How To Be Happy At Work

How To Be Happy At Work by Annie McKee

This is the book that started my deep dive into emotional intelligence… and I’ll give you one guess as to why I read it. One of the things that I loved about this book was that it did so much to validate some of the feelings I was having, as well as invalidate all the typical crap people of the older generation say like, “Well, they call it work for a reason.”

It managed to get me to evaluate some of my values, how they relate to my career, and gave me the opportunity to identify further reading material to help me start my journey of increasing my emotional intelligence… and let me tell you, engineers don’t usually have much of it.

I don’t really think this book needs much of a summary since the title does a pretty good job of explaining what it’s about, but it is one of those books that I have post it flags and highlighter marks all over. So without much summary, let’s just dive into the passages that resonated with me.

Favorite Quotes

OK, so this quotes section is going to be super long and is basically going to be my condensing of this book down to be able to continue to revisit in the future… Here we go.

“Life really is too short to be unhappy at work.”

“A lot of us give up and settle for less than fulfilling jobs. We tell ourselves that we’re not supposed to be happy at work; that’s for other parts of life. We try to cope by avoiding that bad manager or getting that stubborn, annoying person off the team. We shut down, give less, and fantasize about telling someone off. Sometimes we run away from the job, the company, even our careers. But running away isn’t going to make things better. To be happy, I’ve discovered, you’ve got to run toward something: meaningful work; a hopeful, inspiring vision of the future; and good relationships with the people you work with every day.“

“What leads to long-lasting fulfillment at work? What leads to happiness? And can we even expect to be happy at work? Does it really matter?
To answer these questions, I reviewed my work on emotional intelligence and resonant leadership and revisited the dozens of studies I’ve done in companies worldwide. What I found is both simple and profound: Happiness matters at work as much as it does in our personal lives. And when we are happy, we are more successful… My conclusion: to be happy at work, we need purpose, hope, and friendships.“

“We are wired to seek meaning in everything we do. It’s what makes us human. In some cases, it’s what keeps us alive. In his classic book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Austrian psychiatrist and holocaust survivor Victor Frankl shows that even in the worst of circumstances, purpose, hope and connection are what keep us going.“

“Hope, optimism, and a vision of a future that is better than today help us rise above trials and deal with setbacks… Unfortunately, we often assume that our organization’s vision is enough to keep us hopeful and focused on the future. I’ve rarely seen this to be the case. An organization’s vision, however inspiring, is for the organization – not you… To be truly happy at work, we need to see how our workplace responsibilities and opportunities fit with a personal vision of our future. This kind of vision is vitally tied to hope and optimism, which we can with focus and hard work, cultivate even in difficult jobs and toxic workplaces. When we see our jobs through a positive lens, and when a personal vision is front and center in our minds, we are more likely to learn from challenges and even failures, rather than be destroyed by them.”

“Resonant relationships are at the heart of collective success in our companies. That’s because strong, trusting, authentic relationships form the basis for great collaboration and collective success. But I’ve found, we need more than trust and authenticity to get us through good times and bad. We need to feel that people care about us and we want to care for them in return.”

“We’ve known for years that emotional intelligence (EI) is key to being effective at work. The more EI you have, the better you (likely) are at your job – no matter what kind of role you have or how senior you are… In practical terms, EI is a set of competencies that enables you to understand your own and others’ feelings, and then use this knowledge to act in ways that support your own and others’ effectiveness… Here’s a secret about EI: it’s a virtuous circle. The more you use it, the better you get.”

“Happiness at work is a choice. When you decide to look within yourself to connect with what’s most important to you, what makes you feel hopeful about the future, and what you long for in your relationships, you are taking that first, all-important step toward a work life that is deeply satisfying, challenging, and fun.“

“(When we are unhappy at work) Time away from our jobs (if there is such a thing) is affected, too, because we don’t leave our feelings at the office and unhappiness seeps into the rest of life. Our families and friends suffer when we are disengaged, dissatisfied, and unfulfilled. Worse, slow-burning stress, anger, and other negative emotions can literally kill us.
Destructive emotions like fear and constant frustration interfere with reasoning, adaptability, and resilience. We just can’t focus when we’re gripped by negativity or when we’re obsessing about how to protect ourselves (or get back at our boss).”

“She fostered a “we’re in this together” mindset that made people feel they belonged to an important group, one with a resonant microculture marked by excitement, enthusiasm, safety, and trust – the kind of environment where people can take big risks and have fun without the fear of losing their jobs.”

“But Candace had what Ari had lost: clarity about the value of her work, an inspiring vision of the future, and resonant relationships… With dedicated effort, Ari found his way, and he did not quit his job. The first step was accepting that he deserved to be happy at work (for some of us, this is a big step). Then, he focused on recapturing what was most important to him in life and learning how to bring it back to work.”

“I define happiness at work as a deep and abiding enjoyment of daily activities fueled by passion for a meaningful purpose, a hopeful view of the future, and true friendships... Happiness is not simply about feeling good in the moment. That is hedonism.”

“…What we’ve found is that positive emotions – like those we experience when we are happy – support individual and collective success… Most of us intuitively know that feelings and inner experiences like eagerness, enjoyment, optimism, belonging, and confidence fuel our energy and creativity.”

“The business case: happiness before success: A common myth tells us that once we achieve success, we’ll be happy. If this were true, all successful people would be happy. They are not… The belief that we will be happy once we become successful is backward. It all starts with happiness because happiness breeds resonance and resonance breeds success. Scholars agree, starting with the popular author and psychologist Shawn Achor, who says it in a straightforward, no-nonsense manner: “Happiness comes before success.” This statement is based on studies showing that when we are positive, we are 31 percent more productive and 40 percent more likely to receive a promotion, we have 23 percent fewer health-related effects from stress, and our creativity rates triple… “when we find and create happiness in our work, we show increased intelligence, creativity, and energy, improving nearly every single business and educational outcome”… So, if we sacrifice happiness, we sacrifice success.”

Happiness Traps

“I’ve always wondered why we don’t fight back – why we settle for so little happiness at work… First, we’ve bought into old myths about the meaning of work and what we can expect from it (or not). Namely, we believe that work isn’t supposed to be fun or fulfilling, and that we don’t have to like the people we work with. Instead, we’re there to follow orders and produce results. Our values, hopes, and dreams have a very small place in this picture.
Second, most of us have stumbled into happiness traps – mindsets and habitual ways of approaching work and career that keep us stuck on a hamster wheel and pursuing the wrong goals.
Third – and this is the good news – there’s something we can do to break free from these old myths and dangerous traps: develop and use our emotional intelligence.”

“Only one-third of US employees are engaged at work. The rest are either neutral or actively engaged.”

“Myth one: Work has to be grueling.
Myth two: How we feel at work doesn’t matter.
– By the middle of the last century, there was a vast body of knowledge showing that how we feel about our bosses, work, and workplaces affects our contributions and outcomes.
Myth three: we can’t ask for more of work.”

“But when we ask for more, well-meaning friends and family tell us to check our unrealistic expectations and pull out old sayings like, “that’s why they call it work.” Or, when we complain about not being trusted to make decisions or being asked to do things that are counter to our values, people say, “Stop making trouble. Be grateful you even have a job. Do what you’re told and you’ll be fine.”
In the end, far too many of us accept the notion that work is not where we can be fully human, not where we can realize our potential or our dreams. We pursue goals that don’t jive with our values or our own hopes for the future. We accept being treated as “doers”, not people.”

“But, organizations aren’t filled with mindless automatons that live for the privilege of serving the god of profit; they never were. And as the knowledge revolution takes the world by storm, more rand more of us think for a living, rather than make for a living, even in manufacturing. We need our brains to work at their best, and in order for that to happen we need physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being.
We need to replace outdated beliefs with new ways of understand what we can expect from work – and from each other. To start with, we need to create workplaces that honor our humanity and foster common decency, camaraderie, mutual respect, and sustainable success.”

“The overwork trap: We spend every waking moment doing something – checking our email, talking, dashing off a text. We’re always behind, running as fast as we can to catch up… We live in a world where overwork is overvalued… As Harvard Business Review’s Sarah Green Carmichael writes, “we log too many hours because of a mix of inner drivers, like ambition, machismo, greed, anxiety, guilt, enjoyment, pride, the pull of short-term rewards, a desire to prove we’re important, or an overdeveloped sense of duty.” Sometimes, too, work is an escape. When our jobs are less stressful than home, work becomes a “haven, a place to feel confident and in control.” Regardless of the reason, overwork has become so prevalent that “busy” is the most common answer I get when I ask people how they are doing… The first step out of the overwork trap is to try to figure out why you are working s much. Is it because you really have to? Or is t a habit? Or is something deeper going on, like trying to escape your home life or prove your importance?”

“The money trap: Money is great. Until our desire for it overshadows reason… How many of us have stayed in jobs that we hate because the money was good? Or taken a promotion that we didn’t want or weren’t suited for because it came with a raise?… There’s something deeper going on: the decision to choose money over happiness is fueled by insecurity, social comparison, and the need to display one’s power for all to see… Insecurity also comes from the belief that we aren’t good enough. We suffer from the imposter syndrome and are terrified that people will find out. Money, we think, will fool them into believing we are deserving of our success… When we feel we must have money and the power that goes with it, that we must display our wealth for others to see, then we’ve crossed into dangerous territory. At this point, we make decisions to choose emptiness over happiness at work – just to get more cash.”

“The ambition trap: This trap is linked to something we usually think of as good: ambition. But, when our ambition is coupled with an overdeveloped focus on competition and winning, we can find ourselves in trouble… some people put their own personal ambition above morals, ethics and reason. They’re blinded by their desire to win and will do just about anything to come out on top… But winning is downright destructive when other people get hurt, when it becomes the most important goal, when you’re willing to sacrifice anything to achieve your goal and to hell with the costs and consequences.
First, success isn’t really success when we define it as a win-lose, zero-sum game. Second, hyper-competitiveness in the workplace leaves us empty and unfulfilled, hurts our ability to lead effectively, and makes us no fun to be around.”

“The “should” trap: The next happiness trap is a big one, one all of us face at some point in our careers: doing something simply because we should, rather than because we truly want to… But, some of the cultural rules that guide us at work are outdated and destructive, especially those that limit or constrain our dreams…. Workplace “shoulds” are such powerful drivers of our beliefs and behaviors that we often go along with rules that make no sense. Social rules and “shoulds” are a fact of life. It’s not about getting rid of them; it’s about sorting through them and making conscious choices about which to follow – those that enable you to live your values, reach your potential, and be happy… This belief that we can make things happen is critical to happiness. Without it, you fall into the last trap: helplessness.”

“The helplessness trap: Some people truly believe that no matter how hard they try, they can’t influence the world around them, change things, or get what they want.”

Breaking free of the traps

“Why, we need to ask ourselves, do we work all the time? Why are we so seduced by money and power? Is our ambition and desire to win serving us or hurting us? Why are we so trapped by what we feel we should do rather than pursuing what we want to do? And why do we sometimes give up on being happy at all? To answer these questions, we need to return to emotional intelligence.”

“If we are to combat these outdated myths and happiness traps and take control of our own happiness… we need more than a modicum of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is the capacity to understand one’s own and others’ emotions and deal with them in a way that leads to resonance in relationships as well as individual and collective success. There are twelve emotional intelligence competencies…”

“Emotional self-awareness: Avoiding the happiness traps starts with emotional self-awareness. You must tune in to those faint whispers in your mind, those almost imperceptible feelings of “something’s not right.””

“Self-management: Emotional self-control helps us stay tuned in to our feelings, even when we don’t like what we discover… Once you know what’s driving you, self-management helps you shift your attention. This subtle but powerful internal change supports willpower, focus, and courage – all of which you need to do the hard work of breaking free.”

“Social awareness and relationship management: When you focus on empathizing with people and understanding your organizational environment, you can see what is coming from inside you, and what’s coming from others or your company. With this knowledge, you are better equipped to make choices about what you will or will not accept at work.”

The power of purpose

“Purpose and work go hand in hand… When work is an expression of our values and we have positive impact on something we care about, we are motivated from within; we don’t need others to push us or beg us to do our jobs, and we can withstand challenge and turmoil. ”

“Today, our organizations are our tribes. Work is still where we express ourselves and make a difference… But work and life are no longer seen as vitally intertwined. Rather, we see our jobs as a means to an end, a way to earn money so we can have meaningful lives outside of work… The result, as management scholars Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton tell us, is that “many companies do not worry that much about providing meaning and fulfillment to their people. Work is, after all, a four letter word.” But it’s impossible to pull life and work apart. We are meaning making creatures, no matter if we’re sitting in an office, giving tours of historical places, hiking Mount Kilimanjaro, or eating dinner with our family. We don’t give up the essential human need to do something worthwhile when we start our workday. We want to know that we’re doing something that matters.
Seeing our work as an expression of cherished values and as a way to make a contribution is the foundation of well-being, happiness, and our ongoing success. Passion for a cause fuels energy, intelligence, and creativity. And, when we see that the results of our labor will benefit ourselves and others, we want to “fight the good fight” together.”

Is your work a job, a career, or a calling?

“When we see our work as just a job, we’re focused on what we get for our labor – a paycheck and other tangible benefits like insurance… seeing work as just a job can be soul-destroying… We tell ourselves that the money’s worth it, but we feel empty.”

“We might, instead, see our work as a career. Our job is then linked to a bigger picture, often advancement in a profession or a company. We see our current role as an important step toward a destination. For example, we may see ourselves having significant impact on a field or rising in an organization we care about. This can be fun and exciting and can fulfill the need for a guiding purpose at work, presumably because our career is linked to our values. This can and often does make us happy. However, people who view work as a career are often largely motivated by things like prestige or upward mobility… but a singular focus on external recognition and rewards can make day to day work feel like a means to an end. We can find ourselves constantly seeking the next goal or prize, but each time we get that job, bonus, or raise, our ambition kicks in and we turn our attention to the next win.
When we view our work as a career, we should ask ourselves, “to what end?” If the answer is only to advance or progress, something vital is probably missing.”

“When we experience our work as a calling, our efforts are not simply the means to an end, and we’re not just jumping from one goal to the next. Instead, what we do every single day brings deep satisfaction. Even simple activities are seen as important, fulfilling, and meaningful. When work is a calling, our passion motivates us from the inside out… It’s becoming increasingly clear to me that if we are to experience our work as a calling we’ve got to understand which values matter to us and the act on these values to have positive impact.“

“In an attempt to keep up with continuous change, some leaders focus so intensely on business objectives that they bulldoze through people, crushing everything in their path… Josh was under pressure to move fast. But, rather than shifting into execution mode, he decided to invest time in understanding what people – wherever they sat in the organization – found fulfilling in their current ways of working and what got in their way… The more time I spent talking and listening to them about those elements rather than just about business issues, the more appreciation I had for their perspectives and the more ideas I had about how I could help. If you give people space, they’ll find the solutions themselves. They’ll understand how what they do every day has some purpose: to help the company, the customer, and society.”… His role was to create space for people to identify that purpose for themselves to help them feel heard, and to remove any obstacles that got in their way. This may sound like common sense, but frankly, in my experience, very few managers do this as well as they might. This is often because of a perceived lack of time or pressure from above to move fast.”

“Motivation that comes from inside us is a far more potent force than any carrot or stick used by our boss or the company… Studies show that people actually become less interested in tasks when they are externally rewarded… Real rewards, the kind that help us sustain commitment, engagement, and happiness, come from within us.”

Ok, at this point you may begin to realize that I’ve highlighted basically every other paragraph in this book, which I guess just goes to speak to how well I felt like I related to this book when I read it. Continuing on…

“To be happyat work, we need to make a difference. We need to be consciously attending to and enacting what we find to be inherently worthwhile – our values and beliefs… they’re often very private because they are derived from our upbringing and the culture of our families and communities… we are better off if we can find a way to incorporate what we care about into our day-to-day work.”

“Sometimes our values don’t align with our organization’s values, so we have to make a calculation about which values we can bring – and which we can’t… the reality is that sometimes, we and our values just don’t fit in certain workplaces. That’s where social awareness comes in.”

“If you want to bring more of your core self – your core values – to work, there are two things you can do. First, figure out what you care most about. One way to begin this process is to reflect on what you get excited about, what makes you proud. You can also spot values by examining what makes you uncomfortable or what makes you feel as if you are compromising in a way that does not feel good.”

“People want to feel that their work is linked to a larger, noble purpose… and that their company’s mission is meaningful. But often these missions don’t inspire people the way leaders hope they will. Sometimes they do the opposite. This is because a lofty, distant organizational mission can’t replace the need to live our values and have a personal impact on something that matters to us.”

Practical Ways to Find Purpose in Your Work

Human beings are inherently creative. We like to innovate, see new ways of doing things, and engage in activities that result in something that didn’t exist before.
For many years, we’ve known that we care more about the quality of our work when we see the fruits of our labor than when we’re told to move widgets from one part of a machine to another.
Doing meaningful work is rewarding in itself, and we are willing to do more work for less pay when we feel our work has some sort of purpose, no matter how small.”

Keep your eyes open for opportunities to join a group that is exploring a new idea or trying to solve a problem.
Find a way to track accomplishments .
Experiment with developing new processes to get work done.

“Don’t blame others for inefficient, broken work systems and processes. Don’t curse the proverbial “them” or wait for someone else to fix everything. They won’t. You can.”

Don’t be resigned to the way things have always been. Accept that most organizations are rife with old, worn out, and inefficient processes and pick some to fix.

Start small. You may not be able to fix an entire, convoluted budgeting process, but maybe you can change one report or form that will make your – and everyone else’s – life better.

“The very act of helping or supporting people can counteract the feeling that we’re toiling at a meaningless job. Because we’re so rarely working alone anymore, positively engaging with people may be the easiest way to express our values at work. Resonant relationships make us feel good and get more done because we are connected to and respectful of one another… People who give generously of themselves are actually more successful than those who sneak, connive, and take.”

Personal Reflection and Mindful Practice

What is my definition of happiness? Where did my beliefs about happiness come from? What role do family, religion or spirituality, philosophy of life, and experience play in how I define happiness?
Does my definition of happiness limit where, when and with whom I can experience joy, fun, and real fulfillment?
Is my way of viewing happiness serving me well? Why, or why not?
If I were to redefine what it takes to make me happy at work, what would my new definition be?

The Power of Hope

“Hope is the starting point for creating a future that is better than today. It encourages us to dig deep down inside ourselves to find our most unique talents and gifts and to use all of our resources to help us along the way. Whatever difficulties we face… the hope that tomorrow will be better is what helps us get up every morning.”

“Hope is at the heart of happiness at work.”

“when we’re angry or frightened, our thinking brain is essentially kidnapped and gagged by our limbic brain. In this state, we are guided by survival instincts. Our manager – or whoever is threatening us – begins to look suspiciously like a saber toothed tiger. We can to save ourselves and to hell with the consequences… Fortunately the exact opposite happens when we experience hope… When we are hopeful we are better able to access our knowledge and intellect, us our emotional intelligence, and rely on our intuition. We are more open and willing to consider new and different ways to reach our goals and have the emotional wherewithal to deal with challenges and problems.”

“… We can choose to view our memories through a positive lens or a negative lens… Obsessing about all the things that went wrong in the past and imagining it will all happen again today or tomorrow affects your ability to think, to process feelings, and to act in ways that will help rather than hurt you.”

Yes, You Do Need Friends at Work

“…We had our answer to the question: Sunglass Hut was doing well in part because of strong, warm relationships and a powerful sense of belonging in the company.”

“Having friends at work is critical. When we feel cared for – even loved, as one does in a friendship – and when we belong to a group that matters to us, we are generous with our time and talents because we’re committed to people, not just the job or the company.”

“… if employees suspect that someone doesn’t respect or care about them or their goals, they will likely become self-protective.”

“Love – the kind of love founded in companionship, caring and shared purpose – is the single most important factor influencing happiness in life… The love of family and friends is essential to our overall well-being. Similarly, caring relationships with colleagues at work enable us to thrive physically and psychologically. The positive emotions we feel in such relationships help us deal with stress, and we are even less likely to become depressed… Being in the company of friends helps us experience a deep and satisfying sense of belonging – another key element of happiness.”

Belonging: Our Tribe at Work

“From the time we lived in small, nomadic bands, we’ve needed one another to survive. We still do. There’s more to being part of a tribe, however, than finding food or protecting one another. We also have a deep human need to belong – to feel part of a group of people who share our values, hopes, and dreams… When we find ourselves in a team or organization that doesn’t want us or doesn’t accept us for who we are, we live in a constant state of physiological arousal: fears take over, we’re anxious, and we can even become depressed. Stress is constant and our physical and mental health suffer.”

“We thrive when we belong to groups where people care about, like, and respect us – and where we can give the same back in return. We want to feel that people we work with are our people, even if we come from different backgrounds and cultures.”

“Friendships don’t just form magically… to start, you can focus on trust, generosity, and fun… these help us to build warm, positive friendships in the workplace.”

“Make it a priority to get to know your colleagues. You can read about their cities, states, or countries.. or take time at the beginning of conferencealls to talk about nonwork topics.”

I Hate My Boss

“First, if your boss is indeed destructive, you need to defend yourself. You can start by creating psychological boundaries that protect you from emotional damage. If the situation is untenable, you should think about leaving.”

“Stop blaming and start creating a more positive relationship. When you respond with over the top negativity, you make the situation worse. People know when you don’t respect them and will often respond in kind.”

The Long March to Unhappiness

“Kala was caught in the boiling frog syndrome. When you’re in warm water and the heat’s turned up slowly, you don’t notice. You get used to it, whatever “it” is: being marginalized, unappreciated, treated unfairly, or taken for granted. The hot water feels normal, and we stay, even when it hurts… ‘I though I couldn’t do better. They devalued me, so I devalued myself.’… Kala’s problem is not unusual. It’s rarely one problem at work that leas us across the happiness line. More often, it’s a combination of many smaller challenges, seemingly logical compromises, and unending pressure. What kala did that’s less common, however, was to listen to her inner voice and bravely take a stand on what she wanted from her work experience.”

“overwork is a trap… it is not a good coping mechanism for stress. It makes things worse as we ignore our relationships, cut out fun, and eat and sleep poorly. “

Hearing the Wake Up Call

Physical wake up calls:

Eating too much or too little.
Difficulty sleeping, or sleeping too much.
Chronic Fatigue
Gastrointestinal issues
Headaches
Neck and back problems
Tightness in the chest
Too many colds and other seasonal illnesses
Onset or worsening of chronic health problems
Not smiling or laughing as much as you used to

Emotional wake up calls:

Seeing the glass half empty when you’re normally a half full kind of person
Seeing even small problems as insurmountable obstacles
Feeling sad more often than normal
Having difficulty snapping out of a bad mood
Feeling unappreciated or taken for granted
Feeling exhausted at the idea of doing something new and different
Believing that no matter what you do, it won’t be enough
Dreading your work
Getting frustrated easily or having a short fuse

Relational wake up calls:

Most conversations are terse and task-oriented
People say things like: “are you ok?” “Are you mad at me?” “you never listen to me anymore”
You are not interested in getting to know your coworkers
People in your life and at work are distancing themselves from you
People get quiet when you enter a room
You find yourself disagreeing and fighting with people about minor things
You are prone to criticize or blame others
You overreact when people disappoint you
You can’t remember when you last had a good time with coworkers – or anyone else.

Four Stages of the Journey from Despair and Resignation to Happiness

Stage One: Get Me the Hell Out of Here
Emotional self-awareness: Allow yourself to feel, really feel, those primal emotions.
Emotional self-control: Even if you think it might be time to leave, it’s a mistake to make decisions in amygdala hijack, when our limbic brain – not our rational brain – is calling the shots.
Positive outlook: When we choose optimism over pessimism, the parts of our nervous system that are involved in the stress response begin to lose power and we’re able to remain calm, energized, and focused

Stage Two: Figure Out What You Like and Hold Steady, Even When It’s Tough
“You’ve got to like what you do. You’ve got to find meaning in it and you have to feel that what you do will make a difference.”

Stage Three: Honestly Assess Your Work Situation
What’s really going on in your organization? Is the culture as powerful and toxic as you think it is? Are there any redeeming values that you can focus on? There usually are, and people have a hard time fighting you if you lead with something inspiring about the company, its noble purpose, and its values.

The Basic lesson here is that if we want to assess our work situation fairly, we have to let go of the habitual ways we view people and our work experience.

Stage Four: Run Toward the Future, Not Away From the Past
Sometimes running away is the right thing to do, but it’s better – much better – to run toward something… It’s important to understand that when you’ve heard a wake up call, you need to engage optimism and commit to a positive outlook about the future.

For intentional change to work, you also need to tap into confidence and self-efficacy. Trust yourself: if you’ve heard the call, and if you commit to moving toward a dream rather than running away, you are ready to craft a personal vision and a plan to get there.

Sharing Happiness at Work

“Cultivating happiness at work is a deliberate, conscious act. You now know what it takes: finding and living your purpose, focusing passionately on your future, and
building meaningful friendships.”

“…Create a resonant microculture on your team. A resonant microculture is marked by a powerful and positive emotional climate as well as shared purpose, hope, vision, and norms that support happiness and success. Everyone is supported to work hard and work smart, while also feeling good about themselves and their accomplishments… Take charge of the emotional climate of your team, commit to a shared purpose and vision, and create emotionally intelligent norms to support healthy ways of working together.”

“… Throughout his career, Roberto has worked to humanize his organizations, making it possible for people to learn, grow, and thrive… One of the ways Roberto has brought this to life has been to focus on culture, something he knows to be one of the most important drivers of individual and collective success… Unfortunately, too many of our organizations’ cultures do not help us to accomplish our goals, much less be happy. They are toxic: they stifle talent, hijack success, and make us miserable.”

Signs of Toxic Cultures:

Intense pressure to get short-term results
Taboos against speaking up to power
Us versus them mentality
Dysfunctional competition
Lots of talk about values but not enough action
Lack of clarity around a vision
Disrespect
Lack of appreciation
Pessimism
Incivility and hurtfulness tolerated or even encouraged
Inequity, absence of meritocracy, and injustice

Signs of Resonant Cultures:

A sense of unity around a noble purpose
Overt commitment to virtues and values like honesty, forgiveness, gratitude, wisdom, and love
A clear, inspiring, and shared vision of the future
Generosity of time, talent, and resources
Taboos against hurtful treatment of others, dishonesty, and cynicism
Respect for the individual’s right to grow and develop
Celebration of differences
Compassion and humane treatment of everyone in good times and bad
Fairness and justice
Integrity
Fun

“In Primal Leadership… ‘great leaders move us. They ignite our passion and inspire the best in us… Great leaders are awake, aware, and attuned to themselves, to others, and to the world around them. They commit to their beliefs, stand strong in their values, and live full, passionate lives.’.. Today each and every one of us must be a resonant leader.”

Create a resonant microculture, shape your team’s emotional reality, seek common purpose, nurture hope and your team’s shared vision.

Commit to Emotionally Intelligent Team Norms

Seek to understand each other’s viewpoints and feelings
Actively care for people
Respect and accept people for who they are
Connect with people around higher purpose and dreams
Engage in open, honest dialogue
Don’t shy away from conflict, but don’t harm people or relationships
Be reliable and consistent to build trust
Take the lead and also be a good follower
Celebrate success
Adopt norms that support a sense of belonging

TL;DR
Life is too short to be unhappy at work.
Free yourself from the happiness traps that keep you miserable.

Be authentically yourself and celebrate others for who they are
Live the virtues and values that support purpose, hope and friendships
attend to and honor your feelings
Celebrate and suffer together
Be calm
Be brave.
Fight Oppression
Break the rules about overwork; just don’t do it anymore
be compassionate with yourself and others
Love yourself and find something to love and honor in everyone
Have fun

April 10, 2019April 10, 2019

Men’s Short Story Night I: The Tale of Thorstein Staff-Struck

For the first meeting of our men’s short story night I chose to select three short Icelandic tales, or þáttr: The Tale of Thorstein Staff-Struck, The Tale of Thorstein Shiver, and The Tale of Audun of the West Fjords. Since I don’t have all the time in the world I will only discuss the longest story here, Thorstein Staff-Struck.

The Tale of Thorstein Staff-Struck

There are many aspects of this tale that can easily go unappreciated without further analysis of society during 13th century Iceland. For this reason I will break up my discussion of Thorstein Staff-Struck into a few different sections.

Summary

This short tale originated around the mid-13th century and chronicles the conflict between the houses of Thorarinn and Bjarni Brodd-Helgason at Hof, Iceland. Thorarinn is a poor, bad tempered, retired viking, but despite his poverty he is a bondi who breeds horses. His son, Thorstein, is regarded as a good, even-tempered man with the strength and determination to do the work of three. Thorstein becomes involved in a horse fight with Thord, a horse breeder for Brjani Brodd-Hegason. When Thord notices that his horse is losing he strikes Thorstein’s horse. In return, Thorstein strikes Thord’s horse, causing Thord to strike Thorstein. Thorstein dismisses the strike as an accident so as to avoid conflict. Two of Bjarni’s farmhands, Thorvall and Thorhall, create an insulating nickname for Thorstein, Staff-Struck.

Months later, Thorstein is accused by his father of being a ragr for running away from conflict and not demanding compensation. Because of this accusation by his father, Thorstein confronts and kills Thord. Thorstein then notifies a local woman that Thord has been gored by a bull and is dying. The woman then later informs Bjarni at dinner. Bjarni, as gothi, outaws Thorstein for killing Thord, but does not actively pursue him or remove him from the lands.

Later on, Thorvall and Thorhall insult Bjarni for not properly avenging his thingmen, causing him to command the two to find and kill Thorstein. Thorstein easily kills both of them and ties their corpses to their horses who trot home to Bjarni’s farm. Rannveig, Bjarni’s wife, convinces him that he should kill Thorstein, fearing that the unavenged death of the three thingmen by an outlaw would damage their honor. Against Rannveig’s wishes that he go with an assembly of men, he sets out alone to fight Thorstein.

Thorstein and Bjarni enter into a duel. During the fight Bjarni asks for multiple stoppages to get a drink of water, tie his shoe, sharpen his sword, etc. It soon becomes apparent to Bjarni that Thorstein has been holding back, at which point he offers to end the fight if he takes the place of the three men he killed. Thorstein accepts.

Bjarni then tells Thorarinn, that he has slain Thorstein, and offers to support him in his son’s absence. Thorarinn then delivers a diatribe against gothis who support the dependents of people that they kill, at which point he attempts to kill Bjarni. Bjarni easily defends against the attack and informs him that he and Thorstein had actually come to terms. Bjarni, Thorstein and Thorarinn then move to Hof and live successful lives.

Societal Relevance and Terms

Bondi –A bondi during this time was essentially the core of Norse society, formed by farmers and craftsmen, and constituted the widespread middle class. Bondis were free men and had rights entitling them to such things as the use of weapons and to join the Thing. In Iceland, a Bondi was subject to the authority of a gothi, so their rights as free men were subject by law to a minimum in properties. Thereafter a bondi was considered a follower of the gothi and his vote as a thingmen was influenced by the will of the gothi in the Althing.

Thing – In early Germanic society a thing was the governing assembly of freemen. The roots of the word thing, whether of norse or old-english origin, essentially mean “an assemblage, or a coming together of parts”. In the viking age things functioned as both parliaments and courts. Their purpose was to solve disputes and make political decisions; often their sites were also places of public religious activity.

In pre-Christian, clan oriented culture of Scandinavia, and later Iceland, members of clans were obliged to avenge their dead and mutilated relatives. This value on vengeance often created a cyclical pattern of violence, and as a result, feuding is often see as the most common form of conflict resolution used in Viking society. However, things often served as balancing structures used to reduce tribal feuds and and to help avoid social disorder. Things played an important role as forums for such topics as conflict resolution, marriage alliances, power display, honor, and inheritance settlements.

The thing’s negotiations were presided over by the lawspeaker, chieftain or king, but in reality were dominated by the most influential members of the community, typically being the heads of clans and wealthy families, but in theory the system of rule was one-person one-vote.

In particular, Iceland was divided into four administrative quarters with a fixed number of 39 gothis. Unique to Iceland was the organization of the Althing, which served as the legislative and judicial institution at the national level. Thingvellir was the site of the Althing, and was a place where people came together once a year to bring cases to court, render judgments, and discuss laws and politics. Besides the Althing, there were local assembly districts in each of the four quarters of Iceland. Each spring an assembly was held called the vorthing, brought together by three of the gothis who lived in each local assembly district.

Gothi – A gothi is a chieftain-priest in Old Norse. The title is most commonly associated with medieval Iceland where it was continued to be used as a secular political title after Christianization. During the pagan era, the gothi was a local chieftain who also served in the role of priest. After settlement in Iceland, a hofgothi was a temple priest. The hofgothi was typically a wealthy and respected man in his district as he had to maintain the communal hall, or hof, in which community religious observances and feasts were held. After the year 1000, when Christian conversion began to occur in Iceland, the term gothi had lost its sacred connotations and come simply to mean the local chieftain.

Staff-Struck – The nickname given to Thorstein is a play on the Nordic practice of shame-stroke. The act of creating an insulting nickname was a serious crime, carrying a penalty of lesser outlawry for three years. The passive acceptance of this nickname, combined with with Thorstein’s initial refusal to pursue legal action against Thord causes a cowardly stigma, acknowledged especially by his father.

Shame-Stroke – Shame-stroke is the act of cutting off or stabbing a man’s ass cheek; the injury was symbolically representative of the anal rape of a man. The injury was designed to not only be debilitating, but also sexually humiliating through the symbolic feminization of the victim by turning him into an ergi. It was considered symbolic of the loss of power in the Norse society, where power and status were very important, as well as an outward declaration of the physical and social power that the dominator wielded over the dominated. The feminization of the victim also typically came with an insulting cognomen indicating status degradation, and once the name stuck, ensured that the shame would not be forgotten.

Nith, Argr, Ragr, Ergi – All four of these are essentially terms indicating the loss of honor within Germanic society. More particularly, argr (roughly pronounced arr-yur), ragr (roughly pronounced raw-yur), and Ergi were very severe insults which demanded retribution if the accusations had been made without justification. These three words all indicated an individuals “unmanliness”, and declared them to be a “male bottom” in a homosexual relationship.

Interpretations and Themes

Cultural Aggression

The tale has often been seen as a critique of the aggressive nature of medieval Icelandic culture. Under the system at the time, an individual was expected to avenge all transgressions or be seen as dishonorable or cowardly. The ending fight between Bjarni and Thorstein can be interpreted as being a cultural display of manliness when both parties are in fact tired of the cycle of perpetual violence. Both men are forced to blows to put up a display of violence so they can be seen as assertive, despite neither of them wishing to do actual harm to the other. In this regard, it can be seen that Bjarni and Thorstein are caught between respect and indignation for heroic code that demands vengeance despite the absurdity of the situation.

Nicknames

Of obvious importance to this tale is that of the Nordic practice of nicknaming, which I will not further expand upon.

Gendered Insults

All of the negative terms used in this tale refer to a man being unmanly, or womanly. Even the claimed goring by a bull of Thord has been interpreted as a sexual metaphor for anal rape. In addition to all of the insults used, even the actions of women are seen as childish and unintelligent.

February 20, 2019February 20, 2019

Feminism is For Everybody

Feminism is For Everybody by Bell Hooks

This book, is without a doubt, the single worst piece of published text I have ever read. It pains me, as a man that identifies as a feminist, that a book entitled “feminism is for everybody” is as poorly written as it this, with grammatical errors, logical fallacies, and extremely polarizing opinions abounding. Besides all of these detracting attributes of the book, Bell Hooks also has decided to not cite any of her sources, so the reader is unable to tell if everything she accepts as true is her personal opinion or something else.

It is ironic to me that a book with this title has the phrase “male domination” appearing 53 times in its 118 pages, and the phrase “white supremacist capitalist patriarchy” appearing 15 times, let alone without even giving any kind of definition of how she would like the reader to interpret her use of these polarizing phrases. In addition to these polarizing phrases, there are passes such as the following:

“If welfare not warfare was sanctioned by our government and all citizens legally had access to a year or two of their lives during which they received state aid if they were unable to find a job, then the negative stigma attached to welfare programs would no longer exist.”

“Many men blame women working for unemployment, for their loss of the stable identity being seen as patriarchal providers gave them, even if it was or is only a fiction.”

“… but as the movement progressed evidence showed… that children were also victims of adult patriarchal violence enacted by women and men.”

“The term ‘patriarchal violence’ is useful because unlike the more accepted phrase ‘domestic violence’ it continually reminds the listener that violence in the home is connected to sexism and sexist thinking, to male domination.”

“Clearly most women do not use violence to dominate men… but lots of women believe that a person in authority has the right to use force to maintain authority. A huge majority of parents use some form of physical or verbal aggression against children.

What’s worse is the abhorrent punctuation, or lack thereof, that she uses. For example, the following passage,

“More than other religious faith Christian doctrine which condones sexism and male domination informs all the ways we learn about gender roles in society”

is pretty much unintelligible without proper use of commas. Without them, the reader must re-read the sentence a handful of times and make assumptions about what is being said. I am assuming the sentence that she intended to construct was: “More than other religions, Christian doctrine, which condones sexism and male domination, informs us of all the ways we learn about gender roles in society.” Is it christian doctrine that condones sexism and male domination, or is it christian doctrine that only condones sexism? Does christian doctrine alone inform, or christian doctrine and male domination? What I’m getting at is that no one is able to understand what the verb informs is applied to, and who is the subject? Informs is a 3rd person present tense verb, but what is the subject? us?

January 27, 2019January 27, 2019

Origin

Origin by Dan Brown

Plot

Origin, following the formulaic yet entertaining Dan Brown suspenseful writing style chronicles the fifth fast paced and perilous adventure that Robert Langdon is involuntarily thrust into. The story begins with prominent computer science and tech billionaire Edmund Kirsch requesting the input of religious world leaders in how best to announce a discovery he has made that will prove all world religions wrong. The three religious leaders he meets with are deeply shaken by his presentation, and even begin to frantically devise a plan to try to control the backlash of his discovery, as well as fear for their safety in obtaining this knowledge. Two of the religious leaders are later found dead, under very suspicious circumstances.

A short time later, Kirsch invites prominent individuals from all over the world to a presentation at the Guggenheim museum in Bilboa, Spain, where he indicates he will be announcing a breakthrough that will change the religious world. Upon entering the Guggenheim, Langdon is given a headset in which a virtual docent gives him a personal guided tour of the museum, whom Langdon eventually learns is an advanced, first of it’s kind, AI-complete intelligent artificial agent named Winston.

Once the theatrical presentation begins, it is revealed that Kirsch has found an answer to the deeply philosophical questions “where do we come from?” and “where are we going?” In classic Dan Brown fashion, the night is abruptly derailed as Kirsch is assassinated during his presentation, in front of the live audience as well as an online audience numbering in the millions. It is revealed that the assassin has been recruited by a seemingly omniscient and mysterious person, only known as “The Regent”, who has the power and influence to manipulate almost anyone.

The pace of the night quickly accelerates as Langdon finds himself eluding authorities with the beautiful Ambra Vidal, Guggenheim curator as well as fiancee of the future king of Spain, due to his attempt to save Kirsch after being informed of his impending death mere seconds before its occurrence. The suspicion of the involvement of the catholic church and ties back to the Spanish royal family lead Langdon and Vidal to flee in an attempt to find a way to release Kirsch’s presentation to the world. Langdon and Vidal are tasked with discovering the long pass phrase to Kirsch’s personal, custom made, cell phone, which upon being unlocked will have the ability to share his theatrical presentation to the world. At the same time, they discover that Kirsch had been suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer, and was only estimated to have a few days left to live at the time of the presentation.

After a briskly moving and dangerous night, Langdon and Vidal arrive at the facility that houses the supercomputer that Winston operates on. Upon getting Winston to queue the presentation to upload to the world, it (he?) reveals startling information about the events of the night. It reveals to Langdon and Vidal that it is the one posing as The Regent, and it was the entity responsible for employing individuals to assassinate two of the religious leaders, as well as Kirsch. Winston elucidates its actions by concluding that Kirsch was going to die in the very near future anyway, and that by bringing about his death in this fashion, the public attention of his presentation would grow exponentially. The story concludes after the presentation is shared with the world, but the content is not grave, as is hinted previously, rather, it’s hopeful and suggests the future of man is to become one with technology.

Thoughts and reactions

Now, I have to say, much of my wanting to review this book to the extent that I have is in response to an article written by Matthew Walther on the website TheWeek, entitled “Dan Brown is a very bad writer”. The article is, in essence, a diatribe against Brown’s writing style and the author’s interpretation that the way in which Brown presents architectural, technological, geographical and historical information suggests the common reader is somewhat of a dimwit. The aforementioned article suffers from a number of logical fallacies, and conforms to the all too common, mentally arrogant belief that takes some form of the argument “Dan Brown is low brow literature that is below me, an intelligent person who enjoys real literature such as that written by Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, blah blah blah.” To downplay Brown’s skill as a writer who found a way to create an engaging, fast reading, culture weaving, semi-didactic and horizon expanding novel for individuals who would not otherwise be exposed to the locations, architecture and technology presented in his books is a disservice to all literature. If you do not enjoy his writing, that is fine, but to compare it to the likes of classical literature heavyweights and judge it in the same vein is to, as Einstein put it, judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree.

One particularly bothersome section of this piece goes like this:

“Brown thinks that a “classicist” is someone who likes old things rather than a scholar of classical languages, that Harvard professors of subjects real or imaginary say things like “Nostradamus was the most famous prognosticator of all time,” that it would cost untold billions to create a computer with the epoch-making ability to tell you what the Dow closed at on August 23, 1974, that there exists a “priceless manuscript,” as opposed to a paperback book, entitled The Complete Works of William Blake, or that this or any manuscript has standard page numbers. Page numbers are in fact a major pitfall for Brown, at one point leading me to wonder how many books he has actually opened in his life, let alone read:

“It’s a clever decoy.”
“You’ve lost me,” Langdon said, eyeing the painting.
“Edmond chose page 163 because it’s impossible to display that page without simultaneously displaying the page next to it — page 162!” [Origin]

Reader: If you ever come across a book in which it is possible to “display” page 163 without also displaying page 162, write to the publisher. You are almost certainly due a refund of some kind, to say nothing of an explanation.”

Now, I understand most people are not intimately familiar with say, robotics, but the most vexing part of this diatribe is the conclusion that “Brown thinks… it would cost untold billions to create a computer with the epoch-making ability to tell you what the Dow closed at on August 23, 1974.”

Alas, the point is completely missed that untold billions would be required to create some kind of AI complete agent that is able to converse, understand abstract notions, create its own works of art, etc. To compare the capabilities of this entity with that of the google assistant, let me inform you that it was groundbreaking when you could begin to use pronouns in conversations with the assistant, resulting in possible conversations such as:
“Hey google, in what year was the movie Bullitt filmed?
…
What location was it filmed at?”

It’s safe to say, simply, that nearly all bashing of Dan Brown novels I have come across are the result of mental arrogance and lack of understanding of what purpose the novel was written for.

Analysis

Brown, in my opinion, does a great job of weaving together culture, architecture, and history that may otherwise be foreign to American readers. In addition, he shares aspects of technology, art, music, literature, and history that gives the reader a feeling of learning about more intellectual facets of life, all the while indulging in a mystery that is tailored to match the speed and attention span required of watching modern day movies. He has found a way to weave classical, slow moving literature and art with a fast moving narrative more in tune with the speed of modern times.

Speed of Brown novels

The Langdon series of books all have a structure comprised of short, interleaved chapters with viewpoints alternating between the main protagonist, Langdon, the antagonist, another “victim” type protagonist that Langdon eventually interacts with, and the beautiful woman who he eventually partners up with during the events over the course of the novel. Each chapter typically ends with a suspenseful sentence, such as “who could possibly want me dead? Frighteningly, he could come up with only one logical answer.”
or,
“‘Thank goodness,’ Winston said. ‘Listen carefully. We may have a serious problem.'”

The sharp, intriguing wrap up to each chapter, along with the brevity of each chapter, creates a feeling of “OK, just one more chapter”, which lends to the speed at which readers seem to progress through Dan Brown novels.

Cultural, technological, and occult exposure

In addition to describing and referencing literature and the arts, Brown paints a detailed picture of foreign cities and countries that are largely associated with the enlightenment and classical intellectual progress. He gives the reader exposure to architecture and locations that they likely have heard of before, but have not had described in such didactic detail; his writing invokes a feeling of connection with the more intellectual and enlightened side of life.
Examples of his foreign architectural lessons include:
“The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, looked like something out of an alien hallucination – a swirling collage of warped metallic forms that appears to have been propped up against one another in an almost random way. Stretching out into the distance, the chaotic mass of shapes was draped in more than thirty thousand titanium tiles that glinted like fish scales and gave the structure a simultaneously organic and extraterrestrial feel, as if some futuristic leviathan had crawled out of the water to sun herself on the riverbank.”

References to historic art include:
“‘Klein is best known for his blue paintings, but he is also known for a disturbing trick photograph called Leap into the Void, which caused quite a panic when it was revealed in 1960.’
Langdon had seen Leap into the Void at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The photo was more than a little disconcerting, depicting a well-dressed man doing a swan dive off a high building and plunging toward the pavement. In truth, the image was a trick – brilliantly conceived and devilishly retouched with a razor blade, long before the days of Photoshop.”

Besides the “classier”, historical creations Brown exposes to the reader, he typically merges innovations of the past with current innovations in a way that creates a feeling of mystique; a sense of mystery around the general lack of knowledge of things that have been created long ago, and things that are nascent.
Semi-scientific aspects of his writing include excerpts such as:
“For Langdon, the only familiar sensation was the sterile tang on the back of his tongue; museum air was the same worldwide – filtered meticulously of all particulates and oxidants and then moistened with ionized water to 45 percent humidity.”
and
“I hope Ludwig van Beethoven gets his cut, Langdon thought, fairly certain that the original inventor of bone conduction technology was the eighteenth-century composer who, upon going deaf, discovered he could affix a metal rod to his piano and bite down on it while he played, enabling him to hear perfectly through vibrations in his jawbone.”

Adding to these informational and mysterious facets of his writing, he furthers the curiosity piqued by readers by speaking in detail about, and having illustrations of, historic symbols as well as novel ones that seem to create a foreign language that the reader is unaccustomed to. Adding all of these elements together results in an easy to digest way to teach surface level things while evoking a deep sense of mystery and intrigue.

One prominent example of this “symbology” occurs in describing a piece created by Kirsch himself, with the following excerpt:

“‘Edmund did this?’ grumbled a mink-clad woman with Botoxed lips. ‘I don’t get it.’
The teacher in Langdon could not resist. ‘It’s actually quite clever,’ he interrupted. ‘So far it’s my favorite piece in the entire museum.’
The woman spun, eyeing him with more than a hint of disdain. ‘Oh really? Then do enlighten me.’
I’d be happy to. Langdon walked over to the series of markings etched coarsely into the clay surface.
‘Well, first of all,’ Langond said, ‘Edmond inscribed this piece in clay as an homage to mankind’s earliest written language, cuneiform.’
The woman blinked, looking uncertain.
‘The three heavy markings in the middle,’ Langdon continued, ‘spell the word ‘fish’ in Assyrian. It’s called a pictogram. If you look carefully, you can imagine the fish’s open mouth facing right, as well as the triangular scales on his body.’
…’And if you look over here,’ Langdon said, pointing to the series of depressions to the left of the fish, ‘you can see that Edmond made foot prints in the mud behind the fish, to represent the fish’s historic evolutionary step onto land.’
‘And finally,’ Langdon said, ‘the asymmetrical asterisk on the right – the symbol that the fish appears to be consuming – is one of history’s oldest symbols for God.’
The Botoxed woman turned and scowled at him. ‘A fish is eating God?’
‘Apparently so. It’s a playful version of the Darwin fish – evolution consuming religion.’ Langdon gave the group a casual shrug. ‘As I said, pretty clever.'”

Quotes and relatable excerpts

“Tolerance, Avila reminded himself. He had met countless men like these – simpleminded, unhappy souls, who had never stood for anything, men who blindly abused the liberties and freedoms that others had fought to give them.”

“‘For the human brain,’ Edmond explained, ‘any answer is better than no answer. We feel enormous discomfort when faced with insufficient data, and so our brains invent the data – offering us, at the very least, the illusion of order – creating myriad philosophies, mythologies and religions to reassure us that there is indeed an order and structure to the unseen world … Where do we come from? Where are we going? These fundamental questions of human existence have always obsessed me, and for years I’ve dreamed of finding the answers … Tragically, on account of religious dogma, millions of people believe they already know the answers to these big questions. And because not every religion offers the same answers, entire cultures end up warring over whose answers are correct, and which version of God’s story is the One True Story.'”

“Science is the antithesis of faith … Science, by definition, is the attempt to find physical proof for that which is unknown or not yet defined, and to reject superstition and misperception in favor of observable facts. When science offers an answers, that answer is universal. Humans do not go to war over it; they rally around it.”

“I’m paraphrasing here, but Gould essentially assured me that there was no question whatsoever among real scientists that evolution is happening. Empirically we can observe the process. The better questions, he believed, were: Why is evolution happening? And how did it all start? … he did illustrate his point with a thought experiment. It’s called the Infinite Hallway … It goes like this: imagine yourself walking down a long hallway – a corridor so long that it’s impossible to see where you came from or where you’re going … then behind you in the distance, you hear the sound of a bouncing ball. Sure enough, when you turn, you see a ball bouncing toward you. It is bouncing closer and closer, until it finally bounces past you, and just keeps going, bouncing into the distance and out of sight … The question is not: Is the ball bouncing? Because clearly, the ball is bouncing. We can observe it. The question is: Why is it bouncing? How did it start bouncing? Did someone kick it? Is it a special ball that simply enjoys bouncing? Are the laws of physics in this hallway such that the ball has no choice but to bounce forever? Gould’s point being, that just as with evolution, we cannot see far enough into the past to know how the process began … All we can do is observe that it is happening … And because the human mind is not equipped to handle ‘infinity’ very well, most scientists now discuss the universe in terms of moments after the Big Bang – Where T is greater than zero – which ensures that the mathematical does not turn mystical.”

“‘God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderer of all murderers?’
– Nietzsche
God is dead … Those who erase God… must be gods.”

“‘Did Edmond actually read all of these books in his library?’
‘I believe so, yes,’ Winston replied. ‘He was a voracious consumer of text and called this library his ‘trophy room of knowledge.””

“…my mother’s unwavering zealotry has a lot to do with my abhorrence of religion. I call it – ‘Newton’s Third Law of Child Rearing: For every lunacy, there is an equal and opposite lunacy.'”

“The Roswell saucer was a government weather balloon called Project Mogul.”

“The term ‘atheist’ should not even exist. No one ever needs to identify himself as a ‘nonastrologer’ or a ‘nonalchemist.’ We do not have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive, or for people who doubt that aliens traverse the galaxy only to molest cattle. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of of unjustified religious beliefs … That definition is not mine, by the way. Those words belong to neuroscientist Sam Harris. And if you have not already done so, you must read his book Letter to a Christian Nation.”

“The dark religions are departed & sweet science reigns.”

“Titled Missa Charles Darwin, it was a Christian-style mass in which the composer had eschewed the traditional sacred Latin text and substituted excerpts from Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species to create a haunting juxtaposition of devout voices singing about the brutality of natural selection.”

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
– Winston Churchill
‘Edmund’s favorite quote … He said it pinpoints the single greatest strength of computers … computers are infinitely persistent. I can fail billions of times with no trace of frustration. I embark upon my billionth attempt at solving a problem with the same energy as my first. Humans cannot do that.'”

“Chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey had conducted a legendary scientific experiment in the 1950s attempting to answer that very question (Where do we come from?). Their bold experiment had failed, but their efforts had been lauded worldwide and been known ever since as the Miller-Urey experiment… Apparently, the original Miller-Urey experiment had produced many more amino acids and complex compounds than Miller had been able to measure at the time. The new analysis of the vials even identified several important nucleobases – the building blocks of RNA, and perhaps eventually DNA.”

“If Professor England’s theory is correct, then the entire operating system of the cosmos could be summed up by a single overriding command: spread energy!”

“I’m sorry to have to show you this … but in every model I ran, the same thing happened. The human species evolved to our current point in history, and then, very abruptly, a new species materialized, and erased us from the Earth…. In a flash, Langdon realized what Edmond was describing. The Seventh Kingdom … It was called: Technicum… What you are seeing here is a rare evolutionary process known as obligate endosymbiosis. Normally, evolution is a bifurcating process – a species splits into two new species – but sometimes, in rare instances, if two species cannot survive without each other, the process occurs in reverse… and instead of one species bifurcating, two species fuse into one… Human beings are evolving into something different. We are becoming a hybrid species – a fusion of biology and technology. The same tools that today live outside of our bodies – smartphones, hearing aids, reading glasses, most pharmaceuticals – in fifty years will be incorporated into our bodies to such an extent that we will no longer be able to consider ourselves Homo Sapiens… I urge you to place your faith in the human capacity for creativity and love, because these two forces, when combined, possess the power to illuminate any darkness… May our philosophies keep pace with our technologies. May our compassion keep pace with our powers. And may love, not fear, be the engine of change.“

“Creationists are today’s flat-earth advocates, and I would be shocked if anyone still believes in Creationism a hundred years from now.”

“Anthropological data clearly showed that cultures practicing religions historically had outlived non-religious cultures. Fear of being judged by an omniscient deity always helps inspire benevolent behavior.”

“Love is from another realm. We cannot manufacture it on demand. Nor can we subdue it when it appears. Love is not our choice to make.”

“True or false?

I + XI = X

‘One plus eleven is ten? False.’
Langdon gently reached out and took her hand, guided her around to where he had been standing. Now, when Ambra glanced down, she saw the markings from Langdon’s vantage point.
The equation was upside down.

X = IX + I

Startled, she glanced up at him.
‘Ten equals nine plus one… Sometimes, all you have to do is shift your perspective to see someone else’s truth.'”

“Love is not a finite emotion.
We don’t have only so much to share.
Our hearts create love as we need it.
Just as parents could love a newborn instantly without diminishing their love for each other, so now could Ambra feel affection for two different men.
Love truly is not a finite emotion, she realized. It can be generated spontaneously out of nothing at all.”

“I am surprised to hear your dismay, Professor… considering that your own faith is built on an act of far greater ethical ambiguity.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.
Your God brutally sacrificed his son, abandoning him to suffer on the cross for hours. With Edmond, I painlessly ended a dying man’s suffering in order to bring attention to his great works.”

“We should all do what so many churches already do – openly admit that Adam and Eve did not exist, that evolution is a fact, and that Christians who declare otherwise make us all look foolish… I don’t believe that the same God who endowed us with sense, reason and intellect intended for us to forgo their use.”

More Thoughts

The notion of technology playing a part in evolution is not new. I cannot recall where I first encountered the notion, but what seems to make more sense to me is that technology is not a separate “kingdom”, but rather a continuation of human evolution. Evolution has been shown to be occurring at increasing rates as time progresses, but eventually “natural” evolution could no longer keep pace with this rate. Thus, technology serves as a means of accelerating human evolution beyond what is biologically possible, changing humans in an exponentially increasing rate.

Belief vs Faith

From a philosophical stand point, I would also like to comment on the distinction between belief and faith, as the latter is a central part of this novel. The easiest way for me to illustrate the difference between the two, as used by philosophers in creating logical arguments, is to define belief as a subjective truth based on objective evidence. An example of this could be if you’re playing baseball as an outfielder, see the batter hit the ball far into left field. Because you have observed projectiles (balls) being hit into the air hundreds of thousands of times, you have a model in your head of where the ball will go. Where you think the ball will end up is your belief of where the ball will land. It is what you think will be true given facts (objective truths), the ball has been hit, it has this initial trajectory, I have seen this many times before, etc.

Faith can then be defined as a subjective truth based on subjective evidence. People typically think of religious faith, but there can be other types of faith as well. An example would be the statement “God must exist because my mother had cancer, and without any medical intervention, she no longer has it.” The existence of God is your subjective truth, and the evidence you have is also subjective; it cannot be proven objectively. The initial diagnoses could have been incorrect, etc.
One may say “well, some people of faith have no evidence at all!” My counterargument to this is that no one of sound mind can come to a conclusion without premises or evidence. “well,” I have been told “some people have faith because they are just told to.” That is valid, but I would argue that there is still evidence for them to draw their conclusions. Typically this takes some form of “I have been taught most everything else in my life by this person, and all of that I have observed to be true. I have no reason to question things they have told me. Therefore this religious faith must also be true.”

January 8, 2019January 8, 2019

A Case Against Suicide by Exsanguination by Laceration of the Radial or Ulnar Arteries, aka How Long Does it Take To Die by Cutting Your Wrists?

Note: this is a working rough draft and has been unedited from the initial deluge of words, numbers and figures that first came to rest here.

If you’ve listened to the live version of “Waiting” by City and Colour on his album guide me back home, Dallas Green describes the song, whose content is about death, as being negative, but in a positive way. I’ve been told that is also a pretty simple way to paraphrase me, but also how I would describe this article.

Motivation

Suicide amounted to approximately 782 thousand deaths in 2008, or roughly 1.4% of total mortality, and 15% of mortality via injury. These numbers translate to 11.6 people per 100,000 inhabitants on a global scale. [1] Despite this relatively high occurrence rate, most people are initially, and persistently, exposed to suicide through the media, with internet playing a very important role in contemporary culture. [2] High-volume, prominent, repetitive coverage of suicide that romanticizes, glorifies, or otherwise resonates with individuals has been long since thought to increase the occurrence of suicide. [3][4][5]

This imitation of suicide is often termed the ‘Werther effect’, whose namesake is attributed to the protagonist in Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther who killed himself and was then imitated by admirers of the book. [5] This may also be referred to as a copycat suicide, which in a community can cause social learning of suicide-related behaviors resulting in suicide clusters, that by definition, occur closer together in time and space than would normally be expected on the basis of statistical prediction. [6]

Some studies have reported that the presentation of suicide in entertainment media have an equivocal effect on suicide rates [7]. Despite the ambiguous affect in some studies, I argue, anecdotally, that entertainment media has a larger influence than news media. In support of this, one review concluded that newspapers, television, books, the internet, and mixed media all have a consistent association with influence on suicidal behavior. [8]

The dynamic list on wikipedia entitled “List of Suicides in Fiction” contains 535 entries as of 1/6/2019. [9] In fact, this article began by questioning the events of the film “John Wick: Chapter 2”, in which Gianna D’Antonio easily slits her wrists, lays back, and dies in a pool quickly. One PhD dissertation even goes as far as to discusses 350 popular films that depict suicide. [10]

Furthermore, music, and music related subcultures may tend to increase the prevalence of self harm and suicide. Self harm should never be confused with suicide, or even attempts at suicide, but for the sake of illustrating that individuals who do this are not alone in their actions, self harm with the intent to communicate distress or relieve tension has been found to occur with rates of 7-14% in young people in the UK. [11] Self-identification of belonging to the Goth subculture of the 90’s and 2000’s was found to be strongly associated with lifetime self harm and attempted suicide( n = 1258), with a prevalence of 53% and 47% respectively. [12] Lending to the influence of music, the wikipedia category “Songs About Suicide” contains a list of 196 pages of contemporary songs at the time of writing. [13]

Prominent Methods of Suicide

In order of decreasing lethality, firearms, suffocation and hanging, poisoning, fall from a great height, and cutting or piercing are typically recorded as the most prevalent paths of suicide. [14][15][16]. Unsurprisingly, because of gun laws in the United States, and the lethality of firearms, they account for the most completed suicides. One should note, that though this is the most common form of suicide in the united states, it does not follow that the suicide rate in the United States is high in comparison to other nations. In fact, 41 nations have a higher suicide rate than the United States, with Lithuania, South Korea, and Russia having nearly triple the rate per capita. [1]

Anatomy of the Anterior Forearm

In order to have an adequate discussion about this topic, we must first explore the anatomy of the anterior forearm.

Superficial musculature of the anterior forearm [17]

Let’s first make note of all of the critical structures related to the musculature of the anterior forearm, as shown in the figure above. At the palmar wrist there are 16 structures of note, including 12 tendons, two nerves, and two arteries. Notably the flexor carpi radialis (FCR) tendon, the palmaris longus tendon, and the flexor digitorum superficialis tendons are present here. In addition to prominent tendons we see the palmar carpal ligament.

Now, let’s we move beyond musculature to the nerves that innervate the hand as shown in the figure below.

The three main nerves that pass through the distal anterior forearm and into the hand are the Ulnar, Radial, and Median nerves, so named because the ulnar and radial nerves parallel the ulnar and radial bones respectively, and the median nerve is in the middle of these. In this view we can also see that the radial and ulnar arteries are nearly co-located with the radial and ulnar nerves. This positional relationship is made a little more evident in the next figure.

Co-location of the arteries and nerves of the anterior forearm [17]

The radial nerve gives sensory supply to the dorsal aspect of the hand, as well as thumb, index finger, middle finger, and a portion of the ring finger. This supply to the dorsal portion of the hand is why it does not appear in the figure below. [18]

The ulnar nerve is sometimes colloquially known as the “musician’s nerve”, as it controls the fine movements of the fingers. [18] In addition to this role, it provides sensory innervation to the pinky, and portion of the ring fingers. Damage to this nerve can result in what is known as “claw hand.”[19]

The median nerve supplies innveration to two of the lumbrical muscles of the hand. This nerve also provides sensation in the lateral 3.5 digits. Damage to the median nerve at the wrist can result in “ape hand deformity”, resulting in an inability to abduct the thumb. Carpal tunnel syndrome is the result of compression of the median nerve as it travels through the wrist.[18]

Ultimately, this brings us to the two main arteries that supply the hand with blood: the radial and ulnar arteries which are visible in the two previous figures. These are the arteries that individuals are typically concerned with when they imagine suicide by exsanguination, i.e. slitting one’s wrists. The radial artery is slightly larger than the ulnar, with mean diameters of 3.2mm and 2.5mm respectively.[20] Of note are also the large veins of the anterior forearm, which can be seen in the figure below.

From this primer we see that there are many critical structures associated with the forearm and hand, comprising tendons, nerves, and arteries. Due to their close proximity to one another, it is easy to see that the act of damaging any of these critical structures will likely result in damaging many others. If damage occurs to tendons, especially ones involving dexterous manipulation of objects such as the flexor digitorum superficialis, it is likely that dexterity will never be the same even with surgical repair. Furthermore, if nerves are damaged, it is even more likely that motor skills and sensation will never be the same.

In order for someone to attempt suicide by lacerating their wrists, and to obtain the requisite depth, they will necessarily damage other critical structures of the wrist that can lead to lifelong complications.

Anatomy of Blood

Blood, as you may already be aware, is a fluid that contains many enzymes and hormones, which carries out the important task of transporting oxygen and carbon dioxide between the lungs and cells of tissues. It may be separated into plasma and cells via centrifuge, with the plasma being roughly 90% water by weight, 7% plasma proteins, 1% inorganic substances, and 1% other organic substances. The cellular content of blood is almost entirely erythrocytes, or more commonly red blood cells, with leukocytes, or white blood cells, comprising less than 1/600th of the total cellular volume, and thrombocytes, or platelets, making up less than 1/800th of the total cellular volume. [21]

Erythrocytes, a) top view and b) side view forming rouleaux [17]

Under normal circumstances, erythrocytes occupy approximately 50% of the blood volume, with a density of nearly 5 million per cubic mm. Comparatively, leukocytes and erythrocytes are much more rarified with densities of 5,000 to 8,000 per cubic mm, and 250,000 to 300,000 per cubic mm respectively. [21][18]

What would happen if someone cut their wrists?

So, let’s assume that someoneone manages to cut their anterior wrist to a depth that lacerates one of their arteries, let’s assume the radial, as that will be easier for people to damage using their other hand, what would happen? From the anatomy discussion above, the first thing that will be apparent is it will likely be very difficult to use that hand for much due to tendon and nerve damage. Second, obviously, and is the purpose of this act, a large amount of bleeding will occur, but how much?

Complicated Engineering Answer

If we want to model things precisely, the time varying velocity profile in arteries can be calculated by:

$1) \qquad v_{f} (y,t) = \displaystyle \sum_{k=0}^\infty Re \left \{V_{k}e^{j(k \omega t - \phi_{k})} \left [ \frac{J_{0}(\tau_{k} ) - J_{0}(\tau_{k} y)}{J_{0}(\tau_k) -1} \right ] \right \}$

Where $Re$ is the real part of a complex variable, $J_{0}$ is the zero order Bessel function of the first kind, y is the normalized radial coordinate, $\omega$ is the angular frequency of the heart beat, t is time, $\phi_{k}$ represents the phase of each harmonic, $V_{k}$ is the centerline velocity of each harmonic, and $\tau_{k}$ is :

$2) \qquad \displaystyle \tau_{k} = a_{k} \cdot j^{3/2}$

With $a_{k}$ being the Womersley number for each harmonic.

$3) \qquad \displaystyle a_{k} = d \sqrt{\frac{k \omega}{\mu}}$

Where $\mu$ is the coefficient of viscosity of the fluid, and d is the diameter. [22]

After calculating the time varying velocity profile, the flow rate can be calculated using:

$4) \qquad Q(t) = 2 \pi \displaystyle \int_{0}^{d} v_{f}(y,t) y \;\partial{y}$

Note, that blood as a whole is non-Newtonian because $\mu$ varies as a function of strain rate. Interestingly, however, blood plasma alone has been shown to be Newtonion. This should not come as a surprise when one takes a moment to observe that blood is merely a suspension of cells in an aqueous solution of electrolytes and non-electrolytes. [21]

The amount that $\mu$ varies is a function of the hematocrit, H, which is the volume fraction of red blood cells in whole blood. For normal blood with a low hematocrit, H = 8.25%, $\mu$ can be assumed to be constant over the entire range of shear rate from 0.1 to 1000 $s^{-1}$ . However, the hematocrit in a healthy individual typically averages 45% [18].

If we simplify our analysis to assume a Newtonian fluid, and assuming flow is laminar, we can use the well known formula:

$5) \qquad \dot{Q} = \displaystyle - \frac{\pi a^4}{8 \mu} \frac{dp}{dx}$

where a is the radial distance along the tube from centerline, p is pressure, and x is the axial distance along the tube. [21]

The above analysis results in volumetric flow rates that are 15 – 50% lower than those obtained using clinical ultrasound scanners, causing the authors to conclude that these scanners result in overestimation of flow rate and wall shear rate in radial and ulnar arteries. [22]

Simple Steady Flow Rate Answer

Let’s assume measurements are averaged over a time period much larger than time differential between heart beats, thereby allowing us to ignore differences between systolic and diastolic pressure. If we assume large timescales, we can simply look up empirical measurements of arterial flow rate. Studies have shown that an average flow rate through the radial artery is between 50 and 64 $ml \;min^{-1}$ . [29][24] Due to the fact that smaller capillaries will be damaged, let’s assume a volume flow rate of $\dot{Q} = 75 ml \; min^{-1}$ . With an average steady volume flow rate assumed, in order to calculate time, all we need to know is the volume of blood required.

It is generally accepted that blood loss resulting in death must be between 50% and 66% of total blood volume. This size of hemorrhage is classified as a class 4 hemorrhage, as it exceeds 40% of total blood volume. For a healthy, average sized, adult male weighing 70 kg, we can assume a blood volume of 5L. [18]

With this knowledge, we assume death will occur once 2500 ml of blood has been lost. This results in the simple equation:

$6) \qquad 2500 ml = 75 \frac{ml}{min}\; \cdot \; x \;minutes$

Note that dimensional consistency is easily validated in equation 6 by seeing that units of minutes in the denominator of the first factor cancels out units of minutes in the numerator of the second factor. Solving for our independent variable, x, we conclude that death will occur after 33.33 minutes.

Since there are 4 classes of hemorrhages, we can easily calculate the time to reach these class of hemorrhage.

Class 1 hemorrhages are all hemorrhages resulting in less than 15% of blood volume lost. At the early portions of this stage all that will really happen is vasoconstriction, or the dilation of blood pathways. By definition, we will have reached a class 1 hemorrhage as soon as our volume flow rate calculation begins.

Class 2 hemorrhages are classified as resulting in 15% – 30% blood volume lost. At this stage patients may become tachycardic, peripheral vasoconstriction continues, and skin may begin to look pale and be cool to the touch. 15% of our 5L assumption equates to 750 ml, or the volume of one bottle of wine. This stage will be reached in 10 minutes by our assumptions above.

Class 3 hemorrhages are classified as resulting in between 30% and 40% blood loss by volume. At this stage the patient’s blood pressure will begin to drop, heart rate increases, peripheral hypoperfusion (shock) with diminished capillary refill occurs, and mental status worsens. Blood transfusions will typically be necessary at this stage. Given the above assumptions, this equates to 1500 ml, or two bottles of wine, and will occur within 20 minutes.[23]

Analyzing Our Results

Now, you may be asking, what the hell, it will take more than 33 minutes, and you won’t really feel anything until after 10 minutes? They always show it to occur so quickly in the movies. The truth is that this is actually a very simplified calculation that will likely yield a time faster than in reality. The reason for this is simple, we managed to neglect hemostasis, the process by which the body stops bleeding. Additionally, it has been observed that direct trauma to an artery can cause a vasospasm[24], which may further disturb radial artery blood flow. One last contribution, is according the study mentioned in the “Complicated Engineering Answer” section, the measured arterial volumetric flow rate may be overestimated by as much as 50%.

Hemostasis may be decomposed into primary and secondary pathways, which converge to form a common pathway. Primary hemostasis constitutes the formation of a platelet plug, wherein platelets begin to stick together to form a temporary seal over the break in the blood vessel wall. Secondary hemostasis is the process by which blood begins to coagulate. Prior to these two efforts of the body to achieve hemostasis, vascular spasms will occur to constrict blood vessels so that less blood will be lost. Therefore, it is likely that our estimated flow rate above will be higher than in reality, and that flow rate will not be steady, but will decrease with time. [25]

We may then conclude that the time to obtain a class 4 hemorrhage with the aforementioned means will likely take closer to an hour, if it occurs it all.

Illustration by Case Studies

If we turn our attention to case studies of the outcome of suicide attempts from laceration we observe something that seems to confirm our above mathematical analysis: this method is usually unsuccessful. Indeed, only one observed case of suicide by laceration of the ulnar artery occurred in Britain in the year 2003, with the only case being the highly controversial death of David Kelly, who many believe was actually murdered. [26]

Furthermore, in 2001 it was observed that in the United States 63,275 individuals attempted suicide by means of cutting or piercing, with only 651 of these resulting in death. [14] That equates to 99% of people surviving their attempted suicides, many having life altering consequences as a result of their attempts.

So, what happened to these people?

Remember our discussion of critical structures above? Well, many of these individuals damaged more than just the artery they were hoping to, and almost all attempts did not result in death, as is shown in the movies; if they did, they were slow, and required a great amount of effort. A case study following 41 individuals who attempted suicide by wrist cutting was performed in 2015. This study illustrated that out of the 41 patients, 21 were unable to physically cut deep enough to reach any important anatomical structures. Furthermore, wrist flexor tendons were the most commonly injured anatomical structures, but specifically, the median nerve as the most frequently damaged individual structure. Of the individuals in this study, only 8 individuals were able to damage arteries. Of these 8 individuals, all had damaged the corresponding nerve, and all but one damaged large tendons. After surgical intervention of these structures, half of these individuals reported only poor to fair sensation or function. [27]

One reason these conclusions may be unexpected for some, is the fact that most suicide publications deal with single unusual cases, while retrospective studies are uncommon as suicide by this method has a low mortality rate. [27] Despite self cutting injuries having a low mortality rate, they often have special clinical significance due to the potential to lead to devastating disability and only increase one’s desire to commit suicide. [27]

Many have observed that the low mortality rate of this method is due to the amount of work required of the individual. Not only are they tasked with trying for some time to defeat their carnal sense of self-preservation, but the pain is great and they must physically lacerate themselves to a depth that is difficult for many to achieve without applying a very large amount of pressure.

So why write this?

Many publications indicate that wrist cutting patients cut themselves impulsively. [28] It is my hope that thinking critically about this will result in fewer people acting impulsively, and in a manner that only makes life more difficult for them. Additionally, this is often one of the first methods of suicide individuals become comfortable with, as the lethality of suicide attempts tend to increase as number of attempts and time increases.[2]

Final Thoughts

Everyone at one point or another considers suicide. Indeed, even Albert Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus states “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering this fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest – whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories – comes afterwards.” I believe that many choose to shy away from topics that they cannot relate to well, or are afraid of, but these things should not be ignored. Many of us simply have been let down by the public schooling system and guidance of elders in learning about emotions and the myriad unobservable social stressors; we are taught to ignore these things, even be embarrassed by them. Enthralled by the grasp of suicidal ideations and immobilized by the weight of one’s own melancholia, reaching out is difficult, but I implore you to speak to others. We are all human, and implicit in that is the presence of emotions; we can all relate to and sympathize with the pangs of life. If you feel you are truly alone, and have no one to turn to, reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline in the United States. For an international list of suicide lifelines, please look here. If nothing else, and you want to reach out to some guy in his late 20’s that’s not associated with any of these entities, please, feel free to shoot me an email at Eric<at>Numerickly.com.

Resources

Värnik P (2012). “Suicide in the World”. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2012, 9, 760-771.
Hawton K, Saunders K, O’Connor R (2012). “Self-harm and suicide in adolescents”. Lancet 2012; 379: 2373-82.
Bohann L, Wang X (2012). “Media guidelines for the responsible reporting of suicide: a review of effectiveness.” International Associate for Suicide Prevention 2012; 33(4):190-198.
American Association of Suicidology, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, et al. “Recommendations For Reporting On Suicide.” www.reportingonsuicide.org Retrieved 2019-01-06.
Stack S (2003). “Media coverage as a risk factor in suicide.” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2003; 57: 238-240.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2014). “Preventing and Responding to Suicide Clusters in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities.” Department of Health and Human Services Publication No. SMA16-4969. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Pirkis J (2009). “Suicide and the media.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 8(7):269.
Pirkis J, Blood W (2010). “Suicide and the news and information media.” The Hunter Institute of Mental Health. ISBN: 978-1-74241-166-8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicides_in_fiction. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
Saddington J (2010) “The Representation of Suicide in the Cinema.” PhD Dissertation, University of York Department of Sociology.
Hawton K, James A (2005). “Suicide and deliberate self harm in young people.” The BMJ (British Medical Journal) 330:891-894.
Young R, Sweeting H, West P (2006). “Prevalence of deliberate self harm and attempted suicide within contemporary Goth youth subculture: longitudinal cohort study.” The BMJ 332:1058-1061
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Songs_about_suicide. Retrieved 2019-01-06
Miller M, Azrael D, Barber C (2012). “Suicide mortality in the United States: the importance of attending to method in understanding population-level disparities in the burden of suicide.” Annual Review of Public Health 33:393-408.
https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/. [1/6/2019] “Suicide Statistics.” American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Kanchan T, Menon A, Menezes RG (2009). “Methods of choice in completed suicides: gender differences and review of literature.” Journal of Forensic Science 54(4):938-942.
Gray H (1918). “Anatomy of The Human Body.” Open Library. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
Marieb E, Mallat J, Wilhelm PB (2010). “Human Anatomy, fifth edition.” San Francisco (CA): Pearson Benjamin Cummings.
Neiman R, Maiocco B, Deeney V (1998). “Ulnar Nerve Injury After Closed Forearm Fractures in Children.” Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics 18(5):683-685.
Riekkinen H, Karkola K, Kankainen A (2003). “The Radial Arter is Larger than the Ulnar.” The Annals of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons 75:882-884.
Fung YC (1993). “Biomechanics: mechanical properties of living tissues – 2nd edition.” New York (NY): Springer.
Zhou X et al. (2016). “Investigation of Ultrasound-Measured Flow Rate and Wall Shear Rate in Wrist Arteries Using Flow Phantoms.” Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology 42(3): 815-823.
Mathew P (2003). “Physiologic Effects of Acute Hemorrhage.” Memorial University Faculty of Medicine. https://www.med.mun.ca/getdoc/72c88a9c-bb09-4587-bf1e-77e133d80065/PhysiologicEffectsAcuteHemorrhage.aspx. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
Kim SY, et al (2012). “Evaluation of radial and ulnar blood flow after radial artery cannulation with 20- and 22-gauge cannulae using duplex Doppler ultrasound.” Journal of Anaesthesia 67:1138-1145.
Chaudhry R, Babiker H (2018). “Physiology, Coagulation Pathways.” StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482253/. Retrieved 2019-01-16.
Davis N (2003). “Medical experts and the criminal courts.” The BMJ (7400):1215.
Ersen B, et al. (2017). “Analysis of 41 suicide attempts by wrist cutting: a retrospective analysis.” European Journal of Trauma and Emergency Surgery 43(1):129-135.
Runeson B, Tidemalm D, Dahlin M, Lichtenstein P, Lang- strom N (2010). “Method of attempted suicide as predictor of subse-
quent successful suicide: national long term cohort study.” The BMJ 341:3222.
Masengu A, et al. (2016). “Preoperative radial artery volume flow is predictive of arteriovenous fistula outcomes.” Journal of Vascular Surgery 63:429-435.

January 2, 2019January 8, 2019

Particle Kinematics in Cylindrical Coordinates

I recently had two different students ask me two different, but related questions. One had asked about the derivation of the equations he used in his dynamics I class for acceleration when using cylindrical coordinates, and another had asked me about Coriolis acceleration. Fortunately, both can be explained with the exact same answer, so let’s answer them both with the minimum amount of work required!

Let’s start with a little drawing illustrating what we’re dealing with here:

Cool! We are dealing with a coordinate system characterized by a radial distance, R, azimuth, $\theta$ , and axial distance, z. As we can see from the above diagram we have a right handed coordinate system defined by the unit vectors

$1) \displaystyle \qquad\bar{e_{R}} \; \times \; \bar{e_{\theta}} = \bar{e_{z}}$

From the above diagram we can relate these cylindrical coordinate system unit vectors back to traditional Cartesian coordinate system unit vectors with the following relationships.

$2) \displaystyle \qquad \bar{e_{R}} = ( \cos \theta) \hat{i} + ( \sin \theta ) \hat{j}$

$3) \displaystyle \qquad \bar{e_{\theta}} = -( \sin \theta ) \hat{i} + ( \cos \theta ) \hat{j}$

$4)\displaystyle \qquad \bar{e_{z}} = \hat{k}$

Now, let’s write the equation for our position vector, r.

$5) \displaystyle \qquad \bar{r} = R \bar{e_{R}} + z \bar{e_{z}}$

Note, in equation 5, from equation 3, the radial unit vector, $\bar{e_{R}}$ implicitly depends on $\theta$ , and theta may depend on time.

Velocity Derivation

If we wish to obtain the generic form of velocity in cylindrical coordinates all we must do is differentiate equation 5 with respect to time, but remember that the radial unit vector must be treated as a variable since it implicitly depends on $\theta$ . This dictates that we must use the chain rule to differentiate the first term of equation 5.

$6) \displaystyle \qquad \bar{v} = \dot{\bar{r}} = \dot{R} \bar{e_{R}} + R \frac{d \bar{e_{R}}}{dt} + \dot{z} \bar{e_{z}}$

Now, to differentiate the radial unit vector with respect to time we must employ the chain rule.

$7) \displaystyle \qquad \frac{d \bar{e_{R}}}{dt} = \frac{d \bar{e_{R}}}{d \theta} \; \frac{d \theta}{dt} = \frac{d \bar{e_{R}}}{d \theta} \cdot \dot{\theta} = \dot{ \theta} \bar{e_{\theta}}$

Woah, woah, woah, how the hell did I do that last part and change unit vectors you may ask. Well, let’s differentiate equation 2 with respect to $\theta$ .

$8) \displaystyle \qquad \frac{d \bar{e_{R}}}{d \theta} = -(\sin \theta) \hat{i} + (\cos \theta) \hat{j} = \bar{e_{ \theta}}$

That works out nicely, and it also informs us that the second velocity term below is the result of the radial unit vector changing as a function of time.

So, condensing everything from equations 6, 7, and 8 we obtain the general equation for velocity in cylindrical coordinates.

$9) \displaystyle \qquad \bar{v} = \dot{R} \bar{e_{R}} + R \dot{\theta} \bar{e_{ \theta}} + \dot{z} \bar{e_{z}}$

Let’s revisit the differentiation performed for the radial unit vector with respect to $\theta$ , and do the same thing for the azimuth unit vector.

$10) \displaystyle \qquad \frac{d \bar{e_{ \theta}}}{dt} = \frac{d \bar{e_{ \theta}}}{d \theta}\; \frac{d \theta}{dt} = \frac{d \bar{e_{ \theta}}}{d \theta}\; \dot{ \theta}= -\dot{ \theta} \bar{e_{R}}$

$11) \displaystyle \qquad \frac{d \bar{e_{\theta}}}{d_{ \theta}} = -(\cos \theta) \hat{i} - (\sin \theta) \hat{j} = - \bar{e_{R}}$

Let’s look at equation 9 for a moment and discuss the contributions from the terms. The first and last are easy to understand; the second basically says that the azimuthal velocity results from changing the azimuth angle, with the magnitude growing in proportion to the radial distance.

Acceleration Derivation

Now, this is where things start to make us look smarter than we actually are because of all the cool symbols we get to use. Moving on to acceleration, we obviously just continue differentiating!

$12a) \displaystyle \qquad \bar{a} = \frac{d}{dt} [ \dot{R} \bar{e_{R}}] + \frac{d}{dt} [ R \dot{ \theta} \bar{e_{\theta}} ] + \frac{d}{dt} [ \dot{z} \bar{e_{z}}]$

Using the relations in 7, 8, 10, and 11 we end up with

$12b) \displaystyle \qquad \bar{a}= \ddot{R} \bar{e_{R}} + \dot{R} \dot{ \theta} \bar{e_{ \theta}} + \dot{R} \dot{ \theta} \bar{e_{ \theta}} + R \ddot{ \theta} \bar{e_{ \theta}} - R \dot{ \theta}^2 \bar{e_{R}} + \ddot{z} \bar{e_{z}}$

Collecting like terms we finally obtain the general equation for acceleration in cylindrical coordinates.

$13) \displaystyle \qquad \bar{a} = ( \ddot{R} - R \dot{ \theta}^2) \bar{e_{R}} + (R \ddot{ \theta} + 2 \dot{R} \dot{ \theta}) \bar{e_{ \theta}} + \ddot{z} \bar{e_{z}}$

The Coriolis acceleration is then the sum of the second and third quantities in equation 12b). I left this intermediate step in there to show that, although the second and third terms are the same quantity, they originate from different effects. The second term is the result of the radial direction not being constant, as evidenced by equation 7, whereas the third term is the rate at which the azimuthal velocity, $R \dot{ \theta}$ , will change if R is non-constant.

Cylindrical Coordinate System Kinetics

To further elucidate the Coriolis acceleration, and in turn the Coriolis force or much more buzz worthy Coriolis Effect, let’s take a look at the scalar form of Newton’s second law in each principal direction.

$14a) \displaystyle \qquad \sum F_{R} \equiv \sum \bar{F} \cdot \bar{e_{R}} = m ( \ddot{R} - R \dot{ \theta}^2)$

$14b) \displaystyle \qquad \sum F_{\theta} \equiv \sum \bar{F} \cdot \bar{e_{\theta}} = m ( R \ddot{\theta} + 2 \dot{R} \dot{ \theta})$

$14c) \displaystyle \qquad \sum F_{z} \equiv \sum \bar{F} \cdot \bar{e_{z}} = m \ddot{z}$

It is worth mentioning here that the famous centrifugal force appears in equation 14a as the negative quantity, and the much less famous Euler force appears as the first term in equation 14b.

So what can we say about Coriolis acceleration from equation 14b? Well, as explained previously, it is the result of 1) the radial direction being non-constant, as is the case of a rotating coordinate system (like, say, the Earth), and 2) the magnitude of the position vector changing in that rotating coordinate frame. Equation 14b indicates that this results in a force acting perpendicular to the radial direction. The force resulting from this acceleration term contributes to many of Earth’s largest atmospheric circulation systems such as trade winds and hurricanes.

Another way to describe the Coriolis acceleration without the use of vector calculus is to say that at a given rate of rotation of an observer, the magnitude of this acceleration on an object is proportional to the velocity of the object as well as the sine of the angle between the direction of travel of the object and the axis of rotation.

In a different coordinate system this may be easier to see, as we end up with the equation

$15) \displaystyle \qquad \bar{a_{c}} = 2 \bar{v} \times \bar{\omega}$

where $\bar{a_{c}}$ is the Coriolis acceleration vector, $\bar{v}$ is the velocity vector of the particle in the rotating coordinate system, and $\bar{\omega}$ is the angular velocity vector of the rotating coordinate system.

$\blacksquare$

January 1, 2019January 1, 2019

Non-imaging Optical Design: Vaned Baffle

In a previous role I had a coworker who would always joke that I was the “Special Projects Engineer”. This was one of those special projects.

An engineer had just left, and in addition to my controls and acoustics duties, due to previous navigation and computer vision projects, had taken over the role of creating a non-imaging optic that needed to have a very precise projection geometry. We were working with an optics contractor, and he was very good, but many of the designs that he proposed were outside of our budgetary constraints. Ultimately, we proceeded using an approach that I came up with by inverting a cold shield design for telescope optics.

Now, I’m not going to say exactly what this was used for, but I believe the design process is worth documenting for other’s use. In the above image, the square near the top-middle of the CAD drawing is a light source, whose projection geometry is dictated by the narrowest lines at the outlet of the baffle. This type of vaned baffled is designed to not allow anything under a fourth order reflection to escape the aperture. The design process is basically an inversion of that proposed in section 9.2.1 of Stray Light Analysis and Control, E. Fest, where the author constructs an algorithm to create a cold shield to restrict the field of view of an imager to prevent blinding from stray ambient light.

This approach allowed the baffle to be molded, and an SPI A-1 surface finish was dictated to try to ensure all reflections within the baffle were specular, and not diffuse.

January 1, 2019January 1, 2019

Permanent Magnet Encoder Disc Magnetic Field Strength Analysis

OK. This one was SUPER annoying to debug, but basically what was happening is the controls for some D.O.F.s of a previous product looked really bad, almost like we were missing encoder ticks. Looking at the position control loop, it certainly looked like we were missing ticks, but where did they go?

Since we were using ROS for trajectory generation I basically worked my way from that level down, figuring that computational burden was just causing us to not be able to keep up with things in real time. After working ALL THE WAY THROUGH the software side and concluding everything looked fine, I had to turn to the motors and encoders themselves. Now, unbeknownst to me, we had just changed the model of the magnetic disc we were using as an encoder (paired with a hall effect sensor). With almost everything else tested, I resolved to test the magnetic (B) field strength of the magnetic discs.

Experimental Setup

Magnetic field strength of the permanent magnet encoder discs were characterized as a function of angular position using a quadrature encoder and digital Gaussmeter. Discs were mounted via very small 3D printed couplers to a Koyo TRD-MX1024BD quadrature encoder to measure angular position, while B field strength was measured with an F.W. Bell 5180 Gauss meter. The disc was then rotated by hand while the Gauss meter probe was fixtured so that it was in contact with the disc surface. Data was collected with a Saleae pro 16 logic analyzer. The encoder was powered with 12 v from a benchtop power supply, and outputs of the A, B, and Z channels were pulled up to 5v via a 1.5k ohm pullup resistor.

After data collection, data sets were analyzed by python scripts that extracted one full revolution of B-field strength and angular position, matched the angular position in 0.1 degree intervals using a binary search tree, filtered the data, extracted local extrema, and carried out statistical analysis on the identified positive and negative magnetic poles. The test apparatus is shown below, without the rigid fixture between encoder and Gauss meter. Data collect showing A, B, Z channels of the encoder and B field strength from the Gauss meter are shown on the screen.

Output Plots and Analysis

Let’s begin by looking at some of the magnetic discs that we used in the past that have not given us any trouble.

Good Magnetic Disc

POSITIVE POLES:
Angular differences between positive magnetic poles (degrees):
[ 29.1796875 29.35546875 30.9375 31.81640625 30.76171875
30.5859375 29.53125 31.81640625 31.55273438 26.015625
27.59765625]

Magnitude differences between positive magnetic poles (Gauss):
[ -31.06543128 -37.91607879 48.9585365 -13.01091485 55.52667332
-25.77534475 139.50712186 -107.25554613 1.97638668 73.26621106
-42.15276701]

Magnitudes of positive magnetic poles (Gauss):
[ 803.04389588 771.97846459 734.0623858 783.0209223 770.01000745
825.53668077 799.76133602 939.26845788 832.01291175 833.98929843
907.2555095 865.10274249]

Standard deviation of difference in angular position of positive magnetic poles (degrees): 1.75035138526

Standard deviation of difference in positive magnetic field strength (Gauss): 65.0042394818

Standard deviation of positive pole magnetic field strength (Gauss): 56.6024562212

Mean magnetic field strength of positive poles (Gauss): 822.086884405

Mean angular displacement between positive magnetic poles (degrees): 29.9227627841

NEGATIVE POLES:
Angular differences between negative magnetic poles (degrees):
[ 29.70703125 30.05859375 31.20117188 31.55273438 30.76171875
29.8828125 30.14648438 30.84960938 30.76171875 26.3671875
27.24609375]

Magnitude differences between negative magnetic poles (Gauss):
[ 56.61348071 -26.47935011 -17.37341869 -51.85460574 46.539964
-1.21482977 -78.56630343 45.94343868 -91.39098625 40.87246128
18.49249138]

Magnitudes of negative magnetic poles (Gauss):
[-808.25615348 -751.64267277 -778.12202288 -795.49544157 -847.35004731
-800.81008331 -802.02491308 -880.59121651 -834.64777783 -926.03876408
-885.1663028 -866.67381142]

Standard deviation of difference in angular position of negative magnetic poles (degrees): 1.55056517428

Standard deviation of difference in negative magnetic field strength (Gauss): 49.9112757447

Standard deviation of negative pole magnetic field strength (Gauss): 48.8189412974

Mean magnetic field strength of negative poles (Gauss): -831.401600587

Mean angular displacement between negative magnetic poles (degrees): 29.8668323864T

Bad Magnetic Disc

And now, let’s take a look at a representative “bad” magnetic disc.

Woah, it looks like there’s a big difference in B-field strength here…

POSITIVE POLES:
Angular differences between positive magnetic poles (degrees):
[ 22.41210938 23.37890625 23.203125 22.32421875 22.06054688
24.08203125 21.62109375 23.37890625 21.88476562 22.93945312
25.6640625 18.80859375 22.93945312 22.8515625 21.62109375]

Magnitude differences between positive magnetic poles (Gauss):
[ -47.8981468 -29.24181437 -56.77963869 -104.24687756 16.93935508
-48.46134758 -28.67192289 81.30195449 22.73229587 80.86085334
69.16778126 -1.74263368 87.44192205 -1.72612453 5.0340433 ]

Magnitudes of positive magnetic poles (Gauss):
[ 480.6194911 432.7213443 403.47952994 346.69989124 242.45301368
259.39236876 210.93102118 182.25909829 263.56105278 286.29334864
367.15420199 436.32198325 434.57934957 522.02127162 520.29514709
525.32919039]

Standard deviation of difference in angular position of positive magnetic poles (degrees): 1.42966348597

Standard deviation of difference in positive magnetic field strength (Gauss): 55.7923451036

Standard deviation of positive pole magnetic field strength (Gauss): 112.811684507

Mean magnetic field strength of positive poles (Gauss): 369.631956489

Mean angular displacement between positive magnetic poles (degrees): 22.611328125

NEGATIVE POLES:
Angular differences between negative magnetic poles (degrees):
[ 23.203125 23.11523438 23.29101562 22.93945312 21.4453125
23.5546875 23.02734375 22.58789062 22.06054688 22.32421875
23.11523438 23.29101562 21.26953125 20.7421875 24.43359375]

Magnitude differences between negative magnetic poles (Gauss):
[ -31.87032808 61.11857653 16.26178864 122.02554834 2.7446541
80.43354251 -28.80379618 72.50021235 -75.90017174 -51.9568724
-61.59044252 -43.34832509 -25.8054608 -36.74159058 -54.81136214]

Magnitudes of negative magnetic poles (Gauss):
[-521.8299272 -553.70025528 -492.58167875 -476.31989011 -354.29434177
-351.54968767 -271.11614517 -299.91994134 -227.41972899 -303.31990073
-355.27677313 -416.86721565 -460.21554074 -486.02100154 -522.76259212
-577.57395426]

Standard deviation of difference in angular position of negative magnetic poles (degrees): 0.938524830477

Standard deviation of difference in negative magnetic field strength (Gauss): 58.5461130337

Standard deviation of negative pole magnetic field strength (Gauss): 105.59001526

Mean magnetic field strength of negative poles (Gauss): -416.923035904

Mean angular displacement between negative magnetic poles (degrees): 22.693359375

Indeed, upon further verification we were missing that low B-field magnitude tick.

Conclusions

After repeating the tests on 15 magnetic wheels from each class, it was determined that all of the new, supposedly better, magnetic wheels were causing us to miss ticks due to their very non-uniform B-field strength.

The amount of time that it took to debug this was a VERY annoying setback for the control systems, one that I have not had to deal with before. With this discovery there was quite a bit of back and forth with the vendor, to say the least. Ultimately, due to timeline compression, we had to proceed using the same vendor, but used the “old” discs as they appeared to have better quality control.

January 1, 2019October 11, 2019

Frequency Domain Analysis pt. III I-V-vi-IV progression

Since I’ve already covered frequency content of scales and chords in the previous two posts, I’d like to move on to common chord progressions, and what better chord progression than the I-V-vi-IV progression that is literally everywhere (The Axis of Awesome even made a song about how common this progression is, titled the four chord song). What’s even more, there’s an entire wikipedia article for popular songs containing this progression. From the list, basically every song ever uses this progression.

This progression involves the I (tonic), V (dominant), vi (submediant), and IV (subdominant) scale degrees; in the key of C major this corresponds to C – G – Am – F.

Now, it probably makes things a little prettier to visualize it in terms of a logarithmic vertical axis, since musical pitch is exponential.

When we look at pitch with a logarithmic vertical axis it just looks exactly the same as things would if all we did was plot the number of intervals in a linear fashion. Finally, it may be beneficial to look at the progression in terms of pitch names.

There you have it, the most common chord progression in western music!

Get The Code

If you’re interested in checking out any of the super hacky code I’ve written for this, check out my github repo.

January 1, 2019January 8, 2019

A System Dynamics Approach to Testing Microphone Functionality and Gasket Seals

Background and Motivation

This one hearkens back to some time ago when I was tasked with creating a test methodology for validating 1) microphones were operating correctly in our product, and 2) the seal created with a MEMS microphone, acoustic gasket, hydrophobic mesh, and outer casing. The gasket was to be die cut from Poron Polyurethane gasketing material with dimensions and physical properties dictated by me, and the hydrophobic mesh / acoustic impedence was to be dictated by me, ultimately being a variant of Saatifil Acoustex whose impedance best damped any spikes in the measured frequency response we were seeing.

I will have to make a separate post about this, but one thing the acoustic designer will have to put some thought into, besides damping resonances created by the acoustic pathway, are the creation of a Helmholtz resonator due to the necessity of having a sound inlet, often modeled as a tube, and a resonating cavity. Think of blowing perpendicularly over the top of a 2-liter bottle of pop (or soda as non-midwesterners may try to convince me). A great primer is available from ST here.

The Problem

Now, getting back to the main objective of a test methodology, I was told by one of our acoustics consultants that leaks in a gasket typically pass low frequencies, with smaller leaks passing lower frequencies, and larger leaks passing higher frequencies, but he wasn’t able to explain why other than giving anecdotal evidence. Thinking about it, it seems to make sense that a gasket leak would pass low frequencies but not high ones, but it bothered me there was no mathematical basis for this claim. Someone once tried to hand-wave it by saying that it seemed to make sense that it would act like a capacitor, as I’m sure they were relating to a low pass RC filter, but capacitive reactance is inversely related to frequency, not proportional to it, as is the case with inductive impedance, which is why the capacitor connects to ground in a low pass RC filter; it passes the high frequencies through it to ground, forcing the low frequencies to pass to the output of the filter.

Alright, as an aside I feel compelled to briefly touch base on this, and maybe I’ll expand it to a different post, but here are the mathematical models for impedance for a capacitor and inductor:

$\displaystyle Z_{C} = -j \frac{1}{\omega C}$
$\displaystyle Z_{L} = j\omega L$

Where C is capacitance, L is inductance, and j is the square root of -1. As impedance is composed as the sum of resistance (real) and reactance (imaginary), we see the impedance of inductors and capacitors are purely from reactance.

Anyway, didactic diatribes aside, let’s get in to this.

Acoustical Derivation

For the case of simple one dimensional, harmonic motion, we know the displacement of a particle as a function of position, x, and time, t, is given by equation 1, below.

$1) \displaystyle \qquad y = y_{m} \sin (kx-\omega t)$

Where $y_{m}$ is the displacement magnitude, k is the wave number, and $\omega$ is the waveform angular velocity.

We can also model the one dimensional particle velocity, u, and acoustic pressure, p, with equations 2 and 3 respectively.

$2) \displaystyle \qquad u = \frac{\partial y}{\partial t} = -A \omega \cos (kx-\omega t$

$3) \displaystyle \qquad p = -\kappa \frac{\partial y}{\partial x}= - \kappa A k \cos(kx - \omega t)$

Where $\kappa$ is the adiabatic bulk modulus.

Some texts prefer to define the particle velocity as related to increment in infinitesimal working volume, $\tau$ and displacement $\xi$ . For the three dimensional case this becomes:

$4) \displaystyle \qquad \tau = V_{0} \; div \; \xi = V_{0} \; \nabla \cdot \xi$

Differentiating with respect to time yields:

$5) \displaystyle \qquad \frac{\partial \tau}{\partial t} = V_{0} \nabla \cdot q$

Where q is the instantaneous particle velocity. In the one dimensional case this reduces to:

$6) \displaystyle \qquad \frac{\partial \tau}{\partial t} = V_{0} \frac{\partial u}{\partial x}$

Where u is the instantaneous one dimensional particle velocity. This ultimately relates particle velocity as the time rate of change of particle displacement.

$7) \displaystyle \qquad u = \frac{\partial \xi_{x}}{\partial x}$

Let’s proceed using the more intuitive definition of partial y partial t. If we then consider a one dimensional wave passing through an aperture with area A, the volume flow, U is defined as:

$8) \displaystyle \qquad U = \frac{dV}{dt} = A \frac{dy}{dt} = Au$

The acoustic impedance, Z, is then defined as the ratio of sound pressure to volume flow, which for this simple one dimensional case ignores reflections, etc.

$9) \displaystyle \qquad Z = \frac{p}{U} = \frac{p}{Au} = \frac{z}{A}$

Which utilizes changing to specific acoustic impedance, z:

$10) \displaystyle \qquad z = \frac{p}{u}$

We can also show that the adiabatic bulk modulus, which is the ratio of infinitesimal pressure increase to the resulting relative decrease of the volume, assuming no heat transfer, is:

$11) \displaystyle \qquad \kappa = \rho v^2$

where $\rho$ is the acoustic medium density, and v is the velocity of sound in an ideal gas, $v = \omega \ k$ .

If we then re-arrange equation 9, and substitute equations 2 and 3 we obtain:

$12) \displaystyle \qquad z = \frac{- \kappa y_{m} \cos(kx - \omega t)}{-Ay \omega \cos(kx - \omega t)} = \frac{\kappa k}{A \omega} = \frac{\omega^2 k}{k^2 A \omega} = \frac{\rho \omega}{k A}$

where k is the wave number, $k = 2 \pi /\lambda$ .

From equation 12 we can see that as the frequency increases, the area of the aperture must also increase to maintain the same characteristic acoustic resistance. We can therefore conclude that if there are leaks in a MEMS microphone gasket, the smaller the size of the leak, the smaller the frequency is that it will pass.

Testing Apparatus

With the above knowledge, the testing apparatus consisted of a speaker mounted directly in front of the microphone port, one directly behind the mounted microphone and a single board computer to control the processing.

The test itself consists of five frequency sweeps with differing magnitudes to compensate for the large difference between minima and maxima of frequency response of the speakers. Each of the 5 sweeps are played, loaded into memory, windows with a rectangular window (the same as no window), and finally an FFT is used to convert to frequency domain using the pyfftw library so as to accelerate computation over traditional functions that operate on the Cooley-Tukey fast Fourier transform algorithm, such as that include with scipy. Once FFTs are obtained, a savitzky-golay filter is used to smooth the data while attempting to best preserve spectral peaks. The element wise ratio of filtered front speaker FFT to back speaker FFT is then calculated to determine the gasket attenuation. If the attenuation is above a pre-set threshold for all frequencies in each sweep the test is considered a pass. Below are some examples from the different frequency spectra, with red indicating the frequency response calculated from playing through the front speaker, and blue indicating the frequency response calculated from playing through the rear speaker.

Plots

40 to 80 hz frequency band frequency response

80 to 140 hz frequency band frequency response

140 to 220 hz frequency band frequency response

140 to 220 hz frequency band attenuation

220 to 2200 hz frequency band frequency response

220 to 2200 hz frequency band attenuation

2.2 to 20 khz frequency band frequency response

2.2 to 20 khz frequency band attenuation

Sources

http://www.animations.physics.unsw.edu.au/jw/sound-impedance-intensity.htm
and
Acoustics: Sound Fields and Transducers. L. Baranek, T. Mellow.