12 hours ago
Default to Team Patterns
2 days ago
Too Many Tabs
3 days ago
The Easy Metric
4 days ago
Your Best Work
5 days ago
Back to the Terminal
6 days ago
We will always have Regex
7 days ago
Pick Your Path
7 days ago
Speed Running Buddhism Misses the Point
1 week ago
No One Likes to Run
1 week ago
The Brick
12 hours ago
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 …
Too Many Tabs
Greg Thomas
The problem with tabs in browsers is that you can leave things alive forever, occupying your thoughts, taking over your brain, always prodding you with work you have yet to complete. It is a reminder of things not finished, always staring you in the face. And who needs that? You know you didn’t finish it. You know you still have work to do. Maybe it’s not your choice, but it is what it is. If you aren’t working on it, save them, group them, do whatever, and close them off. If you need it, you’ll come back to it. Too …
3 days ago
The Easy Metric
Greg Thomas
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 …
1 week ago
The Brick
The brick is heavy, and when you drop it, it hits the floor, and pieces chip off, but it’s still together. The functions of a brick are limited; it can be used to build something, although without mortar, it would fall over. Carrying it is heavy, and it weighs you down. It needs more to become something useful; it needs mortar, it needs precision, it needs levelling, and other bricks. And once altogether, it becomes something useful. By itself, not so great, but when together, awesomeness. Don’t be a brick, when you could work with a team and be awesome. …
1 week ago
Finding a Process Champion
Believe in the Process. Trust the Process. These are all good; these all make sense, as long as someone is a Champion of the Process and able to evangelize it in a way that makes people want to stay on board, makes them want to learn more, leaves them hungry with questions to ask. You need someone to lead the process for people to follow it; without someone to lead it, no one will follow it. The proof? How many times have you read the installation manual before trying to install whatever it is you’re working on? Want your process …
1 week ago
The Idea Matrix of Your Team
A Matrix is an environment or system where something else, an idea, a product, a concept, takes form and becomes something else. You go into the Matrix and come out changed by it (just like in the movie). The Idea Matrix is the lunchroom chatter, the discussion after a meeting has happened, the back and forth at your desk – that generates the next idea that your team should be working on. The Idea Matrix is a key indicator of growth as well – not all ideas are great, but the ability to generate ideas, the willingness to try new …