THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700


Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 11:34:17 -0700

03 00050 61 99081702




Mr. Morris E. Jones
Director of Architecture
Intel Corporation
350 East Plumeria; Mail Stop CHP02-1
San Jose, CA 95124
morris.jones@intel.com

Subject: Technology Helps People Be Prepared

Dear Morris,

Sorry about the long letter. Being prepared, intelligence, the management cycle, people.... these are big issues.

I disagree that the letter on 990816 does not address your formulation that the problem is located in "people," since the letter points out that tools are developed to help people solve problems. A big problems have is being prepared for meetings and other tasks.

Possibly the character of this particular problem about being prepared is harder to recognize as amenable to support by tools, since it deals with mental state and capacity. We cannot see, touch or hear mental state, so it seems more mysterious, beyond the reach of technology. Writing is a technology that is window on the mind -- it is one way of revealing mental state, and it expands capacity by enabling people to remember and rearrange the organization that is applied by the mind in the conscious span of attention. Indeed there is a therapy process emerging in psychology that uses writing by the patient to discover mental state. Another long exegesis cannot help you grasp this idea. I am sorry I cannot do a better job of explaining that tools can help people be prepared by adding intelligence to management.

I am sorry, too, that you cannot see this opportunity from working with Communication Metrics on the Internet. Some people have seen it, and others have not. Possibly your experience the past few years has made this more difficult than one would hope. Anyway, I appreciate your efforts, even though I think more progress could be achieved by dealing with the language in greater detail. I know this takes time, and your time is valuable and limited. Thanks for trying.

Sincerely,

THE WELCH COMPANY



Rod Welch
rowelch@ibm.net