One of the earliest dishes I learned to prepare was spaghetti. My efforts involved opening up a can of Chef Boyardee, and heating it up in a sauce pot.
Soon I gravitated to boiling supermarket bought packaged dried pasta, warming up a can or jar of spaghetti sauce, placing it on top of the drained spaghetti, and finishing it off with a sprinkle of Kraft parmesan cheese.
Over time, I experimented with various brands and different types of dried pasta, added a variety of ingredients to the store bought sauce to make it more interesting, and topped off the concoction with selected types of parmesan.
This ritual progressed to making pasta with cottage cheese, or heating up olive oil in a pot or pan, adding the cooked pasta, and then some salt and parmesan to the dish.
Despite trips to Italy where not only did I eat some of the best pasta in the world, but once spent a delightful afternoon, in a small hillside southern Italian town, making pasta from scratch, under the direction of the aging aunt of one of my friends, my pattern of heating up dried pasta, and dousing it with prepared spaghetti sauce persisted for a number of years.
For example, once a week, when my wife would work late, and it was my turn to feed our children, boiling dried pasta and covering it with canned spaghetti sauce was my fall back/go to meal of choice to cook.
But over the past decade not only do supermarkets from Whole Foods to Trader Joes sell dried pasta made out of different ingredients (e.g., rice, etc.), and “fresh pasta” that one can cook at home, but I also started to deliberately improve my cooking skills.
To be fair, cooking fresh pasta presents a slightly different set of challenges, than cooking package dry spaghetti, linguine, fettuccine, etc., but ones that appeared to be easy to master.
Recently, however, I decided to purchase and cook freshly made (and relatively expensive) Pappardelle (pasta), (which is about eight inches in length and laid out in consecutive U shaped rings), from a well-respected local purveyor of Italian food.
At the time I believed that the biggest challenge was deciding among which type of sauce (i.e., tomato, ricotta cheese, or mushrooms) that I would finish the pasta with.
But that was just the beginning of my temporary culinary decent into hell.
I assumed that I knew how to cook the Pappardelle. I had seen my wife cook this dish numerous times and thought it was a no brainer. Or how difficult could this be?
One of my biggest mistakes, however, was assuming that the pasta showed up on the plate the way it was nicely laid out on in the plastic container in which it was bought and that there was no need to separate the individual strands of pasta as they entered the boiling pot of water. I also reckoned that it was not necessary to put oil in to the water and felt confident enough that it was neither necessary for me to consult a recipe or a youtube video that would walk me through how to cook it.
The result was a big mess of cooked pasta that was all stuck together.
Always willing to deconstruct what worked and did not work for me in the kitchen, I asked myself why did things backfire on me, and what deeper meaning could I derive from this experience?
There are about three competing hypotheses.
First, my failure, could be attributable to my white, middle-class male sense of confidence. Although this may be true, I think this explanation does not hold much water (boiled or not).
Second, the outcome could be attributed to the way I conceptualized the challenge. This is the notion of framing. Since I had cooked both packaged hard pasta and fresh pasta before, I assumed that my biggest challenge would not be cooking the pasta, but orchestrating the sauce.
Third, and more likely is something akin to the Dunning-Kruger effect that suggests that people with low skills, ability, and expertise often tend to overestimate their ability. Yes, I am learning how to improve my ability to cook Japanese food (in particular Washoku), but that doesn’t mean that my knowledge and skills are immediately transferable to other types of food and cuisine.
In skills acquisition and performance, there are always blind spots, and this was one of them for me.
What lessons can be learned as I go forward?
In the future, although it’s important to experiment and not shy away from trying new things and methods, it’s also wise to not assume that just because I have some expertise in one area, that it is easily generalizable to another. More specifically, as DK experts will tell you, in order to minimize this effect, it’s wise to:
Recognize that you may have a bias;
Try to get feedback (in this case early on before you destroy the pasta);
Ideally this feedback is from people who are recognized experts in the relevant field;
Commit yourself to continuously learn more and improve your skills;
And most importantly be humble.
Photo Credit
Goya60
Italian Chef 1
https://jeffreyianross.com/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2023-03-22-at-11.06.19-PM.png466528Jeffrey Ian Rosshttps://jeffreyianross.com/wp-content/uploads/jeffrey-ian-ross-logo-04.pngJeffrey Ian Ross2023-03-23 03:31:062023-03-23 13:44:08Pasta, Pappardelle, and the Perils of Overconfidence
Numerous organizations offer skills certification, practical training, or undergraduate or graduate level degrees.
Undoubtedly some of these entities are better than others.
But how does one determine which school, instructor, or trainer best suits their needs to receive appropriate instruction or a respectable education from without having to fork over lots of resources (i.e., money, time, etc.).
To begin with there’s always word of mouth. Understandably it’s easier for some people and with some fields than others to access the benefits of this process. Sometimes you know a person, just like you, who graduated from one of these programs, an alumnus, who can vouch for an instructor or a school that they attended and benefited from or direct you away from a questionable target.
Alternatively, you can post a question on an on-line forum like Reddit asking for recommendations and hope there is someone whom you trust to give you honest feedback. Keep in mind, however, that other people’s opinions may be singular. Their experience may not be the same as others.
Since these strategies are not sufficient, it’s helpful to consult a handful of publicly available ranking systems like US News and World Report, QS World University Rankings, or the Times Higher Education Review. They have a set of criteria, ask experts in the field to rank order schools in their area of expertise, and then they consolidate the responses.
But what about the field of criminology/criminal justice? Indeed the graduate programs in these fields show up on the previously mentioned publicly available ranking platforms.
However, over the past few decades, in addition to the traditional bricks and mortar schools, a number of for profit and not for profit programs in the field of Criminology/Criminal Justice, offering face-to-face and/or on-line programs, have emerged. In general, they are cheaper and easier to enroll in than the more well known schools, colleges, and universities.
Unfortunately not all of them are created equal. These schools, colleges and universities, pejoratively referred to to diploma mills, may have legitimate sounding names, but questionable accreditation credentials. Meanwhile numerous well-meaning but poorly informed or advised individuals have been duped by these educational organizations.
Few members of the public, including aspiring students, understand the nature, purpose and meaning of accreditation. And there are lots of different types of accreditation. Although accrediting bodies are voluntary nongovernmental organizations, some of them are better than others. Some have higher or lower standards.
With all economic transactions (and education is no different), in the case of searching for an appropriate place to receive certification, a diploma, degree or training, the buyer must educate themselves about the subtle and not so subtle nuances of organizations that provide services.
photo credit: Image of Banksy’s “Follow your dreams”
https://jeffreyianross.com/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2023-03-14-at-3.34.08-PM.png372551Jeffrey Ian Rosshttps://jeffreyianross.com/wp-content/uploads/jeffrey-ian-ross-logo-04.pngJeffrey Ian Ross2023-03-14 21:02:562023-03-14 22:56:57The importance of earning a certification, degree, diploma, and education from a respected accredited school or organization
If you drive a car in a big city, eventually you’re going to need to park it somewhere.
It turns out, some urban locations are better than others enabling motorists to find short-term places to park their vehicles. While some cities, seem to “make it up as they go along,” others have thought carefully about where and how motorists can park their cars and integrated helpful solutions into their planning process.
In some municipalities, there are numerous convenient parking garages. Some are built above ground occupying valuable retail, commercial and residential space, whereas others (especially those located in Western European countries) build parking garages underground where they are less of an eyesore.
Some parking establishments even have helpful electronic billboards outside, indicating whether they are full or the number of empty spots available. You park your car, pay a nominal fee, and then retrieve it later. Sometimes the enterprise is run by the municipal or county government and at other times they are operated by private entities.
In cities, like Washington DC, where I live, finding a place to park your vehicle, that is both convenient and reasonably priced is next to impossible. Yes there are parking garages, mostly commercially run, charging exorbitant rates, but the lion’s share of affordable parking is on the street.
Because of the dynamics of supply and demand and the confusing signage and payment processes it’s challenging not only to find an empty space, but to pay for parking and to avoid a ticket.
Over the past two decades, the District of Columbia has phased out parking meters that were solely coin based to ones that would also accept credit cards. Over time many of these machines broke, (or were smashed), became convenient surfaces for all manner of graffiti and street art, and despite instructions encouraging motorists to report broken meters to avoid receiving a ticket, few of these mechanisms were repaired or replaced.
Shortly thereafter DC shifted to a system where curbside parking payment machines were installed. Motorists wishing to park their cars now needed to put their cash or credit card in the machine, indicate how much time they wanted, and then the machine would print out a receipt that motorists placed on their dashboard. Again, many of these machines continuously broke and rarely were they fixed.
With the growth of smart phone apps (e.g., ParkMobile), the District, like other jurisdictions started implementing numbered parking zones. Download the app, interpret the parking restrictions, and if you are within the allowed hours, enter the tag of your vehicle, your credit card information, the amount of time you want, and presto you are good to go.
Over time however, parking zone designations either fell off the remaining parking meters, payment machines, or street signs, or more likely were ripped or scratched off these surfaces. Now, in some parts of the city, information about competing apps are posted on signposts, etc.
Missing zone designations, and no functioning meters or parking payment machines present means that motorists risk hefty fines and added stress.
If you are absolutely intent on paying for street parking, you might walk a block or two and luckily find a functioning parking payment machine or discover a parking zone sticker and hope that it matches to your exact spot.
It would seem as if this whole process was intentionally designed to frustrate motorists and signal to them that the city doesn’t want them to drive a car anyways. But then I’m reminded of the expression to not assume malice when incompetence better explains the outcome.
Needless to say, although solutions exist, it appears as if the city is unwilling or unable to experiment and implement them.
For example, why not roll out a city wide parking permit. For example, District of Colombia car owners already have the option to purchase ward based street parking permits that they affix to the inside of their vehicle’s windshields. Alternatively visitors to the district could be required to pay a toll fee when they enter the city. This can be collected when they enter the city on one of a handful of bridges or roads into the city. A portion of this fee could enable free parking during certain times of the day. The solutions are limitless, but largely unexplored.
photo credit
Jeffrey Ian Ross
https://jeffreyianross.com/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-2023-03-07-at-1.20.01-PM.png11471170Jeffrey Ian Rosshttps://jeffreyianross.com/wp-content/uploads/jeffrey-ian-ross-logo-04.pngJeffrey Ian Ross2023-03-07 20:14:562024-01-07 12:54:47Overcoming the Challenges of Street Parking Payment Systems in Major American Cities
Pasta, Pappardelle, and the Perils of Overconfidence
/by Jeffrey Ian RossOne of the earliest dishes I learned to prepare was spaghetti. My efforts involved opening up a can of Chef Boyardee, and heating it up in a sauce pot.
Soon I gravitated to boiling supermarket bought packaged dried pasta, warming up a can or jar of spaghetti sauce, placing it on top of the drained spaghetti, and finishing it off with a sprinkle of Kraft parmesan cheese.
Over time, I experimented with various brands and different types of dried pasta, added a variety of ingredients to the store bought sauce to make it more interesting, and topped off the concoction with selected types of parmesan.
This ritual progressed to making pasta with cottage cheese, or heating up olive oil in a pot or pan, adding the cooked pasta, and then some salt and parmesan to the dish.
Despite trips to Italy where not only did I eat some of the best pasta in the world, but once spent a delightful afternoon, in a small hillside southern Italian town, making pasta from scratch, under the direction of the aging aunt of one of my friends, my pattern of heating up dried pasta, and dousing it with prepared spaghetti sauce persisted for a number of years.
For example, once a week, when my wife would work late, and it was my turn to feed our children, boiling dried pasta and covering it with canned spaghetti sauce was my fall back/go to meal of choice to cook.
But over the past decade not only do supermarkets from Whole Foods to Trader Joes sell dried pasta made out of different ingredients (e.g., rice, etc.), and “fresh pasta” that one can cook at home, but I also started to deliberately improve my cooking skills.
To be fair, cooking fresh pasta presents a slightly different set of challenges, than cooking package dry spaghetti, linguine, fettuccine, etc., but ones that appeared to be easy to master.
Recently, however, I decided to purchase and cook freshly made (and relatively expensive) Pappardelle (pasta), (which is about eight inches in length and laid out in consecutive U shaped rings), from a well-respected local purveyor of Italian food.
At the time I believed that the biggest challenge was deciding among which type of sauce (i.e., tomato, ricotta cheese, or mushrooms) that I would finish the pasta with.
But that was just the beginning of my temporary culinary decent into hell.
I assumed that I knew how to cook the Pappardelle. I had seen my wife cook this dish numerous times and thought it was a no brainer. Or how difficult could this be?
One of my biggest mistakes, however, was assuming that the pasta showed up on the plate the way it was nicely laid out on in the plastic container in which it was bought and that there was no need to separate the individual strands of pasta as they entered the boiling pot of water. I also reckoned that it was not necessary to put oil in to the water and felt confident enough that it was neither necessary for me to consult a recipe or a youtube video that would walk me through how to cook it.
The result was a big mess of cooked pasta that was all stuck together.
Always willing to deconstruct what worked and did not work for me in the kitchen, I asked myself why did things backfire on me, and what deeper meaning could I derive from this experience?
There are about three competing hypotheses.
First, my failure, could be attributable to my white, middle-class male sense of confidence. Although this may be true, I think this explanation does not hold much water (boiled or not).
Second, the outcome could be attributed to the way I conceptualized the challenge. This is the notion of framing. Since I had cooked both packaged hard pasta and fresh pasta before, I assumed that my biggest challenge would not be cooking the pasta, but orchestrating the sauce.
Third, and more likely is something akin to the Dunning-Kruger effect that suggests that people with low skills, ability, and expertise often tend to overestimate their ability. Yes, I am learning how to improve my ability to cook Japanese food (in particular Washoku), but that doesn’t mean that my knowledge and skills are immediately transferable to other types of food and cuisine.
In skills acquisition and performance, there are always blind spots, and this was one of them for me.
What lessons can be learned as I go forward?
In the future, although it’s important to experiment and not shy away from trying new things and methods, it’s also wise to not assume that just because I have some expertise in one area, that it is easily generalizable to another. More specifically, as DK experts will tell you, in order to minimize this effect, it’s wise to:
Recognize that you may have a bias;
Try to get feedback (in this case early on before you destroy the pasta);
Ideally this feedback is from people who are recognized experts in the relevant field;
Commit yourself to continuously learn more and improve your skills;
And most importantly be humble.
Photo Credit
Goya60
Italian Chef 1
The importance of earning a certification, degree, diploma, and education from a respected accredited school or organization
/by Jeffrey Ian RossNumerous organizations offer skills certification, practical training, or undergraduate or graduate level degrees.
Undoubtedly some of these entities are better than others.
But how does one determine which school, instructor, or trainer best suits their needs to receive appropriate instruction or a respectable education from without having to fork over lots of resources (i.e., money, time, etc.).
To begin with there’s always word of mouth. Understandably it’s easier for some people and with some fields than others to access the benefits of this process. Sometimes you know a person, just like you, who graduated from one of these programs, an alumnus, who can vouch for an instructor or a school that they attended and benefited from or direct you away from a questionable target.
Alternatively, you can post a question on an on-line forum like Reddit asking for recommendations and hope there is someone whom you trust to give you honest feedback. Keep in mind, however, that other people’s opinions may be singular. Their experience may not be the same as others.
Since these strategies are not sufficient, it’s helpful to consult a handful of publicly available ranking systems like US News and World Report, QS World University Rankings, or the Times Higher Education Review. They have a set of criteria, ask experts in the field to rank order schools in their area of expertise, and then they consolidate the responses.
But what about the field of criminology/criminal justice? Indeed the graduate programs in these fields show up on the previously mentioned publicly available ranking platforms.
However, over the past few decades, in addition to the traditional bricks and mortar schools, a number of for profit and not for profit programs in the field of Criminology/Criminal Justice, offering face-to-face and/or on-line programs, have emerged. In general, they are cheaper and easier to enroll in than the more well known schools, colleges, and universities.
Unfortunately not all of them are created equal. These schools, colleges and universities, pejoratively referred to to diploma mills, may have legitimate sounding names, but questionable accreditation credentials. Meanwhile numerous well-meaning but poorly informed or advised individuals have been duped by these educational organizations.
For example, over the past few decades many people (including incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and criminal justice practitioners) have enrolled in certification courses, bachelors, masters and doctoral programs, only to discover that the rigorousness of instruction was lacking, the work required to pass classes was laughable, and to find out at some time during the process, or upon graduation, despite the fact that the school was accredited by a professional sounding organization, that their degree was practically useless.
Why were these certifications, diplomas, and diplomas not worthwhile? Because savvy people who made hiring decisions knew that the educational institutions were not rigorous, or properly accredited.
Few members of the public, including aspiring students, understand the nature, purpose and meaning of accreditation. And there are lots of different types of accreditation. Although accrediting bodies are voluntary nongovernmental organizations, some of them are better than others. Some have higher or lower standards.
With all economic transactions (and education is no different), in the case of searching for an appropriate place to receive certification, a diploma, degree or training, the buyer must educate themselves about the subtle and not so subtle nuances of organizations that provide services.
photo credit: Image of Banksy’s “Follow your dreams”
Overcoming the Challenges of Street Parking Payment Systems in Major American Cities
/by Jeffrey Ian RossIf you drive a car in a big city, eventually you’re going to need to park it somewhere.
It turns out, some urban locations are better than others enabling motorists to find short-term places to park their vehicles. While some cities, seem to “make it up as they go along,” others have thought carefully about where and how motorists can park their cars and integrated helpful solutions into their planning process.
In some municipalities, there are numerous convenient parking garages. Some are built above ground occupying valuable retail, commercial and residential space, whereas others (especially those located in Western European countries) build parking garages underground where they are less of an eyesore.
Some parking establishments even have helpful electronic billboards outside, indicating whether they are full or the number of empty spots available. You park your car, pay a nominal fee, and then retrieve it later. Sometimes the enterprise is run by the municipal or county government and at other times they are operated by private entities.
In cities, like Washington DC, where I live, finding a place to park your vehicle, that is both convenient and reasonably priced is next to impossible. Yes there are parking garages, mostly commercially run, charging exorbitant rates, but the lion’s share of affordable parking is on the street.
Because of the dynamics of supply and demand and the confusing signage and payment processes it’s challenging not only to find an empty space, but to pay for parking and to avoid a ticket.
Over the past two decades, the District of Columbia has phased out parking meters that were solely coin based to ones that would also accept credit cards. Over time many of these machines broke, (or were smashed), became convenient surfaces for all manner of graffiti and street art, and despite instructions encouraging motorists to report broken meters to avoid receiving a ticket, few of these mechanisms were repaired or replaced.
Shortly thereafter DC shifted to a system where curbside parking payment machines were installed. Motorists wishing to park their cars now needed to put their cash or credit card in the machine, indicate how much time they wanted, and then the machine would print out a receipt that motorists placed on their dashboard. Again, many of these machines continuously broke and rarely were they fixed.
With the growth of smart phone apps (e.g., ParkMobile), the District, like other jurisdictions started implementing numbered parking zones. Download the app, interpret the parking restrictions, and if you are within the allowed hours, enter the tag of your vehicle, your credit card information, the amount of time you want, and presto you are good to go.
Over time however, parking zone designations either fell off the remaining parking meters, payment machines, or street signs, or more likely were ripped or scratched off these surfaces. Now, in some parts of the city, information about competing apps are posted on signposts, etc.
Missing zone designations, and no functioning meters or parking payment machines present means that motorists risk hefty fines and added stress.
If you are absolutely intent on paying for street parking, you might walk a block or two and luckily find a functioning parking payment machine or discover a parking zone sticker and hope that it matches to your exact spot.
It would seem as if this whole process was intentionally designed to frustrate motorists and signal to them that the city doesn’t want them to drive a car anyways. But then I’m reminded of the expression to not assume malice when incompetence better explains the outcome.
Needless to say, although solutions exist, it appears as if the city is unwilling or unable to experiment and implement them.
For example, why not roll out a city wide parking permit. For example, District of Colombia car owners already have the option to purchase ward based street parking permits that they affix to the inside of their vehicle’s windshields. Alternatively visitors to the district could be required to pay a toll fee when they enter the city. This can be collected when they enter the city on one of a handful of bridges or roads into the city. A portion of this fee could enable free parking during certain times of the day. The solutions are limitless, but largely unexplored.
photo credit
Jeffrey Ian Ross