October 2018 Out of Office (OOO)

I like to make feisty Out of Office (OOO) messages for my company people. I mean, who wants to read: "Hello, I am currently out of the office I will return on _____."

BORING.

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Hello,

Nope, I didn’t respond THAT fast. I’m out of office and this is my Ze Out Of Office Form (ZOOM) where assume to know what you are asking and provide answers.

When are you back?

Yes, I have foster kittens

No, uhh when-

Yes, you can donate to the Pet Adoption and Lifecare Society (PALS) (https://www.adoptapet.com/pals) to defer the cost of food and medical.

Where you see yourself in 5 years?

Listening would defiantly be one of my biggest weaknesses.

Anyhow, I will be answering you emails and Jabbers Wednesday, October 11, 2018.

Cheers my peers,
Maddie
Training and Talent Development

Mad Digest: Mark Rober's Beat Any Escape Room

BEAT ANY ESCAPE ROOM - 10 proven tricks and tips

I recently got a Roku (not to be confused with Róka, my comfort animal) so rabbit-holes of content consumption (not to be confused with TB) are emerging in my life.

I actually came across this YouTube gem and it reminded me of the way my industry throws people together and demands excellence. Project are their own Escape Rooms, right? 

So, how does a diverse (or friendly) group quickly come together, solve problems and find success? Or just hack one of dem ‘Scape Rooms?

Here is the content I reviewed:

BEAT ANY ESCAPE ROOM: 10 proven tricks and tips

By Mark Rober

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwgaTYOx0RI&feature

Watch this quick 12min clip for full, glorious details on how you can beat any Escape Room (maybe) and you might be surprised how much these applies to what we do here.

Me Writing A Lot of Junk About A 12min YouTube You Could Just Watch

The host, Mark Rober, talks with Scott Nicholson who is a Professor of Game Design and Development at Wilfrid Laurier University in Brantford, Ontario about designing games that change the world. And also how to hack games.

And…be good at. Stuff.

Mark has implemented Scott’s guidance on how to break records when it comes to solving Escape Rooms.

Our focus here is actually making games to change the world. So a lot of the games we make here have some sort of learning outcome. Our goal is to help get people to learn stuff in a playful way - Scott Nicholson

Here are the 10 tips from the video about solving an Escape Room in record time:

Think simple

Remind yourself that the average person should be able to complete the room in one hour in a well-designed room.

Search 

The first thing you should do is search for clues and items – nothing else. Keep it simple; you shouldn’t have to disassemble a light fixture or spend too much time trying to make a random item into a clue if it doesn’t match the theme.

Organize your stuff

As you find clues and items, put all the things in one location (no one should hold on to something). Group similar items together. This will make it easier to tell what you are missing and a bigger picture should start to emerge. Once you have used an item, put it in a discard pile so no one is confused while working on different puzzles.

Focus on stops

Focus on what is stopping you from moving forward to prevent getting overwhelmed. Address what is stopping forward progress. This will also prevent you from getting side-tracked by red herrings (the bane of ALL gamers).

Team roles

Poor communication is the number one reason teams fail. In Mark’s case, having a "project manager" alleviated the issue of poor communication. The PM does NOT get involved in puzzles, s/he is the person who will cycle through incoming information from the search and call out, "Everyone, we are looking for four numbers for a four digit code!" and the group will then look for that or "Everyone, that poster looks funny, take a look at that."

Lock types

You should be familiar with the most common locks and their inputs such as, combo locks, dial locks and key locks. Know some rare locks like directional locks so you don’t get tripped up by the device itself.

Code types

Know basic codes and cyphers such as Morse code, pigpen cipher or Caesar cipher. Know what they look like and what their keys look like is more important than memorizing solutions. For example, long-short patterns are probably Morse code and a list of numbers from 1-26, probably align with letters in the alphabet (1=a, 2=b, etc.)

Witten clues

When you see text, look for punctuation or grammatical errors as these are often codes within text. Even how the words are typeset on a page can give you clues as to how it can be used. Never take a note at face value. It’s a code.

Look for patterns

In Escape Rooms (or general puzzle games), few things are random. Keep a look out for like items, like colors or groupings of different things. Our brains are wired to find patterns, so, let your brain look for repeating shapes, colors, symbol styles as well as numbers and words.

Your guide is your friend
At the end of the day, you are supposed to have fun, so, if you are super frustrated, just ask for help. It’s better to take a hint and feel the excitement of escaping than being stuck on a task and leaving frustrated.

My policy for the number of people in an Escape Room is the same as the number of people in a tent – no matter what the package says, you’ll have a better time at half capacity - Scott Nicholson

Bonus Round

My takeaways having survived our project workshop errrr...personal Escape Room.

Think simple

Remind yourself that the average person should be able to complete the training and learn the stuff in the allowed time. Keep design simple. You can jazz stuff up later.

Search

Spend time getting items first, aka research. Research should be published, accessible and reviewed. Don’t go digging deeply into wormholes and unsupported or outdated materials. Also, don’t make your learner have to search too hard to find key learning points or apply the points to their next actions after training.

Organize your stuff

Put all your data in one place where everyone on the team can see and access it. This will keep everyone on the same page and prevent overwork or re-work. No one should uniquely hold information or notes. 

A single depository of information will help everyone moving faster and allow them ask better questions (stand on shoulders of giants, people). Once a resource has been fully consumed, move it to an archive/backup folder. Keep only active and truly important resources in the open.

Focus on stops

Look at immediate roadblocks, not the final deadline. Work step-by-step, not “what about in 50 years when ____.” 

Ask: What are the inputs we need to get us to the next phrase and only search for those answers. If you know you will have roadblocks, work backwards not only to give yourself time but to find the inputs to remove it.

Team roles

Assigning project based roles (not so much job title roles) means skills can be used to their greatest potential. 

Have one person who is not doing active work keep visibility to all tasks and activities in order to best direct the team toward the bigger picture. This allows others to get safely buried in the details of each task because someone is watching their back and processing their findings to move everyone forward.

Lock types

From a project standpoint, if you can’t open a lock, let someone else try before you start over. We all perform differently under pressure and pressure removes brain-power. 

Build your own mental catalog of project locks - understanding common lock types means you can make educated guesses: a three-combo lock means you only need 2 inputs, you can guess the last one. Or you might be able to access non-liner problem solving to arrive at resolution: If 1-2-3 combo is the same as 2-3-1 combo, why get bogged down in details of processes that come to the same place? Unlock that sucka.

Code types

Don’t worry about planning and figuring out every aspect of every potential problem and every little detail in order to solve every human, technical, weather, ergonomic, spiritual and task-related issue that possibly could happen. 

You only need to recognize when stuff is getting cryptic and then pull out solutions. Having a general view of what common problems might happen is a better than spending early stages of a project learning how to hot wire a car just in case you lose your keys.

Written clue

If someone is emailing you every hour about progress on a smoothly running project, what does that really mean? If different published sources are saying different things – what does that mean? Often times, requests or stories have deeper clues under the request. 

Look for things out of the ordinary when processing resources, take some extra time to focus on the meaning-type-details so you can, as they say, be more agile.

Look for patterns

You can’t see all the patterns, no matter how hard you stare. Actively cycle people through problems to get new perspectives or to find better ways of explaining something. Everyone has a different design bias and rather than bleaching these out, they should be used wisely. 

If we all have these things, might as well put them to good use.

Your guide is your friend

Have check-ins not only to provide information but to get your bearing and to ask questions. Maybe it seems embarrassing to ask your stakeholder something “basic” but why spend days of frustration trying to figure something out when your stakeholder might be able to hand it over to you? 

Who are your magic-wand people – make them work for you.

Stay humble, stay woke - Maddie

Fall Equinox

Hello friend,

I am currently unable to answer your email as I am on PTO doing important Equinox things like peeling apples and cleaning the graves as my grandmother taught me.

"Steveiemissymichaelerniesandymandy," she would yell, "Mandy, get out of the ditch and clean Pista's grave from all those leaves! And you remember, in this family we don't divorce our husbands we bury them!"

I don't know what killed Pista but he never made it out of the backyard.

If this is an emergency, you can hit up Joe or Topher. They are both snappy dressers with the brains to back it up.

If something is on fire, I suggest putting that fire out.

If you want to report my specific and measurable awesomeness, email my manager.

I'll be back on Tuesday.

Cheers my peers (and Mom),
Maddie

Copyright or Copywrong

Can you help me apply "©2018 Company, Inc." to all my content and slides and things?
I mean, I can. But, why?

Since the Copyright Act of 1976, all work is protected and the mark is no longer needed or required. It also bares no legal status.

It’s important to protect Company’s intellectual property! Without it, we are lost!
The Copyright Act of 1976 was designed to address intellectual property questions raised by new forms of communication that did not jive with the previous laws around content protection.

Since the passing of the Copyright Act of 1976 there is no reason to put a copyright on our materials because, at creation, it is granted full US protection.

Wait. What? We don’t need the ©?
Under section 102 of the Copyright Act of 1976, copyright protection automatically extends to

[any] original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.

The only limit of the Copyright Act of 1976 is around systems, processes and ideas. Copyright law protects the expression of facts and ideas, not the ideas and facts themselves. That’s patent level talk.

No, no. None of this makes sense and you’re not a lawyer. We need that copyright symbol and formal name of Company! Protection! This is how we have always done it!
Let’s review real fast: since the Copyright Act of 1976, all content created after 1978 (when the law went into effect), once viewable and consumable through any medium, is protected by US law from use (minus fair use). You can take legal action without any little knickknack symbol.

Since the Copyright Act of 1976, all work is protected. No razzle-dazzle needed.

Then why is it so important we put "© 2018 Company, Inc." on everything? 
Sometimes battles continue long after wars are over.

The confusion, I can only assume, stems from the last major law around US copyrighting. The Copyright Act of 1909 states only works that were original, published and had a copyright symbol were protected by federal law.

If this was not done, you had a narrow chance of protection at the state level, but, generally, no ability to claim someone had stolen your original work. Many people continue to abide by the 1909 law over the 1976 law for…I assume…cultural reasons or pagination reasons.

I might point out that we, as creators, already gave up the right to anything we create at Company through contract which negates any of this.
 
Wait, we are following an Act passed 117 years ago?
Yep.

Protection in the Copyright Act of 1909 was more about when a work becomes public domain and useable by the masses without payment or credit needed.

Back in the olde tyme days, we didn’t have as diverse mediums as we do now and in order to protect all creators, the Copyright Act of 1976 was passed to broaden the scope of federal statutory copyright protection.

That’s why if someone were to post a photo they took on the Internet, for example, you can’t just use it without payment or agreed on credit. I mean, you can, but, you can also run stop signs when no one is looking.

Since the Copyright Act of 1976, all work is protected.

Better safe than sorry. What if someone steals our work? We would need to take them to court and prove our rights with that mark that registers it as copyrighted!
It’s already prote-...ok ok…I see the rabbit hole we are going down.

Let’s assume someone stole your PowerPoint or an elearning and started using it and you got mad and wanted to legally pursue them for copyright infringement.

These materials, owned by Company, are not registered at the US Copyright Office. Because, well, one it’s protected by the Copyright Act of 1976…and…

We need to register!
So, the Copyright Act of 1976 still allows for registration of work through the US Copyright Office, which then has power to determine ownership and other stuff. To register, the Copyright Act of 1976 requires the work to be published for public sale and that published work has to be deposited within the US Copyright Office to accomplish registration.

According to section 411 of the Copyright Act of 1976, registration can be acquired by creator of the work in order to formally start infringement action against another. But, it’s not required.

Even IF registration is rejected or never acquired, infringement action can begin and continue - the court will just determine that the work is copyrightable first.

Again, since the Copyright Act of 1976, all work is protected.

Ok, ok, well. We still need to add "All Right Reserved." So everyone knows they have no rights to use the work.
"All Rights Reserve" is an old phrase that has no legal significance since Aug 2000.

Again, since the Copyright Act of 1976, all work is protected.
 
Fine. Well, for Company’s protection, we need to add "Proprietary and Confidential" because we can take THAT to court.
The "Proprietary and Confidential" statement has two parts divided by the word "and."

"Confidential" has no legal significance. You can’t say something is confidential and then go after someone who shares the work. My diary had "top secret" on it and I was unable to peruse legal actions against anyone who read it without authorization…I’m kidding, no one cared about my diary.

Confidential information is protected only through contracts and non-disclosures agreements because for anything to be legally binding all parties need to agree to the terms. Without a non-disclosure agreement (consent, if you will) the word "Confidential" is only an alert to the person who has access to the content that someone else deems it confidential.

"Proprietary" indicates the information is unique and original to the industry or entity. It would be a client list or the blueprints for a working time machine. It means that the content is unique and …uhh..yep. That’s all that word means. It’s not legal protection.

Again, since the Copyright Act of 1976, all work is protected.

Do I need to update my copyright every year?
…I was born in 1980, so…I never have…Ok, the battle rages on.

When you see multiply copyright dates on a work, it normally indicates that significant updates or corrections to the content has been made while still falling in the context of the original work. If I wrote a book in 1901 on each of the US Presidents, you might see a copyright update every four years because new content is being added after each election. But, I mean, by 1929 or 1957 it would be public domain anyway…soo…I mean…no

Again, since the Copyright Act of 1976, all work is protected.

Ok, so, no © is needed. Ok. I get it. We are totally protected.
Well, only in the United States.

Copyright is not subjected to international regulations so there is nothing that legally protects content from being used outside of the US regardless of any symbols of actions taken in this country.

Gorgeous

Stop calling me "gorgeous"

Because when you say "you're gorgeous," you mean you expect me to do whatever you want and I should happily exceed your expectations until you are done with me and allow me to disappear as silently as smoke into the night.

Because when you say "you're gorgeous," it means the choices I am excited about are shameful because my happiness is not as important as realizing being gorgeous means I owe something to the world around me that is driven by society, not my own mind or heart.

Because when you say "you're gorgeous," you think it means you are entitled to my undivided attention and body. You say it not as a compliment but as a claim on my person.

When I tell you "I know" or "I'm not interested," in a second, I will turn from "gorgeous" to a slut, a whore, a cocky bitch, bad decision maker and a cum dumpster. I will change from an angel to a woman fraught with drama and too into myself and too negative to be worthy of your attention or life - both which you view as you property to deal with and equal.

Because, when you said "you're gorgeous"...you thought that was just the fee for violating my boundaries and you want a refund when you don't get what you want.

Stop calling me "gorgeous."

PICC-versary

June 14, 2007

I didn't want to be here. I didn't want to to be late because I might have a clot that could kill me. I didn't want to be this sick because I survived the two weeks of oral medication before the PICC install. I didn't want to know. I didn't want to live. I didn't want to be this.

I was in shock. The air around me was fragile as thin glass.

I knew how to act. I knew how to be. I knew how to mask this. I knew how to make this ok for everyone.

This was the last time my smile looked like that. The nerve damage from the claimed my face in such slight and profound ways...

It has been 11 years since this day which started a 5 year regiment of treatment that torn my guts, tricked my mind and damaged my heart.

I'm still trying to make this ok for others. I have the words to say "it was nothing" or "it's ok"

...but everything in my soul was torn from me - and that is not ok.

What I most hate is when people tell me I'm a fighter or warrior when I manage to tell them what happened to me. I hate it. I hate that in those words, people articulate or assume or communicate or think or feel - that me being alive was a proactive choice I made. There is no choice in sickness, there is no battle - as infection tore through my body, there was nothing I could do.

I hate that people use these words to throw responsibility back on the sick. That maybe if we just tried to not be sick a little harder, it would be better.

There is no control, there is no choice. Stop telling me I had a choice to live or die. To be healthy or sick. To be happy or sad.

I am alive and every time I feel happy to be alive, I remember that many others are not. I don't know why I am alive and they are not. I don't know what combination of things worked in my favor.

Today is my PICC-versary.

I Know, I Know...

I know, I haven't posted in a while.

I KNOW.

We'll get there, together. One day. Alone.