The past few years I've tackled many home improvement projects such as a new furniture, painting, building a deck, installing crown molding, and right now it's building a garden bed. Many of these projects are definitely easier if you have the right tools. (I made a lot of trips to Home Depot...) But really when taking on a project like any of these, it is nice to have a partner to help. But whether that is moving materials, measuring, or deciding between two designs, the kind of help varies. Please, stranger, don't offer to help me load wood into my car. But yes, my aunt can offer to pick the wall color. When should you offer your assistance to someone else, whether you know them or not?

1. When it looks like someone is struggling
• The best time to offer an extra hand is when it is obvious that one is needed. Whether it is something too big for them to handle or something new to them, it might be hard for them to do something on their own. Please time your offer to help early on though because if you're asking after two flights of stairs, you'll get a glowering reply!
2. When you are an expert
• Even if you don't see someone struggling, you may see a better way for the way they are doing things. You've done it so many times that you can do the activity with your eyes closed. You know an efficient method, a better design, or simply more detail that can help them in the future. This is a great time to offer to help BUT ask first. Make sure that your advice is welcome. They might not have time to listen, the patience to care, or they might really want to figure it out for themselves. Respect that and don't butt in regardless.
3. When it's polite
• Asking to help because you think "you should" is not a good reason at all. Sure, chivalry isn't dead, but if you aren't asking because of one of the reasons above, you aren't providing a service, you may be contributing to the problem. Offering to help means you think someone needs your help and so asking out of politeness may come across as rude instead.

I saw a great article today (admittedly on Facebook) on the fact that yes, you do use the Algebra every single day. And that dogs do complex calculus. I love this! Sure, there are actual equations we sometimes make like calculating tip on a restaurant bill, counting billable hours this week, estimating time to completion but there are more subtle ways we use it too and I think really good project managers know these.

1. Knowing what time it is
• We all know that PMs spend a lot of time waiting on a critical completion stage before sending out notices. Good PMs are always aware of the clock and approximating time remaining. This is during meetings, allocated development time, or overall project health, PMPs are great at telling you the current time. The clock doesn't lie. And they will always be quick to tell you that no, you really do only have 4 more days or it'll cost more money.
2. Turning data points into max, min, and mean
• Red flag! Showstopper or minor delay? PMs know projects and they know when things are just a setback or a major rework. Being able to identify outliers is important, and to get outliers you need to define your boundaries of normal. PMs are great at drawing the line and knowing when enough is enough or to hold their breath again.
3. Values to percentages
• How far along is the project if 5/100 things are done? How many of the 42 test cases need to be run before we can do a beta release? PMs are experts at the 80-20 rule and are always looking at how much more than how many. Being able to quickly translate dollar values to profit and convert numbers into meaningful statistics is what makes PMs great.

I'm inspired this week not only by the Supreme Court ruling on Gay Marriage but also Jurassic World coming out in theaters. Over the weekend I watched the original Jurassic Park... for the first time. I know, it may be as great an insult as not seeing Star Wars, but it was just one of those I hadn't seen all the way through. My reaction after watching this? NO WONDER WHY FEMINISTS ARE ANGRY; THIS WAS FEMINISM IN THE 90'S AND WE ARE WHERE NOW? Back then you could make comments (the chivalry moment) but it didn't change the character from being badass. Take the Alien 1 movie too. Or the Terminator movie. That is feminism. That is being who you want without consequence. That is being treated equally and no one even freaking noticing. Nowadays anytime a comment like that is mentioned you are instantly put into one of three categories:

1. Crazy Feminist
• Equality? I bet you wish women didn't have boobs; then we'd be equal. I bet your dreams consist of men on leashes vacuuming your house for you. Why do you want special treatment, you can make babies, isn't that special enough? Why are you trying to turn the world upside down?
2. Anti-Feminist
• Men and women have had a good thing going for a long time, splitting responsibilities. They belong in the kitchen, seen and not heard, while men protect them. If they aren't pretty or pregnant they should be killed.
3. Lesbian
• If you love another woman then you must care more about your partner's rights than your own. Your priorities are on making your homosexual relationship work and so any heterosexual questions, including work and social ones, are ignored and not important.

WTF?! Putting people in a blame category just makes this whole feminism movement worse. It doesn't matter WHAT your opinion is, we just want equality and then we want to be left alone. We want the fact that we are a woman to be an afterthought; we want you to not worry about if we'll sue after you say something rude. We want you to feel comfortable solving problems with us without asking how we're feeling. We want to be paid the same for our efforts without you thinking we are saving up to leave the company for kids.

We don't want a feminist movement at all. Let's start by getting rid of these labels and just be grateful and respectful of our differences, our strengths, and our actions. Be who you are, love who you want, and treat everyone the same by not putting us in box that is racist or sexist.