Miller's magical number

George S. Miller wrote a paper in 1956 called "The magical number 7 ± 2: Some limits on our capacity to process information." I first came across this paper in the mid-1980s when I was the vice president of education services running the technical training division of a software company.

My associate, Vaughn Frick, and I devised a couple of experiments that we actually repeated many times over the course of a two year period. The experimental results not only confirmed Miller's original hypothesis, but allowed us to push the envelope on the concept even further.

The instigation.

Miller's original report resulted in the now famous American seven digit phone number preceded by a three digit area code. You can even repeat the original experiment yourself. Write down a series of numbers from three digits to 10 digits. it doesn't matter what the numbers are.

You can even use the list below, unless your friends are likely to read this blog and memorize the results! (Wishful thinking.)

you will inevitably find that when the string of digits reaches 10, there was a sharp drop-off in memory. You will find also that there is a much smaller drop-off between five and nine. The difference however in drop-off between the 5/9 range and the 10 and over rate is greater by a factor of five or more.

What this illustrates.

the human brain has a unique, but limited capacity for short-term storage of information. You can call information and remember up to three telephone numbers. Why? Because the telephone number itself is broken down into three smaller groups of numbers: the area code (three digits), the exchange (three digits) and the number (four digits). Some old folks like myself remember the vague and easiness when they first added new area codes. I tracked down that uneasiness to the pattern of numbers used. Originally, the area code and a zero or one as the middle digit. The exchange never had a zero or one.

What does this mean?

it means, basically, that we have an extraordinary capacity to remember information. Think about it. We can remember seven groups of things. Each group of things can have seven elements. Each of the seven elements can be up to seven digits long!

I had a stroke at the end of 2008. It took nearly a year to recover. Even at that, my recovery was not complete -- not back to my pre-stroke self. This knowledge of how the brain uses Miller's magic number in able to me to vastly improve my post stroke of memory.

example data

number list 1

847

2195

64723

539261

3984271

75143268

139624857

4382769150

82734061529

number list 2

203 . 561 . 8947

safety net for the disabled

I had a stroke in 2008. Initially, I was completely pear lies on my right side. I had serious memory problems. Perhaps worst of all, I lost my ability to read. I could spell a word out loud, and I could recognize a word spelled out loud to me. However, the part of my brain that translates visual signals of letters written down and seen with the eyes into words in the brain was broken.

In the 2 1/2 years since my stroke, I have recovered partial use of my right arm, partial use of my right leg and some of my memory. I still cannot write a computer program like I once did, read a book, button a shirt, tie a shoe, or hundreds of other things that I used to do before my stroke. I used to fly Cessna Skyhawk airplanes. I will never fly again. I used to ride bicycles and motorbikes. I will never do that again. There are literally hundreds of activities that I used to do before my stroke which I will never again be able to perform.

I typed this blog post by dictating it into my computer. I read by using a program called natural reader which reads the words from my computer screen.

When I had my stroke, I lost everything. I lost my income, my car, my house and even my wife left me when I could no longer provide.

It took me nearly a year, not working, not getting paid, to file for and receive my Social Security benefits, benefits for which I paid in every month. When I was not able to work I lost my health care. It was two years until I was eligible for Medicare.

Tell me, is it fair for the federal government to balance the budget on the backs of people like me? Is it fair to balance the federal budget on the backs of people who worked, paid taxes, and were contributors to society four or 30 years? I started paying taxes when I was 15 years old and became disabled at 54. I'm worried of our viability to support my self. I'm worried about my ability just to live on my Social Security. I was young. I started a business. I put every penny of my savings, including funds for retirement, into that business. When I had my stroke, I lost it all. Social Security is all I have left.

I paid in. I should continue to get my benefits. I prefer to work. I turned down my disability benefits the first time I was told I was eligible, in hopes of getting a job. The Department of vocational rehabilitation told me I was crazy. They told me that I wasn't thinking straight because of the damage to my brain. I'm glad they convinced me.

I don't want to be where I am... but I am... and I paid and to the Social Security system, and expect, in my disability, to get back what I received.

restaurant reviews get own blog

I have moved the restaurant reviews. You can now find them on their own blog at http://JacksonvilleRestaurants.blogspot.com.

All the restaurant reviews that used to be found here are now there.

green slime and you (thoughts on giving speeches)

I began my public speaking career in the early 1980s. I was an ACM National Lecturer, National Toastmaster, Chairman of the ACM-SIG/BDP (ACM Special Interest Group on Business DP) and gave speeches to a variety of business groups from lawyers to computer professionals. In my 11 years as a consultant and division president for Gartner Inc., I was consistently one of the highest rated speakers at their various international conferences.

Here are the lessons that I learn which helped me become successful as a public speaker.

• Keep it simple. Make only one or two points in your speech.
• 50% of the speech should relate your personal experiences.
• Use humor.
• MOST IMPORTANT: Use an analogy to help solidify your point.

This last point really made my speaking career successful!

Flashback.

Sometime in the 1970s I saw a movie about a spy, very much like James Bond. I just can't remember his name. The movie was pivotal in my success in communicating big business and technology ideas to average, non-technical people. This technique is, perhaps, something they can benefit you.

At one point in the movie, Evil Company CEO gets up to give a speech. What shows on the projector is a Chinese dragon eating his own tale. Evil CEO starts his speech, not by talking about a business topic, but about the dragon eating his tail -- and why. Needless to say, his already is, at first, perplexed.

After the tail eating story, Evil CEO starts talking about the business, and tying the business points, point by point, to the story of the tail eating dragon.

Brilliant. So brilliant, it's the only thing out of the movie that I can remember with any clarity. I adopted this technique for most of my public speaking engagements.

The "bucket of green slime".

For several years during the 1980s, I gave what became known as the "Green Slime Speech." At the beginning of the speech, I told the story of the volvox colony. Volvox are one-celled microorganisms that have a nasty habit of turning water into a brownish green sludge. However, given the right provocation, enough time, and the right temperature, the green sludge condenses itself into a multicellular colony of creatures in which the individual one celled animals take on particular roles based on where they end up living in the colony (such as living on the outer perimeter versus the central core of the colony).

The yucky, green water turned crystal clear with one clump of jellylike stuff in the corner.

What could a bucket of green slime possibly have to do with high-tech anything, particularly computer software? Nothing actually. It was an analogy.

Most projects, in that day and age, were late! Late projects are like a bucket of green slime. They are messy, smell pretty bad and generally leave a bad taste in your mouth, just like the green slimy water.

However, given some time, organization, and management principles, projects could be organized and controlled, much like the organized volvox colony that congealed with the right provocation, and left the water clear.

I actually used the green slime analogy in several different speeches, and was even written up in one trade magazine, praising up my green slime analogy.

My speeches, today, always feature an analogy (it's now my trademark) and they are always highly memorable. That's what you want! You want people to remember two things: 1) you; 2) what you said. Thought provoking analogies do that.

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Note: Since I began giving speeches featuring the volvox colony, the scientific classification for living organisms has changed. Volvox used to be an animal containing a chloroplast. Now, it appears to be a plant with a flagellum similar to microscopic animals. Oh well. The story still works and life goes on!

Osama Bin Laden dead (Video of President's speech at end of post)

I don't generally make very many political or world events commentaries in this blog. However, this is one time that I will.

It is never right to rejoice in the death of another human being. But, it is certainly right to rejoice in the fact that Osama Bin Laden will no longer be able to bomb our buildings, kill or injure our sons and daughters and, in general, wreak global havoc. This is certainly one death that I will not mourn.

Like so many others, I remember exactly where I was and exactly what I was doing when the airplanes plowed into New York's World Trade Center and Washington's Pentagon. I was getting dressed for work, watching the TV in Stamford, Connecticut. I could not believe what I was seeing. I was supposed to be in Manhattan the very next day. This was nuts. Insane.

My son, Christopher, was due to be sworn in as a United States Marine. His Marine recruiter picked him up at the house just the night before. He was eager to serve his country. His induction into the Marines was delayed by a week because of the catastrophe. we spend a terrible day worrying about him, knowing that he was flying. Was he on one of those planes? Needless to say, we were relieved when we heard from him.

My oldest daughter, Kimberly, was serving on the flight deck of USS Kittyhawk, based in Japan. She had entered the military one-year before my son. She was, in fact, in transit to the ship and head to rendezvous with it en route.

The world is a better place without Bin Laden. I won't mourn his death for a second.

But I will take the time to remember all the courageous young men and women who gave their lives, and to express my heartfelt gratitude to all the living who served to defend our country, our neighbors, and our freedoms.

God bless America.