dizablo's soup

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Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:35:17 GMT

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Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:34:53 GMT

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Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:33:15 GMT

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Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:32:02 GMT

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Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:22:49 GMT

At the zoo

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:02:21 GMT

At the zoo

The Izzo Boys are out junkin'

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 16:15:16 GMT

The Izzo Boys are out junkin'

Frank Dances an Irish Jig

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 00:22:33 GMT

Frank Dances an Irish Jig
For St. Patrick's Day 2012

I want this laptop sticker.

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:41:53 GMT

I want this laptop sticker.

The Izzo kids are hitting the bar.

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:50:21 GMT

The Izzo kids are hitting the bar.

My company sponsors the Zamboni at the downtown Detroit ice rink!

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:10:53 GMT

My company sponsors the Zamboni at the downtown Detroit ice rink!

There's trailer racing and then there's mother truckin' trailer racing!!!

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 01:29:17 GMT

There's trailer racing and then there's mother truckin' trailer racing!!!

At Monster Jam

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:54:33 GMT

At Monster Jam

Marty always gets root beer when we go junking.

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 22:24:40 GMT

Marty always gets root beer when we go junking.

Marty wants this quarter midget. Saw it at the racing swap meet.

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 22:23:15 GMT

Marty wants this quarter midget. Saw it at the racing swap meet.

The last thing I will post about apocalypse in 2012

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:18:43 GMT

Seriously. If you haven't figured out by now that the world is not ending and that any Mayan predictions claiming otherwise are largely fabricated pseudoarchaeology, then I'm not sure that I can help you. One last try, though. Please read this excellent FAQ, written by actual archaeologist (and my former professor) John Hoopes. I did an interview with Dr. Hoopes last year about the 2012 as a phenomenon, but the new FAQ covers, in detail, why a 2012 apocalypse is bunk, and what sources you can check out to find further accurate information about the confluence of ancient Mayan mythology and modern Western mythology. And that is all I have to say about this for the rest of the year. Coming in 2013, though: Lots of stories about Mayan archaeology. Just to mess with you.

This is what happens when my mom comes over for New Years.

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:14:28 GMT

This is what happens when my mom comes over for New Years.

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:13:05 GMT

This is what happens when my mom comes over for New Years.

Martys Comic

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 03:03:43 GMT

Martys Comic

(Image)

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:45:57 GMT

At the Hacker Launcher Mixer @bizdom #webward #detroit

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:42:18 GMT

At the Hacker Launcher Mixer @bizdom #webward #detroit

At the Hacker Launcher Mixer @bizdom #webward #detroit

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:39:28 GMT

At the Hacker Launcher Mixer @bizdom #webward #detroit

The Tent

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:18:16 GMT

The Tent

My costume. Sloppy=scary?

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:14:14 GMT

My costume. Sloppy=scary?

I made these from scratch

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:12:59 GMT

I made these from scratch

My set up at the Haunted Forest

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:11:37 GMT

My set up at the Haunted Forest

How to Give a Compelling Presentation to a Smart, Jerky or Otherwise Picky Audience [Presentations]

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:00:00 GMT

Googler Steve Yegge wrote an insightful, revealing, and honest look at the internal state of Google last week, touching on topics like their internal culture and their shortcomings in developing a platform like Google+. It was meant to be sent to employees only. After a week of dealing with the blowback (minimal, actually), he's written a followup talking about his time at Amazon; specifically, how to give an enthralling presentation to a tough audience (Jeff Bezos).

Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and CEO, is a notorious critic of presentations. Yegge, on the other hand, through preparation and insight into how Bezos operates, managed to craft a presentation that was among the best his coworkers had ever seen. If you're in a similar situation, where a picky, smart and impatient person is in the audience, here's what you do.

To prepare a presentation for Jeff, first make damn sure you know everything there is to know about the subject. Then write a prose narrative explaining the problem and solution(s). Write it exactly the way you would write it for a leading professor or industry expert on the subject.

That is: assume he already knows everything about it. Assume he knows more than you do about it. Even if you have groundbreakingly original ideas in your material, just pretend it's old hat for him. Write your prose in the succinct, direct, no-explanations way that you would write for a world-leading expert on the material.

You're almost done. The last step before you're ready to present to him is this: Delete every third paragraph.

Bezos is so goddamned smart that you have to turn it into a game for him or he'll be bored and annoyed with you. That was my first realization about him. Who knows how smart he was before he became a billionaire — let's just assume it was "really frigging smart", since he did build Amazon from scratch. But for years he's had armies of people taking care of everything for him. He doesn't have to do anything at all except dress himself in the morning and read presentations all day long. So he's really, REALLY good at reading presentations. He's like the Franz Liszt of sight-reading presentations.

So you have to start tearing out whole paragraphs, or even pages, to make it interesting for him. He will fill in the gaps himself without missing a beat. And his brain will have less time to get annoyed with the slow pace of your brain.

But how do you prepare a presentation for a giant-brained alien? Well, here's my second realization: He will outsmart you. Knowing everything about your subject is only a first-line defense for you. It's like armor that he'll eat through in the first few minutes. He is going to have at least one deep insight about the subject, right there on the spot, and it's going to make you look like a complete buffoon.

So I knew he was going to think of something that I hadn't. I didn't know what it might be, because I'd spent weeks trying to think of everything. I had reviewed the material with dozens of people. But it didn't matter. I knew he was going to blindside me, because that's what happens when you present to Jeff.

If you assume it's coming, then it's not going to catch you quite as off-guard.

And of course it happened. I forgot Data Mining. Wasn't in the list. He asked me point-blank, very nicely: "Why aren't Data Mining and Machine Learning in this list?" And I laughed right in his face, which sent a shock wave through the stone-faced jury of VPs who had been listening in silence, waiting for a cue from Jeff as to whether he was going to be happy or I was headed for the salt mines.

I laughed because I was delighted. He'd caught me with my pants down around my ankles, right in front of everyone, despite all my excruciating weeks of preparation. I had even deleted about a third of the exposition just to keep his giant brain busy, but it didn't matter. He'd done it again, and I looked like a total ass-clown in front of everyone. It was frigging awesome.

So yeah, of course I couldn't help laughing. And I said: "Yup, you got me. I don't know why it's not in there. It should be. I'm a dork. I'll add it." And he laughed, and we moved on, and everything was great. Even the VPs started smiling. It annoyed the hell out of me that they'd had to wait for a cue, but whatever. Life was good.

And if you're interested in reading more about presentations, or about Amazon in general, Yegge's full G+ post is below.

Photo by jurvetson

Steve Yegge on Google+

Penny on the teeter totter.

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 01:47:55 GMT

Penny on the teeter totter.

Marty the CEO

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:25:13 GMT

Marty the CEO

Franks Fun Run

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:18:01 GMT

Franks Fun Run

Marty is at his trike a thon.

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:11:53 GMT

Marty is at his trike a thon.

Three guys dressed as old ladies are tearing up the spontaneous combustion fe...

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 03:16:38 GMT

Three guys dressed as old ladies are tearing up the spontaneous combustion festival.

These old ladies are just killing it.

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 03:13:59 GMT

These old ladies are just killing it.

The graphics room at Ford Field.

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:18:45 GMT

The graphics room at Ford Field.

The seats in the luxury boxes at Ford Field.

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:12:56 GMT

The seats in the luxury boxes at Ford Field.

So this is where meeting is today. Awesome!

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:02:13 GMT

So this is where meeting is today. Awesome!

In the Hall of Legends

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:42:09 GMT

In the Hall of Legends

Franks heart is 100% fine.

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:54:16 GMT

Franks heart is 100% fine.

Frank is getting his heart murmur checked out. So far, so good.

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:18:05 GMT

Frank is getting his heart murmur checked out. So far, so good.

My little Warrior and me at the Warrior Dash

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 15:01:35 GMT

My little Warrior and me at the Warrior Dash