Articles for category: Initiative

2 months ago

Greg Thomas

I Don’t Believe in Focus Time

I don’t get the concept of “Focus Time” in your calendar. I.e., signalling to everyone that this is when I’ll do work because that implies that the rest of the time that I am not working. Meetings have value when done right. Calls have value when done right. Standups have value when done right. Work has value when done right. The goal is to figure out how to stay focused and deliver. Move your meetings around. Select which ones you are going to. Drop the non-value activities. Your calendar can be lightweight but have plenty of focus time.

3 months ago

Greg Thomas

Default to Team Patterns

When you’re tired, we fall back on what we know best, what works, what is solid, what has never failed us. These are our patterns of delivery, the tried and true, the never fail. They are the work that we can do in our sleep, that we can close our eyes and let our hands move over the keyboard, succinctly with minimal effort. Patterns are what we invest our time and energy in creating, and what become the backbone of what we do. Team Patterns are much harder to create; they require knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses, who to

3 months ago

Greg Thomas

The Easy Metric

Tokens were our gateway to playing games. Now they are the measure of our work and efficiency. They don’t have to be, they shouldn’t be, but right now, many companies are looking at token consumption as a successful metric for adoption. Why? Because it’s easy, it’s one thing, easy to count, easy to add, easy to subtract, and it gives you a nice number. The easy metrics have always been eschewed by leaders because they only measure what is easy, and not what is right. Accountability. Value. Responsibility. Leadership. Commitment. These are the values that we have always wanted in

3 months ago

Greg Thomas

We will always have Regex

In all our agents, in all our copilots, in all our fancy code. We will always have Regex. I still need help with Regex and using tools to help me find the most effective expression. Twenty years ago, when I was starting out, if you had of told me that Regex would be the one constant between now and then, I’m not sure I would have believed you. But there it is… Regex Never Dies.

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