thatgirlisfunny.com

Adventures in Living a Healthy, Juicy Life

by Cheryl Ragsdale

My Pen Won’t Work!

Case 1 – Clarity:

When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that pens wouldn’t work at zero gravity (ink won’t flow down to the writing surface). To solve this problem, it took them one decade and $12 million. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.

What did the Russians do?

They used a pencil…

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Continuing on with our journey through my “51 Must-Know Habits for Staying Young – from the Inside Out“, let’s tackle this one next:

Stay Young Habit #43

Be gentle with others. Allow other people to make mistakes and to learn from their experience.

I’m not suggesting that NASA made a mistake. They ended up with a pen James Bond, Secret Agent 007, would love.

When we think of our own situations that need resolving, we usually want a more timely – and less expensive solution. This story illustrates the differences in how people approach problems. People who have lots of money, throw money at problems – buying  a solution. When less money is available, we tend to make do with what we’ve got – making use of materials we have on hand.

Let’s look at another situation…

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The Empty Soap Box

Case 2 – Wisdom:

One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was the case of the empty soap box which happened in one of Japan ‘s biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soap box that was empty.

Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department.

For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soap boxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast, and they spent a large sum of money to do so.

When a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, he did not get into complications of X-rays, etc., but instead came up with another solution.

He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on and as each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes off the line.

Moral of the story:

1. Devise the simplest possible solution that solves the problem.

2. When you’re buying soap, if the box feels empty, choose a different one.

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The Thug on the Berlin Train

Case 3 – Courage:

Nothing ever happens the same way twice. For instance, if I had been the woman on the train, there’s no way I would have continued sitting down. No way. I would have stood up or else launched a double-leg take-down from a seated position. But, before that happened, I would have sent a message. My body language and facial expression would have become more defensive.  That’s how I’ve been trained to respond. For that reason, thugs on trains would probably never choose someone like me.

I really admire the quick thinking that led to the simple solution. No one was injured. No real harm done. One man ends up a hero, the other looks stupid in front of his friends.

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Don’t Be Wishy-Washy!

Corinne Edwards in a recent blog post entitled “SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR – Will you report it?” raised an interesting question.  If you overheard something that caused you concern, what would you do?

A few weeks before my graduation from high school, I joined my friend, Jean, to eat lunch with some kids I didn’t normally eat lunch with. One of the boys started bragging about calling in a bomb scare. My ears perked up.

Someone had been calling in bomb scares all year and hadn’t been caught yet. Our school was located on an American military base in Germany. Bomb scares were taken seriously. Baader-Meinhof, a terrorist group, were active in the area.

The bomb scares were disruptive – exams were interrupted and had to be re-taken – with harder questions inserted. Yearbook snapshots were ruined because we had to leave the darkroom immediately – no messing around, no questions asked.  The bomb scares were pissing us off.

Something to know about me is that I never get away with anything. I always got caught whenever I got up to mischief with my friends.  ALWAYS. So much so, my friends would leave me out because when I got caught, they were found guilty by association.

So, I was unperturbed, when I got called to the Principal’s office a day after lunch with Jean’s friends. I felt comfortable with him. He knew me as a good student.  I hadn’t done anything wrong that I could think of. I was heading towards graduation, keeping my nose clean.

He sat opposite me and looked at me very intently. He told me that someone had overheard the bomb scare conversation and gave my name as one of the people sitting at the table.

My heart nearly stopped.

When “military brats ” get in trouble in schools on military bases, it reflects poorly on our parents. “If you can’t handle your children, how are you going to handle commanding a squadron?”

He had the names of everyone at the table. He gave me an opportunity to explain what happened. He told me he would be asking everyone the same question. Classic prisoner’s dilemma (see Wikipedia explanation below).

He outlined possible punishments. Before he got finished with his list, I was “singing like a canary”.  The only person I knew at the table was my friend, Jean. From my point of view, I owed allegiance to no one, but myself.

I later found out that Jean had taken an action that put her in the middle of the plot! Severe punishment followed for everyone involved. Nothing happened to me. I was innocent. I just happened to be there. Jean and I remained friends. She realized she did something stupid that had nothing to do with me.

Ever since, I’ve been haunted by his question to me. “Cheryl, you’re an honor student and well-known in this school. Why didn’t YOU say something to one of the teachers?”

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I responded to Corinne’s post with the following comment:

“Such a weird, strange and uncomfortable situation to find one’s self in. Here’s what I have to say and I will be blunt. I am a tattle-tale. I will tell in a heart-beat. Just like gangsters used to say in those old “film noir” movies, “I will sing like a canary.”

Moral of the story: don’t say weird shit around me.

I’ve learned the hard way that bullies like to keep things secret. As a matter of personal safety, I let the people around me know when something is off.

If you think about it, there are many ways to bring things to light without being found out. Works both ways, unfortunately. You can sink someone by inferring that something may be out of order about them.

Best thing to do is to:

(1) keep your eyes and ears open – be clear

(2) trust your gut – be wise

(3) have an action plan – be courageous

There are only two kinds of people in the world: those who act and those who don’t. Know which kind you are and you’ll never regret your choice.”

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All of us hope that when quick thinking is called for, we’ll know exactly what to do.  We hope that we’ll be heroes. In the video, one man sat still and the other man got up.  There’s no right answer. The same situation never happens twice.  It’s always easier to think what you would have done – or should have done – once the heat of the moment is past.  When you don’t have the luxury of time to think it through, how do you solve problems like this?

The Prisoner’s Dilemma

Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated both prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal. If one testifies (defects from the other) for the prosecution against the other and the other remains silent (cooperates with the other), the betrayer goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence. If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only six months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a five-year sentence. Each prisoner must choose to betray the other or to remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about the betrayal before the end of the investigation. How should the prisoners act?  – Wikipedia

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We love to hear from you! Please share your thoughts in the comment box on the right-hand side of this post.

case studies 1 & 2 were taken directly from the blog entitled “India on Rent”

photo credits: cartoonstock, man with head in sand, tattle tale button, altar boy cartoon

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