2 months ago
When you are accountable for your work – whether early, later, or on time – it breeds value. When you own the late deliverable, try to make up for it, people notice. When you finish early, take on more, people notice. When you finish on time, people notice. Being accountable for your work, not blaming it on the weather, other people, etc, will always breed value in not just your work, but yourself.
2 months ago
If we stopped designing houses, the results would be interesting. We design for a reason, we take that moment to breathe and think about a problem, stare out a window in silence, and contemplate what is happening. Any problem that has been solved well took this time to figure out the design. Yes, it’s not always fast, but it should always be good.
3 months ago
We’re being reconditioned right now to not think because it takes too long. I spent 3 hours this past weekend thinking about how to approach some problems, what would and would not work, and running through the scenarios in my head. I’m still running through a coding problem with AI that is encroaching on 5 hours, trying to get something to work that should just work (based on the APIs). Thinking is good, thinking is important, you should plan time to think about solutions to problems and not only barrel through them as fast as you can.
3 months ago
Because they force you to do something you’re not (at least not all of us are accustomed to). Focus and get to the finish line. When you are running, that’s the goal, the finish line – whether the road is bad, it’s raining, there are lots of people – the goal is the same: get to the finish line. And the only way to do that is to focus and move your feet. That focus and that goal are what many sprints are missing when they fail. Get to the goal.
3 months ago
Your software needs a “Check Engine” light – it’s getting harder to maintain, it doesn’t work as well as it used to, or it’s hard to understand. Better yet, have an engine light for your team. Does everyone know how our software works and what we do? Do we have a scalable group, and are they growing? It should flash red in your eyes, and like your car make you pause. The problem is we don’t, so we keep driving along until it blows up.
