The American Family 2024

Posted on November 7, 2024 by rilardi

Dear Friends and Family,

As you all are aware, Donald Trump won the 2024 election this past Tuesday. No matter who you voted for, please remember that we’re all in this together as Americans.

Our nation’s identity isn’t entirely on the right or the left; it’s somewhere in the center, a blend of values that include both conservative and progressive ideas. The political “spectrum” isn’t a simple left-right line; it’s more like a circle. Push too far to either extreme, and you eventually reach the same place: authoritarianism. Staying engaged with a balanced perspective helps us avoid that and protect our freedoms.

While some of us saw our candidate win, and others did not, one thing remains true: the American Republic is still standing strong and will continue to do so. Our founders set up a system that makes change happen deliberately and slowly, which means that, once rights are granted by Congress, they’re deeply embedded and very hard to reverse. If you fear we’re moving backwards, remember: these systems are designed to prevent any sweeping changes from happening overnight.

Looking back, I acknowledge, as I always have, that in January 2021, President Trump could have taken a more graceful approach to his loss. Yes, there was a riot at the Capitol, and it shouldn’t have happened—protesting is fine, but the unlawful associated activities were not acceptable. However, it wasn’t an “insurrection” as some media and politicians labeled it. Despite that day, there was a peaceful transfer of power, as there has been with every change in presidency over nearly 250 years. Trump left the White House without incident, and while his exit could have been more graceful, Biden took office at the proper date and time as always planned—without incident. I fully expect the same come January 2025, when Biden hands the keys to the Oval Office back to President Trump for his second and final term.

Take a look back at President Trump’s first term in 2016, and then at Biden’s in 2020. While there were shifts, they were modest overall, and most of the fears stirred up by the media didn’t come true. Today, if you look outside, life continues. There aren’t tanks rolling down the streets; our neighborhoods are calm, just as they were when Biden was elected in 2020.

If you’re disappointed because your candidate didn’t win, that’s okay. Some of the changes you may have hoped for might take longer, but we are still living in one of the freest nations in the world. Take pride in that, and let’s work together to keep moving forward—slowly but surely.

So let’s all take a deep breath and relax. Our country is built to endure, to stay strong, and to support us all.

God Bless The United States of America!

~Robert Ilardi

 

Posted in Personal, Philosophy, Politics, Robert, Society | Leave a comment

Nonna’s Eulogy

Posted on January 10, 2021 by rilardi

The Eulogy I gave at the Funeral of my Grandmother (Nonna in Italian) in January 2021:

So, when I was thinking of what to say today, I was faced with a choice to either share my memories of Nonna, or talk about who she was and how she lived her life. Then I thought that over the next few weeks, we will all be sharing our memories and stories about our Nonna, our Mother. So instead of doing that here, I want to give all of you an insight into the woman who was my second mother.

Nonna was a strong woman, stronger than most of you might realize, but I guarantee if you think about my words here today and then remember back to your own experiences with her you will understand what I mean.

Everyone knew Nonna as the strict, sometimes over the top, Italian grandmother and mother, the matriarch of our family, and I know all of you saw through the tough Italian Woman veneer to the loving person she really was.

Think back to everything she did over her lifetime with us. You might first think about how she was a master cook that ruled over the kitchen and cleaned the house 3 times a day while dinner was cooking, or how she would pray morning, noon, and night, but she was much more than a housewife and a woman of great faith.

We often think of Nonno first, as the person that keeps our family together, and that is true, but what is also true is that his marriage to Nonna was a partnership and they ran our family together. I don’t think Nonno alone could keep a family of us nuts sailing straight without his wife by his side. I don’t think there is a better example of the yin and yang, than Nonna and Nonno. Our family needed a woman like Nonna, I know I did.

In many ways Nonna ruled over our family with a tighter fist than Nonno, when she saw you not going to Church, or doing bad in School, or being lazy, she was the first person to tell you, you are going to hell, or you are a delinquent, or you are a bum. In fact, when I was a kid, she called me a bum every summer for not having a job since I was 8 years old.

Nonna never complained, about anything really. She was selfless when it came to her family. Whatever we needed, she would find a way, working with her husband to give it to us. She did so happily, she wanted to be the person behind the scenes making sure every Holiday, every life event went perfectly. And if you did something wrong to screw up, she would let you know, harshly, in front of everyone.

Nonna was fearless unless harm was going to come to her family, and she did everything in her power to make sure nothing ever did, she protected us and loved us all.

Today’s young women should learn from Nonna’s life as an example of how to be strong women. I think most problems we see in the world today, is because we have lost the ideal of the family. Family was the most important key to success throughout human history, and that is what each of us need to get back to. Success through the family, not of the self.

This was success and happiness to Nonna. Not the job she did, or the education she had, or how much money she had, but how she could create a warm, loving, and safe home for her family. In the end there were only two things she truly loved, her family and God.

This selflessness, this love of Nonna’s is what I will miss the most, and I just want to thank Nonna for the love and faith she gave to her family. Nonna, we love you; we miss you, and until we meet again, may you enjoy all the riches, wonders, and understanding of the universe, God gives to you in heaven.

~ Robert Ilardi

Posted in Personal, Robert, The Ilardi Family | Leave a comment

Building a PC – Part 0

Posted on August 28, 2020 by rilardi

The first step in building a PC is deciding what kind of computer you actually need. This is why I have labeled this as Part 0 (Zero) instead of Part 1, as it really is a pre-step in your Custom PC Build Project.

For this post we will talk about the following PC Build Types:

  • Budget PC
  • Basic Desktop
  • Workstation / Power User Desktop
  • Gaming PC
  • Home Server

The first type of of Custom PC Build is the “Budget PC”. It is a very basic PC that is mostly used as an Internet Browsing PC, although with the level of hardware available today even a Budget PC can do basic School (Primary School tasks should be fine, however some more advanced High School tasks might be slow to do) and Home office tasks and probably be OK to use as a “Work from Home” PC if your Internet is fast enough. It should be able to stream 1080p video but it would struggle to keep up with 4K videos and video conferences probably will look very fuzzy and choppy. Specs in 2020 for a Budget PC are not as bad as they were in the past. You are probably looking at a 4-core / 4-thread CPU (possibly a 2-core CPU, but they are getting more difficult to find, and really not worth the money anymore), and somewhere between 4GB and 8GB of RAM (a Store Bought Budget PC will probably have between 4GB and 6GB, but the cost of 6GB vs 8GB is so small a difference in a custom build even in the budget range you will probably opt for 8GB if you go for more than 4GB). You probably will only have 1 storage device so it probably will be a hard drive (probably between 1TB and 2TB) not an SSD, although you could get a 32GB – 128GB SSD for under $100 these days if you look, good enough to boot from, but again since we are talking about building a budget PC, lets assume SSD is off the table, but in the future could be a nice upgrade. A budget PC will definitely not have a discrete graphics card so you will have whatever Integrated Graphics comes with the CPU you buy.

The second type of Custom PC Build is the “Basic Desktop”. It is your everyday home PC that can be used to Browse the Internet, Watch Videos, Stream at 4K (if your Internet Connection Speed is fast enough), participate in Video Conference and calls, Edit Photos, and do basic School (both Primary and Secondary, and probably most basic college projects that don’t require any specialized software) and Home Office tasks like using Microsoft Office to edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations or to use as a “Work from Home” computer. It’s a relatively powerful computer, can be used for basic software development and some basic video editing, but you probably won’t do heavy video editing or play the latest games on this type of computer. It is one step above a “Budget PC Build”, but this kind of PC will definitely last you quite a bit longer as it should be able to keep up with the times better than a Budget PC. In 2020 a Basic Desktop will have between 8 to 16GB or RAM (with 16GB recommending by the Author), a SSD (between 256GB and 512GB) and possibly a second Hard Drive for additional storage (between 2TB and 4TB). The CPU will have between 4 and 8 cores and 8 to 16 threads (the author recommends at least 6-cores), and it may or may not have a discrete graphics card (if a discrete graphics card is used probably at previous generation GPU with 4GB to 8GB of VRAM).

The third type of Custom PC Build is the “Workstation” or “Power User Desktop”. It is a very powerful desktop computer for the home, that is on par or better than Workstations used in most large corporations. It can handle 3D CAD, heavy video editing and rendering, be used for advanced software development, and pretty much handle anything you can throw at it, including play most of the new games on the market. The biggest difference between a Workstation and a Gaming PC will be how much you spend on the graphics card (you are still going to get a relatively power graphics card for rendering and other GPU tasks, but it might not need to be the latest and greatest card on the market) and the “coolness” factor. The Workstation in 2020 will have a lot of RAM at least 32GB, multiple SSDs and secondary Hard Drives, at least 8-cores and 16-threads, plus a Graphics Card with at least 8GB of VRAM.

The fourth type of Custom PC Build is the Gaming PC. It is basically a workstation build but has the most powerful graphics card you can budget for and it will have the coolness factor added in. Most probably you will want to go for a Case with a Glass or Clear Plastic side and the cables, fans, and other parts will have multi-colored LEDs, some even have mini-LCDs integrated on the motherboard for effects. Water-Cooling will be used most probably, because gamers like to overclock their CPUs, RAM, and Graphics Cards. If you aren’t going to overclock, water-cooling is still typically used for gaming PCs for the coolness factor as the tubing and other components are usually translucent and lit up for effect, although if you aren’t going to overclock, water-cooling is not necessarily required, even basic overclocking can be achieved with passing cooling given enough fans and the right CPU Cooler (heatsink).

The fifth and final type of Custom PC Build is the Home Server. Here you want to get a Server level motherboard used for small businesses or an AMD Threadripper, and you want to spend more money RAM, CPU, and Storage, and not so much on the graphics. In 2020, we are talking about specs like a CPU with at least 16 Cores and 32 threads (although the author recommends a 32-core 64-thread CPU) and somewhere between 64GB and 256GB of RAM (the author recommends between 126GB and 256GB so you can run multiple VMs simultaneously). You will be running either Microsoft Windows Server (Microsoft offers a version called “Essentials” which is cheap enough and powerful enough for a Home setup) or you can run a Linux Server installation. With this type of hardware you can run a Hypervisor and run both Windows Server and a Linux Server simultaneously, again the reason for maxing out the RAM and giving it as many CPU cores you can afford. This kind of setup you want to consider multiple physical network cards one for each OS you will be running, a very good power supply, and top of the line fans, because it will be running 24/7 as your home server. I do not recommend water cooling for this same reason, I don’t trust water-cooling solution for 24/7 machines. You don’t want it leaking and destroying your server in the middle of the night.

The next parts in this blog series will discuss building a “Basic Desktop”, as this is the most common setup you will find in most people’s homes.

Posted in Branchburg, Technology | Leave a comment

Caesar Cipher in C

Posted on December 7, 2019 by rilardi

A simple C implementation of the Caesar Cipher. Supports full wrap around for Alpha Numerics. Does Modulus for shifts larger than 26 for Alphas and 10 for Digits.

Background on Caesar Cipher: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_cipher

/*
 Copyright 2019 Robert C. Ilardi

 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 You may obtain a copy of the License at

 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 limitations under the License.
*/

//To Compile: gcc CaesarCipher.c -o CaesarCipher

/*
 Usage: ./CaesarCipher [SHIFT] [MESSAGE]

 A nice generic Caesar Cipher C program I just wrote
 for the hell of it.

 Use negative numbers to reverse the shifting.
*/

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

typedef unsigned int bool;

const bool TRUE=1;
const bool FALSE=0;

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
	int shift, tmpShift;
	char *mesg;
	char *outputMesg;
	char ch;
	bool isAlpha, isUpper, isLower, isDigit;

	if (argc!=3)
	{
		fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s [SHIFT] [MESSAGE]\n", argv[0]);
		return EXIT_FAILURE;
	}
	
	shift=atoi(argv[1]);
	mesg=argv[2];

	printf("Shift Amount: %d\n", shift);
	printf("Message: %s\n", mesg);

	outputMesg = (char*)malloc(strlen(mesg)+1);

	for (int i=0; i<strlen(mesg); i++)
	{
		ch=mesg[i];
		isUpper = (ch >= 'A' && ch <='Z');
		isLower = (ch >= 'a' && ch <='z');
		isAlpha = ((ch >= 'A' && ch <='Z') || (ch >= 'a' && ch <='z'));
		isDigit = (ch >= '0' && ch <= '9');

		if (isAlpha)
		{
			if (shift > 0)
			{
				if (shift>26)
				{
					tmpShift=shift % 26;
				}
				else
				{
					tmpShift=shift;
				}

				if (isUpper && (ch + tmpShift) > 'Z')
				{
					ch = 'A' + ((tmpShift - ('Z' - ch)) - 1);
				}
				else if (isLower && (ch + tmpShift) > 'z')
				{
					ch = 'a' + ((tmpShift - ('z' - ch)) - 1);
				}
				else
				{
					ch += tmpShift;
				}
			}
			else if (shift < 0)
			{
				if (abs(shift)>26)
				{
					tmpShift=shift % 26;
				}
				else
				{
					tmpShift=shift;
				}

				if (isUpper && (ch + tmpShift) < 'A')
				{
					ch = 'Z' - (('A' - ch) + abs(tmpShift) - 1);
				}
				else if (isLower && (ch + tmpShift) < 'a')
				{
					ch = 'z' - (('a' - ch) + abs(tmpShift) - 1);
				}
				else
				{
					 ch += tmpShift;
				}
			}
		}
		else if (isDigit)
		{
			if (shift>0)
			{
				if (shift>10)
				{
					tmpShift=shift % 10;
				}
				else
				{
					tmpShift=shift;
				}

				if ((ch + tmpShift) > '9')
				{
					ch = '0' + ((tmpShift - ('9' - ch)) - 1);
				}
				else
				{
					ch += tmpShift;
				}
			}
			else if (shift<0)
			{
				if (abs(shift)>10)
				{
					tmpShift=shift % 10;
				}
				else
				{
					tmpShift=shift;
				}

				if ((ch + tmpShift) < '0')
				{
					ch = '9' - (('0' - ch) + abs(tmpShift) - 1);
				}
				else
				{
					ch += tmpShift;
				}
			}
		}

		outputMesg[i]=ch;
	}

	outputMesg[strlen(outputMesg)]='\0';

	printf("Output Message: %s\n", outputMesg);

	free(outputMesg);

	return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
Posted in Computer Fun Stuff, Development, Programming General, Security, Technology | Leave a comment

As a red blooded American Capitalist why read Karl Marx?

Posted on August 12, 2018 by rilardi

So some of you may be asking yourself why I have read Marx and why am I even willing to go see his statue while I’m in town in Berlin, the answer is simple: “Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.” – Sun Tzu; The Art of War. And yes Socialism in all its forms is my enemy. Why because socialism is the enemy of individual freedom by its very definition. And an enemy of freedom is also my enemy…

Know thy Enemy…

~Robert; Germany, July 2018

Posted in Philosophy, Politics, Society | Leave a comment

We Need An Internet First Amendment NOW!

Posted on August 6, 2018 by rilardi

Let’s get the Hashtag: #InternetFirstAmendment trending!

Today, Alex Jones’ InfoWars was removed from the social media platforms: Facebook, Spotify, YouTube, and Apple iTunes PodCasts. This is a major attack on the freedom of expression on today’s Internet.

You don’t need to like Alex Jone’s or agree with him, but he does have the right to his opinions and he should have the protected right to say what he wishes on the Internet.

It should be up to the consumer to “change the channel” if they don’t like what his brand of content says. We cannot give up our right to share ideas and read other people’s ideas to a handful of big tech firms. The Internet has become the new Public Forum, and therefore our speech and writing on the Internet needs to be protected by the First Amendment.

When I started creating content on the Internet back in 1994, I was in high school and was creating HTML pages by hand on a web hosting platform was known as GeoCities.

On Today’s Internet, users do not need to know how to code even a simple markup language like HTML, and instead can use “Social Media” tools like Facebook and Twitter, or post Videos to YouTube and other video hosting sites.

It has become easier than ever to use the Internet to share our ideas and for the most of us, at least in the Western world, the majority of our daily communications is now done on the Internet, and usually it is made via a couple of dozen web sites at most.

Internet Censorship is on the rise, and we need to put a stop to it once an for all.

I am a capitalist through and through, but more than that I’m an American and somewhat of a Constitutionalist, especially when it comes to our rights, like Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press.

I know the First Amendment is meant to protect speech in the public square, however the new public square are these Social Media sites.

So I’m asking everyone who believes in their own right to their ability to share your thoughts, your passions, and your opinions, to start making calls and writing to your Senators and your Representatives, at the Federal level, but also at the State less as well. Please ask them to work towards a bill and hopefully an Amendment that basically says if a Technology Company, Web Hosting Service, Domain Registrar, Social Media Platform, and Media Sharing Platform like YouTube and Apple’s iTunes, as well as Search Engines like Google and Bing, that if they want to continue to operate within the United States, they MUST respect the first amendment.

We aren’t talking about making private companies government owned, but just like any other telecommunications company like your Land Line Phone Company, Cellular Phone Company, your Cable Company, and Broadcast Radio and TV, among others, they need to be regulated to prevent them from removing anyone’s content.

Let it fall to the realm of the US Courts to determine if someone’s account violates an actual Law. This way everyone’s Due Process Rights are protected, and everyone’s rights to a fair and free Public Forum on the Internet are protected.

Level’s of Internet Censorship Slide:

 

 

Posted in Politics, Society, Technology | Leave a comment

Calculating the value of Phi aka the Golden Ratio in Perl

Posted on June 17, 2018 by rilardi

I was watching a video by 3blue1brown and decided to code up the Continued Fraction of “phi” aka “The Golden Ratio“. It’s pretty simple, it’s basically a recursive function (Here’s a link to the Mathematical Definition of a Recursion and the Programming Definition of Recursion) of 1 + 1/x. But you can code it in a loop. I did a quick Perl Script using an infinite loop. You first hit the golden ratio at 9 iterations, and at 11 iterations of the loop the value becomes metastable at a precision of 6. Here’s the script and output:

Perl Script to calculate Phi using the Continued Fraction (a function call in a loop here):

Standard Output paused at 21 iterations of the loop:

 

Posted in Science | Leave a comment

Planning on NOT having Social Security and Having Personal Savings

Posted on April 28, 2018 by rilardi

Disclaimer Notice:

  • None of this is financial advice, what is presented in this blog are simply observations, commentary on Social Security in the United States, and some basic math from the given data on Social Security taxes.
  • You can calculate your own projected savings using the Government’s own compound interest calculator here: https://www.investor.gov/additional-resources/free-financial-planning-tools/compound-interest-calculator
  • Remember to speak with a certified financial advisor or planner regarding your own personal savings, it’s worth the time.
  • Important: Any investment or savings is subject to market conditions and banking regulations and all investments come with risk of loss of principal including up to your entire principal amount invested.

Before we begin, bottom line: It’s probably best to have multiple sources of income during retirement, instead of planning just one, such as Social Security.

Should you depend on Social Security for your retirement? Well in my opinion, as most financial planners would tell you, no, not alone, you definitely need additional savings. Yes, I do know this is hard to do for most Americans. Also will Social Security even be there when you retire? Well that depends on when you are going to retire, and I also believe that it will exist in some form for some time to come. If there’s ever going to be an end of Social Security it has to be wind down appropriately otherwise the Congress and President who preside over that time would be kicked out of office quicker than you can blink an eye.

Here’s how I imagine a process to wind down Social Security would go:

  1. Most likely those currently receiving Social Security would continue to do so for the reminder of their life.
  2. Those closely approaching retirement age and who are eligible to receive social security would probably receive their benefits from the program.
  3. Some cut off birth year would probably be set given those people ample time to participate in some other replacement plan or other independent retirement and savings plan. Say the bill to wind down Social Security would set some birth year where anyone who has at least 20 years or more before retirement will be excluded from receiving Social Security.
  4. Those who have at least 20 years or more left before retirement and who have paid into the Social Security system would receive some type of one time Lump Sum payment to be reinvested in an IRA or their 401Ks some similar retirement accounts.
  5. Social Security Tax would end however the American people who are still working would still be on the hook  via normal income tax for paying current retirees and those near retirement (less than the 20 year mark mentioned above) via debt issued by the Federal Government to continue to pay for those peoples’ Social Security benefits.
  6. 401K and other retirement pre-tax retirement savings limits would probably be increased considerable by the same bill that winds down Social Security.

Quick Facts:

  • As of 2018 Max Social Security Tax is $7960.80 / year or $663.40 a month.
  • That is based on Social Security Tax of 7.3% capped to $128,400 of gross income.
  • If you just save that amount over 30 Years it’s $238,824 in principal (savings without interest).
  • If you can get an average of 5% return (we are picking 5% out of thin air just to run the Compound Interest Calculator on Investor.gov. You need to speak with a financial advisor and work with them to figure out what investments or savings plans work for your individual situation and risk appetite. Remember Interest is not guaranteed, you can get 0% return or even negative, potentially losing your entire savings, everything depends on Market Conditions, Banking Regulations and your individual choices.) year over year over that 30 year period, starting with ZERO in your retirement account contributing $663.40 a month getting compound interest annually you will have: $528,906.38 for retirement.
  • For more Return on Investment interest percentage numbers you can use that are realistic when playing with the Investor.gov’s calculator, you can Google: “what is the average return on 401k”
  • Since all retirement income calculators use 20 years of retirement, if you have a savings of $528,906.38 for retirement that would give you a yearly income in retirement of $26,445.32 / year. This doesn’t include continued interest on your remaining savings each year while you are retired.
  • The maximum social security benefit as of 2018 is $2,788 / month or $33,456, however the average monthly payout is $1,372 or $16,464 / year.
  • Our own savings plan listed above yielding a savings of $528,906.28 in total savings is slightly above the mean of those two numbers ($24,960). So you are doing much better than the average Social Security recipient but you are getting  less than the maximum benefit.
Posted in Politics | Leave a comment

Updated Recipe for Success Pie

Posted on April 8, 2018 by rilardi

So about 6 years ago, during my Year-End Reviews of my Employees, I came up with this concept which I called “The Recipe for Success Pie.” It can really be shortened to “Recipe for Success” (please see the original “recipe” blog article here: “Original” Recipe for Success Pie), but since I planned to visualize it as a Pie Chart, I added the Pie bit to the title.  After reflecting on the year end review and preparing for helping my employees set their goals for the upcoming year, I started to put down some ideas into an Excel spreadsheet and assign percentages to each. Each item was called a Success Factor and then I assigned each Success Factor with my opinion on how much that factor added to the success of an individual within the domain of Corporate America anyway.

I thought this Pie Chart could be of great help to answering one of the most difficult set of questions faced by Managers or Employers from their Employees; that is the questions around “Advancement”.

It is also extremely useful for Job Seekers as well.

Specifically back 6 years ago, I planned on using this Pie Chart when an Employee had questions around Advancement, either for Promotions or Compensation. Also I wanted to use this for more junior employees that I felt had the potential for Advancement up the corporate ladder.

Again it is also something which I could refer to when someone, such as a Student or other person coming to me seeking advice around how to land jobs and climb the ladder in Corporate America.

When you see the Pie Chart below in this post, please don’t pay too much attention to the *exact* percentage values, they are approximation based on my field in industry and they are there simply to give the slices of the pie an approximated portion of what I personally consider the important factors to success. The actual values should not be considered exact in any way, but just as the actual recipe for success is something that is more of an Art than a Science, and therefore even the title of this post is technically incorrect, I think seeing the portion of the pie and how they relate to each other in terms of their size is more accurate of a representation than the actual numbers. I know this might seem confusing at first, but I assure you once you see the graph it will make more sense to you.

So what are the Factors of Success? From my personal experience, and yes these factors may vary slightly from person to person and industry to industry; if you ask a successful person what made them successful, they may give you a slightly different “recipe”, but I feel in some underlining way, most if not all of these factors have played a role in the success of most people.

Recipe of Success (The Ingredients or Factors):

Note: Lowest Order of Importance is most important; 1 being the most important. There is a 0, however that’s really undefined; you’ll see what I mean when you read this part. Also you will see that the Order of Importance is not in order, this is because I felt the reader would be able to relate to the Factor Order listed below instead of the actual Factor’s order of Importance.

  • What You Know
    • Order of Importance: 2
    • This factor represents your Skills, Knowledge, Education, and Experience.
    • Note: An Educator I know, once pointed out, I should have/could have listed “What you Learned” as a separate slice of the pie. But to me What you know includes Knowledge gained through Experience, so I do not think Education needs it’s own Slice.
    • Education both from established institutions such as Schools and Universities as well as Knowledge gained from personal and professional projects is invaluable.
    • Most of the time, personally I value Knowledge gained from projects both personal and professional over official classroom based education and textbooks, especially in the realm of technology and specifically software development.
  • Who You Know
    • Order of Importance: 4
    • Everyone will tell you knowing the right people is your ticket to success, in school, jobs, and otherwise. However I feel the next attribute of my Success Pie is more important. Knowing the Right People of course is important, but just the fact that you “know” someone is unimportant. I know people that know CEOs of companies, but those same CEOs wouldn’t give them jobs, because they either lack too many of the other Factors of Success or they are more of an Acquaintance and really don’t know them, or in general just wouldn’t put their name on the line for that person.
    • In my experience, people throw the word “Friend” around too casually. Acquaintance is more appropriate for most of the relationships in our lives; again in my opinion.
    • However you must first know someone before they get to know you and you get to know them. That’s where the next ingredient comes into play.
  • How You Know Them
    • Order of Importance: 3
    • This factor is really the second half of “Who You Know”. As I mostly explained already, simply the fact that you “know” someone is insignificant. It is how you know them or rather really how they know you, that’s important.
    • This is why I have it as double the size of “Who You Know”.
    • In today’s world, it’s more important than ever to network professionally.
    • This includes the depth of information on the professional level, although sometimes for some people even some personal facts are important, but remember TMI (Too Much Info) when getting into the realm of personal facts.
    • A person in a position of power that you want to leverage to help you succeed needs to know that they can trust you. That you will not hurt their own reputation, and that if they give you a task that you will succeed and make both you and them look good. They need to know that you will be a good representative for them.
    • These reasons and others are why “How You Know Them” is more important than “Who You Know.” But again it’s a complimentary ingredient to “Who You Know.” But please remember there’s a big difference and simply knowing someone doesn’t count for much by itself.
    • Some people will disagree here, but they do not understand what I mean, if they are “close friends”, etc, that means they trust you, which again relates to “How You Know Them” or “How They Know You.”…
  • What You Do (Or “Deliver”)
    • Order of Importance: 1
    • This is possibly the most important factor of success.
    • Everything up until this point helps you to Deliver. And what you Do or Deliver is the most important thing for your successes in life.
    • You have to Walk the Walk, not just Talk the Talk.
    • When you list experience on a resume, you better make sure that you actually Delivered what your experience says, because good interviewers can see right through the people who never delivered, but were still “part of a project.”
    • Your Skills, Education, Past Experience both Professionally and Personally, Connections, all add up to this moment. This is the moment you take center stage and show to the world you can actually do it; make it happen.
    • What you Deliver is why you get promoted, get more job offers when you aren’t even looking, get the big bonus or that raise, or grow your team and responsibilities.
    • This is when you earn that Pay Check, make it count!
  • Luck (See Below for expansion on this, too many sub-factors…)
    • Order of Importance: 0 (Why ZERO? Because I think it’s hard to quantify how important Luck really is, and will vary person by person.)
    • What is Luck? Luck is:
      • Being in the right place at the right time.
      • Saying the right things.
      • Knowing the right people.
      • Doing the right things.
      • Succeeding at a task instead of failing against the odds.
      • Making the right choices in general.
      • Getting the chance to work on the right projects.
      • Getting hired for the right job that will give you the opportunities to gain experience, exposure, etc.
      • Graduating at the right time.
      • Working for the right group or department or company.
      • Going to the right schools.
      • Participating in the right extracurricular activities.
      • Being seen when it counts.
    • The list can go on and on. This is why it’s considered ZERO on my list of ingredients in terms of Order of Importance. The definition of Luck itself is infinite and cannot really be determined. We can list components of what is luck, but really you only need some of them to help you be successful, not all of them.
    • I hear all to often people saying I just wasn’t lucky. Although there may be some truth to this because you might be equally as good as someone else or maybe even better but maybe you missed some of the other attributes of what makes a person successful, or perhaps it really is a missing component that I listed under luck, for example, being at the right place at the right time.
    • I am a Capitalist and I believe in the principals of Capitalism. And my Recipe for Success “Pie” applies only to a Capitalistic Society. I even wear a T-Shirt that says “Capitalist” on the front of it in a baseball styled font. So I don’t believe that we have to live in a Socialist vision of a fair society.
    • Instead I believe that our Government should support Capitalism and Freedom and simply allow for the chance that someone, anyone, no matter where they come from or who they are, can become successful, but that does not mean that any specific individual will be successful.
      • Obviously I mean: Equality of Opportunity but NOT Equality of Outcome!
    • I don’t want to make this post get too political so I’ll stop it right here. But let’s face it, Luck does play some roll in a Capitalistic Society, and that’s ok…

Any how, it’s now time for Pie…

I’m interested if any other managers feel points from this post or my Pie Chart are useful for their own Employee Reviews when an employee asks about advancement. Please feel free to contact me on my contact page or leave some comments. Also I would like to hear any general comments from anyone if they agree or disagree with any of my points, or feel I should even consider adding additional “Ingredients” to my Success Pie.

Posted in Philosophy | Leave a comment

Wisdom is Real and Meaningful

Posted on April 1, 2018 by rilardi

Back in College, a humanities professor I had, postulated that Wisdom is meaningless, and there is an assumption that just because someone is older they are wise and someone who is younger and educated via the modern western education system is “smarter” than an older person who is wise. At the time I agree with him, however given my own life experience, I believe he and I were both wrong in this assumption and instead while not all older people are wise, true wisdom can exist.

We see similar terms all the time, such as Street Smarts or Common Sense. These are real. And this type of knowledge is sometimes difficult to explain via writing in the traditional sense of how western education now takes place. In the past we valued apprenticeships, and I believe this was a type of education that imparted wisdom and knowledge onto the apprentice by the master. So Yes, Wisdom is real, and is extremely valuable. Wisdom and teaching styles such as Apprenticeship extremely useful tools in the passing and development of knowledge.

Happy Easter!

~Robert

Posted in Philosophy | Leave a comment