What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Just spent a week with my folks at their lodge in the Trinity alps, sitting on the deck staring at a gorgeous view, reading and playing chess.

One of the books I read was Project Management For The 21st Centry - Greg John recommended it to me - at first I didn't like it: it talked about how you need to synchronize your project with your company culture, and I had no idea what the hell it was talking about, and I totally disagree with this sentence: "Find average people who are motivated," it said. Because - get this - if you have all of your company's superstars on your team, management will expect more from you. But then I started to really like it: the book is dense, for one thing. They usually only devote a few paragraphs to any given idea - which means there's hundreds of ideas in there. Unfortunately, I was reading Greg's copy, so now I have to buy my own and read it again so I can highlight the ideas I want to try. (And cross out that particular line that offended me.) Also, near the end of the book, they actually do explain what the hell they mean by company culture, and now I grok it, and the idea is not that far out there. One great piece of advice: do not tell people you want to change their culture - you have to be more subtle than that if company or team culture is getting in the way of your project. Don't call it a "cultural change" - call it a "new approach."

The other book I read was The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay: this is a book I saw Greg John reading but I'm not sure if he ever officially recommended it to me. Well, he should have. I haven't enjoyed a novel this much since I read Galatea 2.2 - just turning the page was a pleasure. I read it straight through in two days. It's about comic books, Jews, World War II, and homosexuals...more or less in that order. The guy who wrote it was also one of the guys who worked on the Spider-Man 2 screenplay...he knows his shit.

As far as chess goes, I managed to get my rating up to about 1300 on ICC months ago, and I haven't been able to get it any further. I have plateaued. The frustrating thing is I'm reading lots of books and playing training programs and doing chess puzzles, and just not getting better. I'm like that guy who studies really hard and still gets Cs. Kind of depressing.

Had my first Movielens disaster today. Movielens said I'd give *Garden State* 4 stars - it's worth more like 2.5, IMO. Maybe they just don't have enough data yet - which means Movielens is going to be typically unreliable with new releases. (The people who see the new releases are probably going to be the people who wanted to see those new releases...)

Comments

[monty]

I used to play a lot of chess and got my rating to around the same level before plateauing also. After leaving my Queen en prise during a tournament game after coming out of the opening with a winning position, I stopped playing :/ I had played on and off for years, and studied, and was at the time getting tutored by a Spanish International Master online, but I realised I had hit the ceiling of my ability and would never be any better. It was humbling and depressing.

Chess is war, and it's a brutal game psychologically if all you ever do is lose. A quick tour of the game's big names, or the local chess club emphasises that pretty clearly. I decided it was best left to the odd casual game with friends.

If you're determined to continue with the mental flagellation however, I can recommend the following books: Guide to Good Chess by CJS Purdy (fundamentals, but excellent and worth rereading every so often), Simple Chess by Michael Stean (a study of positional chess, and an absolute gem), and My System by Aron Nimzowitsch (a classic). Of course there are many others, including any games by Bobby Fischer and Mikhail Tal (two of my favourite players), but those are immediately useful.

Good luck, and I hope you do better than I did ;)

[rich]

Didn't _Kavalier and Clay_ win the Pulitzer Prize? Well, I guess it's neat that a book about comic books can win. What's next, I wonder? A movie about Wizards and Elves winning the oh.

[Jeffool]

Indeed it did, Rich. Michael Chabon is the man.

Sucks that Garden State wasn't your favorite though. I'm going to need to see it soon. I'm a huge fan of Scrubs and am curious to see what Braff can pull off.

Oh, and if we're making recommendations and any of you enjoy comics, I suggest Image comics' recent anthology, Flight. As I'm in Florida (and currently have no electricity, thank you Charley, ) I'm catching up on my reading from the ComicCon. Between this and Derek Kirk Kim? I love comics again.