Hector Maletta: I take them as they come, but probably not very late at night.

King Douglas: Are you disciplined in your approach to work? Describe your approach to organizing your time and getting things accomplished.

Hector Maletta: I’m very productive. I’m organized, but I sometimes stray from my work because of some intellectual interest. Sometimes I find myself doing something else because I am torn between job A and job B and so I finish working on something else, until I realize I must finish those two jobs.

When I’m on a foreign mission, I normally concentrate myself on one task—the task at hand— that is usually very demanding. They hire you for a very short time, and you have to finish the work in so many days. That’s a very powerful incentive to devote yourself, body and soul, to one task. And I forget about everything else during that time.

King Douglas: Do you participate in sports or exercise?

Hector Maletta: My wife, Marta, and I walk about 4-5 kilometers a day, in the early evening or in the early morning. Normally we go into the leafier streets of Belgrano (our neighborhood in Buenos Aires) or to some park.

King Douglas: What is your earliest experience with computers?

Hector Maletta: In 1963, when I was a freshman in college, I was recruited to do some data processing, sorting cards, survey coding, data entry.

King Douglas: Among experts, the consensus is that it is important to learn and use syntax. Why is that the case when SPSS makes it possible for the user to do most things via point and click?

Hector Maletta: Many reasons. When tasks are long, you can prepare a long series of statements in a syntax file and run them all together and go for a cup of tea. The second reason is that not everything is in the menus. Many things are only doable through syntax. Even the most elementary things have features that are only available through syntax.

King Douglas: What were your thoughts when I asked you to participate in this project?

Hector Maletta: I was glad because I thought the project was a nice idea and the other people you included are all to my liking—though I didn’t know Kirill Orlov; all the rest correspond with me very frequently and I have a very high regard for them professionally, although I don’t know any of them personally. In particular, I correspond very frequently with Art Kendall, Ray Levesque and Richard Ristow. I felt honoured to be included in their company.

King Douglas: What advice do you have for the participants at the SPSS Users Conference?

Hector Maletta: Keep it simple. You can’t impress your boss with something he doesn’t understand.