Over the last few months, I have tried to engage blog readers on LLNL: The Corporate Story and on LANL: The Rest of the Story either to protect themselves in their pension decisions or to present positive plans for the future of either Lab.
I have come to a strong conclusion.
The people who comment on these blogs are not interested in facts or in plans. They are interested in rants and attacks.
So, I am likely to go back to an older version of finding people, phone calls, word of mouth and emails.
This is too bad. There were people on line who are going to lose their future benefits, but they do not seem to be motivated to protect themselves, through me or through anyone else who has the skills to help them.
Oh, well.
More later.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Style
While the facts in this and in blogs such as Working at LANL are correct, the style can be improved, probably dramatically.
Over the next couple of days, I will see what I can do about the style.
A big thanks to a reader for getting me to think about the style more. The way that I was presenting the facts was clearly wrong.
Over the next couple of days, I will see what I can do about the style.
A big thanks to a reader for getting me to think about the style more. The way that I was presenting the facts was clearly wrong.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Where can I buy $1,000,000 for $600?
You can do your homework well on TCP1 and TCP2 and make a choice intelligently.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Aren't I smart?
The following is a rant. As such it will probably disappear later today.
At Los Alamos this story happened thousands of times. It is now happening at LLNL.
In the decision to choose TCP1 or TCP2, 90% of people chose TCP1 because it required less thought and because the 'government will protect me.' Of those who chose TCP2, at least half of them chose it because of the thought ' I do not like my management.'
The cost of making better decisions was about $600 and ten hours of a person's time. The average cost of not spending the time and money was $1,000,000 over ten years.
So the person saved ten hours and $600 and cost themselves $1,000,000. This works out to a cost of $100,000 an hour.
The people who saved the time and money are proud of themselves for being frugal.
Either they get paid a lot more an hour than I do or the answer to the question, "Aren't I smart?"
is
NO.
The amazing thing to me is how hard it is to get people to understand that their decision was not so well thought out. I had to do a lot of work in psychology and sociology to realize that, to the person, the appearance of self reliance is worth more than $100,000 an hour and that it is mostly people with such a world view who choose to stay at weapons labs.
Later.
At Los Alamos this story happened thousands of times. It is now happening at LLNL.
In the decision to choose TCP1 or TCP2, 90% of people chose TCP1 because it required less thought and because the 'government will protect me.' Of those who chose TCP2, at least half of them chose it because of the thought ' I do not like my management.'
The cost of making better decisions was about $600 and ten hours of a person's time. The average cost of not spending the time and money was $1,000,000 over ten years.
So the person saved ten hours and $600 and cost themselves $1,000,000. This works out to a cost of $100,000 an hour.
The people who saved the time and money are proud of themselves for being frugal.
Either they get paid a lot more an hour than I do or the answer to the question, "Aren't I smart?"
is
NO.
The amazing thing to me is how hard it is to get people to understand that their decision was not so well thought out. I had to do a lot of work in psychology and sociology to realize that, to the person, the appearance of self reliance is worth more than $100,000 an hour and that it is mostly people with such a world view who choose to stay at weapons labs.
Later.
Calculators
There are a couple of calculators for TCP-1 and TCP-2 decisions.
I have these calculators. I have talked with authors of these calculators. As it says in the notes for these calculators, the calculators are toys and not designed to support hundred thousand dollar decisions.
A number of factors and risks have been left out of these calculators. Including the factors and risks, changes the answers for most people.
There are also calculators on line at Fidelity etc. These calculators are designed to increase the sale of Fidelity's mutual funds. The sale of these funds pays for the calculators. The average real cost to a person of using Fidelity's calculators is a few thousand dollars a year (in commissions from buying the funds),
Fidelity's calculators do not include the subtleties of LANL or LLNL. Fidelity's (and other calculators for financial companies) are aimed at the mass market. The mass market is different than the market in weapons towns.
I have battle tested calculators that are focused on TCP1 and TCP2 and that include all of the subtleties. These calculators are
I have these calculators. I have talked with authors of these calculators. As it says in the notes for these calculators, the calculators are toys and not designed to support hundred thousand dollar decisions.
A number of factors and risks have been left out of these calculators. Including the factors and risks, changes the answers for most people.
There are also calculators on line at Fidelity etc. These calculators are designed to increase the sale of Fidelity's mutual funds. The sale of these funds pays for the calculators. The average real cost to a person of using Fidelity's calculators is a few thousand dollars a year (in commissions from buying the funds),
Fidelity's calculators do not include the subtleties of LANL or LLNL. Fidelity's (and other calculators for financial companies) are aimed at the mass market. The mass market is different than the market in weapons towns.
I have battle tested calculators that are focused on TCP1 and TCP2 and that include all of the subtleties. These calculators are
Monday, July 16, 2007
Details, details, details
There are starting to be comments on the blog LLNL:The Corporate Story about details of various pension accounts such as 403B.
Some of the comments are about the rules for moving money to and from this account. Some of the comments are about when money can be removed from this account and under what terms the money can be removed.
I have found that these rules are complex and vary from one type of account to another and, sometimes, from one person to another.
So I suggest that, before taking an action, a person should make sure that they are using the correct rules for each account as those rules apply to them.
At the moment, I do not plan to post all the rules here. There are pages and pages of these rules.
Good luck
Some of the comments are about the rules for moving money to and from this account. Some of the comments are about when money can be removed from this account and under what terms the money can be removed.
I have found that these rules are complex and vary from one type of account to another and, sometimes, from one person to another.
So I suggest that, before taking an action, a person should make sure that they are using the correct rules for each account as those rules apply to them.
At the moment, I do not plan to post all the rules here. There are pages and pages of these rules.
Good luck
Friday, July 13, 2007
new information
There should be more posts by Monday.
It has been a busy week.
I just put a couple of thoughts onto the comment section of LLNL:The Corporate Story under the post "Just when you thought you had a friend."
These comments essentially say that when you transfer from UC to LLNS under TCP-1 your years of service become years of service with LLNS and your years of service with UC are set to 0. If you go to TCP-2, your years of service with UC remain with UC and can be added to if you do more work at a UC facility.
It has been a busy week.
I just put a couple of thoughts onto the comment section of LLNL:The Corporate Story under the post "Just when you thought you had a friend."
These comments essentially say that when you transfer from UC to LLNS under TCP-1 your years of service become years of service with LLNS and your years of service with UC are set to 0. If you go to TCP-2, your years of service with UC remain with UC and can be added to if you do more work at a UC facility.
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