Infants Learning: Words per hour
the relationship between a child’s exposure to language and their eventual linguistic abilities. Specifically, they studied differences in exposure as a function of class, and found that “children in professional families heard more words per hour, resulting in larger cumulative vocabularies.” For specific numbers:
” ..
In professional families, children heard an average of 2,153 words per hour, while children in working class families heard an average of 1,251 words per hour and children in welfare-recipient families heard an average of 616 words per hour.
*have you ever seen an infant reacting to a new group of voices or language?
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Found originally in this post on Reddit/r/askscience
On Working Through Your Competition
There will be times when I am working for several, similar clients at the same time. It’s already a big part of how I do business, and create more consistent business.
Sometimes clients will see one another as competition (for funding among other reasons) which, while true, doesn’t need to come into play and hamper your plans.
The following things pop into mind, my mind, about competition and business:
1. “There is no competition”. For me it’s like this. Whether it’s just me talking myself up so I get on with life, I like to think that no one does what I do (they’re not me), so I don’t have to worry about it. No one does what I do; make it so - problem solved.
2. Competition may as well talk. Whether you talk, or partner, or fight, doesn’t matter, when through all that - you’re competition either way. You decide; but I think this is true for consultants and service companies.
3. Focusing on competition is destructive. It’ll destroy your creativity and it will misguide your business needs. If competition is your ONLY focus then go nuts - you might make it work if competition is your go-to thing.
Point being: of course we’re competing. This is a competitive world and a tough life. If you’re reading this then you are probably competing for something because you have bills to pay.
Competition is a given and not a distraction.
Project Managers Follow Plans & Leads Groups
This morning I had a breakfast meeting with a high-end consultant and project manager. He’s been a project manager for police (crime and DNA policy), large construction projects, municipalities and cities, and has worked with State and Provincial lawyers both in Canada and the US. This man has a massive wealth of experience in taking a variety of projects successfully through to their end.
Every time we meet up I try to talk to him about what makes a solid, trusted project manager. This morning was no exception. I asked him how common self-sabotage was. He chuckled and thought it an interesting question. I told him that the company I used to work for continued to work with clients they knew may not pay the bill. I told him about single skipped emails that had derailed projects. I told him about people putting off tasks through silence, then only piping up about urgency when they know it is already too late. This is a great way to blame “group scheduling issues”.
He said NOT ONLY is it extremely common, but project saboteurs are more common than we’d think, and they will act in their own specific manner. He says to be weary (in groups) of the people who want to ruin it for the entire group. They exist. These people will smile and agree with you, then do nothing .. or something completely different. These people fear change and fear work. Behind closed doors and even to your face a project saboteur will state that your price is too high and try to throw you under the bus.
As a contract project manager (a valuable tool for a variety of reasons) you cannot fear change and you cannot fear the hard work it takes to keep an entire team on task.
What were his top comments on how to be a solid, trusted and valuable project manager? Included in this list are things that I have observed him doing as well.
- Make a plan that shows process and results. Follow that plan. Follow it right to the end.
- Find your allies who want you to succeed. Rarely assign tasks to those who don’t want you to succeed.
- Communicate your plan often. Praise success and celebrate large completed tasks.
- Play your cards close to your chest. Not to keep secrets; do it so you don’t overwhelm your clients and allies.
- Every card has its time and that time is usually pre-assigned.
There’s more but I am unable to pull them out of my head right now. I simply watch how this man (a current project partner) communicates and markets his plan with calm and flow. I am lucky to be working with him.
He never says too much and never says too little.
He knows he is always on the road to success and his lack of panic & nerves is elegant.
