Personal
Visual Thinking FTW
My wife Diane and I were out to dinner with our good friend Jake. All three of us like our tech, with Jake and myself capably wearing the title of “geek” due to our proclivities around things shiny and electronic. Of course, it is inevitable that when a few geeks get together there will be discussions about technology. In this case, our friend Jake mentioned that he is setting up a “RAID 5″ on his home computer.
Now, this puzzled my better half – and justifiably so – since I’m guessing most people haven’t heard about or know what the acronym “RAID” even means.
Of course, Jake, the-ever-helpful-friend that he is, began to launch into a verbal definition of what RAID is and why he was so excited about it.
His explanation was overly complex and not helpful, and we all knew it.
Jake shifted tactics.
A condiment carrier was present at our table. Jake grabbed a bottle of mustard and tried again: “Okay, this is a hard drive.”
“Now, let’s add a second hard drive.” Jake grabbed another bottle, this time Tapatio hot sauce, and positioned it beside the mustard bottle. “This is RAID 0. In RAID 0, data is kept on each drive separately so the computer can read the data off each drive at the same time, making it faster than a single hard drive.”
“Unfortunately, this gives you no protection. If a hard drive fails, you have no backup.”
“So we do this…”
Jake moved the Tapatio bottle behind the mustard bottle. “Our second hard drive is now a complete mirror copy – a backup – of the first drive. This is RAID 1. It gives us great data protection, but it doesn’t make our speeds any faster. That is why I chose a third option…”
Jake grabbed a bottle of disturbingly-pink cranberry mustard. He moved the bottle of Tapatio and the newly acquired cranberry mustard into a straight line next to the original bottle of mustard. He paused for a moment, looking down upon the procession of sandwich toppers like a proud father may gaze at his newborn child. “Now this… this is what I’m doing. This is RAID 5.” Jake paused again. Was he awaiting applause?
“RAID 5 uses a minimum of three drives. Data – and information about this data, called parity, is added to each drive. In RAID 5, information is shared between each drive, increasing the speed, but you still have data protection because the parity information is shared between the drives. It is a great solution!”
Diane nestled back in her chair, an understanding look on her face: Jake’s example, now supplemented with pictures, was easily understandable and quite memorable.
As an observer, what was most exciting to me was seeing how simply adding visual thinking to the conversation (imagery, relational placement, etc.) helped to make a confusing topic so much less confusing. Visual thinking for the win!
Triple Habanero!
As you might recall from a previous post, my friend Kevin and I went to Flying Pie Pizzeria to attempt the single Habanero pizza.
We went in looking for a challenge, but instead, we found a pizza that was quite delectable and not as hot as we were led to believe. As such, if you are familiar with Kevin’s and my particular brand of bravery/stupidity, it should not surprise you that prior to the end of that first pizza we were already asking sizing up our capability to tackle this:
The Triple Habanero pizza has (yes, you guessed it) three times the number of Habanero peppers as the Single Habanero pizza. The heat in the triple is the equivalent of 15 lbs. of Jalapeno peppers.
We descended upon the Fairview Flying Pie with something to prove, our somewhat-shaky confidence levels being bolstered only by our matching Habanero T-Shirts and the pressure of knowing everyone back at the office would be expecting our success.
We went into this session sans water (we learned that lesson from the first time) and stocked up with some extra pizza sauce for dipping.
Of course, Kevin employed the “add pepper flakes to create a conflicting heat so that the Habaneros won’t be so hot” tactic:
I guess if the logic “fight fire with fire” works in other arenas, should we really be so surprised that it just might work here?
I employed a different strategy. Swallow with as little chewing as possible.
Kevin reported the heat to be “not too different” from the single. I, on the other hand, stand by my assessment that it was somewhere around 50% to 100% hotter. My barometer: swollen/burning lips, a burning sensation in the back of the throat, and a sense of urgency to finish the pizza.
Kevin and I powered through the full large pizza, splitting it right down the middle. As such, it could be said that we both roughly ate 7.5 lbs of Jalapeno-equivalent heat.
Upon completion of our task, we felt entitled to wear the Habanero pin of victory upon our chest:
And we provided the top-notch Flying Pie team with some glowing customer service card feedback:
I am relieved that I lived to tell the tale of the Triple Habanero. Even more exciting is the prospect that the next pizza will not make my stomach feel like a raging inferno. If I can now delay Kevin’s suggestion that we should attempt the Buffalo Wild Wings hot wings challenge, my stomach may have time to recuperate.
Habanero Haze
Every August, the local pizza shop with national acclaim, Flying Pie Pizzeria, offers something legendary: the Habanero Pizza.
Colleague Kevin Selmasska and I journeyed to the Flying Pie to test this pizza out. We had three options: The Single Habanero pizza (which contains 6 Habanero peppers, the equivalent of 5 lbs. of Jalapenos), the Double Habanero (12 peppers), or the Triple Habanero (18 peppers – equivalent to 15 lbs. of Jalapenos!).
Since this was our first time trying something this hot, we opted for a large Single Habanero pizza:
I embraced my first bite with trepidation. Kevin threw caution to the wind and added some additional red pepper flakes.
Of course, I immediately had to do the same.
Taking a drink of water was a bad idea: It moves the capsaicin (the stuff in chili peppers that makes them hot) all around the mouth. So, instead of a just a burning tongue, it now burns everywhere. Luckily, the pain subsided quickly. I didn’t drink any additional water, and Kevin wisely refrained from drinking any either.
The taste of the pizza was actually very good. It had chicken, feta cheese, fresh garlic, cheddar cheese, and mozzarella cheese. The habaneros had a smoky, citrus flavor that was quite delicious. Surprisingly, although very hot, the taste of the pizza was not drowned out by the heat. The whole “user experience” was an enjoyable one!
Our comment cards eventually shared our praise and “a few pictures that are worth a thousand words…”
Kevin and I left surprised that we did as well as we did and made a pact that within the next two weeks, we would try the Triple Habanero.
If we are still alive, perhaps I will post about that experience too.
UPDATE! Two weeks later Kevin and I tackled the dreaded Triple Habanero pizza. Check out the post here.