"What do you do?"

A simple question that reveals how passionate someone is about their occupation. You meet someone at a gathering and ask them their name, and they enthusiastically (and almost immediately) reply. You ask them where they live, and you get a similar enthusiastic quick reply. Then, you ask them what they do, and you will see two kinds of people:

The first kind is the group of satisfied and successful professionals who exude the confidence and are enthusiastic about their profession. They reply with the same enthusiasm and quickness.

The second kind is the group of people who are not really excited about their occupation, and are just going along to make a living. These people will drone about what they do without any excitement or enthusiasm. These are the ones that need to look inside themselves, find what they are passionate about, and go after it.

Find an occupation that makes you proud. Find an occupation that makes you get up everyday looking forward to going to work.

I remember reading a resume writing book where the author said that we should fine tune our resumes until it is fit to be framed and hung on the wall. Same here. You need to find a profession that you are proud of proclaiming it and announcing it to the world.

Find your passion today and go after it.

Airplane seating

How many times have you boarded an airplane just to stand behind a bunch of people trying to cram their luggage into the overhead bins or waiting for others to give way so they can get into their window seat?  I have been in a lot of these situations and that is what got me thinking about how an airline can make this more efficient.

A plane on the ground is a plane not making money for the airline.  That is the reason why airlines try to turnaround their planes as fast as possible. 

Disembarking is simple and happens efficiently: passengers milling out of the plane starting from the front to the back, aisle to window.  It is boarding where all the confusion lies.  There are three predominant patterns used by most of the airlines: free seating, back to front and zone based seating.  United is the only airline that uses outside-in seating. 

Southwest uses free seating.  The main problem with this approach is that everyone wants to sit in the front of the plane (less engine noise, faster to disembark, less lateral movement, etc.).  Also, no one wants to sit in the middle seat.  This means people start filling the window and aisle seats from front to back.  The problems with this approach are that people have to wait in the beginning since others are holding up the line as they find their seats up front.  Later on, the process speeds up as people start moving backwards.  And, at the end, it slows down again when the middle seats get occupied.  One advantage is that there is never a situation where two people have to get up to let a passenger get to his/her window seat. 

Most of the other airlines seat from back to front in zones.  This causes packs of delays within the zones as people board in random order within the zones.  Add to this mix, the elite travelers who board prior to all others.  A lot of elite travelers prefer the aisle seat leading to more delays as the other seats are occupied. 

United's approach loads the windows first, followed by middle and then the aisles.  This would mean that there is no need for any passenger to get up once seated.  But, unfortunately, the elites mess this up too.  The elites board first and could be seated anywhere on the plane. 

We could come up with all kinds of sequences to make boarding as efficient as possible, but, still we will have issues with each of these approaches.  The main culprit being carry-on luggage.  Finding space for carry-on luggage is the biggest concern for all passengers, and hence the rush to board. 

In an Utopian world where passengers did not carry any luggage on them, boarding would be a cinch.  Any of the above approaches would work pretty well. 

One obvious answer is to eliminate carry-on luggage, especially the ones that fit in overhead bins.  Laptop bags, backpacks and purses that can fit under the seat and could be fine.  The big increase in carry-on luggage has happened since airlines started charging for checked-in baggage.  It would be interesting to see how this has increased the boarding time.  If it is significant, then, airlines could charge for carry-on luggage too.  This would bring us back to the good old days of no charge luggage.  Airlines can make more money from baggage fees, as well as increase the turnaround time. 

Another answer is to open all doors and load passengers from all of them.  Especially on the wide body jets with two aisles, opening doors on both sides will speed boarding incredibly.  For the smaller planes, opening doors in the front as well as the back would do the trick.  But, that is not really possible since all airports have only one jet bridge assigned to a gate.  A redesign of the gates and bridges would be very expensive. 

A few airlines are still experimenting with various strategies for boarding (alternate aisle and window, back to front, eliminate elite early boarding, etc.).  But, the airlines are knocking on the wrong door.  The boarding process is very well optimized.  It is the carry-on baggage issue that needs to be addressed by either eliminating overhead bins, or by reducing the carry-on luggage.  This would either mean charging for carry-on baggage or eliminating them completely.

It would be interesting to see if there has been an uptick in boarding times since baggage fees were instituted.  If there is, it makes sense to address this problem by focusing on the carry-on luggage.

Building Motobecane MTB 550HT

All these years, I have been walking into a LBS to buy my bikes.  This summer, I thought of buying a bike online and assembling it for my daughter.  Here is an account of how easy it was to assemble a Motobecane 550HT Mountain Bike. 

The 550HT is a bike with pretty decent components for the price.  It comes with an aluminum frame, Suntour XCT shocks, SRAM X4 derailleur as well as Tektro Draco hydraulic disc brakes.  I was against buying hydraulic disc brakes (didn't want to get into the bleeding routine), but after trying them out, convinced myself to get one.

The bike came in a box with not a lot of cushioning.  Luckily, nothing was broken or bent out of shape. 

The frame came with the rear wheel assembled with the crank and chainset in place.  The fork was also assembled.  Everything else was loose.  Almost everything needed some tightening and greasing.  The tools needed to assemble this bike are simple: a Phillips screw driver, metric Allen key set, 14mm spanner to tighten the pedals. 

Once the bike was assembled, it was time to tune it.  The derailleur needed some fine adjustments. The brakes needed adjustment since the pads were rubbing against the disc.  Luckily, I didn't have to bleed the brakes.  I bought a bleeding kit online, just in case.  The head needed tightening. 

Then came the tough part: wheel truing. 

Both the wheels had loose spokes and needed truing since they were off by more than a mm in at least one place.  Luckily, I found this site which made truing a simple task.  I inverted the bike and got to work with the spoke spanner I bought from REI.  BTW, the local REI mechanics were great in guiding me on what to lubricate and what not to touch. 

After all the final adjustments, it was time to take the bike for a spin. 

Overall, the bike is great for the money.  I am sure it won't withstand the punishment some of the extreme trails at Duthie hill park have to offer.  But, it holds up to my daughter's style of riding. 

Design for Assembly

Good designs are always simple.  They are so simple that you don't realize it if you don't think about it.  I recently bought a patio table from IKEA.  As always, IKEA does a great job in packaging and instructions.  It was a complex piece of furniture with collapsible leaves and a glass top.  But, it came with simple instructions, set of fasteners and the tools required.  How many manufacturers think of including the tools needed?

As soon as I unpack the fasteners I usually dump them all into a bowl to make sure I don't lose any.  BTW, what is wrong with including a couple extra screws and nuts with any item shipped?  Have you ever lost a screw or a nut and found yourself running to the local Home Depot to pick a spare.  It is the most frustrating experience.  You are so pissed that you want to return the piece of junk (after an hour of assembly labor, you discover that a bolt is missing), but you cannot, because it is half assembled and will not fit in your car anymore!  Morons.  If the BOM calls for 24 screws, throw in 25.  I know that in the small scheme of things, every piece matters to the bottom line, but in the big scheme of things, customer happiness trumps everything.

Back to the patio table.  Here I am with my bowl ready to pour over the fasteners.  I open the blister pack and tilt it into the bowl, but nothing falls.  I then notice that the clever engineers at IKEA have used a soft double sided glue strip on the packaging (see pic above) so that the washers and nuts stick to it until I pull them apart. What a clever idea.  The cardboard holds the fasteners for me until I need them.  These simple things are what count for immense customer satisfaction and pleasure.  This is what IKEA excels at.

Have you ever wondered why IKEA has the designer's name printed on every product?  In case you have not noticed, all products have the designer's name printed on the packaging.  It achieves two things:  for one, it honors the designer for the work they have done.  And, two, it makes a public statement about you.  Imagine the designer who created the chair which keeps falling apart.  "Inga, your chair is the worst chair I have ever sat on.  You are not fit to be a designer". On the other hand, imagine your pleasure when your fans call to tell you how great your designs are!

Every product I buy, every product I assemble, teaches me a lesson.  It is amazing to see companies like IKEA, Apple and others push the boundaries in customer convenience and satisfaction.  All other companies should follow their lead and design products that are convenient to assemble as well as use.

Why didn't I think of that?

You are in a public restroom and have diligently washed your hands with soap and water after taking care of business.  You are about to walk out and you notice this person walking out of a stall and directly heading for the door ahead of you.  He opens the door with his hand and walks off.

We have all been in this situation.  What do you do now? 

Some of us resort to shrugging our shoulders and walking out the door.  Some of us have used clever means (waiting for another person to open the door, or open the door with a piece of paper towel, etc.) to escape from the restroom without touching the door handle.  These situations always get me thinking about the problem at hand and try to solve it.  There are many ways to solving (preventing) this problem:
- Install door handles that spray anti-bac lotion upon grabbing them.  But, this may not go well with people who dislike anti-bac lotions.
- Install motion sensing doors so there is no need for door handles.
- Install push open (from inside) doors so you can push with your foot.

The prevention techniques are either expensive or not acceptable.  What do you do if you had a door that opens inside and cannot use anti-bac lotion, and are cash strapped?  The simplest solution is generally the best solution. 

That is exactly what I saw at the Delta lounge at DTW.  This solution takes away the assumption that doors are to be opened by hands.  The picture below illustrates how simple it is.  The first image shows the instructions (simple and no words), and the second image shows my foot opening the door.  There are no moving parts and hence no maintenance.  There is no need for electricity or any technology, thus further reducing maintenance costs.  The only maintenance required is regular cleaning.

Elegant and simple solutions like this are what we need.  Nowadays, there is so much technology readily available to us, we start over-thinking the solution.  This is a classic example of a simple solution to a simple problem.