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Making something boring memorable
Most orders online follow the same pattern - you order, you get an email to confirm it and then you might get updates on progress as it makes it’s way to your house.
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Stay in the game
In a recent interview Mo Salah shared some advice he received from the ex-Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger that has stuck with him.
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Helping to solve male loneliness
It is very easy to go through life and not realise the effects of loneliness.
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The Cuckoo's Klein Bottle
When I was at university, a long time ago, one of the books I really enjoyed was “The Cuckoo’s Egg” by Clifford Stoll.
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Emotions as beach balls
Do you suppress your emotions?
I used to suppress my emotions a lot and I guess I still do in certain situations; I am getting better at letting them out. For example, watching the end of the film “Mr Holland’s Opus” has me in floods of tears every time.
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Pushing The Limits
A lot of coding jobs can involve fairly “normal” tasks - create a page, write to and read from a database, add a new field to this screen. These tasks have been done numerous times by numerous developers around the world in different flavours.
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The straw that broke the camel's back
There is an idiom “the straw that broke the camel’s back” which, according to Wikipedia, describes
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Useless Things You Remember
During a team call this morning, one of the engineers mentioned about the useless things he still remembers and how it would be good if the brain would clear them out.
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How I learnt about not compromising
I have just finished re-reading the book The Spark, a fictional account of a sports agent and his journey to learn about Cirque de Soleil from the inside.
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Breaking things down
A task can often look too big to tackle. It can become very daunting even in deciding where to start.
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Decisions with a cost
Sometimes a decision comes with a cost, a sacrifice.
In the book Leaders Eat Last Simon Sinek says:
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Document your house
We have manuals and guides for the software we use. We have a manual for the car we drive. Why not the house?
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Foundations lead to structure
Foundations are important and need to be correct and strong before you build anything.
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Letting go is hard
Last weekend our daughter started on the next part of her life journey. We dropped her off at Exeter University as she is about to embark on a four year adventure studying psychology.
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Advice, warnings and genetic algorithms
In the Knowledge Project podcast with Adam Robinson there is an interesting observation about warnings.
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Avoiding regrets
When my daughter was at nursery I missed a show she was in. Unknown to me, she had the leading role and I missed it because of a work meeting.
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Life changer
I was fortunate enough to meet someone who dramatically changed my life but didn’t know it. And when I met them I didn’t even get the chance to speak to them or say thank you.
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Rites of passage
“A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another.”
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Valuing existing customers
I wonder if there are a group of people in companies that set the prices for their products that still like the concept of bartering? They seem to like the negotiations of trying to find the highest price an existing customer will stay with them.
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The right question
I’ve written a lot about questions, and answers.
In the book Questions are the answer there is a quote from Peter Drucker:
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Pressure and stress
We often equate pressure with stress and vice versa.
This article has a nice definition of the difference:
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Mind - not time - management
Being productive is sometimes more about mind management than time management.
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Viable is important
“Minimum Viable Product”, or MVP, is a phrase that has become common place. It gained fame through the Lean Startup book and the work of Eric Ries.
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Do your best
My daughter finishes her A Level exams today. Let’s just say she can’t wait to get them over and done with. She has worked incredibly hard over the last month or so; in fact over the last two years.
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Thank a teacher
Teachers can make a huge difference - in both a positive and a negative way.
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Be surprised
When I am developing software I build an internal mental model of how I expect things to work. As I learn more I tweak that model - or if it is not working as I expect then I tweak the code to match the model I have. Over time that model grows and evolves.
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Art - theft, forgery and wow
I am not an artist and I have limited knowledge of art but I recently enjoyed a TV series and I am currently reading a book related to the subject.
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An artist in the family
My grandfather was a skilled artist - well in my eyes he was. He also taught art at secondary school.
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The restaurant of mistaken orders
I came across this YouTube video with an intriguing title - “The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders”. Having recently read a lot about hospitality this piqued my interest.
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Value other peoples time
Maybe it is my upbringing but I always try to be on time for things.
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What makes a good holiday?
We are not a family that likes to just sit on the beach. We may spend a little time doing that - everyone needs to relax - but we tend to prefer doing and seeing things.
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Helping habits happen
In the book Excellent Advice for Living, Kevin Kelly identifies the importance of habits.
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Picking a path
There is a lot of different advice when it comes to making a decision and picking a path.
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Don't be afraid to ask the stupid question
Ego and the fear of how we appear to others can get in the way sometimes. We don’t want to appear stupid so we avoid finding out things we don’t know.
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Focus on the question
Questions are underrated. Lots of people focus on answers when they should be focussing on identifying the right question to ask.
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The upstream butterfly effect
The butterfly effect famously states that the flapping of the wings of a butterfly somewhere in the world can impact the weather on the other side of the world - a small change can have a huge impact over time.
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Downstream to upstream
How do we move from solving downstream reactive problems to upstream proactive solutions?
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Spending coins
This is a great description of the difference between an introvert and an extrovert.
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Negative intelligence
It is very easy to do something negative to try and show how intelligent we are.
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Why gossiping can impact you
In the book 59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman he talks about an effect called “Spontaneous Trait Transference”.
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Sweets can make a difference
My daughter sometimes works as a waitress at the local Pizza Express. If she has a good night then sometimes she can earn more in tips than her wages (although that is not very often).
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Surprisingly familiar
In the TED talk The four-letter code to selling anything Derek Thompson explains about a concept called MAYA.
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Letters Live
I once heard that the way you can tell if something is actually funny is that it causes you to laugh out loud even when you are by yourself. It is much easier to laugh at something when surrounded by others.
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No more school
Today is my daughter’s last official day at school - they have a party for about an hour tomorrow so that doesn’t count.
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Expectations and comparisons
Some times expectations are met, or exceeded, and sometimes they fail to be met.
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Alarms lost in the noise
Adding an alert or alarm for a situation you need to monitor should be a good thing but sometimes, depending on how it is done, it can actually make things worse or at a minimum not work as expected.
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Learning without action
Should all learning require an action?
I love to learn - I guess you might have worked that out from this blog. I spend a lot of my spare time reading books, listening to podcasts or watching videos.
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What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?
I have a fear of failure … to an extent. I guess I am a little risk averse.
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Story bank
Life is made up of stories.
Emmy Sobieski mentions this in her interview for Stanford’s eCorner podcast:
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Going above and beyond
What does going above and beyond look like?
In a previous post I highlighted the difference between service and hospitality. This was based on a podcast with Will Guidara where he talked through how he got his restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, to be voted the number one restaurant in the world by focussing not just on the food but the overall experience.
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The difference between service and hospitality
What is the difference between service and hospitality?
I have had a book on my Amazon wishlist for a while - Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara. I’ve not read it yet but I came across a podcast where he was interviewed by Simon Sinek so it piqued my interest.
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How do you define a good hotel?
A recent stay at a hotel got me thinking about what defines a good hotel?
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Don't steal the towels
I recently stayed at a hotel and a small sticker in the bathroom caught my attention.
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Music to focus
When I am working I like to have music in the background to help me focus. I find, like a lot of people, that it needs to be music without lyrics most of the time.
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Finding your dads work in a museum
It is an interesting experience to find the work your dad did being exhibited in a museum.
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Annual life review
I recently had the scenario where I had to use up a few days holiday before they would expire. I decided to hire and cottage and go walking. Unfortunately due to a stomach bug this didn’t go quite as planned however the other aim was to conduct a life review and assess what I wanted to achieve over the coming year.
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Free learning list
The freelearninglist.org website identifies the best education resources for each type of platform.
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Strategies for starting something new
Most people struggle with the blank page and starting something new. This episode of the podcast Spark & Fire has snippets from interviews with 5 different people and how they start something new or overcome writers block.
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The world in photos
I recently came across two different websites that allow you to look at the world through photos in two completely different ways. The first site is called ChronoPhoto. It displays a photograph and you have to guess when it was taken - the closer to the correct year the more points you get. You get five photos to identify.
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A Tale of Three Experiences: Customer Service Up Close
Last week I experienced a range of customer service related to a new sofa we bought. It’s clear how much difference it can make.
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Generational Mindsets
In a recent article/tweet the author commented on how all the photos taken by their child looked awful. However they realized this was down to a different generational mindset.
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Learnings from my jobs
I have had lots of jobs during my life and I think I can identify at least one thing I have learnt at each of them. I usually know it is time to move to a new role if I no longer enjoy it or I am no longer learning something new.
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Why? Not no
One of my favourite podcasts is Hanselminutes by Scott Hanselman. I have been listening to it probably longer than any other podcast. He recently interviewed Roberta Arcoverde from Stack Overflow. She talked about how the architecture of the Stack Overflow site is very different from most other large sites in that it is a self hosted monolithic application.
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So what do you do?
It is a classic way people start a conversation. Some people meet, they exchange a few pleasantries and then they ask “and, so what do you do?” And each person then takes turns, hopefully if someone doesn’t just keep talking, explaining what their job is.
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Getting quieter to get louder
Austin Kleon wrote an article about how we can get used to anything. Something is new and exciting but before too long it becomes the normal and we are no longer excited by it. It seems to be part of our nature.
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Future proofing
It is always tempting when buying or designing things to plan for the future; to add features that make your design or purchase “future proof”.
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Capturing memories
A PhD student has created a way to capture conversations with hospice patients that their relatives can play back and listen to at any time later.
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Preparation meets opportunity
Another podcast … I was listening to Guy Raz interview General David Petraeus on the “Wisdom from the top” podcast. Towards the end he made the observation that luck is where preparation meets opportunity. This implies the more prepared you are then the more “lucky” you will be when opportunities arise.
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Installing a payphone
This is quite an amazing article about how someone ended up installing an actual old style payphone in their house.
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Last House Standing
We had a guest speaker at church on Sunday, the son-in-law of our pastors. He spoke on the subject of “Last House Standing” - based on Matthew 7:24-27, the wise and foolish builders.
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Saving lives through design
A few years ago I had to do first aid training as part of the mandatory training for the youth football team I coached. This included learning how to use a defibrillator - something you obviously hope to never have to use. I was impressed how well it explained each step of what you need to do.
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Creativity modes
I recently discovered the Huberman Lab podcast so I have been working through the back catalogue. I was listening to one on creativity and mentioned that creativity is effectively taking existing elements and rearranging them in novel ways. It highlighted that there are two parts to creativity - creating/discovery and linear/implementation.
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Are you considering time sensitivity?
Somethings in life are time sensitive and some are not. A business opportunity may be time sensitive in that it will only be a success when certain things are aligned or maybe new technologies are available.
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Is fear of failure really the fear of judgement?
In the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho there is a quote “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” This ties in nicely with an observation from Gino Wickman in a podcast with Lewis Howes (School of Greatness) recently. He observed that in a lot of cases the fear of failure is really a fear of judgement.
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Is it time to renew your novice permit?
When I feel I am no longer learning I know it is likely time for me to either look at how my current role can change or time to look for a new role.
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How can a forcing function help me achieve things?
In the David Perell podcast with Daniel Gross they also talked about forcing functions. They started by discussing why Israel seems to be so strong in the tech industry and whether their unique circumstances may be the cause. They talked about how they approach problems as they are forced to deal with the consequences if they don’t - compared to other nations that try to solve problems as they may be impacted by them at some point in the future.
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Is the level too hard?
I have been interested in the use of gamification to achieve things for a while. Given my son’s love of the Xbox I have also wondered if it could be used in some way to help him study.
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Building a collection of habits
I have followed the writing of David Perell for a while and recently listened to some of the podcasts he has recorded. Somehow I stumbled on one with Daniel Gross. Towards the end of the podcast David mentions his aim to build the largest collection of habits he can.
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Commuting to my office at home
Scott Hanselman posted a tweet with the following tip:
Here’s a tip that my remote team does - When you get up in the morning, if you’re willing and able, try COMMUTING to your home office! Go for a circle around your neighbourhood and arrive back home to your home/remote office! It psychologically marks the start and end of the day.
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Professionalism and the extra mile
We had been planning to have a large garden summerhouse built for a number of months and we were finally in a position to do so. After a lot of research we decided to engage a local company as we liked the style of building they produced and the price was also competitive.
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Openness, discussions and success
I work very closely with two colleagues - and have done so for a number of years. Together we have experienced some serious ups and downs in the company we work for and also personally. We have each reached a point where we were close to leaving; we have each had something happen in our lives where the others have supported us.
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AI breaks the game of hide and seek
This is a really fun video where an AI is given a version of the game of hide and seek and each team has to learn ways to win - either by finding the other team or by not being found.
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Questions to ask yourself before you buy
Sometimes it is very easy to buy things just for the sake of it. We get that rush when either we bring the item home or it is delivered. It is easy to form an addiction to that feeling.
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Exposing the beauty in a problem
I was recently reminded of this great quote:
“When I’m working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.” - R. Buckminster Fuller
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Committing time to stand out from the crowd
There is a famous quote that asks how you eat an elephant and the answer is one bite at a time. It can be very daunting when attempting something new especially if it is potentially a large task. However it is impossible if you don’t take the first step.
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How behaviour can shape the culture
Andrew Cherrie is the pastor of Home Church. In a recent sermon entitled “7 lessons from 7 years at Home Church” he gave the following quote:
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Solitude and conversations lead to great ideas
There was a tweet recently by Sahil Lavingia that stated
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A first encounter with sketchnoting
One of the talks I attended at the Microsoft Build conference was called “Sketchnoting 101” and given by Nitya Narasimhan. It gave a very high level view of the approach and how anyone can quickly pick it up.
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Increasing productivity using a simple magnetic whiteboard
Whenever I work I am always jotting down things on pieces of plain paper next to me - this could be things to do, ideas, random thoughts, planning for meetings, etc.. Every week or so I do a cull of this stack of paper and then start on a new piece of paper.
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Finally a to-do app I use ... Microsoft To Do
I have tried numerous to-do applications in the past; from the very simplest to the all-singing, all-dancing applications and they have never stuck. I used them for a week or so and realised a month later that I hadn’t used them for a while.
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A remote family breakfast
Someone I work with mentioned that each week he takes time to have coffee with his mum. This might sound quite normal but there are two parts that stand out for me.
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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 has. This includes increasing the risk of cancer, decreased brain function and reduced immune system. I am seriously reconsidering how I “do” sleep after watching this!
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Even more book summaries
I read a lot of books - a bit less at the moment as I commute less - but still probably more than most people. However there are so many books I would like to read I can’t read them all. I still prefer to read the full book but sometimes book summaries are useful - either to get the key concepts or as a reminder of what I have previously read.
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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 observation that was a different way of thinking about them.
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Antilibrary - should I finish the book I am reading?
I read a lot of books and once I start reading a book I normally finish it. This article proposes that it may be more valuable to have a bunch of books that are unread. Not sure I completely buy in to the proposition that “Read books are far less valuable than unread ones” however maybe I won’t feel so guilty buying a book and then leaving it unread.
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Sometimes to learn you also need to do
I am back on the learning Scala trail and it is clear that just reading books and articles or watching videos won’t cut it. It needs to be hands-on coding.
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Travel the world with the geographic game - GeoGuessr
This is a very simple idea for a quiz. It drops you in a random place somewhere in the world and you use Google StreetView to work out where it is. If you are lucky you end up in a town or city, sometimes you end up in the middle of nowhere. It is amazing how much you can work out by looking at the flora or a random signpost.
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A simple change can lead to a big Impact
A simple change in message can lead to a big impact.
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A personal link to 'The Mother Of All Demos'
There is a video of a demonstration given by Doug Engelbart in 1968 which is commonly referred to as “The Mother Of All Demos”. In the demo, he demonstrates a lot of technologies for the first time together that are common place today and some which we haven’t even achieved properly now:
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The amazing evolution of the English alphabet
A simple chart showing how the English alphabet evolved and how we ended up with what we have. It is particularly interesting how the Roman alphabet changed to become the English alphabet.
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How to track down a missing international payment
I was due to be paid for some work earlier this month and the payment was from a foreign bank account into my account in GBP. The payment was made two weeks ago but never turned up in my account. After numerous phone calls with my bank and a lot of help from the CFO of the company I am working for (thanks Mario) we eventually managed to locate the payment.
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Privacy should be our choice
A great quote from this podcast by 23andMe Co-Founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki …
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Don't let status change the conversation
I am probably like most people in that when I meet someone who I deem to be important the way I deal with them changes. It introduces a more reserved interaction with more careful responses.
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Learning from terminally ill children
I am going to try and enjoy the small things in life and focus more on those close to me; something that is not always easy when caught up in the hustle and bustle of life.
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Stunning nature photographs
These nature photos are absolutely stunning. Some people have a gift for photography … and I am not one of them.
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Dancing without sound
My daughter loves dancing - always has done - whether it is street, contemporary or ballet. However she faces none of the challenges the dancers (and musicians) in this video face. I won’t spoil it here … just watch.
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The simple idea of free water refills
This is such a simple idea and could potentially have a huge impact if it takes off - cafes and pubs filling up water bottles for free.
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Surprising the customer with unexpected pricing
Derek Sivers highlights an interesting pricing approach in this article. He was asked to perform at a distant location. When the customer couldn’t afford the price they suggested reducing the performance time, hoping to reduce the price. Instead of doing the expected he raised his price. His reason was that they were paying for him to get to the location and then do the work where the work was the fun bit. By reducing the time on the fun bit it was less worth him making the trip.
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The alternative bucket list approach to life
I have never formally made a bucket list. Sure, there are things I would love to do and some more than others but I have never written anything down.
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Technology - Am I past it?
This is an interesting post from Rob Conery, someone I’ve followed for quite some time, and his observations as he gets older about how he wonders if he is past keeping up with new technology.
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