This was a big win. CloudSAT launched on Friday. I spent two years working on this project when it started. CloudSAT will provide information on the movement of particles and water inside clouds that is 1,000 times more detailed than can be obtained from ground radar. See the CloudSAT web site for more information.

The secret to doing really well on a new job assignment is to apply the Non Existence formula. This formula is described in a management encyclopedia that I have that is called the "Organizational Executive Course", but it is also included in "The Five Conditions of Existence" lectures. I conducted a job interview with a young applicant and we will be making him an offer. He has three things going for him: a really good technical education; really good communication skills; and he seemed to have applied his Non Existence formula. He is not a Scientologist, but he was doing the right things for the situation that he was in. If you understand and apply that particular formula, you become a leader where you work. People who fail to apply this formula will probably experience serious problems in their career.

The CloudSAT flight project was supposed to launch last Friday. Technical difficulties with another satellite that is being launched with CloudSAT have led to a postponement to at least tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. I spent two years developing plans for CloudSAT . It has a special type of profiling radar that will orbit Earth and will provide three-dimensional images of clouds and the motions of particles in clouds. This will help scientists and meteorologists learn more about the movements of storms, including hurricanes and tornadoes. We hope that this mission provides fundamental new knowledge that might help save lives and property in the future.

Technical education is frankly incomplete. I discovered that I had to master nine skills to be truly excellent in my profession as an applied mathematician. My training in mathematics at Stanford University was excellent in three of these skills. The complete list of skills are: (1) find out what is generally needed and wanted; (2) identify what you can do with mathematics to meet those needs; (3) convince your management that your approach is worthwhile; (4) collect data; (5) develop appropriate mathematical models; (6) test the models and the data collected; (7) fix any problems found in the models or data; (8) produce the intended results; (9) communicate results in a way that can be understood by each of your important audiences. Nearly every person with a technical education that I have known has needed to improve their skills at (1), (3) and (9) above. Without these skills you lack the power to control your career. With these skills you have a much better chance to be a great success in this field. Engineering and other technical professions each have their own special skills, but usually skills (1), (3) and (9) are needed to be a leader in these fields, as well. An introductory course that gets people started on building these skills is the Success Through Communication course. I highly recommend this course to any one.

I interviewed a job applicant yesterday. He failed due to lack of communication skills. This was a shame because if he had taken an appropriate course he probably would have gotten the job.