Welcome.
Thank you for finding me. I’ve written at carymillsap.blogspot.com and method-r.com since 2008, and now I write here. I hope you’ll check periodically, or subscribe to my feed.
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One Step Short, Part 2
Part of my education was flight training. A skill that I dreaded practicing was the takeoff and departure stall. To perform one, you climb to a safe altitude and simulate a takeoff: advance the throttle to full power, and pull the nose up. With enough pitch up, the aircraft eventually begins to lose airspeed, even… See more ›
A Mathematical Chat(GPT) about the American Flag
In 1959, the United States had an interesting flag problem. For forty-seven years, the American flag had 48 stars on it (one for each state—neither Alaska nor Hawaii had been admitted yet). Arranging 48 stars in a rectangular field is easy: it’s just 6 rows of 8 stars. Upon admitting Alaska in 1959, the problem remained easy: 49 stars could… See more ›
One Step Short
In high school, I ran track. I didn’t want to run track; they made me. If you wanted to play football in the fall (I did), then you had to run track in the spring (ugh). The event my coaches assigned to me was the 440-yard dash—the “quarter,” we called it, because it’s a quarter… See more ›
On Useless Knowledge
Where do you fall on the following spectrum? I don’t know what causes people to slot into one category or another. In high school, I felt like most people were in the first one. I was in the second. I think I liked it better when I couldn’t see a connection between what I was… See more ›
Don’t Burn the Sweater
Note to my non-US friends: a “sweater” is what you probably call a “jumper.” Sometimes in meetings, I’ll use the phrase, “Don’t burn the sweater.” It won’t mean anything to you until I explain it. It’s a parable I made up. Here it is; I hope you find it helpful. A sweater keeps you warm.… See more ›
ELF is for Easy, HALF is for Hard
The best negotiating advice I can give you is to follow former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss, author of Never Split the Difference. Following Chris led me to the terms “ELF” and “HALF,” created by his friend Joe Polish to describe two types of customers: ELF stands for easy, lucrative, and fun. Dealing with ELFs… See more ›
Why it’s Important to End on Schedule
Once upon a time I taught a course, in Zürich. It was a good day. I was enthusiastic about the material, and it felt like the students were, too. But as usual, I crammed so many stories into the session that, by the afternoon, I was running late. I wasn’t worried, though, because my courses… See more ›
The Sally–Anne Skill
The Sally–Anne test is a test that helps psychologists gauge a subject’s social cognitive development. Here’s the test: This is Sally. Sally has a basket. This is Anne. Anne has a box. Sally has a marble. She puts the marble into her basket. Sally goes out for a walk. Anne takes the marble out of… See more ›
