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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On Perfectionism
Once I asked one of my employees, an outstanding software developer named Dave, an interview question: “If I were to call your most recent manager, what would he identify as a fault in your work that I should look out for?” He smiled. I could tell the answer came to him immediately, but he took… See more ›
Messed-Up App of the Day: High School Event Tickets
A couple years ago, watching my daughter play volleyball cost $4. You needed cash to get in. You’d get a smile and maybe even a hug if you brought four one-dollar bills. Those were always in short supply because most people paid with a five, a ten, or a twenty. Now, cash doesn’t work anymore.… See more ›
My “Museum-Quality Aviation Replicas” Hobby
I started building plastic model airplanes when I was five years old. The first model I ever built was a little Ju-88 or something like it, that my Mom bought for me at the Foss Drug store in Golden, Colorado. I can remember cutting the parts off the sprues, probably with fingernail clippers, and gluing… See more ›
Messed-Up App of the Day: Embedded Toilet
I apologize. I know the photo is unsavory, but this toilet—this one in particular—has a lesson to teach us. Look real closely at the lid. Not the seat lid, but the tank lid, there at the top. That lid. Is caulked. To the wall. Not only that, it is cut into the wall. The caulk… See more ›
The Algorithm, Part 2
Last week, I posted about Elon Musk’s The Algorithm. I love its five steps, but I had to deal with some dissonance when I compared The Algorithm with my own Method R. Why, for example, is “question every requirement” the very first thing in Elon’s algorithm, but it’s not mentioned in my How to Make Things… See more ›
The Algorithm
Lately I’ve been listening to Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson on Everand. One particularly interesting topic to me is what Elon calls The Algorithm. It is the factory optimization method that he learned from running the factories at SpaceX and Tesla. I’d like to share my reaction to it. Here it is, The Algorithm: My… See more ›
Four Great Reasons to Go to a Conference
I think when most people try to justify going to a conference to their bosses, they usually hit on two justifications: the content, and the networking. Recently, I saw a quote from the first person ever to build a nuclear reactor: Never underestimate the joy people derive from hearing something they already know. —Enrico Fermi… See more ›
The Hulk Thing
Yesterday, I watched my daughter’s high school volleyball team win round three of their Texas class 6A state tournament. They played as well as I’ve ever seen them play. One girl in particular, our 6’3″ middle blocker, had an especially good match. There are lots of expressions for describing what I saw: she was playing out… See more ›
