A quiet July

July 2022 seems quiet. Over the past few years, I have had the good fortune to get out of Dodge and have a somewhat adventurous trip, often with my grandsons. Yes, I was biking in Europe in early June, but the summer is dragging on…

About this time last year, I was recovering from the ten day hike with grandson Miles in New Mexico’s Philmont Boy Scout Ranch. Previous summers, I may have been recovering from hikes in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and the Grand Canyon or from canoeing trips to the Quetico Boundary Waters. I’ve had biking and cruising trips with my friend Heidi in recent Julys. Despite the pandemic, I’ve traveled. 

• Hiking the Philmont Boy Scout Ranch, 2021
• Biking and hiking the Iron Range, 2020
• Alaska Cruise, 2019
• Rocky Mountain hiking, 2018
• Biking in the Czech Republic, 2017
• Grand Canyon Hiking, 2016
• Quetico Canoe Trip, 2015

Trips this July have been short and sweet. Local hikes and bike rides, trips to Iowa to see my mom, and an overnight in Winona to see a play. All good, but not exactly “big.” 

On retirement I purposely downsized so I have the funds to travel. My small townhouse costs less than $600 a month to live in, including HOA fees, taxes, insurance, and utilities. I have no boat, no motorcycle, a smallish car, no expensive hobbies. I eat modestly and avoid pricey restaurants.When I choose big trips, I keep an eye on their cost as well. 

I am sure next July I will have figured out an adventure for which I will need to train. (Planning a possible backpacking trip to Yosemite if it hasn’t burnt down.) A big advantage of challenging trips like backpacking trips is the incentive to get and stay in shape. It feels weird not to be worried that I may not be able to complete a “vacation.”

Yeah, it’s a first world problem, I know. But it’s just not life without a few problems.

A numeracy test

I like to brag.

• I tell kids that I graduated in the upper 90% of my high school class.
• I tell my elderly clients to whom I give rides that I bring back over 80% of my passengers alive.
• I tell blog readers that I am among the top 5% of innumerate writers in the world.

It is sad how many folks fail to chuckle when they hear these statements. 

I’ve long ranted about the need for increased attention to numeracy - the ability to use, interpret and communicate mathematical information to solve real-world problems.*

A critical component of numeracy for me is the ability to put numbers in context. A somewhat recent example is when I visited a cardiologist who prescribed a medication that would have cost me about $600 a month for the rest of my life. Its purpose was to lower my chances of having a heart attack or stroke.

“By how much would it lower the chance?” I asked.

“By 50%,” she exclaimed.

“And what are my current chances of a heart attack or stroke?”

“About 2%,” she admitted.

“So I am paying $600 for the rest of my life to have my chance of a heart attack really lowered by 1%.”

I didn’t have the prescription filled. I’m still alive and kicking two years later and with $14,400 more in my health savings account for more important costs when needed.

I believe in data. I like statistically verified conclusions. But I always try to look at the context and put numbers in their place. 

Is it worth paying ten times the cost for two times the value?

Past rants:

•  If they let me design the math curriculum
• Applied Math
• Do the Math
• Numeracy, Not Math - a Rant
• Factfullness - A Must Read

Why I was successful as a tech director

In a recent Facebook post, David Warlick wrote:

Many years ago, during graduation season, before mass shootings, culture wars, and a pandemic filled the news, there were several stories about how tech firms were starting to hire liberal arts graduates over those with new technical degrees. 

 They found that it was easier to teach coding and other technical skills to English and history majors than it was to teach communication skills to techies. I talked with a number of school district directors of technology who said that their technical staff with humanities backgrounds were not only better communicators, but also more innovative in their problem solving and better at collaborating in teams.

An important part of being a successful scientist, mathematician or engineer, is knowing what’s worth studying, computing, or building.

When I tell strangers that I retired after serving 28 years as a school technology director, they often comment that I must know a lot about computers and the Internet and smartphones and such. Even more frightening, they may ask me to help with a technology problem they are currently having.

I quickly explain that I lasted in my technology leadership position for as long as I did, not because I knew a lot about tech, but because I could work well with people who did. Unless the problem can be solved by powering down and back up again, I’m not much help.

In a column I wrote for ASCD, now nearly 10 years old, I reflected on changes that were already occurring in my field:

Tech leadership skills are moving

• From configuring networks and local servers to mediating contracts for cloud-based and contracted services.

• From supervising technicians to evaluating outsourced work and setting up effective help-desk processes.

• From writing technology plans to working interdepartmentally with curriculum, staff-development, public relations, assessment, and strategic-planning leaders.

• From providing technology devices to staff and students to providing access to school network resources accessible with personal devices.

• From writing policies that dictate behaviors and ban activities to writing guidelines and curriculums that encourage safe and responsible use.

• From knowing about the how to understanding the why of a new technology in education.

• From preserving the status quo to implementing new technology applications and best practices.

Each of the changes reinforces Warlick’s statement that communication skills are essential for technology workers. 

Some time ago, I read that IT departments are often underfunded because those who run them cannot convincingly communicate to upper management why such funding is necessary in terms they can understand. In the same column quoted above, I explained:

Even though I couldn't install a router if my life depended on it, I can describe in plain English things like routers, packet shapers, firewalls, deployment servers, thin clients, Active Directory, DaaS, WAPs, and a whole host of TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms)—what they are, what they do, why they are important, and what specs to think about when considering them. I read continually and broadly in many areas of technology. But I depend on my IT staff, especially my patient network manager, to teach me and help me make good collaborative decisions.

I guess my English degree paid off. Hire those humanities majors!