During my last several years in Ann Arbor, (between 1975 and 1978), I got a job at a very popular local restaurant, “The Cottage Inn”, as a cook. I was 20 at the time, and had no professional experience in this field, but their “chef” was willing to train me and the other young men they had hired to prep food and cook “short-orders”, including burgers, sandwiches, omelets, and their featured food, pizzas. Beyond learning how to make coleslaw and cook a hamburger medium-rare without cutting it open, I learned some basic project management skills, including the concept of identifying and taking account for the “critical path” to minimize the time it would take for project completion. Continue reading →