PlaysWithTrucks

Category: SignPosts

  • Études sur le Vin

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    by

    Scott Duvall
    in

    “In the fields of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind.”-Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) Today, innovators live in a “Eureka!” culture. They sell the story that ideas appear as visions out of thin air, just waiting for the chosen few to grab them and change the world. The reality of innovation is nothing like that at…

  • Don’t get eaten.

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    Scott Duvall
    in ,

    This one is an appropriation of a Chinese proverb, often translated as “Riding a Tiger is Difficult to Dismount.” The quote has a few interpretations and translations, and the way I read it, it’s a cold reminder that when doing something new, something risky, something novel, we have to stay vigilant until it’s done. That…

  • Simple but Effective

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    Scott Duvall
    in ,

    Simple messages are sometimes the most effective. If you get good at producing consistent results, the questions about what you’re doing go away. If you’re not there yet, focus on consistent. Consistent isn’t standard, it’s not identical, it’s not perfect. It’s just being able to do the same thing, over and over again. Once you…

  • Slow Down, Save Lives

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    Scott Duvall
    in ,

    This quote was a favorite safety message of an old mentor of mine. We used to have to publish a weekly safety message to all the drivers, and we often used that space to remind everyone to slow down. Somewhere along the way, he coined this phrase, and it stuck.

  • Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #208

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    Scott Duvall
    in ,

    First quoted by Grand Nagus Zek, this rule of acquisition is actually a solid leadership principle. Knowing when to ask the right question is a key trademark of successful leaders. Curiosity is what keeps us fresh, keeps us engaged, and keeps us learning. Curiosity also killed the Cat. Sometimes there are questions where it’s better…

  • The Power of Vision

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    Scott Duvall
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    Every year at the PFMI, I teach a class about data. It’s a scripted show honed over almost a decade’s worth of learning and experience of working with data. If a student walks out with anything, I want it to be this: Data analysis starts with questions, not data. You can take any data set…

  • Original Creation

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    Scott Duvall
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    Not every message that lands on the board is a direct quote, a few of them are original creations. There’s a limited amount of space and a fixed number of letters I can use to create a message, leading to shortened quotes or lyrics that are randomly pulled from the middle of a song. Other…

  • The master of the colloquialism

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    Scott Duvall
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    Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910) is considered the greatest humorist the US has ever produced. His work “The adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is considered a Great American Novel for capturing the essence of the American style. A key to Twain’s writings was his mastery of the local language, the colloquialisms and speech of…

  • This isn’t the rocket guy

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    Scott Duvall
    in ,

    He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch. -Jean Luc Godard (1930-2022) Godard was a pioneer of the French New Wave of cinema in the 1960’s, transforming movies by rejecting tradition and finding new ways of telling stories. The quote is a fun one for me. Whenever you’re…

  • Surprise Star Trek

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    Scott Duvall
    in ,

    This quote often gets mis-interpreted from Sun Tzu’s Art of War. The concepts of turning disadvantages into advantages is all over that treatise, and likely influenced the writers of Star Trek. Yeah, it’s another Star Trek Quote. Sorry. In “Loud as a Whisper”, from Season 2 of The Next Generation, a deaf negotiator joins the…