Comments on: Fixing Little Things

By: Problem Solving 101 « adapt, adopt & invent cio

Problem Solving 101 « adapt, adopt & invent cio — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 06:54:38 +0000

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By: Lech

Lech — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 09:58:35 +0000

Thanks for the thought-provoking post!

A slightly different point of view to spice up the discussion…

One cynical opinion stays in my head for some time – “The idea is to find yourself a problem and then feel happy after having fixed it.” To give you an example – I’ve used to spend a lot of time working with Linux. While plenty of good can be said about this system, sometimes all you do as a user is… secure, update, compile, improve, tweak etc. Like with an old car. At the same time “real life” just passes you by…

In general, when we devote our time to something, I guess it’s good to have in mind that “things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

By: Jim Demitriou

Jim Demitriou — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:04:13 +0000

As usual, you’re spot on, and I couldn’t agree more … the aggregation of many little things leads to a lot. As a former colleague and mentor used to tell me, “Watch the nickels and dimes, and the dollars watch themselves”.

It takes a bit of skill to not only recognize the problem, but also to do root cause analysis. And all too often people fail to see the forest for the trees, because the daily activity has simply become business as usual. Helps to have a fresh set of eyes look at something, and just ask “why” until you get to the core of the problem.

That all said, you might be surprised just how target rich of an environment you have to improve things

By: Reigneer Nabong

Reigneer Nabong — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:41:32 +0000

Happy New Year, Chuck!

It’s always the little things that are often ignored and become bigger to the point where (sometimes) they can no longer be resolved. I’ve always been told not to let small problems get bigger. It’s like having a little “grinding” noise in your engine that can become a blown head gasket if you don’t get it checked. Which reminds me that I’m due for an oil change.

Have a great weekend!

By: Tom Catalini

Tom Catalini — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:51:00 +0000

Little things mean a lot. We examine as many of these things as we can each year – even if we’ve looked at them in the recent past. There’s always opportunity to do something differently, better, cheaper – or to decide that it’s time to stop doing it altogether.

These are things that don’t make headlines, often aren’t sexy or cutting edge. Still, they have a real, tangible and lasting impact. It’s always worth doing.

Tom

By: Beverly Brown

Beverly Brown — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:26:35 +0000

The advantage of being a tech guy is you know how to diagnose and fix an errant driver. Pity poor non-technical folks like me, who watch the hourglass on the monitor and can only shriek, “What is it DOING??” Arrgh! But the metaphor in this post resonates with me, as I review my previous year and set goals for 2010. I have resolved to focus on what’s important, and not be suckered by what’s urgent. I don’t want to reach 2011 having only been successful at unimportant things that were urgent.