The Science of Organic Milk
If you’re like me, you’ve noticed that organic milk tends to have a longer shelf life and tastes better so I tend to spend the extra money because aside from our 1 year-old, the family drinks milk erratically and I...
Category: Random Thoughts
Why Cursive Should be Taught in the Age of STEM
It’s a topic that comes up from time to time in various channels on the topic of education and modern curricula. NPR just had an article today on it and how Alabama passed a law requiring it to be taught. ...
Thought of the Day
From this post:
Pau Gasol on Kobe Bryant
SI has an excellent “farewell” from Pau Gasol to Kobe Bryant. One of the key takeaways, for me: He was challenging me because he expected more from me. When somebody cares about you, that’s when they challenge you. When they...
5 Pitfalls to Software Project Failure
Poorly Controlled Scope Scope is enemy number 1; it is the amorphous blob that threatens to consume and grow until it is an uncontrollable monster, swallowing all of your carefully planned man hours. Increases in scope are often the result...
Adding The Google Test to Your Interviews
On a message board, I read a thread where a poster — a research scientist — was describing how he ended up becoming the defacto IT guy in his department simply because of his superior Google skills and willingness to...
The Importance of Scope (and How To Ship It!)
One of the lessons I’ve been mulling about the past few weeks is the importance of scope when delivering software. Delivery of software can be thought of as a balancing act between three buckets: Time – this is the schedule...
Thoughts on Burnout
I was reading an NPR piece on worker burnout and some different tactics taken by different companies to deal with it and came across a very nice, concise definition: Christina Maslach is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley,...
A Common Sense Way to Improve Cloud Backup
In the wake of the Apple iCloud debacle, there has been a lot of discussion on what Apple has done wrong, what it could do better, and how this could have been prevented. This is not a blog post about...
What Alan Watts Can Teach Us About Leadership
I was listening to a talk by Alan Watts and found one bit of advice that really connected to what I’ve learned about leading others. The principle is that any time you — as it were — voluntarily let up...