3 thoughts.

1.) This is not the way to get more business. American airlines announced earlier in the year that they were eliminating 1200 flight attendant jobs by end of year? So that means the attendants were constantly worried for their jobs. Distracted, probably pissed. Maybe some in-fighting. Those flight attendants are the primary contact points with the customers the company serves. No wonder the company needs to cut costs so much. They lose customers because they don't protect those customers' experiences. American did the opposite of inspiring its troops to help the bottom line.

2.) The span of Hillsboro Road between 440 and Green Hills was recently widened The wider road now has a center turn lane so that cars don't get backed up as much. The road is also even more dangerous for bicycles and pedestrians. Whereas before there was a 2-3 foot shoulder, there is now none. So it essentially removes the accessibility to pedestrians. I am not saying that bike lanes should have been put in, but I do think that sidewalks should have been a priority. Why are there sidewalks on both sides of the road for the entire length of Old Hickory between Brentwood and Nolensville, an area of town much less central than the 440/Green Hills corridor, but no sidewalks on Hillsboro? Maybe they should deal with the congestion problem by making other forms of transport to/from Green Hills available. Maybe if there are sidewalks, then more people will walk it. (I know, doubtful for that part of town, but then at least they have a choice.)

3.) Tonight I was driving in a part of town that I now rarely go to (can you guess where?, based on number 2) but where I used to live. It brought back memories of an old job I had around there. I was a software developer in a company in which there were maybe 20-30 developers. It was severely inefficient. I received high marks for productivity, but I never felt like I was doing much work. I have known of many such companies (and worked for more than just that one). Essentially, like in everything else, 80% of the work is performed by 20% of the people. I think that any software project that requires more than 4-6 good developers should be broken into smaller projects.. of 4-6 developers. More people than that is just fluff and a waste of money. Any developer who can't function and pick up his own slack in a group of that size needs to find another line of work. Along the same token, any project that requires (based on pre-development estimates) more than 6 months, also needs to be broken up. More than 6 months and the probability of success takes a nose-dive. The sad part is that I suspect that 80% of software is developed in an inefficient and over-inflated manner. The software of which I speak is the "Enterprise" software for government and big business.... ok, so I am rambling now... I think my main point, though, is that if software companies would/could identify the good developers and just hire them and pay them well, then they (the companies) would probably have higher success rates and lower costs overall.

(If this post is incoherent, it is mainly because my highly-irritated allergies aren't allowing enough oxygen to reach my head.)