Too Good To Be True!!!!!

I have just read the BBC report on an incredible fraud. One that just goes to show that some things are just too good to be true and, must, I believe, support the supposition that you cannot con and honest man.

Without cutting and pasting the story, a business man sold what was protrayed as a leading bomb detecting technology and made £50m in the process. Despite containing no electronics these detectors were supposed to be able to detect almost anything, anywhere and under any concealment. Too good to be true, one would suspect so.

Selling at around £27,000 these were based on novelty golf ball detectors bought in the US for circa £8. Iraq bought around half of these (ie over 6,000) devices, but just look at the device:-

Who in their right mind would pay around US$40k for each item? And having been bought who would believe they could work. Professional soldiers and police have been using these in regular security operations. Surely at least one must have suspected? That these were bought over a number of years and used (apparently) seriously defies belief.

I suspect the relevant security forces would have had more success using a pair of birch twigs as divining rods. The devices are described as novelties so I suspect they cannot find a golf ball either, but that is not stated.

I find myself just shaking my head. They do say if something seems too good to be true then it probably is and this must fall into that category and for a fraid of this scale and stupidity to have been sustained for so long suggests that there were many people who looked no further than the money that slipped into some discrete bank account. This all at a time when others went about their lives in the blissful ignorance that the protection they were being offered was worthless.

The regulatory cuckoo!

In case you wonder this is another change analogy rather than a nature blog. It arose in my mind after talking with a friend about how many strategic developments are suffering as resources are diverted to either fixing operational problems or satisfying regulatory developments.

The tension between oeprational/tactical change and its strategic cousin has long been with us and a challenge for business and portfolio managers. By operational/tactical change I mean the actiivities that are not quite BAU, but arises from the aquisition of new business that needs something a little different, requirements to "fix" problems in the current BAU processes or may be small improvement initiatives related to the current business practices.

Strategic change is that which constitutes major or fundamental changes required to meet business objectives. Of course we can debate the boundaries and they are likely to be different for different businesses reflecting their ambition and appetite to spend/invest in change.

We could also debate whether straightforward system upgrades are strategic, tactical or indeed should be part of the BAU portfolio of work, but for now we will leave that.

Coming back on topic, many organisations have separate budgets and resources for operational and strategic change and this goes a long way to preserving the balance. Of course operational managers whose budgets have been pared to the bone will eye the change budgets enviously and look at access them wherever possible. There is nothing wrong with that as long as there is effective and apprpriate governance across the commissioning and management of change.

This BAU nibble mainly impacts the world of operational change, but I have managed small, but limited funding pools within a corporate portfolio to pay for small initiatives. This was quite effective and one I would commend to others.

In the strategic world there was always the question of "mandatory" changes that "just had to be done". The claimed priority over all the rest. Often these were infrastructural projects and increasingly were driven by changes in the regulatory environment. The balance between mandatory and "discretionary" changes and the allocation of appropriate funding was hard, but not impossible.

The issue now seems to be that regulation has become the cuckoo chick in the change nest. It has grown so big that it is squeezing out strategic change and exhausting the parent company's ability to sustain it. While at the same time, the number of things that need to be fixed seems to be growing everywhere, the squeeze on real value-adding and discretionary change is almost suffocating.

I have seen the response to this where business units see the need to look after themselves. They start squirreling (sorry for another nature analogy) away funds in their BAU budgets and start running change outside the main governance processes or skill sets. On the one hand this is good as it is change that the business clearly wants and is leading, but on the other hand it risks poor execution and a lack of perspective - often creating issues that then need fixing and distract from real operational change.

I am not sure if this is what might be called a perfect storm, but it is something and until we work out how to break out of it and run change better, I expect we will see the cuckoo getting fatter and fatter and the poor parent/business labouring more and more as the things it wants to get done to grow and thrive can't get done. It becomes a question of survival!

Do you know the balance of change in your organisation and do you project it forward? Are you happy with it? If not, what are you trying to do about it?

Any Comments? Suggestions?

MedicAlert - Lifetime membership or what?

A long time ago in childhood the doctors discovered that I am allergic to penicillin and tetracyclines. These are cumulative allergies ie they are worse each time you suffer them and could at some point kill you.

As medical probelms go this is not the worst as it is unlikley that in the instances that I might be administered either of those drugs that I would not be able to tell the medical staff of my allergies.

As a precaution my parents bought a liftime(?) membership of MedicAlert an organisation that gives one a neckelt or bracelet with a distinctive emblem that records your condition and holds a membership number and central phone number. In instances of medical emergency the presence of the token alerts attending to staff to the existence of an issue and on phoning the telephone number they can receive contact details along with doctor's details and other prescribed information.

I have now had this over 30 years, though I confess I have not worn it for most of the last 20. That said I did pay extra to have a silver necklet rather than the standard stainless steel. I have moved house and doctors rarely and my parents are still alive as primary contacts so the instances where I have needed or wanted to update information had been few and far between.

So it was with some surprise that I opened a letter from MedicAlert at the beginning of this month telling me that my lifetime membership is no longer lifetime. Quite bluntly the letter told me that I have three options;

• To start paying an annual fee (remember we had paid for a lifetime membership!);
• To stay "free" but undertake to contact and update my details at least once a year, the catch being that should I miss an annual update then I would be automatically placed on the annual fee with no return to "free" ie they would wait until I slip and then start charging me having taken credit card details as part of the "free" option; or
• Cancel my membership, but then I would be required for return my emblem to them for "safe destruction"

While I recognise that the world has changed and would accept a cost to update details WHEN I needed to update them, I objected

• the the imposition of an annual fee on what had been contracted as a lifetime membership
• the sneaky way to catch the unwary who opt for the "free" option, but slip up; and
• the suggestion that I was obliged to return my property (the emblem) to them for "safe" (what is that about?) destruction.

Oh yes, and I had until the end of the month to decide.

I emailed them immediately and over two weeks later I had heard nothing so last night I sent a follow up email asking if I would get a response? What I received today was a simple reiteration of the contents of the original letter and no acknowledgement of my issues. Frankly this incensed me as it suggested no customer/client interest.

I had just responded to this email registering my disgust at the poor service and that I would cancel the service and would NOT be returning my emblem or filling in any more paperwork, when I received a call.

This was from a "nurse" working for the organisation. Let me politely say that english was clearly not her first language. She said that she was responding to my first (or was it my second?) email. After checking my details she once again told me the options - yes, I knew them by now - and proceeded to chastise me for not updating them for a number of years. Well I still have the same condition, I still have the same father, I still live in the same house and I still have the same doctor. Forgive me for not moving enough. She then told me that she had to tell me to return the emblem, but I did not have to do that (work that out!).

To me she was not listening to my issues and continually talked over me. Fortunately this is not key to my future wellbeing so can cut this out - I think she finally got that! However it is a crass example of client service and certainly triggered my Friday rant.

Rant over!

Musical Serendipity

I have often written about my love of seredipity, the instances when you unexpectedly chance upon something good or interesting. It happened again last night so I thought I would share it.

My wife and daughter, sister-in-law and niece all wanted to go and support the band in which the girls ex-headmaster and now friend of their mothers sings. He was due to play the Dublin Castle in Camden, a pretty well known music venue that can claim Madness, Amy Winehouse, Blur and Travis as past performers.

Last night the names were less well known and having arrived about 8 my "girls" settled in the front bar with drinks and Facebook, waiting for David and the band to turn up.

Around 8:40pm the music started in the back room and I decided to go an listen, leaving the ladies to their "social networking".

The first band up was called MoRo . A four piece with the sound cranked up too loud for the small room, but then I am over 50 so I am probably biased. That said I did like them. I am not sure if I should but I would liken the sounds I heard to Runrig, a Scottish Rock band of the past that I liked. On their site you can listen to some of their work. For me they were the best to the night, and well worth a listen. To me the stand out aspects were the singer's voice and the work of the bassist.

The second band/act was Madame So. I confess that I did not take to their set, again too loud and unintelligible for me, but I have to say that their/her Youtube piece is better. The standout here was the diminutive female drummer, Mari Mardou who I thought provided a strong and energetic foundation for the two guitars.

Last up was Random Patrols, the band the girls had come to see. Lo and behold this is when they came into the room having missed the other two acts. The band has a number of videos on Youtube that you might care to look at.

Let's just say they have been doing this longer than the other two acts, all holding primary careers that are not music. The volume was lower, reflecting the band and its audience and the three guitars worked well together.

To me MoRo was probably the best/most interesting. I would not have seen them or even known of them without going to see Random Patrols. Indeed I may never see them again, but for at least one night they were my bonus.



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It is interesting what your social data says about you.

The image above comes instantly from allowing a web app access to my Facebook page. While some might question some aspects of the analysis when you look at the deeper explanations I would say they are about right.

What is interesting is that I just use my Facebook page in a limited capacity and really just for family and old college friends. There is relatively little information on there, yet it is obviously enough for the data algorithm involved to quickly deduce some pretty accurate views on me. Just imagine what would happen if it got access to my Linkedin account or maybe even this blog!!!??!?!

If only for a little amusement I have included the relevant link below in case you fancy giving it a try. If you do, please do share how insightful it is/was?

http://www.youarewhatyoulike.com/

Let's recognise a sportsman and a gentleman!!!

Since Sunday's closing holes much of the sporting press coverage has been of Adam Scott's victory at the Masters in Georgia - the first Australian to win the event. This is fully justified given the way he played over four days. He finished the regulation 72 holes with a birdie putt of 25ft to take what seemed to be an unassailable lead. Only two players were still on the course, Snedeker was out of contention and Angel Cabrera, the 43 year old Argentinian past winner, needed a birdy to tie and force a play off.

It would have been easy and understandable if, in playing the 18th, Cabrera had put a par on the card and left Scott to celebrate. Instead and to his credit Cabrera put his second, fabulous shot within 3ft of the pin and the impossible became possible. This was all the more poignant given that he had his son "on his bag" ie acting as caddy. As a father I can only imagine what it must have been like to share the four days and then that shot, with his son as his aide and supporter.

As these two had been in the final two pairings they were ready to play on and two holes later it was over as Scott produced another birdie to win the Green Jacket. One of the first to congratulate him was Cabrera with a genuine bear hug.

The following morning the BCC commented on the show of sportsmanship as Cabrera and Scott walked off the green arm in arm. It does the sport of golf credit and sets a great example for others, in or out of golf, to follow.

So while the world rightly congratulates Adam Scott I would like to place a marker for Cabrera; golfer, father, gentleman and sportsman.

The Value of a Different Perspective?

Today I chanced upon the image shown above. It has been released by Dr Max Roberts and is a re-envisioning of the iconic Harry Beck London Tube Map of 1931 (as updated). It uses tangents and spoked and is clearly inspired by the Tube logo.

I know that there have been criticisms of the 1931 map with distances on the map lacking relationship to real distances between stations. The classic examples being Great Portland Street and Regents Park or Bayswater and Queensway which both appear to require two stops and a change of lines, but are in fact only 0.1m apart or around 3 minutes walking.

While this new, round version does have something appealing about it, I found myself unconvinced. So I decided to challenge myself to really look hard at what it offered before deciding. It certainly does something to address some "spatial" elements, though I am unsure of "rim" sections where it appears one travels around London getting no closer or further to the centre. As a commuter this does not appeal psycholgically.

On the subject of centre, this map suggest Tottenham Court Road as the centre of London. Now unless your world is restricted to discounted electronics I can think of few reasons or people who would consider that to be THE centre. Cartographically, I believe all distances to and from London are measured from Charing Cross so that is certainly a candidate, as would be say Oxford Circus or maybe Westminster. In branding terms I think this new map has got the centre wrong.

All in all I think it is a clever idea and pretty well executed, but I don't think it adds enough to warrant a change from this:

Actually as I posted this image I thought the one thing the radial picture my cope with better is the charge zoning shown in grey on this map. It can be quite confusing to work out which zones one needs on a ticket and IF the radial could make that simpler then that might be the reason to change. I have not tried to overlay the charge zones, but a quick visual inspection shows this would not work.

Also tempus fugit and the advent of the Oyster Card for paying for fares and the proposal that London Buses go cashless, one wonders how long before the Tube goes cashless too. Soon one will just swipe in and out, without the pre-journey Mensa test of how many zones and what ticket?

So for now the round map, might grace a wall as a peice of interesting art, but I am not sure I see much more for it.

Meatloaf, I have a right to a personal opinion even if you don't like it!

Readers of my blog will know that I attended the Meatloaf concert at the O2 in London this week. I have commented on what a good night it was, but that I thought his voice was carefully husbanded - I still say that!

Following the concert I did look for clips on YouTube and found one with a comment that the soundman had let him down. I commented that I suspected the sound mix had been very intentional to mask Meatloaf's voice that I thought was shot. Yes he is 65 (as he kept reminding us) and voice's do change, but his was not good.

Today I found that Meat (if I may call him that?) appears to have taken exception and bothered to post a comment on my YouTube channel. You can see he is not happy from the comment that I have cut and pasted below. It came from RedPony2 that appears to be his official video channel.

My voice is not shot and how can you tell and Post a comment from a youtube shot a 100 miles away . In that arena the echo bouncing all OVER ... I will come to your work and judge it from a block away . I can still sing and make your ears bleed on Pitch . Come into my dressing for my 20 MIN warm up with Justin my Piano Player. The tone of my has changed after 3 vocal surgery's and 3 sinus surgery's and not being 29 years old . Not a single singer sounds like they did when they were in there 20's .. Very off handed comment YOU WERE NOY THERE AND YOU MAKE A JUDGE FROM A STUPID YOUTUBE ...SHAME ON YOU .

Let me say I was surprised that he should a) have seen the comment and b) been incensed enough to reply. As he had his facts wrong (I was there) and b) seems to have the equivalent of beer goggles when it comes to his voice - he certainly did not deliver a quality vocal performance, even one for a 65 year old man, that evening -  I felt I should reply. My post back to him at RedPony2 is

So you don’t like me saying your voice is shot? Let me put this right. I WAS there in London and I paid good money for a great show with passion, emotion and showmanship, but I stand by my comment that I think and so do many others if you cared to ask and listen to them, that your voice is/was shot. Yes a voice changes and maybe three surgeries should be telling you something, but I wonder if I would need both hands to count the number of notes you hit all evening and I do think your sound mixer ran a great defence for you in London. The other voices wrapped yours very cleverly. I am entitled to an opinion, one that I know it is shared by a good many others. I love your records and I am glad I went to the show, but frankly if you made my ears bleed, I sincerely doubt it would be from pitch these days. So if I hit a nerve, suck it up and enjoy the accolades of this last tour, but at least be honest with yourself. 

I wonder if I will see any comeback? If I do you may see another post in future

Update: - I have not heard a thing from Meat since this exchange, though doe ssem to have developed a propensity to cancel shows. Maybe we were luckier than we know to have seen him at all?

Perception is Reality, but you do have options.

The first time I heard this was around 30 years ago when a slightly avuncular VP of an American Bank took me to lunch. This was a time when a VP title meant something with the likes of Chase, Citi and Bank of America having but a handful in London as opposed to the hundreds that seem to exist these days. By way of comparison in Bank Of America to be a VP in Operations you needed to have at least 500 people reporting to/through you!

The occassion was a response my expressed disgruntlement at having not received the promotion I thought I deserved and had expected.. I was young and very ambitious in those days with a huge self-belief. Well some things don't change. :)

In essence the simple message was that no matter how good you think you are or indeed might be if others who have the power of determination do not see (or perceive) that then it you have a problem. They will see what they perceive as a reality, rather than what you think they should.

The reason I am blogging now is in response to a post on Linkedin today which said "Don’t change yourself; change their interpretations". I think this was meant as an inspirational Friday message and it did in fact get me thinking.

I like the first part as I learnt some years ago that trying to keep changing yourself to meet everyone's different expectations can be quite destructive. The message when I started work was that you cannot change everyone else, but you can choose to change yourself. This is not too bad, at least in concept, if "everyone" wants the same thing, but when 100 people want a 100 different "you"s then you can end up spinning like a one-stringed pennant in the wind.

I realised around 15 years ago that in trying to climb the corporate ladder and change myself to each boss and company I had in fact lost the essential me and set out re-establishing who I am and want to be.. I am happy that I did so and now sleep happily at night even if I may not have earned as much as some others. Though to put things in perspective and if the recent Times article is to be believed then in terms of "class" in the 21st Century UK I do seem to fall into the "elite" category so I shouldn't be too hard on myself.

Back to the trigger for this post. The alternative that is proposed is to "change their interpretation". This is often harder than we would like to admit. The comment that you only have one chance to make a first impression is so true. Once that impression in place, persuading the other person to change that impression is tantamount to asking them to admit they were wrong - this is rarely easy and certainly among business leaders where and admission of error is seen as a sign of weakness.

One might say that I am ducking the problem, but my alternative is to look for NEW opportunities to create the first impression you want others to hold AND to look for environments where the person you are will be valued. This means that you need to understand yourself well and at the early stages of career may be more luck than judgement, but as one grows a little older one can be more discerning.

At lunch today a colleague said something I have said before, which was "the happier I am at work the more effective I am". I would certainly suggest that unless you are purley driven by money or are in a position where taking what is offered is of paramount importance, look at every opportunity and ask "Will I be happy doing that?"

If the answer is yes, the chances are that you will perform well and others will perceive you well. A win-win result! So before you decide to change the perception/interpretation of others it is worth determining if you need to do so, or if alternative directions/opportunities are open to you.

Who knew that water could be so political???

 I was just reading an article on Reuters describing how, in Peru, there is an engineering project to move water from the wet, Atlantic side of  the Andes to the dry, Pacific side in order to irrigate an area for agriculture.

This seems emminently sensible and a good use of engineering and scientific skills, but with the 20th Century history of communism in South America I was surprised and alarmed to read one of the final paragraphs that stated:

Also, access to water that is too easy can result in stalinisation, as water-logged fields build up salt in soil at levels toxic to crops

 I know that water is an immensely powerful element, but I had no idea that it could shape political thinking of what I expect to be largely humble farmers. It just goes to show that you never know! 

Meatloaf at the O2, London - Last to Bat

Well one has to say that his voice is shot. I felt the sound mix let the vocal element down, but maybe that was intentional to cover Meatloaf's limitations. I also noticed that the backing vocals "surrounded" his voice subtley adding range and depth that I doubt he can deliver these days. He joked about one song covering three octaves; while no musician I wonder if he can manage one these days?

Despite that one cannot criticise what he still puts into a performance. He repeatedly reminded the audience that he is 65, but he still loads the stage with passion, emotion and guts. Some songs visibly drained him and others had him on tears (more than once!)

His supporting performers were excellent and his crowd loyal. It is 35 years since the Bat Out of Hell was released and it still sells well. Generations were there last night from students to pensioners, all enjoying the event.

He played around 3 hours with a 15 minute intermission, including, as billed, the full Bat Out of Hell album in order.

All in all I am glad I went and that my teenage daughter shared in the experience, my wife having declined.

If this is truly his farewell tour, then it is some way to go out!

Happy 40,000 to me!!!!!!

Today my blog staistics - as supplied by Google and excluding any time I look at my own posts - passed 40,000. This is in a little under three years and no bad from a slow start.

It is interesting to see what and how is driving these statistics.

The most popular posts, as measured by page reads, are:- 

How to build gravitas - practical advice 6 Jan 2011
Further advice of developing gravitas 17 Mar 2011
Something of an internet blindspot?? What is a Tos... 17 Sep 2012
The worst Christmas carol ever? 14 Dec 2011
TXTS from India 13 Jul 2012

While the the readership comes from around the world
 

   United States              26397

   United Kingdom          8143

   Australia                        533

   Canada                           388

   Russia                            379

   India                              278

   France                           239

   Germany                       232

   Singapore                      164

   Netherlands                   142

Interestingly I guess a lot of this traffic comes from the fact that my posts come us #1 or #2 for a few Google serach phrases. These include:-

 

   "develop gravitas"

   "toshin funds"

   "rowing analogies"

 

I think the lesson or moral is to find some more Google-topping post titles! I wonder where the stats will be in another three years?

 

 

Something or nothing?

Last night I took my daughter to the cinema. It is a little father/daughter thing that we do most school holidays. I have been through the years of watching "kids" and "girls" films, but now we have more common interests. We both enjoyed "The Hangover" and will be going to "Oblivion". She loved "Avatar" and last night we saw "GI Joe - Retaliation".

Now I am pretty sure almost everything in these films is placed for a reason so I was curious when I saw what I took to be an I-Ching hexagram on the shoulder and sword of Snake Eyes, a masked and silent modern ninja warrior.

I wondered if it was just decoration or had hidden meaning. My research shows the Hexagram to be:

I Ching Hexagram: 63
Name: Chi Chi.
Keyphrase: After completion.
Formed By The Trigrams: Water over Fire.

General: Every triumph brings new challenges.
Love: Your relationship will move into a deeper phase.
Business: Celebrate your achievements but be sure to consolidate your success.
Personal: Celebrate your success and make plans for entering a new phase of your life.

Overview: Chi Chi relates to successful completion and what comes next. It is now a time that you have achieved great success and have every right to celebrate. Chi Chi reminds you though, that all things change and that you need to be alert for anything that will undermine your current success. Avoid becoming complacent, or arrogant. If you want your success to endure you must immediately take steps to consolidate it. It is important for you to realize that this is the conclusion of a chapter in your life. A new chapter awaits.

This is taken from www.psychic-revelation.com

Further googling brought me to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arashikage) and tells me that this hexagram is the clan symbol of the Arashikage, a clan of shadowy assassins.

Well I am a little wiser now and must say I do enjoy spotting the unexepcted and then understanding is meaning or significance.

Life Lessons from Sudoku

For a number of years my morning mental warm up has been the solving of a sudoku puzzle. This started when The Times started publishing a daily puzzle and has carried on since. Some people do the crossword or other puzzles, but I find I enjoy the Sudoku. I go for the hardest one on offer and 95%+ of the time I  solve it within 10-15, ie about once a month I get stumped.

I should say this is not an addiction, ie if I don't do it in the morning I don't experience loss or withdrawal, and it is not an obsession, ie if I make a mistake (which I occassionally do) I don't beat myself up or indeed keep trying. On weekdays the limit of time I will devote to this is the length of my train journey - around 25 minutes and at weekends it depends what else is going on.

Overtime I have developed a number of solving techniques (and tried to teach my mother-in-law some of them!) I have found myself reflecting on some of the less obvious aspects that then have a parallel for real life. In this blog I am not providing a detailed "how to" guide for solving sudokus, but rather extracting some wider lessons.

In Sudoku there are the simple elimination techniques that are used for simpler puzzles where there is almost always at least one square where only one number can be put. Looking for this and the repeating the search is the basic way, but is not enough. Instead I find myself following these techniques

Play what you see

This is my first step. It would be easy to look at "1" first, then "2", and so on, but I have learnt(?) not to do that. I first look at the information/picture presented and I start filling in what I see, whether it be "9", or "3" or "7". I look initially for either squares where a specific number will go or pairs of squares within a block or line where a number could go.

I do this until I can see no more, at least not just by looking.

Lesson for life: Be agile and able to play what you see in front of you, and not be a slave to dogma.

Time for a little discipline

Having "felt" for early solutions I then, start looking at each number one by one. I don't always start with "1" and move up, but I do make sure that I scan each number to see if I can spot any other easy opportunities that I may have missed during the first step.

I will usually go around the set of numbers twice as the pieces of the puzzle I complete the first time around, may provide additional solutions the second time.

Lesson for life: There is certainly a place for discipline and it should be respected and embraced, but only so far as it is useful

Make the most of the latest number

As a more general comment I have noticed that many players will find a place for a number and then go looking for another, usually different number. My tip is having put a number in to then look again at the opportunities for that same number elsewhere, you may have created another certain solution. So if I put in a "2", then I will look again a "2"s elsewhere and only move to a different number when I see no more answers for "2".

Lesson for life: Make sure you take as much value from the information and opportunities you currently possess, before seeking something new opennings just for the sake of it.

Look, don't count

When I see an nearly yet incomplete line or block, it is very easy to start counting from 1 to 9 and seeing what is missing. This will get you the answer, but is not always the quickest. Like speed reading I have trained my eyes to almost defocus and just see a block and and "recognise" what is missing. This works best when one is missing just a few numbers, and can be a lot quicker. Of course it doesn't always come to me with a glance so sometimes I will go back and check the numbers off individually if I need to - the trick is knowing when to do that.

Lesson for life: You can often train yourself to get good answers, from knowing when to  look at the bigger picture and not always building up from the detail.

The value of combinations

As you get to more difficult puzzles, there comes a point when you cannot locate a specific square for a single specfic number. Instead what you will find are two squares where two numbers could go, or three squares where a set of three numbers can go. While you have not yet fully solved these squares, they are effectively elminated when looking to solve numbers outside of the set of two or three numbers involved. This knowledge can often provide the insight to provide a solution for another number.

Lesson for life: Things are not always simple, or fully known, but with good awareness you can often eliminate a set of options, and simplify other parts of a problem. You don't always need precison.

Positive negatives

One of the insights that combinations can give is knowledge of where other numbers cannot go. This is worth remembering that sometimes there is as much value in knowing where things cannot go as there is in knowing where they can go. This does not always come from combinations.

Lesson for life: Make sure not to lose valuable information as you solve problems, positive negatives can be as valuable as positive positives.

Don't take it too seriously!

Sudoku is only a game that I use to warm my brain up. If other aspects of life demand my time, sudoku can be put aside. If I fail to completely solve a puzzle then it is not the end of the world. I will have achieved my main aim of a mental warm up anyway, just by trying. I will be back the next day, but meantime I have a life to live!!!

Lesson for life: Few things are a matter of life or death, so keep a perspective and remember to take away the positives.