You Are Your Own Curriculum Advisor Now!

To continue the theme of my father's lessons in life, I'm posting the commencement speech he gave at Southern Polytechnic State University on May 9, 2009. Why is this remarkable? Well for one, my father is 84 years young and not only gave a relevant message but stood in the receiving line and greeted all 300+ graduates who came to the stage to pick up their diplomas.

Prior to his address, he was awarded the degree of Honorary Doctorate of Science from SPSU. Here are some words of wisdom from my father as delivered to the graduating class of 2009.

Commencement Address delivered by Robert Ormsby to the graduating class of Southern Polytechnic State University on May 9, 2009.

First, let me express my appreciation for the honor of being asked to deliver the 2009 Southern Polytechnic State University commencement address

When asked to speak at a prestigious institution such as SPSU, one starts to think in terms of speaking to the world at large and to succeeding generations. If the speaker is the President of the United States, a high-ranking politician or diplomat, it is indeed possible to deliver a speech of historic significance. As for me, I am just an engineer and, as such, I would like to present some thoughts which the graduates might find useful. I am going to offer four suggestions which, if followed, will propel you to the top of your chosen occupation. You might consider this as my recipe for “How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”

Now for the first principle: it goes like this. The Constitution of the United States guarantees the right of free speech. It says nothing about the right to be heard. The right to be heard is earned; it is conferred by one’s peers, by one’s subordinates, by one’s bosses.

Let me amplify this just a bit. Many newly hired employees feel that once they have pointed out a problem to their management, they have done their job. In most companies the problems have been long recognized. The real challenge is to develop a solution and then persist in seeing it implemented successfully.
Do this consistently and you will earn the right to be heard.

The second principle is to know the limitations of one’s knowledge. A good friend at Delta Air Lines, Art Ford, would talk his newly hired engineers and say and I quote:

“When you graduated, most of you thought you knew most of what you need to know in your job.

“Now comes the first crisis. Your engineering predictions, your data, or something will turn out in a totally unexpected way. Now some of you will shrug that off as a curious anomaly and will continue on, still sure that you know all you need to know. We need to fire anyone who reacts this way because it is dangerous to let such a person make decisions.

“The confidence of the remainder of the group will plummet to zero. This presents another critical time. Some of this group will never make another decision on anything for fear it will turn out badly again. The company should fire this group also. Although they are not dangerous, they are useless. The rest of the group will then asymptotically approach 100 percent of their needed job knowledge as the years pass by.” End quote.

My rather obvious recommendation for success is to be in this last group.


My third principle is to discard immediately any thought that with the receipt of your diploma today, you are through with formal learning. First of all, the pace of change has greatly quickened; new technologies, new knowledge, new concepts appear at an accelerating rate. So what you learned to this point should be considered as the prerequisite for critically needed future learning. You are now your own curriculum advisor.

My fourth and last principle has been stated by a very good friend, a Mr. Robert Engle with whom I attended the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He has written a book, as yet unpublished, which makes the point explicitly. The name of his book and its theme is that Business is a Contact Sport. I understand that the average term of employment today with a given company is about five years. One of the critical factors in changing employers will be the contacts you have made, often unknowingly. My good friend put this succinctly. He said, QUOTE “You never know who knows you and who may have been doing some homework about you and possibly quite beneficial to you! So put your best foot forward at all times.” (End quote) Let me emphasize that this is not about surface geniality, the big grin, the hale fellow well met attitude, the firm handshake and a stream of small talk. I am talking about the real you, your character which includes your integrity, your ethical behavior, your desire to excel and so on.

That is all there is to it; those are the four principles. To be completely honest and fair though, I think I should tell you I have an ulterior motive in providing you with this recipe for success. It is this: society needs good engineers and technicians more today than ever before. Ever since an early engineer thousands of years ago invented the first plow, our society has become increasingly dependent on technology to supply the needs and wants of a growing population while at the same time addressing the problems generated by a world population that numbers in the billions.

Some decry this growth trend, saying that we should be less dependent on technology. Part of the reason for this position is that the general population does not have even an elementary understanding of technical issues. As a result, it is not unusual for the non-technical community to suggest that things would be better if technologists received a broader education. My good friend Dr. Hans Liepmann at Cal Tech said, and I quote:

“The loud and persistent clamor for increased education of technologists in the social sciences and humanities can and should be answered with an equally strong demand for increased appreciation of the natural sciences and technology by social scientists and humanists, and, indeed, by anyone who subscribes to a true liberal education. There are more technologists today who appreciate Shakespeare, Mozart and Van Gogh than there are humanists who appreciate Maxwell’s equations, the lines of an aircraft, or the marvelous intricacy of an integrated circuit.” End quote.

It was not always so. In ancient Greece, one of the foundations of philosophical thought was mathematics. This served a very useful purpose. One had to demonstrate one’s ability to think logically before his peers in academia would take him seriously when he offered his thoughts on government, society, morals, ethics and so on. It should be recalled that the inscription above the entrance to Plato’s academy read: “Let no one ignorant of geometry enter these walls”. In terms I have used earlier in my comments, one had to earn the right to be heard by demonstrating he was possessed of a logical mind. Somehow in more recent times, this requirement has been forgotten.

I should emphasize at this point that Southern Polytechnic State University deserves commendation and recognition for having a special technological focus in all of its academic programs. Our society would be well served if more academic institutions would emulate the efforts of Dr. Rossbacher and the faculty of SPSU.

My hope, as I have tried to express it today, is that all of you will increasingly earn the right to be heard—not only among your peers in your chosen disciplines, but also in society as a whole.

You have already laid the foundation for this right by learning to think logically through your exposure to the hard disciplines of science and engineering. You have ahead of you the unbounded duty to lay firm claim to that right through a lifetime of creation and achievement.

So may you all go forth and do well in whatever fields appeal to you. By doing so, you will be rendering a greatly needed service to society—greater, in all probability, than anything you can imagine today. Godspeed and good luck!

Musings of a Life Long Learner

I recall my father taking my sister and me to pick up hamburgers at the Dairy Queen, before there were McDonald's, Burger Kings and Wendy’s on every corner. We drove to the Dairy Queen Brazier where we walked up to the window (this was before drive-thrus) and placed our order. The person behind the window tore off the bottom of the ticket on which our claim number was printed. When our order was ready, our number was announced over the speaker system, and we'd run up to the window to get our burgers and fries.

When we placed our order, the man behind the window gave Dad the stub. We’d clamor at Dad unmercifully "tell us the number, tell us the number." He wouldn’t give it to us directly, instead he gave us a math problem to solve, and the answer was our order number.

When I think back over my childhood, lifelong learning wasn't something we discussed. We just did it, probably because our father just did it, because his father did it. You get the picture

Learning today encompasses so much. There are the lessons themselves as well as the technology that goes with them. As we take this course, it seems to me the most important lesson is the process. We complete a task which requires learning the technology, then we reflect and continue to build on the previous lesson. We have activities to reinforce the learning.

When I reflect on the 7 1/2 Elements of LifeLong Learning, the habit that resonates with me the most is Habit 1, begin with the end in mind. It seems so natural in problem solving to define the problem, and to determine if there’s a problem at all.

The most challenging habit for me is Habit 3 seeing every problem as a challenge to learn something new. It means learning how to face challenges calmly and methodically. Sometimes my focus reverts to “getting the job done,” and anything that keeps me from my goal is a problem.

The most important is Habit 5, building my learning technology tool box. The biggest issue is organizing the different tools available in order to find them when I need them. So often I’ll vaguely remember something I tried, but I can’t find it again. It’s inefficient. If I have a toolbox, I’ll be ready to capture the learning moment when a someone asks me “tell me the number.”