User:Brimba
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"as simple as possible, but no simpler” Albert Einstein
Epiphany
Pronunciation: i-'pi-f&-nE Function: noun
(a usually sudden manifestation or perception of
the essential nature or meaning of something)
Epiphanies:
a) “Economic growth occurs whenever people take resources and rearrange them in ways that are more valuable. A useful metaphor for production in an economy comes from the kitchen. To create valuable final products, we mix inexpensive ingredients together according to a recipe. The cooking one can do is limited by the supply of ingredients, and most cooking in the economy produces undesirable side effects. If economic growth could be achieved only by doing more and more of the same kind of cooking, we would eventually run out of raw materials and suffer from unacceptable levels of pollution and nuisance. History teaches us, however, that economic growth springs from better recipes, not just from more cooking. New recipes generally produce fewer unpleasant side effects and generate more economic value per unit of raw material.
Every generation has perceived the limits to growth that finite resources and undesirable side effects would pose if no new recipes or ideas were discovered. And every generation has underestimated the potential for finding new recipes and ideas. We consistently fail to grasp how many ideas remain to be discovered. Possibilities do not add up. They multiply.”
-Paul Romer, Stanford University
b) The most relevant sources of practical ideas for farmers in one developing country are the farmers and experts who have faced similar problems in other developing countries -and that an exchange of ideas is therefore essential to improving the lives of small-scale farmers.
c) It is possible to increase food production threefold per farm in most locations, and to do so at very low cost by making maximum use of indigenous resources: physical, biological, and human -thereby allowing even the very poor to improve their lives.
d) Small-scale traditional farmers are not always interested in the highest yields, but rather are more concerned with attaining stable, reliable yields. They tend to minimize risks, seldom taking chances that may lead to hunger, starvation, or losing their land. Small-scale farmers will adopt agricultural innovations that are sound and without undue risk.
G’Quan wrote “There is a greater darkness then the one we fight, it is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities; it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope…the death of dreams.
The future is all around us waiting in moments of transition to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.” -J. Michael Straczynski - "Z'ha'dum"
Contents |
[edit] Next pages
Refugee crises
[edit] Needed stubs
- Pioneering Crops
- Slash/Mulch
- Hunger Season
- Consequences of a Corn-dominated diet
- System of Rice Intensification
- Water Harvesting Pits
- Living Fences
- Weaning Foods
- Small Scale Experimentation
- Velvet Bean
- Jack beans
- Grow Boxes
- Calorie Crops
- Microcatchment
- Run-off Irrigation
- Clay Pot Irrigation
- Ducks in Rice Paddies
- Nitrogen Fixing Trees
- Gliricidia sepium
[edit] Can’t see the forest for the trees
can’t see the forest for the trees
An expression used of someone who is too involved in the details of a problem to look at the situation as a whole: “The congressman became so involved in the wording of his bill that he couldn’t see the forest for the trees; he did not realize that the bill could never pass.” The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.
[edit] Peter F. Drucker’s three questions
- What is our business?
- Who is our customer?
- What does our customer consider valuable?
[edit] Jakob Nielsen's Definition of Usability
If a website is difficult to use, people leave.
If users get lost on a website, they leave. If a website's information is hard to read or doesn't answer users' key questions, they leave. Note a pattern here? There's no such thing as a user reading a website manual or otherwise spending much time trying to figure out an interface. There are plenty of other websites available; leaving is the first line of defense when users encounter a difficulty. Usability is defined by five quality components:
- Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?
- Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?
- Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?
- Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?
- Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?
[edit] Words
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This user reads The Economist. |
