I’d like to know what you think.

There were two schools of thought: one simple, one complex. The complex relied on timber frames, hundreds of feet of rope, intricate knots, more than a hundred laborers, and trigonometry. The simple relied on about a dozen people, some rope, a pile of sand, a few simple calculations, and patience.

The complex project was a frustrating, demoralizing failure.

The simple project worked. Beautifully.

Simple works.

1. Communication
• The most important criterion for a successful project is communicating effectively at every stage
• Effective communication is not just timely communication, you also need to consider
o Audience—who are you communicating with?
o Urgency—how important is this communication?
o Relevancy—who should know about it?
o Frequency—how often should they know?
2. Organization
• To ensure that you are communicating in a timely and effective manner you must be well-organized
• Task management is critical
o Maintain a task list and manage it daily
o Magage tasks against milestones and data
o Set priorities and reassess them frequently
• Create agendas for every meeting/training
o Assign action items with due dates to relevant participants
• Appraise time commitments as accurately as possible, and avoid overcomitting
o Don’t be afraid to delegate
3. Proactive Problem Resolution
• No project is perfect out of the box, so watch for problems to arise
• If you aware of the possibility of problems, you can often catch them before they become major issues
• The problems can be process or people driven, or both
• Seek consensus whenever possible, but don’t let the project suffer because of disruptive elements
4. Engagement
• Commit to the project both publicly and privately
• Be honest and open
• Admit mistakes and be forgiving of others’
• Stay positive!

• Firefox 3 (helper)
  • I love Firefox for its ease of use and customizability
  • Two great add-ons are Ad Block Plus and Tab Mix Plus (you’ll have to use the dev-build on FF3, but I’ve had no issues at all)
• Apple Mail (helper/stealer)
  • If I didn’t have MailTags this app wouldn’t be nearly so helpful, but with this add on installed, I can use Mail to manage projects very nicely
  • I’ve subscribed to too many digests right now and they’re overflowing my inboxes
• iCal (helper/stealer)
  • I interface with Google Calendar using Spanning Sync, which is bulletproof, so I have access to my calendar no matter where I am
  • I love the ability to create multiple, contextual calendars and subscribe to my Project Management webcals
  • I’m bummed that it struggles with invitations; having to retype them through the Mail Tags function wastes time
• NetNewsWire (STEALER)
  • I downloaded this to be a helper, then subscribed to a bazillion news feeds and personal blogs; now I just READ ALL DAY
  • If I could manage to manage my curiosity, this app would be great, since I get  RSS updates from my Project Management site
• On The Job (helper, could be improved, but that is apparently on the way!)
  • The current version is a nice little time tracker, but it does have it’s shortcomings so I’m excited to see the improvements
• Things (HELPER)
  • The BEST task manager I’ve used, bar none
  • The wireless sync between the iPhone app and the desktop app is MAGIC
• Quicksilver (HELPER)
  • I am one with my movements and therefore unconscious of them
  • I use this helper for about 50% of my desktop movements

These apps make my laptop infinitely more usable, which makes me moderately more productive. I think I might have to ditch NNW, though, if I ever want to get any real work done…

What combination of apps helps you be your most productive? Which one(s) suck the day away?

Do beautiful women have a harder time in the workplace than their less desirable counterparts?

Does a woman with a nice body but average face have it harder or easier than say a woman with an average body but nice face?

Do women with long hair make more money than women with short hair?

While wearing tight fitting apparel will certainly draw attention, do women who dress provocatively make more money?

So this is what I said:

Attractive people are hot

From what I’ve seen (and psychological studies will back this up), attractive people have a far easier time of it than unattractive people. We automatically assume they’re intelligent (blonds excepted), successful, and powerful. And then there’s the simple biology of desire. It sucks for ugly people but it’s the brutal truth.

But it can be taken too far. Dressing professionally will generate respect; dressing provocatively (read: slutty) will generate offers for sex.

Of course, if we know how our base desires and emotive presumptions drive our decision making process we can mitigate our responses and make more rational choices.

Yeah, right.

I’ve found that there is a directly proportional relationship between attractiveness and intelligence. To whit:

It’s a good thing I’m cute(ish).