Off season

Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park

The photo above was taken yesterday afternoon in Glacier National Park in the middle of the afternoon. Note the lack of people and vehicles. It's off-season here in northern Montana. After speaking at the state teacher conference in Missoula on Thursday, the LWW and I are taking a couple days to visit this beautiful place.

I've always been a fan of visiting popular areas off-season. Fewer people, no lines, better rates for hotels, and just a calmer experience. Sure, plenty of things are closed. I may need to just live with the fact that I will never get to see the "Mysterious Montana House of Vortex Mystery." At least the scenery is still open, even if not all the roads are.

Perhaps there is some lesson to be drawn from this. Or maybe not.

Oh, this is how you tell you are getting old. The hotel in Missoula had Hooters and IHOP restaurants right next to it. It was the pumpkin pancakes that I got me excited. Sigh...

From Going to the Sun Road, Glacier National Park

Why we satisfice - 2

I am always amazed at the amount of time and anguish some people will devote to completing reports - especially those useless ones required by the state or a central office.

Here's how I look at them:

If there is money involved, I attempt to be as accurate as possible without agonizing. When ever possible, I figure conscientious estimates are enough. I mean, is somebody actually going to come in and recalculate the average age of your science section? Re-measure the square footage of your media center? Really care if you count a set of reference books as one title or three volumes? Sit and monitor the average number of students who visit the media center? I don't think so.

As my dad always said, "A job not worth doing is not worth doing well." Give a good guess and then use your time helping your kids or staff. The world will continue to revolve.

Why we satisfice

Satisficing (a portmanteau of "satisfy" and "suffice") is a decision-making strategy which attempts to meet criteria for adequacy, rather than to identify an optimal solution.Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisficing>

A common complaint about student researchers is that they "satisfice." They stop after finding the first possible answer to a question. I am guessing there is more to it than just laziness.

Consider this graph:

Is there a direct correlation between importance of the question to the researcher and the depth of research he/she is willing to do?

Maybe, just maybe, if we asked better questions, we'd get better researchers.

Ya think?

Tomorrow, the corollary with filing state reports.