Posts

Read Sleep is your superpower

Sleep is your superpower

This is one of the scariest videos I think I have ever seen. It is not a horror movie or a thriller - it is a talk about the impact sleep has on the body and in particular the impact a lack of sleep …

Read Tackle the difficult problems first with #MonkeyFirst

Tackle the difficult problems first with #MonkeyFirst

I was listening to the audiobook for “Questions Are the Answer” by Hal Gregerson and it mentioned an approach used by the X lab at Alphabet nicknamed “MonkeyFirst”.

Read Consensus 2019 - Conference Notes

Consensus 2019 - Conference Notes

These are my notes from attending the Consensus 2019 conference in New York - there is a good chance that some of the notes I made are incorrect.

Read Lazy programmers can be the most productive

Lazy programmers can be the most productive

There is often a work culture that you should be busy all the time - if you are a programmer you should always be typing and producing code. Programming is a mental process and so requires thinking. …

Read A clear desk helps avoid being the bottleneck

A clear desk helps avoid being the bottleneck

I really like Seth Godin’s blog - I could easily link to his posts every day - however occasionally a post really stands out for me. A recent post called Bottlenecks had an interesting …

Read Technical debt is like Tetris

Technical debt is like Tetris

This article uses a really neat analogy with Tetris for illustrating the impact of technical debt. Leaving gaps is akin to leaving technical debt in the code base and makes subsequent changes more …

Read How to run a planning workshop

How to run a planning workshop

We have just completed a two week exercise with the whole development team to identify, design and estimate the next phase of work. It started as an organic process as we found the best way to do this …

Read The battle of real versus artificial deadlines

The battle of real versus artificial deadlines

This excellent article looks at the different types of deadlines and the impact they have. The key point for me, and not something I had seen previously defined, is the distinction between real and …