Your Two Bits

You know those little boxes you see when registering for a site? They’re called CAPTCHAs, and you probably knew that they are used on sites to ensure an actual human is registering, rather than a spambot. However, Did you know that they also help in digitizing books?

You can read a more complete explanation, but I’m just going to summarize by stating that the words you see are words that have been scanned, but the OCR software isn’t certain of the word. By showing the words to multiple people (who theoretically all type the same correct word), the OCR software can be more certain that it “knows” the right words.

What I love about this is how mutually beneficial this process is. An organization needs assistance from human beings to verify scanned text. Other companies and people want to protect their sites from being abused by spambots. CAPTCHAs provide a solution for both.

I was thinking about these and started thinking about skills I have and that the company I work for has and wondering if there was any secondary benefit I/we are missing that we should develop.

As I talked to a friend at work about this, I mentioned doughnut holes. The baker could toss the the extra dough—which would be a complete waste—or make another big dough ball and cut out some more doughnuts—not a waste of materials, but it does take time—or he could just throw the “holes” into the grease as well and sell them as bite-sized doughnuts—not a waste of materials, and almost no additional time.

My friend said, “So you’re asking, ‘What’s our doughnut hole?’”

“Exactly!”

I liked the way he phrased it and said I was going to use that when referring to this concept of creating a secondary value from a product.

So what do CAPTCHAs and doughnut holes have to do with this blog’s general theme?

Nothing.

Actually they relate in that a lot of us have skills or things that we like to do. I’m just recommending we try to think outside the norm and consider ways that we can use these skills or activities to benefit ourselves and others in ways we hadn’t considered before. It’s all part of managing and investing your resources.

So what’s your doughnut hole?

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This last weekend a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time was telling me about how he and his wife are in the process of overcoming their debt. Two of his comments really struck me. He said it was a little rough getting started with a budget but that their budget has been key to communicating so that they can hit their milestones to become debt-free and that he wished he would have been aware of budgeting principles ten years ago.

On his first point, I couldn’t agree with him more. I say the same thing about wireframes and sitemaps used for designing a website. Generally the first draft is not what gets implemented. But for web design and financial success drafting a sitemap or budget gives you a document or tool that is external to your own head. Others can look at and comment and provide feedback to help refine the document. At a minimum it helps prevent (or at least reduce) disagreements that occur from people having a different understanding in mind. The external object improves each other’s understanding and ability to talk about the issues at hand.

A written budget equals communication.

Regarding my friend’s second point, that he wished he had known more about budgeting and better understood the perils of debt sooner, again, I very much agree with him. I was fortunate and was able to learn these things sooner than he did; however, I also lament that I didn’t understand sound financial principles related to budgeting and investing earlier in my life. That’s one of the reasons why I have this blog. I hope it helps somebody discover the liberation and peace that comes from controlling your money.

Now if you don’t have a written budget, get going on it. A year from now you don’t want to regret not having acted sooner, and, even more importantly, it will make life a lot better.

That’s my take. What are your two bits regarding a budget?

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