Rational Thought and Language Skill

I am regular reader of Dilbert.  There is veracity to the observations made therein, probably because the creator draws inspiration from his own real life experience and those recanted by his loyal following.  Many an engineer will tell you, and I will borrow a quote from the forum signature of a fellow CAD user some years ago, “Dilbert is life!” It is just my hope that engineers, like myself, who have experienced those Dilbert moments first-hand will not repeat them.  If you work in management and you see something familiar, be concerned.

However the creator of Dilbert, Scott Adams, goes beyond producing amusing reflections on the foibles of poor management in technology based in industries, but has shown himself to be a very able and intelligent writer. 

Speak with Conviction

I simply wanted to share this video, which I found quite entertaining, if perhaps not the newest idea.

I came across it courtesy of this blog posting.

Speaking Quickly

Working on the transcription of the proceedings of the symposium on Islamic finance has raised some challenges and an interesting observation related to the speed at which people speak.

Every person has a tendency to speak more quickly or slowly than another, and even for a given person the rate at which they speak is not a constant.  This much can be determined anecdotally from one’s daily interactions.  However when trying to compare different languages a quick internet search reveals there are many complications with measuring this.