Tag: learning

  • A Season of Learning

    A Season of Learning

    There’s a concept in computer science called explore vs. exploit. Exploitation means using what you know to get reliable returns; exploration means trying new things at the cost of those returns. Most algorithms skew too hard toward exploit. Humans have also been known to do this – including me. The known path is comfortable. My…

  • From Chaotic Learning to Intentional Growth

    From Chaotic Learning to Intentional Growth

    Before the pandemic I was always on the move, and I would have told you always learning. I found myself at various events, talked to many different people, was always reading something, and my job changed frequently, even within the organisation I was in. I also wrote a lot, which helped me consolidate and clarify…

  • Explore / Pursue / Depth

    Explore / Pursue / Depth

    My friends and I went pottery painting this year. Next, we’re trying crotchet. The pottery painting was fun, and my star shaped bowl painted in rainbow colors came out better than I expected. I’m thinking to go back and paint a dragon next. My friends and I, we’re exploring. Trying some new things. Seeing what…

  • Co-Active: Synergy

    Co-Active: Synergy

    The last course in my coach training journey – for now – was Synergy. This follows Fundamentals, Fulfillment, Balance, and Process. The final course, this tied everything together. We learned about the attributes of a coach (fierce courage, aliveness, and connection), worked on range (including silent coaching!) and the idea of “stories”. Going into it,…

  • Further Adventures in Android Development

    Further Adventures in Android Development

    I suspect one of my limitations as a programmer is that I don’t hack. I don’t beat away at something until it works. I read things, and I reason about it, and I write a lot of tests. This makes me very effective on platforms I’m familiar with, but I worry I’m as a result…

  • Achieving the Quasi-Possible, Just About On Time

    Achieving the Quasi-Possible, Just About On Time

    This Thursday, it will be two months since I arrived in Sydney. I came to work on a specific project, and that project came with a pretty ambitious deadline. I don’t know if anyone, including the person who thought this deadline up, really believed we would make it. But we did, just about. We as a team,…

  • Sharing Lessons From Stories We Can’t Tell

    Sharing Lessons From Stories We Can’t Tell

    Last week, I wrote that things have been a little bonkers lately. I have not spent seven days straight in Ottawa since the start of August and I’m stressed, discombobulated, and overwhelmed. Normally, I figure things about by writing about them. Lots of work on? How can I be more organized/better at delegating/manage my time most…

  • On Leadership

    They call Extreme Blue a leadership development program. I didn’t get it at first, but by the end I did. I also started to see why I had been picked out as someone “showing leadership” – though I have so far to go there. It’s around that time of year when I re-read 7 Habits…

  • Graduate School

    I went back to school because I didn’t think I knew enough to go and join the real world, yet. Then I got to graduate school, and realized it wasn’t the place to learn it. I’m not a better programmer than I was before I came. I know a little more about some things, but…