The decisions about TCP1 and TCP 2 remind me of the college student's standard nightmare.
You have a final exam in a few minutes for a course you never signed up for. In this case, the course is advanced financial management for weapons scientists.
You have no acquaintances who have ever taken this course. The finance majors took average financial management for normal people but did not take this graduate level course that was never offered.
You however have to take the final in a few minutes. If you fail it, your future is ruined.
The test is scheduled for three hours.
If you had ever heard of this course, you would know that the test cannot be completed in less than six hours and that it is in German.
Welcome to TCP1 versus TCP2.
Do you want fries with that?
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
A matter of faith 2
On LLNL:The Corporate Story, I have read commenters saying that financial advise comes free at my bank.
If you have $100,000 in the bank and the expected rate of return is 8% but the bank gives you only 2% interest, where does the missing $6,000 go?
And you wondered how the bank could afford such a nice building and how your adviser could buy such a nice car.
Where I grew up, paying someone $6,000 a year to hold my own money was not considered free.
Actually, where I grew up Joey the Knife and Jimmy the Fish were more than happy to hold your money while you paid them to do it.
Just a thought.
If you have $100,000 in the bank and the expected rate of return is 8% but the bank gives you only 2% interest, where does the missing $6,000 go?
And you wondered how the bank could afford such a nice building and how your adviser could buy such a nice car.
Where I grew up, paying someone $6,000 a year to hold my own money was not considered free.
Actually, where I grew up Joey the Knife and Jimmy the Fish were more than happy to hold your money while you paid them to do it.
Just a thought.
A matter of faith
Many people at LANL and now at LLNL have the same belief.
They believe, in spite of the evidence, that the 'government will protect me and my pension.'
Do you believe this?
They believe, in spite of the evidence, that the 'government will protect me and my pension.'
Do you believe this?
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Hopeless
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.
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.
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.
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