Engineering an Interesting Life
At the end of the year, my coach had me make a list of 40 goals for 2017. They range from the very professional to the very personal. From the serious to the purely for fun. Of course, I broke them into sections and put them in a spreadsheet. At the start of each month I […]
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January 3, 2016, I sent an email to 66 friends from CGD. In it, I wrote about falling in love with the Eiffel tower, spinning around in circles, and the entwined history of luggage and travel. July 1, 2017, another email from CDG. This time to 322 people. I wrote about an early morning walk […]
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This is the second part of running an org survey. You can find the questions in part 1. What Does The Data Look Like? First step is color-coding the spreadsheet to show trends in the numbers. I made a sample spreadsheet and generated random data – so it looks a little chaotic – but you […]
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I read Steal Like an Artist (Amazon) a while ago, but reread it as part of the reading list I’ve been working through. It’s a short read and enough time had passed that I didn’t mind re-reading it. The thesis is that no art is original, although it does distinguish between being inspired by the work […]
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I remember when I managed a 6 person team, and I always felt like I had a handle on what was going on (perhaps I’m being overly nostalgic here). Now I manage a ~26 person organisation, and on a good day I feel like I have a general idea of what’s happening, and certain specific […]
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The Coaching Habit (Amazon) is a really helpful book about asking questions. It starts with the premise of offer less advice, and ask more questions (which obviously I am bought into). I also like the concept of “the advice monster”. It probably belabours the point a bit, but it’s a short read so that isn’t too […]
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Credit: Pixabay / Alexas_Fotos I’ve encountered a lot of words that I would sooner not, working in tech. I have found the word whore in a design document, had colleagues who refer to women as “bitches”. I’ve been called – as most women have – abrasive, or more bluntly, a “c***”. I have been told, […]
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The War of Art (Amazon) is a book that could only have been written by a white religious man. Note: generally not the demographic I’m seeking reading materials from. The first two parts are essentially about a puritanical work ethic. The third part is some spiritual woo woo about creativity, and includes a little section on […]
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My colleague John and I recorded a little podcast together, and you can listen to it here. We talked about listen-first leadership, being judged on performance vs potential, and how I think of a senior engineer as “making the whole team better”. There’s also a transcript available for those of you (like me!) who hate […]
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The premise of Thanks for the Feedback (Amazon) is that we should get better at receiving feedback. I started feeling a little resentful of that because I think most feedback is bad (and quickly turns into advice). But I quickly got over it because the book is really helpful, and yes, it gave me some better […]
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