computer engineering, microarchitecture, also called computer organization and sometimes abbreviated as µarch or uarch, is the way a given instruction set architecture (ISA) is implemented in a particular processor.[1] A given ISA may be implemented with different microarchitectures;[2][3] implementations may vary due to different goals of a given design or due to shifts in technology.[4]

In general, an ISA defines the supported instructions, data types, registers, the hardware support for managing main memory, fundamental features (such as the memory consistency, addressing modes, virtual memory), and the input/output model of a family of implementations of the ISA.

一開始就漏聽兩題覺得很不妙， 不過馬上調整心情和姿勢， 原本我是很認真地低頭看題目駝背， 手隨時準備要寫字那樣，搞得自己很緊繃， 很容易左耳進右耳出， 後來抬起頭挺起肩膀坐正聽，有時候筆還會放下， 這樣對我很有幫助，因為平常人在聽別人說話的時候， 絕不會刻意很緊繃很認真聽「每一個字」，大概都是聽懂意思就好， 當我刻意要去聽每一個字的時候，很難同時理解全面的意思 例如: so next year when you are in the second year of the course, you need to work really hard in all your theatre studies modules. 如果太刻意去聽每一個字，so. next. year. when. you. are. ... 會反而抓不到重點在哪，而且如果沒理解意思， 在考試中要去回想到底講了那些字，簡直是不太可能的事。 但如果有聽懂整個句子，聽完後大概可以抓到 關鍵字是the second year, theatre studies modules, 有懂我的意思可能會覺得這有什麼．．． 因為正常人自然接受訊息就是這樣吧？ 但過度緊張或專注真的很容易落入這誤區阿阿～～ 雖說我認為不用專注去聽每個字， 因為完全聽懂自然可以抓到關鍵字， 但不是說專注力不重要！！！

Let's look at a concrete example before going deeper. Consider someone who calls himself Cookie Monster. Saying that he is a cookie monster conveys the idea that there is a group of entities that are each called cookie monster, and he is one of them. Saying that he is the cookie monster conveys either that the 'group' of entities really has only one member (him), or that he is the most outstanding member of the group. In each case, the focus is on some kind of classification scheme. Saying that he is cookie monster says something about him personally - he really enjoys cookies, eat them messily, etc.

In the first example, Doctor is being used as the name of the person; the doctor is more of a descriptive phrase. It's short for Doctor <his name>. tend bar is a set phrase, it's a synonym for being a bartender. It's also similar to the way other people describe their work: a mailman could say I deliver mail, a programmer would say I write code, a garbageman would say I collect garbage, and a composer would say I write music. These are all using the noun to refer to the general concept, rather than any specific item, so no article is needed. You would add an article when you need to be specific, e.g. I write the music in TV commercials. ShareShare a link to this answer (Includes your user id)Copy linkCC BY-SA 3.0 Edit Follow Follow this answer to receive notifications answered Apr 15 '15 at 21:18 BarmarBarmar 15.2k11 gold badge2525 silver badges4242 bronze badges 13 3 Your examples suggest bar is a mass noun, but I don't believe it functions as such— the entire phrase refers to an activity. It's more like saying I play ball than I write music. – choster Apr 15 '15 at 21:25 @choster There are varying degrees of cohesiveness in these verb + noun strings. They're very hard to categorise accurately. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 20 '18 at 0:40 @EdwinAshworth True. My last example would be perfectly fine if it were I write music in TV commercials and a mailman could say I deliver the mail. – Barmar Jan 20 '18 at 0:42 And we've had the 'He's in hospital / *'He's in infirmary' / 'He's in theatre' / *'He's in ward' kerfuffle. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 20 '18 at 0:57 @EdwinAshworth Those are also AmEn vs BrEn differences. We don't say "in hospital" here in America. – Barmar Jan 20 '18 at 1:00

我自己是如果太緊繃要聽懂每個字反而會影響我理解整體段落的理解，所以我會先以聽懂整體為主．接著再訓練專注力去聽懂每個字，這樣填空題型才有辦法寫喔！等你題目做多了，訓練到比較會抓重點了，就會知道有哪些地方可以小放鬆一下，哪些地方要認真聽！希望對你有幫助。

SEMICOLONSKnowing when to use semicolons is easier if you follow a few simple rules.1. Use a semicolon to join two related complete thoughts (sentences/independent clauses) without using a conjunction.The thunderstorm began just as the audience was leaving; Janet was glad she had taken her umbrella with her to the concert. 2. Use a semicolon to join two related complete thoughts when using conjunctive adverbs (sometimes thought of as transitional words or phrases). Note that a comma follows the conjunction.The thunderstorm began just as the audience was leaving; consequently, Janet was glad she had taken her umbrella with her to the concert. 3. Use semicolons to separate items in parts of a series that already contain commas.The menu included brisket, chicken, and pork barbeque; potato, garden, and fruit salads; cherry cobbler, apple pie, and banana pudding for dessert.

I have noticed that some of my friends who are Indian tend to speak English too fast and run all of the syllables together without pronouncing them properly. So every time they say something I have to ask them to repeat it. To make a good impression, speak slowly and pronounce every syllable. Practice reading out loud, concentrating on pronunciation. Make eye contact.

If you got to the interview, then the company is interested in what you can do for them. They must already know you have poor English. It is probably best to lead with your best hand. There is no need to defend your poor English because it is obvious. Just talk about what you know how to do and how well you fit the job being offered.

For openers, don’t say “fastly”, because there is no such word in English. Also, learn to check your typing so you don’t write “Bur” when you intended “But”. In my opinion you would make a terrible mistake by trying to defend your low skill in English. It is simply an inadequacy you have, and presumably are interested in overcoming. I think it will serve you better to memorize the following speech, and practice saying it until it flows out quickly and easily, with no hesitation or errors. Say this just as the interview begins: “I am very pleased to meet you, Mr. _______. Thank you for granting me this interview. “Before we begin, please let me apologize for my inadequate English skill. I may use some incorrect words, or pronounce some words improperly. I may not be able to answer some questions suitably, because I might lack the right words. “I hope to show you that I have the technical knowledge needed for this position, and that I have the skills and work ethic needed to do the job well. “I am currently working very hard to correct my deficiencies in English, and I believe I can accomplish that soon. I have had great success in learning other languages rapidly, but I have not yet devoted enough attention to developing fluency in English. Please understand that achieving skill in English is my highest priority.” This, I believe, will gain you a very sympathetic ear, and will lead to a very productive interview.

Probably. Reading books and watching movies are fine, but they don’t do much for your active verbal expression. Each aspect of language use — receptive and expressive, reading, writing and speaking — needs to be practiced. And you aren’t getting enough practice speaking and “thinking on your feet.” Work on that and it’ll improve.

Yes, it is normal. Reading English books and watching English movies are passive skills that require the person to absorb only. Your brain stores information. Also, 95% of what you absorb will be lost in time. Not very encouraging but that’s just the reality of it. In order to improve thought process and speech fluency, you have to start using the information that your brain has absorbed. One way is to write summaries and articles on books and movies you have read/seen. Another is learning to articulate your words by practising speaking before a mirror and watch how your mouth/tongue moves as you pronounce words. But the most important way to improve is human interaction. Human interaction calls for your brain to have immediate action and reaction through listening, processing, filtering and then speaking. Daily conversations is the best avenue for improvement. All the best!

If you don’t have experience actually speaking English, preferably in a similar or at least similarly complex situation, and especially if you didn’t even spend quite a lot of time practicing (aloud or at least in your thoughts) what you could say in such a situation - no wonder that you weren’t able to speak very well, actually it would be quite a miracle if you had been able to! Namely, speaking is a different skill from reading and listening, and for most people much more difficult, and most people also need to practice it separately. It took me about a month of working and living nearly every awake moment in an English-speaking environment to start speaking English fluently - after I was already writing fluently, already passing for a native speaker in writing. Many people are quicker than that, but nearly everyone needs quite some practice. And even if you have generally had practice speaking English and can speak it fluently in everyday situations, it is still normal to have trouble because of being stressed out and afraid of the job interview, and/or because of the specific vocabulary it requires. In any case, doing practice job interviews with another person who can speak English, or at least with yourself, should help. This is often needed/ helpful also for job interviews in the native language.

Let me ask you straight question. Did you learned any words and tried using it with someone, or at least in front of the mirror? If you’ve done this, you wouldn't be asking this. When try to speak or try to talk with someone, at first you make mistakes, and that’s very common. Do not be ashamed of who you are. I had this same problem but with Hindi. Even though I learned Hindi in school I couldn’t be fluent. At times I made blunder mistakes especially when I was in Bangalore. I still remember the incident, a guy laughed at me for uttering a word wrong. And he did correct me at the very moment, but at that time I felt very awkward. But later I got many Hindi speaking friends and I got fluent in HIndi now. Same with you amigo, if you don’t let your hands get dirt then no pay off. Try, try, try, eventually you’ll get it.51 views · View 1 upvote

I’ve interviewed a lot of candidates in the past 30 years, and these cases are always the most difficult to adjudicate. On the one hand, millions of brilliant programmers don’t speak great English. On the other hand, if it take twice as long to hold every conversation, that makes for a difficult work relationship. Certainly it makes the face-to-face interview awkward depending on the relative skill level. I’ll put up a ballpark figure and say that “bad English” is a 20% handicapping factor. In other words, out of a 100 points, your grasp of English probably accounts for 20 points.

There is one way coding, improve your problem solving skills by doing competitive programming and learn development in a specific language, if you have these skills , english or communication skill will be a secondary thing and you also need to improve that for which the best way is to watch english tv shows and movies. Good luck

Like this, I am not sure about the HR rounds. But yes, in technical rounds when my type interviewer finds a candidate is struggling with English, answering a particular question, we say “Are you comfortable in Hindi ?!, Please go ahead in Hindi” And once you answered well. Cheers, You are selected. I am not supporting you should not improve your communication skills, you must, because that's your first impression these days. Good luck :)

As a technical person writing code, all they need is the ability to understand and communicate so that work can progress without any misunderstanding. They are looking for high technical aptitude and a medium satisfactory English speaking aptitude. I have seen foreign people continuously attempt to gain English proficiency while on the job and enhance it just like any other skill. For non-technical positions,higher proficiency is required and in most cases you are required to pass IELTS academic. HTH

The US isn’t particularly tolerant of workers who cannot communicate in English. If you want to be on good projects and you want to be promoted, you need at least good conversational english, with accent minimal enough to be understood, plus a complete grasp of technical english for your profession.

The English language has evolved in too many ways to just settle down with one variant or dialect. You must have a thorough knowledge of all variants of the English languageYou must not depend on Spell Check to conform to UK English or US English or AU EnglishGrammar must be impeccable. Surprisingly Americans enjoy the British accent and dialect; and some may choose to use that as a "brand identity" - you need to be aware of the nuancesSoftware companies often don't care about this; but their clients do. Which means it may not appear in a job interview but when you speak with your clients having a good handle on the preferred variant would be a huge bonus. And a reason for that client to specifically ask for YOU to be their support person / service manager. In my work with clients in India and abroad, I've generally found they they understand the Indian accent fairly well - as long as the words and phrases used are suitable to the region. If you use a heavy Texan accent while talking to someone native to Norway, chances are they won't understand you too well. Sometimes, albeit rarely, you need a translator. Yes English to English translation is a possibility wherein complex words and phrases native to one culture need to be put in context while talking to a different culture. In fewer words: Learn Everything. Keep Learning.

Yes. If your English isn't good you may have trouble understanding and may have trouble being understood. That's bound to make things difficult. However, if it's good enough, you don't have to worry about it. The interviewer will do their best to communicate, and they are unlikely to be biased against non-native speakers, because probably most people at Google aren't.

It is not mandatory to be fluent in English but it is necessary that you learn enough English to communicate your thoughts and opinions and understands others. English is a universal language and so it is important to know basic level English in order to work for multi-national companies like Google.

Every answer to every single doubt in your life solely depends on what you want to do and where you want to reach. If you want to be a content reviewer, knowing English-movie level English is more than enough. If you want to be a person who documents stuff, its always better if you are spot on in your written English. If you want to be somebody who wants to travel to different countries and communicate with different people, well you definitely should be a man with words. And if you end up to be somebody like me, a Software Developer, the only English that you'll be expected to speak is the extent of the Programming Language. It might seem as a done and dusted script, but in the long run, only hard work pays off and shows the character you're made of.Depends what you are working hard on and for.If you know that the only goal for you is to see the view from a mountain top and wave to a friend, be wise and finish it in the daylight. Cheers!

Brij Bhushan Tripathi, Software Developer at SAP Labs India (2017-present)Updated November 23, 2018I have been a hindi medium student. When I joined college, I faced the same problem. Initially I thought that this is because my Grammer is weak. So, I worked on it a bit. But still, I was not able to speak English fluently. Then I realized that to speak any language, you do not necessarily need to learn its grammar (although, it's highly recommended). As a child, I started speaking hindi when I was 2 years old but the Grammer was taught to me years later. All you need is confidence that whatever you are speaking is correct. But gaining such confidence is easier said than done. I mean, how do you convince yourself that you are good at something when you know you are not. Then I realized that a big part of any language is spoken using a limited set of words and phrases. So, now it was time to learn those frequently used words and phrases. For this, I started watching a lot of English TV series and news stories. Now, I started gaining confidence. I could have a conversation with my south Indian friends in English who were not good at Hindi. But still, I used to choke in pressure situation. I could not ask questions in lectures. I could not make announcements from the stage. I could not talk to my crush. To solve this issue, I started talking to myself in English. I used to read a single news topic from 3-4 sources. Then, I would stand in front of a mirror and talk to myself regarding that particular news item. This gave me more confidence and also improved my accent a bit. After all this, I was fairly comfortable with English. now, I was able to have a proper conversation in English. Initially, I failed at some instances but that is a part of any learning curve. Now I needed to improve my vocabulary. I believe there is no shortcut to it. I have been reading English news paper for the same. Also, I try listening to people speaking English. it gives me an idea of common mistakes that people make while speaking. For example, a lot of people use second form of verb @with ‘did’. Whenever I find such issues, I make sure to not make the same mistake myself. During the whole process, it's important to stay positive. Always remember that it's okay to be bad at a language that you have never spoken. There is nothing wrong with it. I am not saying that my English is perfect. Probably there are some mistakes in this answer itself. But with my current level, I can have a comfortable conversation with client sitting in US. I can talk properly in an interview. In most of the situations, English is not a thing for me to worry about. I hope it helps.

Start thinking in English so you would get every word in your mind… if you think in other languages like Hindi or so you need to translate the words & there you find difficulty to look for words… Stop translating start thinking in English… definitely it would improve your vocabulary & speaking skills ….

Like the others said - Read. But, one more thing can help - talk to yourself when you are alone - in English! You could rehearse some lines in front of a mirror, record yourself and play back and improve. With time, fluency will come.You could ask a friend to be your sounding board for your English speaking experiments and have them correct you when you go wrong. Make your "to-do" lists in English and keep reading them out to yourself. Include some English speaking related tasks daily - for instance, think up some scenario and your response in English to that. Say you wish to discuss the weather with somebody, or the nature of your job. Every day carry on an imaginary conversation with yourself in English, record it, play it back, check your mistakes, correct the sentences and say them again. I really hope this helped because you seem so keen to do a good job with conversational English, that I am sure you can succeed with some perseverance.

Sure. A lot of people with limited knowledge or even no knowledge of English work here. You can certainly find a job but it may not be what you want to do. Best option is to work for a person from your own country who is fluent in English and has his or her own business where most of the customers are also from your own country. He or she may own a retail store, gas station (petrol station), hair or beauty salon, landscaping or construction company, restaurant, etc. You will need to communicate with your owner to do most or all of your work and most of the customers or clients will also be from your own country. While working in such an environment you can also work on learning English. There are many resources available in US for speakers of other languages who want to learn English1.1K views · View 2 upvotes

If you are able to put your ideas and thoughts in an understandable way for another person to get what you want to convey. Take it simply like you talk in your native language saying what you want to say. Try being yourself and speak without keeping in mind what you think about your communication skills. And this is something definitely you can work on to get better at it. Youtube has lots of resources to help you improve with your communication skills. And with regular trails, people get better at it.

Yes. You will get a job. There are many jobs that do not require excellent communication skills in English. If you can communicate with clarity, listen carefully to what others have to say, you have qualified for the job. You must be fluent in the local languages that also helps you in the job. Besides, learning English is not difficult at all. By practice, you can master this language and the best way is to keep talking and listening. When someone corrects you, thank them and move on and not get bogged down by criticism.

Jens Hartmann, Head of Learning & Development at Barrett Consulting Group (2012-present)Answered February 9, 2017Originally Answered: Is it possible find work, if I don't speak English very well?When I have interviews with people I always look for their willingness to learn. If they didn’t even bother to learn the language used in my company, I’d be worried how well they would learn the other stuff they needed to know to work here. It doesn’t matter if your English isn’t very good yet, if you showed that you are working on it and are eager to get better then I would be happy with that.

Knowing fluent English is not a prerequisite to get a job. However, it depends on the type of job and your own personal ambitions. If you are seeking a job where knowledge of English is a essential or you aspire for growth in your job, then perhaps it is possible that poor communication skills in English could hamper your selection/ progress. The fact that you have drafted your question in Quora without any mistake, suggests to me that your competence in English, is fairly good ( especially when I see a large number of very poorly drafted questions being asked on Quora). Hence all you need to do is keep working on enhancing your competence in English and use it to grow personally and professionally.

poor English speaking will worsen your opportunities in any country to get a software job…. forget about job in US which is their native language and more over its the universal language too.. so I feel it is must ,at least an IELTS band of 6.5 will be good enough

Yes you can get software job without fluency in English. Software industry requires only technical skills but you must be good in that skills. The requirement of good English skill comes after you reach certain level/position. I.e. If you become a project manager you would have to communicate among different departments and customers. So for better understanding of project you must attain good communication skills. I am not focusing on English skills only. You must be a good communicator in your native language also. I have seen people getting stuck on a developer position even after a good set of technical skills and experience. It is necessary when you are looking for jobs in a state other than your native language. There you must have a good English skills to communicate among your colleagues.

However, for getting hired as a software developer, it really doesn’t matter about how much English you know. Software companies look for candidates who have the knowledge and got a fine way of representing it. May be that’s what you should focus on. It’s about standing in a market and selling yourself. And that needs you to know the domain specific English, mostly the technical jargon stitched by few simple words of English.

Well the question is structured very well, so I don't think you have a poor English. Have faith in yourself buddy. Don't get disheartened that you have a weak grip on English. 1.) Be confident. Confidence alone can do wonders. Tell yourself standing infront of the mirror, that you're going to make it and no force in the world, can stop you. 2.) Use simple sentences. Don't rush, take you time. 3.) And if you fail, then it's fine. It's not true that we will win everytime. Sometimes we do fail. But never give up. Work on yourself and surley you will make it.

You can face it (job interview, life quandry, challenge, fear, anxiety, stress, etc.) with bravery, courage, kindness, patience, forgiveness, gratitude, knowledge/wisdom (you know that you'll do the best you can with what you have/know), and the ability to laugh at yourself. (:

First of all, I'm not going to sugarcoat saying, tackling interviews is easy with bad English. No, they are not. But, on the bright side, interviews are more about what else you do apart from speak well. So, concentrate on that part. Learn the basic grammar. Keep your sentences short, crisp and relevant.Don't let the hesitation or the feeling that you are bad at something, cloud your clarity about things you clearly know. This in my opinion should be sufficient to face any interview.

The one thing I am not sure about is, the eligibility criteria for the interview that the you are going for. If Spoken English is one of their major assessment criteria, I think you shouldn’t go unprepared. Start planning and preparing for the interview if you still have time. You could try these:Do mock interviewsPrepare good answers for most frequently asked questionsTry to exhibit confidence in your voice and body languageBe sincere in your answersRead about the company in detailHope it’s of use!

First of all, I'm so happy that you've accepted your limitation and you want to make an attempt to overcome it. The only way you can get better at English is by using it as frequently as possible. So, start conversing with people in English. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Everyone does. Just don't give up. People will laugh and try to pull you down, yes! Ignore those bastards! Interviewers are nothing but people. And they make grammar mistakes too. And more than your language, it's the skill you possess that matters. So, go out. Stay positive. Talk to whoever you meet. Do not be afraid to learn! We're not perfect either. Cheers to your spirit,love! :)

I once had to hire a software engineer. The job required some knowledge of classical physics. In the end the choice was down to two applicants. Both were Vietnamese immigrants. One spoke English very well and already had the necessary knowledge. The other knew no physics at all, and struggled with English. I hired the latter applicant because, despite his weakness in the language, he was open and easy to talk with. The other was more reserved. I felt that I could easily teach the latter the physics he would need, and that he would be motivated to follow directions. He worked out very well. I wrote all the physics he would need to know on seven pages. He successfully worked from that. By the time I left that company he was ready to fill my shoes as the new software director.

Does’t matter. Face it and experience it. There is nothing for you to lose but gain. Once you are rejected, you will have following things for next one. a) What basic questions Interviewer does ask ? Prepare them for next one. b) Confidence . it will help you in next one. PS:- Learn grammar. Improve listening skill, Start writing about your daily activity, at last but not least- “start speaking” . PPS:- Watch Hollywood movies with subtitles and repeat the dialogue .

You have rated yourself as “really bad” in speaking English. What efforts have you taken to improve? I’m sure you must have made some efforts and you feel that it’s not good enough compared to those who have studied in English medium schools . If what you say is understood by others, you are doing fine. Now coming to impress the IO. At SSBs the IO is evaluating your personality qualities from what you answer to his questions. For example, if you are asked to narrate your daily routine, you must arrange your thoughts sequentially, narrating essentials events of your day and how you manage your time, how you take responsibilities, how you interact with others in the day etc etc. Please be reminded that spoken English, pronunciation etc. improves with time and interaction with others in company. In my case, although I am from an English medium school, my spoken English was far from the English spoken by other cadets in my course. However, with passage of time and my eagerness to improve, I was as fluent as others. You will find the other candidates who come for ssb are as good/bad as you are. My sincere advice is not to have any complex about spoken English. There are many other things to emphasize on. Now, some tips for you to improve are:Try speaking to your family members and friends in English only.Listen to English news on TV . Admire and try to emulate the anchor.Pick up topics and speak on them to your family members or friends and if there’s no audience, speak to the mirror. Record your speech in your cell phone and notice the areas that could be improved. I am sure, your speech on the 7th day would be much much better than the one recorded on the first day.Finally, have the confidence that you are the best learner and can do it.Best wishes.

Whenever you are about to face an interview, the most important thing is to be confident, how you are presenting matters the most and whether you know or don't know any answer try not to get nervous .When it comes to english, try to use simple present tense and past tense while framing sentences. Always try to keep them simple and understandable. While facing any interview, there will be a set of common questions asked for all except your field knowledge. Before attending any interview, find out those questions, make a list of them and start practicing them in home.Afterall, practice makes a man perfect. So even if you are not fluent still you can easily crack any interview. Keep trying and giving interview, even if you don't get selected, you will gain experience which will be helpful while giving next inteeerview. In the end I would say just FACE IT ALL. YOU will crack it easily.

中低端3.0顯示卡插到 2.0主機板上 沒什麼問題！PCI-E是一個序列介面標準，分1.0，2.0，3.0每個版本之間的區別只是頻寬不同，也就是速度差異，他們向下相容，也就是3.0相容2.0相容1.0後面的X16的意思是16個通道，因為他是序列匯流排，所以顯示的就是多少倍。現行的有X1 X4 X8 X16比較常見，從效能影響來說，如果你的是PCI-E 2.0 X16的介面那麼頻寬已經足以滿足現在的顯示卡使用了，所以基本沒有效能損失，如果是中低端的顯示卡PCI-E 1.0 X16都不會有任何效能損失。最新的主機板都是PCI-E 3.0的了，但是其實根本用不上，除非發燒級雙核心顯示卡才會用到如此高的頻寬。現在PCI-E 3.0 / 2.0的顯示卡 插到主機板的 PCI-E 3.0 X16 或 PCI-E 2.0 X16插槽上， 基本上看不出有什麼影響，效能影響微乎其微，除了那些最頂級的顯示卡以外。反倒是假如 把顯示卡插入了主機板的 PCI-E 2.0 X4 插槽的話，顯示卡效能會降低20%左右。所以顯示卡是2.0 還是3.0 這個無所謂，關鍵還是主機板是 X16倍速、還是X4倍速。

Senior management’s commitment and participation are vital for an organization to become market focused but not sufficient for prolonged success. For maximum results, the market-focused mind-set must invade the entire organization. For example, consider the employees at a Weyerhaeuser sawmill located in the small community of Cottage Grove, Oregon. Far from headquarters in Tacoma, Washington, the general manager of this mill started a program that distinguished his operation from Weyerhaeuser’s other mills in terms of productivity, product profitability, and morale. A cross-section of Cottage Grove employees, from the general manager to forklift drivers, began spending a week at a time as “employees” of their customers. The shipping manager, for instance, ended up working on the receiving dock of a California distribution center. Customer-service representatives worked as a sales assistants in Builders Emporium and Home Depot stores. They were there to look, listen, and learn—not to sell.

alco and Betz encouraged managers to spend time investigating customer needs. Over time, both companies concluded that taking over the water-treatment process themselves would result in benefits all around. So they each developed service businesses. For a monthly fee, Nalco and Betz offered to become the industrial facilities’ on-site partners, guaranteeing the best available handling of all water-treatment issues. Customers could focus on their core businesses. Betz and Nalco would provide not only the chemicals but also highly valued technical services. Did customers approach Nalco and Betz management and say, “We wish you would take over our water treatment?” No. It had never occurred to them that a supplier could eliminate their frustrations. Nalco’s and Betz’s managers, by focusing on their customers’ problems, saw the potential benefit themselves. In fact, the idea wasn’t accepted by all customers right away. Both companies spent several years convincing customers to give up their water-treatment functions. But the new businesses they created turned out to be immensely profitable.

Originally, both Nalco and Betz thought of themselves simply as manufacturers and distributors of chemical products that were used in water-treatment processes. Like many such companies, they dropped bags and drums of chemicals at receiving docks and charged by the pound. They competed on the basis of price, service, and quality of products. Fortunately, Nalco and Betz both had cultures that encouraged senior managers and sales representatives to spend a lot of time in the field listening to customers. As a result, top-level executives became more intimately familiar with their customers’ needs. And it became clear that industrial users did not want to deal with water-treatment problems. Maintenance department personnel, for example, wanted to focus on boiler and steam problems, the core of their duties. They did not want to go to water-treatment conferences. Nor did they have time to read the manuals on the subject.

Customers can describe their experiences and define their immediate needs. But only you can interpret their data and help them solve their problems. Being market focused is about your own creativity uncovering and solving your customers’ problems. Creative managers must bring insights and expertise to their customers’ problems.

Without the personal involvement and interest of senior management, it is unlikely that these options would have surfaced. From a practical standpoint, they look like much too big an investment to serve the needs of just one customer. And think of the leverage needed to advocate and nurture such radical options through the existing Chevron structure. Isn’t it the stuff of which career-ending moves are made? But if the benefits for the mining company, the chemical company, and Chevron are large enough, any such investment can justify itself in short order. And that’s just one chain. Chevron is still investigating its options in this area, and its plans currently remain confidential. But imagine the degree of strategic freedom created for the company by these senior level insights. Chevron has moved away from the win-lose game of commodity negotiation and entered the win-win world of differentiation.

Four simple rules can help managers practice market-focused management. 1. Recognize that ‘customer’ means more than the next step in the distribution chain. An important corollary: do not think of your marketplace offering as a commodity. The first step to being market focused: recognize that your customer is more than the next step in the distribution chain.

Wireline’s managers might have spotted the need for segmented services by analyzing the company’s market in a traditional way. But it is very difficult for a large, established corporation, especially one with a fixed culture like Wireline’s, to commit to significant organizational change when that change involves a down-market move. As Wireline’s general manager put it, only the direct experience of spending a day with the San Antonio dentist, from a morning at the office fixing cavities to an afternoon walk in the oil patch, compelled Wireline to redesign its truck and move beyond its elitist mind-set to compete in the smaller property segment

When senior managers spend a day in the life of their customers, the rewards are twofold. First, the experience generates new insights into business opportunities, reawakening managers’ instincts and challenging their senses. It also becomes the catalyst for action. Rather than looking at their customers through a one-way mirror, market-focused managers feel their customers’ stresses, joys, disappointments, and rewards. From this personal involvement comes the conviction needed to drive organizational change.

There were to be still other surprises. In the middle of the afternoon, the Chicago printer told the Woodbridge team, “One of the most irritating things for me is the fact that you keep delivering paper in 100-inch rolls. My printing press is 95 inches wide. The first thing I do is chop off 5 inches of product, which creates a lot of scrap and an additional labor operation. I’ve been complaining about this for years.” “That’s news to me,” said Woodbridge’s manufacturing vice president, glaring at the sales rep. It seemed that communication gaps also existed at Woodbridge. “It would be worth studying the engineering to see if we could align the width of our machine with yours,” the Woodbridge engineering services manager said. “Our machine, as far as I know, works only for printing and packaging applications, and most of your colleagues must have similar presses. The only reason we made the paper as wide as we did is that it is generally accepted in the industry that the wider the machine, the cheaper it can make the product.” “If the engineering study works out, we could charge you by the usable square yard rather than by the pound as we do today,” the marketing vice president suggested. “I would like that,” the Chicago printer said, beaming. “I sell square inches of printed stuff, not pounds.” The two sketched out the rough parameters of the engineering, the new economics of the redesigned paper machine, and the associated pricing.

To the surprise of the soup contingent, the first battery of questions didn’t touch on paper or printing. Instead, the Woodbridge delegation asked questions that focused on soup manufacturing and marketing: problems they had, issues they faced, how they could increase their own profit.

Top-level managers need to spend a day in the life of key customers in their distribution chains. There is no substitute for managers’ instincts, imagination, and personal knowledge of the market. It should be the essence of corporate strategy. Only in that context can analytical devices like customer-satisfaction indices, market-share data, and benchmarking results become servants rather than masters. And only with market-focused leadership can companies continuously and quickly reinvent themselves to meet new market needs.

This failure to listen carefully to all customers, to empathize with their needs and desires, results in reduced service levels, streamlined product lines, and uniform product designs. It inadvertently favors cost reduction at the expense of individuality, even when market needs point toward greater customization. What’s more, managers who are not market focused often come to the conclusion that there is really no fundamental difference between their offering and that of their competitors. Commoditization, the natural outgrowth of all competitors fighting with the same weapons, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. And commoditization is why so many industrial companies that embraced time-based competition or reengineering may have realized short-term gains but have ended up destroying their industries’ profit margins. If all competitors fight with the same weapons, the natural result is commoditization and declining profit margins.

Finally, unless senior executives make market focus a personal, strategic priority, they will not initiate organizational change, even if all data indicate that such change is warranted. Most top-level managers routinely spend time visiting customers. But all too often, these visits are superficial; the managers don’t invest the effort needed to understand and empathize with the customer. They may have preconceived ideas about a client’s situation and, as a result, may not ask imaginative, probing questions or separate significant kernels of information from the overall picture.

Another danger is that most managers do not understand the distinction between information and knowledge. Even if they include information from all points on the distribution channel, most general market data do not show a manager how each customer relates to the next or how customers view competing products or services. Managers faced with too much general information tend to average results, blur boundaries, and miss distinct, segmented market opportunities

Each link in the chain right down to the end user is as important as the next. Only market data that reflects desires and needs at every step can give senior managers the kind of comprehensive picture they need to make informed, accurate decisions about new services, product positioning, and the like. For consumer goods companies like Coca-Cola, Gillette, and Nike, the chain is short, so even information that doesn’t reflect all steps will probably be on or near target. But for industrial concerns, several steps removed from the end users of a finished product, such an error can result in a grossly inaccurate portrayal of the market.

. Each link in the chain right down to the end user is as important as the next. Only market data that reflects desires and needs at every step can give senior managers the kind of comprehensive picture they need to make informed, accurate decisions about new services, product positioning, and the like.

A senior executive’s instinctive capacity to empathize with and gain insights from customers is the single most important skill he or she can use to direct technologies, product and service offerings, communications programs, indeed, all elements of a company’s strategic posture. Bill Gates, Akio Morita, Sam Walton, and others brought this ability to the enterprises they founded. Without it, their ventures might have been short-lived or at least far less successful.

We behave in needy ways when we feel bad about ourselves. We try to use the affection and approval of others to compensate for the lack of affection and approval for ourselves. And that is another root cause of our dating problems: our inability to take care of ourselves.

A needy person stays at a soul-crushing job they hate because of the prestige it gives them in the eyes of their friends, family, and peers. A non-needy person values their time and skills more than what other people think and will find work that fulfills and challenges them based on their own values.

Think about it, if you’re acting needy, you’re trying to get someone to think of you in a certain way or act a certain way towards you for your own benefit. Think about the way you feel when someone is blatantly trying to sell you something with high-pressure, salesy tricks. It just feels wrong. It’s a similar feeling when someone is acting in a certain way just to get you to like them.

Fighting well. Fighting is inevitable. But there are good and bad ways to fight. When a couple is good at fighting, they defuse tension, approach things with humor, and genuinely listen to the other side, while avoiding getting nasty, personal or defensive. They also fight less often than a bad couple. According to John Gottman, 69% of a typical couple’s fights are perpetual, based on core differences, and cannot be resolved—and a skilled couple understands this and refrains from engaging in these brawls again and again.9

Maintaining equality. Relationships can slip into an unequal power dynamic pretty quickly. When one person’s mood always dictates the mood in the room, when one person’s needs or opinion consistently prevail over the other’s, when one person can treat the other in a way they’d never stand for being treated themselves—you’ve got a problem.

Acceptance of human flaws. You’re flawed. Like, really flawed. And so is your current or future life-partner. Being flawed is part of the definition of being a human. And one of the worst fates would be to spend most of your life being criticized for your flaws and reprimanded for continuing to have them. This isn’t to say people shouldn’t work on self-improvement, but when it comes to a life partnership, the healthy attitude is, “Every person comes with a set of flaws, these are my partner’s, and they’re part of the package I knowingly chose to spend my life with.”

From afar, a great marriage is a sweeping love story, like a marriage in a book or a movie. And that’s a nice, poetic way to look at a marriage as a whole. But human happiness doesn’t function in sweeping strokes, because we don’t live in broad summations—we’re stuck in the tiny unglamorous folds of the fabric of life, and that’s where our happiness is determined.

The Needs-Driven Everyone has needs, and everyone likes those needs to be met, but problems arise when the meeting of needs—she cooks for me, he’ll be a great father, she’ll make a great wife, he’s rich, she keeps me organized, he’s great in bed—becomes the main grounds for choosing someone as a life partner. Those listed things are all great perks, but that’s all they are—perks. And after a year of marriage, when the needs-driven person is now totally accustomed to having her needs met and it’s no longer exciting, there better be a lot more good parts of the relationship she’s chosen or she’s in for a dull ride.

Fear is one of the worst possible decision-makers when it comes to picking the right life partner. Unfortunately, the way society is set up, fear starts infecting all kinds of otherwise-rational people, sometimes as early as the mid-twenties. The types of fear our society (and parents, and friends) inflict upon us—fear of being the last single friend, fear of being an older parent, sometimes just fear of being judged or talked about—are the types that lead us to settle for a not-so-great partnership. The irony is that the only rational fear we should feel is the fear of spending the latter two thirds of life unhappily, with the wrong person—the exact fate the fear-driven people risk because they’re trying to be risk-averse

Externally-Influenced Ed lets other people play way too big a part in the life partner decision. The choosing of a life partner is deeply personal, enormously complicated, different for everyone, and almost impossible to understand from the outside, no matter how well you know someone. As such, other people’s opinions and preferences really have no place getting involved, other than an extreme case involving mistreatment or abuse. The saddest example of this is someone breaking up with a person who would have been the right life partner because of external disapproval or a factor the chooser doesn’t actually care about (religion is a common one) but feels compelled to stick to for the sake of family insistence or expectations. It can also happen the opposite way, where everyone in someone’s life is thrilled with his relationship because it looks great from the outside, and even though it’s not actually that great from the inside, Ed listens to others over his own gut and ties the knot.

Sharon is more concerned with the on-paper description of her life partner than the inner personality beneath it. There are a bunch of boxes that she needs to have checked—things like his height, job prestige, wealth-level, accomplishments, or maybe a novelty item like being foreign or having a specific talent. Everyone has certain on-paper boxes they’d like checked, but a strongly ego-driven person prioritizes appearances and résumés above even the quality of her connection with her potential life partner when weighing things. If you want a fun new term, a significant other whom you suspect was chosen more because of the boxes they checked than for their personality underneath is a “scan-tron boyfriend” or a “scan-tron wife,” etc.—because they correctly fill out all the bubbles. I’ve gotten some good mileage out of that one.

The “My Way or the Highway” Type This person cannot handle sacrifice or compromise. She believes her needs and desires and opinions are simply more important than her partner’s, and she needs to get her way in almost any big decision. In the end, she doesn’t want a legitimate partnership, she wants to keep her single life and have someone there to keep her company. This person inevitably ends up with at best a super easy-going person, and at worst, a pushover with a self-esteem issue, and sacrifices a chance to be part of a team of equals, almost certainly limiting the potential quality of her marriage.

The Main Character The Main Character’s tragic flaw is being massively self-absorbed. He wants a life partner who serves as both his therapist and biggest admirer, but is mostly uninterested in returning either favor. Each night, he and his partner discuss their days, but 90% of the discussion centers around his day—after all, he’s the main character of the relationship. The issue for him is that by being incapable of tearing himself away from his personal world, he ends up with a sidekick as his life partner, which makes for a pretty boring 50 years.

So when you take a bunch of people who aren’t that good at knowing what they want in a relationship, surround them with a society that tells them they have to find a life partner but that they should under-think, under-explore, and hurry up, and combine that with biology that drugs us as we try to figure it out and promises to stop producing children before too long, what do you get? A frenzy of big decisions for bad reasons and a lot of people messing up the most important decision of their life. Let’s take a look at some of the common types of people who fall victim to all of this and end up in unhappy relationships

In our world, the major rule is to get married before you’re too old—and “too old” varies from 25 – 35, depending on where you live. The rule should be “whatever you do, don’t marry the wrong person,” but society frowns much more upon a 37-year-old single person than it does an unhappily married 37-year-old with two children. It makes no sense—the former is one step away from a happy marriage, while the latter must either settle for permanent unhappiness or endure a messy divorce just to catch up to where the single person is.

And when you choose a life partner, you’re choosing a lot of things, including your parenting partner and someone who will deeply influence your children, your eating companion for about 20,000 meals, your travel companion for about 100 vacations, your primary leisure time and retirement friend, your career therapist, and someone whose day you’ll hear about 18,000 times.

This research suggests why teaching by the case method is favored at many institutions, including Harvard Business School.  A well-run case-based discussion constantly challenges students. As they are asked to diagnose and debate solutions to a given situation, there is rarely an easy or obvious answer. They must derive their own, which enhances their learning. Teaching also becomes harder, of course. These methods demand creativity and continuous updating to ensure they’re grounded in real, current organizational issues, and they take more time. But the experience becomes more fun and fruitful for everyone

Fortunately, there are a number of proven ways to strengthen mental storage. The best learning and teaching strategies incorporate various forms of what Bjork terms “desirable difficulty.” Some examples: interleaving different tasks and materials instead of focusing on just one for a big block of time; allowing students to make mistakes and learn from them; requiring students to interpret new material in light of what they already know; and using testing as a mode of instruction rather than evaluation.

Unfortunately, real learning — that is, the kind which embeds knowledge and skills in long-term memory — is never simple.  In fact, easy in (little effort to temporarily retain the lesson) typically results in hard out (difficulty in retrieving it when you need it.) Decades of research, most notably by UCLA’s Robert Bjork and his colleagues, have shown several reasons for this apparent paradox.

Both learners and teachers confuse performance during training (termed “retrieval strength”) with long-term retention and the ability to apply the lessons (“storage strength”).  Researchers have shown that, in laboratory tests, people quite consistently have “illusions of competence.” That is, they over-estimate their ability to solve future problems when they’ve been given a lot of help during lessons. When shown answers to questions, experiment subjects are likely to think they could have produced them (“Oh, sure, I knew that!”) And the more familiar the material seems to them, the worse the students do in actually using it. Familiarity breeds complacency.

To survive as a business, you need to treat your customers well. And yet so few of us master this principle.

By ignoring unnecessary details that cause many businesses to expend large amounts of money and time, Sivers was able to rapidly grow the company to $4 million in monthly revenue. In Anything You Want, Sivers wrote: Having no funding was a huge advantage for me. A year after I started CD Baby, the dot-com boom happened. Anyone with a little hot air and a vague plan was given millions of dollars by investors. It was ridiculous. … Even years later, the desks were just planks of wood on cinder blocks from the hardware store. I made the office computers myself from parts. My well-funded friends would spend $100,000 to buy something I made myself for $1,000. They did it saying, “We need the very best,” but it didn’t improve anything for their customers. … It’s counterintuitive, but the way to grow your business is to focus entirely on your existing customers. Just thrill them, and they’ll tell everyone.

Instead of focusing on garnering investors or having large offices, fancy systems, or huge numbers of staff, Sivers focused on making each of his customers happy. An example of this is his famous order confirmation email, part of which reads:

Fear is a signal to do what you fear right now. Do not feed fear by waiting and letting it build.

Success by others is an indication that something is possible. It should inspire you.

ut that’s not how it feels. My brain sees me slightly underperforming and the immediate, visceral sense is: “You’re not good at this, you should stop right now and quit embarrassing yourself.”

Immediately, in the first classes, the overwhelming feeling was, “I hate this.”

Learning, and ultralearning, to me represent the cultivation of these amazing, life-affirming moments. When you get good at something that previously felt impossible for you, your world becomes just a little bit bigger. This expansion of possibility, more than just achieving a goal, is the stuff of happiness itself.

James D. Watson, Francis Crick, and others hypothesized that DNA had a helical structure. This implied that DNA's X-ray diffraction pattern would be 'x shaped'

Predictions from the hypothesis

Any useful hypothesis will enable predictions, by reasoning including deductive reasoning

Scientists often use these terms to refer to a theory that is in accordance with the known facts, but is nevertheless relatively simple and easy to handle.

Calculation