Random Thoughts - May 2008

Is adaptability as important as planning?

Time wounds all heels. (Thanks - John Lennon)

Can joining a “strong contact network” improve your shyness?

If I can’t find it on Amazon, do I really need it?

Did we work together or did we golf together?  I can’t remember (Thanks - Karl)

Spring fell on a Wednesday last year.

Random Thoughts - April 2008

The main culprit was hubris.  (Thanks - Richard de Neufville)

If I wasn’t good at working with complexity, that business would have thrown me off the horse a long time ago.

Does anyone know the difference between website design and website development?

Rerealize (as used in a sentence): I recently rerealized that there is a 10 to 1 output ratio between a developer and a great developer.

Local, local, local or you’re loco, loco, loco!

Truth is rarely pure and never simple (Thanks - Oscar Wilde)

Random thoughts - March 2008

If a software developer is reckless at times but brilliant at other times, should their misdeeds be forgiven?

Sometimes it’s not a marathon, it is a sprint.

This model-view-controller pattern is the design pattern for content.

Confidence is a software developers’ biggest weakness.

I’m not waiting for the big break, I’m waiting for a bigger break.

Pool season is here just in time, again.

California only elects performers

As I attend a conference this week (that I won’t name), whose host state is California, I have been treated to some speeches by elected officials here.  I am struck by each speaker, mostly by their performance.  They all have the same ability to enrapture the crowd with great stories, quick witted one liners and general effusiveness.

At their core, they are performers, plain and simple.  I suspect performers have been elected to office long before (and long after) the governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.  I suspect their electability is directly related to their stage presence.  In a state the size of California, that’s the only way to capture the attention of the masses.

Not that the officials aren’t smart or worthy of the office, but I don’t think most would have gotten there without their performing skills.  Some might call those same skills leadership, but I’m not one of them.  Leadership is not how well you can work the crowd but about giving your people the tools to succeed.

Random thoughts - February 2008

Valentines always seems to fall on a weekday when I am at my most frantic.

Should consultants invest in regular training at the expense of earning a payday?

Vinyl records and vacuum tube amplifiers will never vanish.

Is golf more difficult than math class?

Ignorance and arrogance never delivered a project on time.

It’s not the raw horsepower of your intellect, it’s how you use it.  (credit to Paul Glen)

How many steps I have taken in the pursuit of new shoes?

Is gossip healthy?

Why does project managment contain so many words that start with P?  Project, Program, Product, Phase, Parametric, People, Provisions, Plans…