I enjoyed reading about the adventures and tribulations of a family with twelve kids in Cheaper By The Dozen, but it wasn’t until much later when I discovered what the parents of those kids did for a living. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth were pioneers in the use of motion study to improve the efficiency of physical tasks. I once saw photos of their motion-capture techniques, where they put tiny flashlights on people’s wrists to capture their actions with a long exposure. They were often able to greatly reduce the number of actions performed by the worker. Only recently when a Gilbreth web site popped up on Yahoo’s picks did I discover that Lillian Gilbreth was much more than just an assistant to her husband. She had a Ph.D. from Brown and continued running their business long after his death, gaining recognition as one of the world’s great industrial and management engineers. Plus there were the twelve kids to raise. It may be easier when you know how to be efficient, but it’s still mighty impressive.