Exiting The Matrix
Quote of the Day
“Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.” Socrates – Philosopher (469 – 399 BC)
Quote of the Day
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas A. Edison, Inventor (1847 – 1931)
Do You Prefer To Sweat Or Bleed?
Prediction, Practice, Competence and Professionalism
Apparently there is a saying in some branches of the armed services:
“The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat.”
This concept is easily translatable to other areas. It is based on the ability to predict the consequences of actions. The understanding that the first time you do something is a learning experience. That only by doing something over and over do you get really good at it.
Some (most?) people do not get this. They operate on the basis of giving things “a lick and a promise”. If you are not familiar with the phrase, it means, “A cursory effort, for instance at painting or tidying up. It alludes to the perfunctory washing performed by children.”
In software (and probably many other areas as well) there is a caution against it:
“There is never enough time to do it right…
but…
there is always enough time to do it again.”
And therein lies the mark of a true professional. A true professional is one who accurately predicts that in order to obtain a high level of competence he is going to need to devote time to learn, practice and drill the actions of his job. He disciplines himself to continue to practice and hone his skills, learning all he can and drilling the basic actions of his job until those actions are done to an incredibly high level of skill, thereby producing top quality products.
I read some time ago that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become world class at something. Doesn’t matter if it’s sport (tennis, football, swimming, athletics), arts (singing, painting, acting), or a trade.
Just as an aside, if the thought of doing that in your current profession leaves you down in the mouth or you are only to eager to leave work and forget all about it until the next day, then may I suggest you may be in the wrong profession?
And that opens the door to another very good question that might help someone to work out what their basic purpose is in life and what profession may better suit their talents and personality. For as Confucius is alleged to have said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
If you are going to practice 10,000 hours at something it is optimum to be doing it at something you are talented and enjoy.
So the question is, “What activity would you not mind spending 3 hours a day at for the next few years to become world class at?”
And if spending a few years to become world class at something seems a daunting task, more than one person has opined that “Most people over-estimate what they can get done in a day and under-estimate what they can get done in 5 years.”
And if you would like some more tips on “How To Work Out Your Basic Purpose In Life”, head on over to https://www.tomgrimshaw.com/tomsblog/?p=37862
Quote of the Day
“The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it.”
Chinese Proverb
Be Careful Of Chesterton’s Fence
Having had to look at, understand and modify software code written by other people, the wisdom of this story instantly struck me.
How Civilizations Fail
A lesson in productivity, or lack of it
This is how people fail, organisations wither and die and civilizations vanish from view. The individuals are not able to quickly and efficiently perform the functions of their job thus wasting their own time, the time of their colleagues and customers and thus take too long to produce a product and lose business.
When you register a domain name you have a choice of which Registrar to use.
I have used TPP Wholesale to register Australian domain names and GoDaddy for my .com domains. I will no longer.
Nearly 50 days ago I submitted a support request to TPP as I needed to change details on one of my Australian domains.
Twice I received an email saying they acknowledge receipt of my request, apologised for the delay and will get back to me.
Instead of supplying the answer to my request R at TPP asked to confirm if it was still required.
“Hi Thomas,
I was reviewing the last ticket that you have submitted handled by the previous support representative. It seems that this was left on pending status. Our Apologies.
Given the delay, can you confirm if this issue has been resolved yet? If not, kindly provide details of your concern. In the meantime, I will set the ticket to waiting for response status, if there are any further outstanding issues please do reply and I will be attending to your enquiry.
Again, we sincerely apologise for any inconvenience.
Kind regards,
R”
I replied,
“G’day R,
You may tell your supervisor that taking 47 days to respond (not resolve, merely respond for additional data) to my support request was the single worst support incident I have experienced in my entire 73 years. It has caused me to make the decision to move my business elsewhere.
Please provide the necessary information to migrate my 6 domain names currently registered with you to another registrar.”
R replied, “The delay was due to our customer service department undergoing a transition, which unfortunately affected our response times. We understand how important timely support is, and we regret that this situation impacted your experience. Please be assured that we are already addressing the issue and improving our processes to ensure faster responses moving forward.
We understand if you would like to proceed transfer your domains to another registrar. The domain transfer will begin with your new registrar by supplying them with your domain transfer password (EPP, auth-code or domain password). Once the transfer has been initiated by the new registrar, a notification will be sent to the registrant contact email address which the registrant needs to confirm the transfer.”
without providing the EPP necessary to do so. I responded.
“G’day R,
I am going to be very honest and very blunt. You will shortly have the choice to make this a vary valuable learning experience or just dismiss it out of hand as a rant from a grumpy old man. While it may appear that your decision will not affect me in the short term, your long-term success is nevertheless important to me. Your chances for future success in business will be indicated by your choice. Choose wisely.
You say how “our customer service department undergoing a transition, which unfortunately affected our response times” like it is an explanation rather than a confession of an epic customer service catastrophe, a damning indictment of poor management planning re the transition and complete disregard for customer satisfaction. Which is why your organisation lost me as a customer.
Then you tell me what needs to be done without providing the necessary data to do so.
Your future personal productivity and potentially your success, or lack of it, will depend in part on understanding what the customer needs in order to be able to do what they need to do and helping them obtain what they need with a minimum of wasted time and communication.
From an alternative contact at TPP I have received the EPP for 5 of my registered domain names but not that for xxxxxxxxx.xxx
Please supply this at your earliest convenience.”
Agatha Christie
In 1928, Agatha Christie’s life fell apart. Her marriage had ended, her heart was broken, and she felt completely lost. But instead of hiding away, she did something extraordinary—she packed a suitcase, bought a ticket for the Orient Express, and headed east. Alone.
Her journey took her through Istanbul’s spice-scented streets, across the deserts of Iraq, and into the ruins of ancient Ur. She went looking for peace—but what she found changed her life.
At the dig site, surrounded by sand and history, she met Max Mallowan, a young archaeologist with sharp eyes and a kind smile—fourteen years younger than her. What began as friendship soon turned into quiet love. Two years later, they married.
Their life together wasn’t glamorous—it was gentle. They drank tea on dig-site verandas, worked side by side brushing dust from relics, and wrote their notes by lamplight. Agatha even used her own face cream to clean ancient pottery.
Those years in the Middle East shaped her imagination. The deserts, bazaars, and train journeys became the heart of her stories—Murder in Mesopotamia, They Came to Baghdad, Murder on the Orient Express.
Agatha Christie didn’t just recover from heartbreak—she rewrote her life. She turned pain into adventure, loss into love, and mystery into meaning.
Sometimes, the best stories start when you decide to keep going.
Operation Beluga
In December 1984, a group of 3,000 beluga whales were trapped by ice in the Chukchi Sea, near Russia. The whales were confined to small open water ponds surrounded by thick, impassable ice up to 3 m thick in some areas.
Without access to larger areas of the ocean, the whales had difficulty breathing and were at risk of dying. To help rescue them, an icebreaker named Admiral Makarov was brought in, equipped with a specially reinforced ice-breaking hull. The ship attempted to take the whales to safety by breaking the ice, but the belugas initially refused to follow.
When the crew began playing classical music like Tchaikovsky over the ship’s speakers, the whales finally began to follow the Makarov through the narrow open-water channel. This allowed 2,000 whales to reach the unfrozen ocean after a journey of almost 100 miles.
The successful rescue effort lasted several days and was later dubbed Operation Beluga. It was a massive undertaking that involved several countries, including the Soviet Union, the United States, Canada, and Japan.
Text credit: Irregular Earth