design work done in the future.

I haven't had a chance to read this whole book yet, but the reviews at Amazon have been great. I have seen some of the artwork, and it makes someone even as right-brained as me start to imagine. I'd pick it up if you get the chance!

Brief History of Internet Marketing

Here is a great overview from the Economist about the history of pay-per-click, pay-per-call, and pay-per-action Internet marketing offerings at Google, Yahoo, Snap.com, and YouTube.com. It also points out how since the performance of Internet advertising is so easy to track, it has become a variable cost of production instead of merely a cost-center.