Earlier in the week, I mixed some dough at the same time my wife started her own loaf of bread. I deferred and proofed it in the fridge so she could bake that night.
The next morning, I took the dough out to proof and bake. However, the day turned out to be a traffic jam of meetings. By the time I had a moment to breathe, the dough was completely over-proofed.
In the past, I would try to salvage the mess by adding fresh flour to make two loaves of bread. However it’s a gamble, and I’ve been on a losing streak.
I went with the guaranteed route.
On Tuesday morning, my daughter and I pulled out the dough (now batter) added a couple of eggs, a little milk, olive oil, some sugar, and a touch of baking soda.
We made a couple of full-size pancakes. Then I realized she’s old enough.
Time for her to flip these things!
We poured out a smaller pancake. At first, we used a silicone spatula with a short handle, but she accidentally brushed her finger against the rim of the pan.
She’s a tough girl, but no need to burn another finger. We pulled out the wooden spatula. The head wasn’t as sharp but had a long handle.
A mountain of pancakes later, she finished making breakfast.
As always, the kids enjoyed their meal of pan-fried dough, topped with butter and honey.
And I got this post to mark a momentous occasion in her life.
As a good architect, I made another change! I’m going weekly now.
Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear some feedback on this letter! Please subscribe if you’d like the next letter in your inbox.
(notes on) A World Without Email
I’ve been a fan of Cal Newport after reading So Good They Can’t Ignore You a couple years ago (quickly followed by devouring Deep Work and Digital Minimalism). Accordingly, I borrowed his audiobook from the library as soon as it was available. The book did not disappoint. It is a great distillation of Cal’s current ideas on email and productivity.
Like many self help books, the first part sells the problem with a narrative detailing the road to our current “hyperactive hive mind”. This section is necessary, but is a bit drawn out. Fortunately, the second part of this book is full of actionable ideas and is highly recommended. You can find all this advice by listening to hours of his Deep Questions Podcast, but this book perfect for someone who isn’t already a Newport acolyte.
Some of his key recommendations include:
be wary about the dissipation of our attention, mental switching costs are incredibly detrimental to high performance in knowledge work.
a mix of practical tips for increasing productivity (such as batching similar tasks on various days)
go outside of email for managing work. Use processes and systems for workflow coordination, such as using taskboards.
don’t assume the simple and easy makes for the best process in organizing your work flow. A little friction may result in long term efficiencies.
Based on the recommendations in his podcast, I’ve already initiated weekly check-in’s with my architect and my immediate supervisor, which have worked spectacularly well. For my next projects, I plan on imposing a communication protocol.
I normally try to avoid enjoying the my status as an Owner. However, I shamelessly exploit the Owner’s prerogative to push the Architect’s workflow beyond our industry standard “fire in the inbox” method of management.
Maybe my first step will be to assign them this book.
My reaction to this book is muted because I was an avid listener to Cal’s podcast last summer. As such, I had already implemented many of his recommendations in his book. If I was ambitious, I would borrow the ebook from the library to carefully re-read the recommendations in the second part of the book. However, I’ve recently turned away from self help books towards classic literature, focusing upon the eight waking hours outside of the office. As such, I haven’t felt an urge to return to this book.
~
One Question
Do you have any workflows that may seem circuitous but actually help you manage the work more efficiently?
Hit reply and let’s chat!
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Three Links
Arnaud Marthouret wrote three lessons from racing a bike too fast. His third lesson about no distraction resonates tightly with the aim of The World without Email.
Seth Godin’s Wayfinding gives us permission to be inefficient, because the murky is where the innovation is most needed.
The paintings of Torsten Jovinge (1898-1936) are a real treat. Thanks to Daily Dose for introducing me to this artist.
… and a photo.
Tree Stump, Mt. Charleston, June 2021
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Thanks for subscribing to the OPM letter! I hope you found some prompts to stretch your craft and relationships as a contentious Owner PM. See you next week!
Stay humble and keep experimenting! Justus Pang, RA
This is a beautifully shot, brutal, revenge flick that has garnered a slew of awards. One of its fight scenes even got an A+ in accuracy from Scenic Fights (which is how I found out about this film).
I can’t add much more to this pile of acclaim. I enjoyed watching its raw depiction of the seedy underbelly of Korean society, a nice contrast to the glitzy world of K-pop soap operas. However, this is a Korean film, so there are some gratuitously gruesome moments so I’m interested in rewatching it.
As I usually do with enjoyable films, I followed up by watching some few YouTube reviews about this movie. Two facts caught my attention.
There’s a campy Indian remake called Rocky Handsome. The lead actor in that movie is really swoll and those action scenes are super stiff.
Won Bin, the main actor of this movie, has not acted in a film since this one.
In other words, he has spent the past decade not practicing his craft, outside of the occasional commercial.
What a shame.
I’d respect this choice if he was forsaking the work to avoid from the limelight. Even if it was as crass as saying he’s earned enough to retire early. However his publicists continue to claim that he’s an artist waiting for the right project.
So he is hiding his art from the world. I sound like an over-entitled audience member, but I’m judging him on his terms. If he still wants to be part of the action, then he needs to do something. If he isn’t being handed projects of the proper quality, then he needs to go out and make one.
There is a line between being selective and being cowardly. That line must have been crossed at some point over the past ten years. There is no shame in quitting one’s profession when it isn’t serving one’s needs.
Admittedly, sometimes we need to lay low and let things play out. We shouldn’t always just jump at the first opportunity. Patience is a virtue, but not for ten years.
I’m a sucker for mediocre action flicks. I’m not a big fan of gore and horror and get squirmy at romance and comedy, but give me some violence and I’m there.
For the the past few weeks I’ve been slowly getting sucked into a youtube vortex of action scenes from these two films. Once the algorithm caught my attention, the positive feedback loop took over. And then, youtube found me an Egyptian subtitled version of these two movies.
The next two nights disappeared.
I’m not proud of it.
In fact, I’m quite ashamed of getting spoon fed down this rabbit hole, and this post is an attempt to salvage my dignity.
The story concept is appealing. An everyman (Denzel Washington as a working stiff with a slight paunch) anonymously wreaks justice on the rest of the world. It’s a power fantasy that appeals to a middle aged dude like me navigating a rigged world.
Unfortunately, universal themes are wrapped in a debased magic that dissipates quickly. The first movie had some charm, the second was just pure banality.
I honestly couldn’t recommend either of them, even though they deliver exactly what they promise, like The Prince (2014) or Outside the Line (2021).
The shame is in wanting what they offer. It’s not worth even 90 minutes in this short life of ours.
Editing this post a few months later, I’m amazed that I actually watched both full films. My mind must have actively erased this fact from half a year ago. In any case, I still have a tenuous relationship with YouTube. Late night is a dangerous time. If I get myself onto Grizzlypear or the ebook reader after the kids go to sleep, I can do some productive stuff before going to sleep. But if I get sucked onto my phone, I can easily lose an hour in the blink of an eye.
Having quit Facebook and Twitter already, getting better control over YouTube is my next horizon. I still enjoy the short documentary and commentaries YouTube videos (see my obsession with HEMA), but I’m coming to realize that this trivial edutainment may not be worth the time spent or the danger of slipping down truly frivolous rabbit holes. Like Facebook a couple years ago, I have entered the phase of “deleted the app, both still logging in via the web browser”. We’ll see if I wean of YouTube over the next couple years.
The need to be more selective about my entertainment options has been highlighted by my recent reading of the Journey to the West. In many ways, this book has all the ribald action sequences and entertainment of such films. However, this book is one of the four Chinese Classic Novels for good reason. It gives you the base satisfaction of a fantasy novel but also brings much more to the table. I wouldn’t claim that reading classic novels are as elevated as pondering a dense philosophical tome, but if for late night entertainment, it’s worlds better than this fluff.
As a good architect, I’ve already made a change! I’ll publish this letter every other week for a few months until I start commuting again. Let’s see where we go!Thanks for reading and I’d love to hear some feedback! Please subscribe if you’d like the next letter sent to your inbox.
My Comedy of Errors
June 30th was the end of the State’s fiscal year.
Purely by coincidence (my project budget money doesn’t expire this year), I processed a purchase order on June 29.
My vendor was having a problem with this PO. He was in meetings all morning. So was I.
He was sneaking emails during those meetings. And I was responding in the middle of mine. His emails were terse. He wasn’t reading my responses carefully.
We were writing, but we weren’t communicating.
I became irate. I pinged his manager. After the vendor finally got out of his meetings, we solved the problem over the phone.
The PO is resolved, but now I feel awful about my hasty appeal to his boss. I should have been patient and waited to calmly resolve the situation.
What went wrong?
First, being an OPM can get to your head. I need to work on my ego so I don’t get easily triggered when I feel I’m not being treated me with the “proper” respect.
Second, the vendor was under a lot of stress with an insane quantity of work due at 5 pm because of the fiscal year-end. I need give others the benefit of the doubt, especially when we’re working together for the first time.
Third, I should have stopped the email exchange when it became clear that we were going nowhere. I could have left a voicemail and waited patiently. This PO was not urgent, but I had gotten caught up in the rush of the moment.
Every time I get on my high horse, I end up with egg on my face. Self-righteous indignation is a short-sighted play. I felt great for a moment but regretted it soon after.
The challenge is to remember this lesson before I lose my temper.
~
How do you slow down before frustration boils over?
I’ve been pretty lucky in my career. Even my two obvious tangible mistakes came with payoffs that I cherish. I often repeat the line that an architect is paid in money and experience. I haven’t been at good negotiating money, but I’ve been given memorable experiences along the way.
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Three Links
My friend Arnaud Marthouret of RVLTR wrote a beautiful meditation about death, passion, and motorcycles.
Photographer Thom Hogan on snapshots, storytelling, photography, and memory. A great essay on balancing fast and slow in one’s craft.
Beautiful drawings depicting a semi-apocalyptic future.
… and a photo.
Overlapping Labyrinths, Las Vegas, July 2021
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Thanks again for reading this OPM letter! I hope you found some thoughtful prompts for becoming a sharper OPM Architect.
In 2020, I decided to purchase only twelve books. I cheated a little and added a few caveats and provisos to skirt around this restriction, but I really didn’t purchase that many books last year.
Halfway in to 2021, I thought it would be interesting to look at my purchases and see how it went. Spoiler alert: my predictions of what “future self” will want to read are quite poor. (No kidding, look at the boxes of books in the garage).
2020, Read
Jazz, Henri Matisse. Excellent book, in spite of the small format of the edition that was available.
Pearls Goes Hollywood, Stephan Pastis. I always purchase the new Pearl treasuries. I adore Pastis’ warm cynical take on life.
The Big Sleep,Raymond Chandler. The novel didn’t hold up very well since it was particularly crass in its dismissal of marginalized groups. The explosion of energy that I experienced on first reading, now feels like a temper tantrum fifteen years later. There are enough classics in noir that I will be a bit choosier for future reading.
Farewell My Lovely, Raymond Chandler. These two novels blend together in my memory. They have both held up better than his Chandler’s novel, even if they include some parts that would offend the touchier sensibilities of contemporary times. I’m glad I did a retrospective of my three favorite novels in the Chandler oeuvre, but I think I’ve outgrown them.
Cheddar, Gordon Edgar. An fun exploration of cheese, industrialization, and America. Purchased at deep discount from a big Chelsea Green Publishing House sale.
Landfill, Tim Dee. A lively meditation on of birdwatching, science, and its subjects. Purchased on deep discount from a big Chelsea Green Publishing House sale.
Krazy Kat (1916-1918), George Herriman. This series is legendary and I’m debating whether to collect the entire set. I got the first one, but since I haven’t cracked it open in the past year, maybe it is not worth trying to catch them all.
The Art of Happiness, Epicurus, George K. Strodach (translator). I was curious about his philosophy, but Epicurus turned out to be heavily focused on his speculations concerning physical physics. I quickly lost interest. I might power through the rest of the book at some point, just to get the feather in the cap.
Growing Food in a Drier Hotter Land, Gary Nabhan. I was absolutely smitten by his first book The Desert Smells like Rain, which I discovered via an environmental literature course syllabus. Purchased as part of a big Chelsea Green Publishing House sale.
Being Salmon, Being Human, Martin Lee Mueller. The premise sounds interesting and I hope to read this eventually though in spite of my recent turn towards ancient wisdom literature. This was on deep discount as part of a big Chelsea Green Publishing House sale.
2020 Cheats (not counted against the limit)
Mutts Sundays, Patrick McDonnell. With my daughter’s comics obsession I wanted her to read some Mutts to go with her Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes.
Salt Fat Acid Heat, Samin Nosrat. An instant classic, I purchased it at the start of the quarantine (having previously read it at the library) but I haven’t referenced it a single time.
The Art of Fermentation, Sandor Ellix Katz. I read the a library copy during quarantine and wanted my own copy. I purchased it as part of a big Chelsea Green Publishing House sale, but haven’t referenced it either.
2021 Purchases
The Ultimate Micro-RPG Book, James D’Amato. I haven’t done anything with this book beyond wrapping it up as an extra birthday present for my daughter.
Tiny Habits, BJ Fogg. I liked the library ebook so much that I immediately bought my own hardcopy. Like the Art of Fermentation, I haven’t cracked the cover a second time.
Zhuangzi (inner chapters), Burton Watson (translator). This is universally acclaimed as a translation and I didn’t want to read this on the phone.
Seven Military Classics of Ancient China, Sunzi, Ralph D. Sawyer (translator). This is a hefty book! I wanted the breadth of classical thought on this matter and by golly I got it. Now I need to read it.
The Art of War, Sunzi, John Minford (translator). I didn’t realize that I had already listened to this book on tape. Then again, it’s hard to go wrong with a spare copy of Sunzi.
Tao Te Ching, Laozi, John Minford (translator). I read half of this book before being forced to return it to the library. I liked the extensive commentary so I decided to get my own copy.
I Ching, King Wen, John Minford (translator). I liked Minford so much as a translator on his other two works that I decided to start my I Ching journey with his translation.
I Ching, King Wen, Helmut Wilhelm / Cary Baynes (translators). This is the classic that made it a fad in the the artsy circles in the mid-20th century. Since it was good enough for Merce Cunningham and John Cage, I felt I should get my own hardcopy.
I Ching, King Wen, Richard Lynn (translator). This translation is well regarded, especially in a very favorable review SJ Marshall of Biroco.com, calling it the yin to the yang of the Wilhem/Baynes translation. Given my big kick, I thought it was worth investing a slot to check it out.
China, Hiroji Kubota. His Portrait of America was so good, I had to see how he handled with China just as the nation started its stratospheric ascent into becoming a superpower. I also thought it would be good for the kids to see the nation that their mother came from.
Out of the East, Hiroji Kubota. This was a snap amazon algorithm purchase. I fear this may be a lesser work, since the price was so low, but I liked his work enough to take a flier on it.
Books on Deck
The next Pearls Before Swine treasury. I’m not going to count it against the limit next time, since it is a regular purchase every 18 months.
What’s Michael Fatcat Collection, Volume 2. It would be ridiculous not to complete the omnibus pairing. This will also not count against my limit.
Calvin and Hobbes, complete box set. I have the first half of Bill Watterson’s run in trade paperback format. I think Christmas will be when I buy the series (and I suspect Christmas 2022 will be when I pick up the Far Side Collection).
Castle of Crossed Destinies, Italo Calvino. Depending on how generous I’m feeling towards myself, I’m thinking about also buying the Visconti and Marseilles Tarot decks to go with the book. Maybe as a self-Christmas Present.
Sixty-Four Chance Pieces, Will Buckingham. He wrote a great article about the I Ching, and as a fellow fan of Calvino, I’m curious to read his work. However, I’m going to wait till I’ve caught up to the calendar and see if I’m still into the I Ching before making such a purchase (same goes for Changing, a book of I Ching related poetry Richard Berengarten).
Bhagavad Gita. I’ve been going through everything that is available at the library that discusses this book. Once I’ve completed project, I may purchase a hardcopy (though my lack of use for previous “follow up” purchases gives me pause). I’m eyeballing the Easwaran translation, based on a recommendation on a podcast. If I get frisky, maybe I’ll check out Easwaran’s 3 volume detailed commentary.
In all, I have plenty of reading to do, just from this list. This list highlights why I must stop purchasing books “on spec” and only buy one at a time. When I go beyond the immediate future, I’m stuck with a great book among boxes of books in the garage that haven’t been read.
After writing this draft, Libby stopped syncing across my iOS devices so I reset the devices. I had multiple tagged items that weren’t synced, and the only way to rescue the tags were to export them and then manually re-tag them after fixing the glitch. This exercise highlighted how much my interests had drifted just over a few months. All these tags carried the lingering aura of past desire, but I’ve already lost interest in almost all of them.
Given my fondness for organizing things, I followed up that exercise with sorting out my Amazon lists. These lists go back a decade, so this was an exercise in reliving the past on steroids. I’m certain all the books I listed are worthy of my time, but I’m also realizing that I’ll most likely never read any of them. The next step would be to fully relinquish and delete their entries. I’m not ready to do that just yet, but time is not my friend. I need to come to grips with the fact that there are only about 441 books left in my lifetime (12 x 36.75).
Joining the government was quite magical. People started returning my phone calls. Folks from the same companies who didn’t bother sending a confirmation receipt when I previously sent them resumes inquiring about public job postings.
If I wasn’t careful, I might actually believe that I had moved up in the world. However, I always remind myself that they aren’t picking the my phone call. They are taking calls from a Project Manager 2 at the State Public Works Division. It’s about the position, not the collection of biologically animated cells that happen to identify with me.
Of course, I hope that some of the new companions from the past three years actually appreciate my company, not merely the State’s patronage. But it’s impossible to shake the nagging question, “what would happen if?”
I’ve been lucky to have stayed on an upward trajectory in my career (so far), but I wonder if a fall from grace is ultimately a more painful ride than staying stuck in the mud. Then again, a drop is the risk that comes with moving up in the world.
Increased fragility from higher prominence is the ante to play the game.
Hopefully, an over-inflated delusion about one’s intrinsic value isn’t.
I’ve been blessed to work with great architects over the past three years. I’ve really enjoyed their company and I hope our partnerships will continue for many more years at the Division!
I picked up the first book of this two volume omnibus early last year, but I only got around to reading it at the start of this summer. As implied in the title, the series is built upon Michael, a striped tabby who simultaneously inhabits multiple lives. His main world includes a wife and child, but different episodes has him living other households. It isn’t that Michael jumps from place to place, this is a manga of of parallel universes that don’t interact with each other.
Along with Michael are other recurring characters, including a big, fat nemesis named Catzilla, a yakuza boss who is scared that his cat fancy will be outed and his primary rival from the other gang who is cat-phobic, a veterinarian who is on the lam (falsely accused of murder), and a dude-bro who is trying to train his cat to play fetch.
With multiple settings to play with, Kobayashi will occasionally dip into absurdist sequences in alternate realities, including a memorable episode where one of Michael’s owner speculates about Michael’s dreams (spun into a yarn about getting scammed at a nightclub). This series works because of the balance of mundane slices of life with pets and such absurdist moments.
Over the years, I had picked up a couple random thin What’s Michael collections but never read them in sequence. Since each of these shorter books are themselves collections of short vignettes, I didn’t realize that Kobayshi was developing a continuity over the progress of this series. Reading this first volume made me aware of my oversight and it has been delightful to see him slowly populate this world. I’ll be curious what he will do with these multiple threads in the second volume of this omnibus.
Aside from a couple panels, the book generally is appropriate for kids except for our However, I can’t help my American squeamishness about such subjects, so I’ll hold off on giving her this book for maybe another couple years, partly because she has plenty of other comics. Even so, I’ll most likely pick up the second volume of this omnibus (coming out in late August). I ant to complete the pairing to see how he ties up the loose ends with this manga’s run.
My blog has always included posts about work. I’m trying an experiment with a monthly letter that curates these work related blog musings. I hope it will give you some insights into the work of an OPM and a few interesting links that I’ve discovered in the past month.
Thanks for reading and I’d love to hear some feedback on this inaugural letter! Please subscribe if you’d like the next installment in your inbox.
Thoughts for a new Owner’s PM
I just found out that a friend just got a gig as an Owner’s Project Manager (OPM). I’m certain his experience will have some significant differences from my work with the State, but it seemed fitting that this inaugural letter should include some unsolicited advice:
You’re not the architect anymore. At my first pre-bid walk, I started chatting with a bidder about a condition while referencing the drawings. My colleague pulled me aside and told me to get out of the way and let the Architect do her job.
Find the problems. We pay our consultants to solve problems. Our job is to find them. We should uncover overlooked issues and anticipate concerns beyond the horizon. But, if we’re architect-ing, then something has gone wrong.
Budget, schedule, quality. This tripod haunts the entire AEC industry. As the OPM, our job to make sure we don’t blow the first two items, while optimizing the third.
People, not technical. We spend the first half of our careers honing technical skills, only to get promoted into a gig all about handling people, especially when a team is underperforming. Not fun but we’re paid to handle these situations.
Stay humble. It was jarring to suddenly jump in status from a staff architect to an OPM, who would be selecting consultants for future projects. It’s impossible to prevent this dynamic from seeping into our unconscious, so I constantly remind myself that all this is due to the position, not from my person.
I love the job and have no regrets making the change. Being an OPM has turned out to be a great career shift, better than I could have imagined.
Would you have anything to add to this list? If you’re an architect, what do you expect from your OPM?
Hit reply and let’s talk about it.
~
My OPM Notes from June
When the pandemic first hit, I read sample project communication protocols from various companies, and finally took a stab for myself. This post is very much a work in progress, but it is a first step.
An architect is paid in money and experience. Once we’ve completed something a couple times, it’s important to figure out what extra experience we’re getting out of an otherwise repetitive task.
Dean Dennis Potthoff at Nevada State College is an amazing person, and it was great to see him getting settled into the building while inspecting the furniture.
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One from the Archives
While designing this letter, I tested the concept by compiling a series of “OPM.0” letters, curating the blog posts I had written in each of the previous months of this year. If you enjoyed this letter and would like to read some more, then there’s already six OPM Letters in the archives.
Jhumpa Lahiri has been writing in Italian. And I thought that jumping from Architect to OPM was a notable career shift.
Performance artist Terrance Koh brings back memories of my performance art class and the heady days of the 00’s.
Cal Newport uses the timeline of the electric dynamo to speculate that we have not yet harnessed the potential of technology for knowledge work.
Seth Godin on the cost of prevention outweighs the cost of a mistake.
… and a photo.
Sandstone Pattern, Red Rock, June 2021
Thanks so much for subscribing to the OPM letter, I truly appreciate the opportunity to connect. I hope you found it interesting and I look forward to hearing from you.
