This assumes all life must look like us. Why can't their be "life" on planets that would cook us alive? Pretty narrow view if you ask me.

Do you have one?

1. Understanding your current capacity by phase (initiation, requirements, dev, etc) by Role is critical. if you don't have this you are screwed from the start.
2. before you launch each project have you done discovery to understand business and IS hours needed to complete the project? Costs, ROI, CBA, etc. Basically do you understand the full costs (as best as you can at this point) vs. what you are getting?
3. Do you constantly go back to #2 as you complete each phase? If not you might be doing projects that no longer bring value.
4. Do you understand your strategies to help pick the projects regardless of their cost/benefits? For example if your goals are to win market share but all your projects focus on operational improvements you might have a problem?
5. Building off of #4 do you know all your strategies and what percentage you are focused on for each one? 50% operational improvement, 25% win the market, 10% shake up the market, etc.
6. Do you revisit all of the above as market changes? This should be done quarterly at least.
7. Do you understand how bringing in contractors helps your capacity model? It doesn't matter if you bring in 50 java developers but your bottle neck to testing. 8. Does leadership understand all of the above? are they educated and given data to show the above?

That would at least help your discussions.

How many times should I shake it before it is considered playing with your mouse? :-D

Whiskey!

As an FYI a lot of hospitals and insurance companies already offer care and disease management. It costs less if you can a) either prevent the disease or b) manage it better. But what the data shows is just that they aren't as effective as they need to be because of lack of patient cooperation.

Fun (sad) fact: We ran a pilot that offered free health insurance to a pilot group if people if they went to see a nutritionist once a month and went to the gym few times a month. The calculated effort on the members part was around 10 hours a month. Everyone in the pilot who already took care of themselves did what was asked. Those who didn't already take care of themselves none of them did it or stuck with it. Even for free insurance. Program is being tweaked to see if we can make it better but those initial results were not encouraging.

As for the Hippocratic oath we'll have to agree to disagree. My view is a doctor should use his time on patients willing to make changes to get better. THis leads to better outcomes, more time for the doctor to see more patients, and less overall medical costs. We have data that shows that. I just don't see what a doctor can do if their patient refuses to make the needed changes (quit smoking, better eating, etc).

But I never said they were perfect nor did I say they never make mistakes. There is a difference between let's talk about options vs. i read on the internet that XYZ will kill me so it must be true. vs. fraud that some doctors do.

If my doctor believes in X and I believe in !X it would seem to be a better move for me to find a doctor who thinks like I do vs. wasting people's time and energy. Why would I, as a patient, want to waste my time if every time I talk to them it's the doctor's way or the high way (and vice versa).

But my experience in the healthcare field (backed by a lot of data) is that there is a growing minority that just don't follow what there doctors ask of them. I'm not even talking about controversial things, simple things like you have type 2 don't drink soda and work out and people will just not do it. So why should we bother wasting time on them if they won't help themselves.

A big medical expense savings could be care/disease management. Preventing people for getting type 2 if they show the pre-stage symptoms or how to manage it better if they get it. Do you know why most of these programs fail or fail to achieve the savings? The patient won't put in the effort even when financial compensation is offered.

Given the shortage of nurses, doctors, etc. At some point firings makes 100% sense.

I can see this spreading to people who don't take their pills, don't follow instructions to drop weight and/or exercise, etc.

it's understandable i think. I'm sure they are a lot of new patients who would love to get on a doctor's schedule sooner than later. And a few doctor friends of mind complain about the waste of time and energy on patients (especially those who are obese or have type 2) who just refuse to do anything to better themselves.

Managing your health requires that you actively participate in bettering yourself. I don't care if you are working with an MD, Chiro, new age healer, etc. If you won't do anything to take care of yourself why should you expect people to waste their time on you?

may cause cancer..... ;-)

Sheep herding?

One reason scientist's don't share is because if the data gets out early and gets around (damn slutty data) is that other scientist's might steal/copy/scope/whatever the data. Unless there is a great way to prevent this the suggestion proposed here will never go anywhere.

Yet the banks can be loaned money at 0% so isn't the government losing money then by lending at the rate? So why not have the government lend to people at a higher rate then the banks? The banks aren't loaning the money so it might do more good to lend to the people and free up cash flows for the population vs. a few banks.

The one thing that kills people with student loan debt (or mortgage for that matter) is the high interest rates. If banks can get near 0% loans why can't those with student loans (or again mortgages) refinance to a much lower % (say 1.5% which would more than cover admin costs if you get the money at 0%). While this wouldn't solve the amount of debt someone as it would at least help lower the monthly payments and take some pressure off. It would also help if student loan interest was allowed to be deducted no matter how much you make. I hate seeing that I cannot deduct student loan interest because I make too much money.

But on the other hand the unemployment rate for those with college degrees is about 4.5% which beats the national average ~10%.

I agree with hidden context the parent (though not the pity part) and I'm a tech geek. It may take a lot of skill to do 500 clicks a minute but I don't consider it a sport. A sport IMHO requires a physical component and mental component. So when people tell me their sport of choice is poker I also raise an eyebrow (I don't discriminate). I think in today's society lot of people try to call things sports so they feel better about their lack of physical skills (i.e. poker).

On the flip side I also consider physical activities not a sport. I don't think power lifting is a sport (sorry to all the power lifters). Is it easy? No. Does it require training? Yep? Does it require an ounce of brain power? No, if I go by all the power lifters I've ever meet at the gym, school, etc.

Does that mean things like poker, games, darts, whatever are easy? Not at all especially at high levels of play. But, for me, I don't consider them a sport. Yes you can make a gob of money in them so I don't look down on anyone with the time to be good in their area and bring home the bacon.However that level of play is an exception.

Just my 2 cents...

No stable government...no stable food production. While this does not apply to all developing nations it is a huge issue in many African countries dealing with unrest.

I see your point. Mind you they don't get paid a lot (I think a PVT. gets about 20k/yr?) for what they sacrifice. I'm currently joining the Army Guard and trust me it isn't for the money when compared to just my base salary at work.