Random Musings

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 "The most surprising thing is that you wouldn’t let anyone steal your property, but you consistently let people steal your time, which is infinitely more valuable."  -Seneca  ***  It’s even worse when people come up with deferred life plans. They’ll say something like “When I’m forty, I’m going to retire and write a book” or “I’ll do this thing I hate right now so I can make money, then in ten years I’ll do what I really love”. Seriously? You think that the universe is going to let your life proceed the way you want it to? What guarantee do you have of making it to that age? Putting things off for the future is the biggest waste of a life. You deny yourself the present by promising the future. You’re relying on the future, which is outside of your control, and abandoning the present, which is the only thing you can control. The whole future lies in uncertainty – live immediately. 7  *** You should live your life intentionally, instead of having you...

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140824235337-22330283-the-three-qualities-of-people-i-most-enjoy-working-with

What then is this missing link for innovative creativity and accelerated success? Musk, some of the most brilliant minds of all-time — Aristotle, Euclid, Thomas Edison, Feynman and Nikola Tesla — use this missing link for accelerated learning, solving difficult problems and creating great work in their lifetime. This missing link has little to do with how hard they work. It has everything to do with how they  think. In layman’s terms, first principles thinking is basically the practice of actively questioning every assumption you think you  ‘know’  about a given problem or scenario — and then creating new knowledge and solutions from scratch. Almost like a newborn baby. On the flip side, reasoning by analogy is building knowledge and solving problems based on prior assumptions, beliefs and widely held ‘best practices’ approved by majority of people. STEP 1: Identify and define your current assumptions STEP 2: Breakdown the problem into its fundamental ...

" The process within our brains that creates habits is a three-step loop. First, there is a cue, a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use. Then there is the routine, which can be physical or mental or emotional. Finally, there is a reward, which helps your brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future. Over time, this loop — cue, routine, reward; cue, routine, reward — becomes more and more automatic. The cue and reward become neurologically intertwined until a sense of craving emerges. What’s unique about cues and rewards, however, is how subtle they can be. Neurological studies like the ones in Graybiel’s lab have revealed that some cues span just milliseconds. And rewards can range from the obvious (like the sugar rush that a morning doughnut habit provides) to the infinitesimal (like the barely noticeable — but measurable — sense of relief the brain experiences after successfully navigating the driveway). ...

that’s how ‘Alexander The Great’ (Agile) kicked Darius’s (Waterfall) butt. And this victory against such great odds can teach us some useful lessons about how to improve the delivery of our software development projects. 1. Avoid committing too early — especially when you don’t have all the information you need. You’ll make better decisions if you wait till the last possible moment . 2. Collecting requirements upfront — and assuming they will never change over the duration of the software development project — can cost you dearly in terms of delayed delivery times, additional development costs and software that has little or no value to your customer. 3. It’s better to develop software incrementally . Because with each iteration we learn more. And the more you learn, the better you get. 4. Empowered team members make better technical decisions, are more productive and develop higher quality software. 5. Face to face communications are much more effective than documentation at el...

Great chart and if want to read more of the verbose check this out.

A detailed account of what culture means to Netflix Netflix - Freedom & Responsibility Culture View more presentations from solsolid .

If you are struggling to decide on how to delegate read this classic Harvard Business Review article. Who's got the monkey ?

With the recent resignation of a very successful HP CEO, Mike Hurd on charges of fudging expenses one wonders how can accomplished people like him be so dumb . A nice post on tries to explain what happens to people in power and and possibly a solution. A few excerpts " Psychologists refer to this as the paradox of power. The very traits that helped leaders accumulate control in the first place all but disappear once they rise to power. Instead of being polite, honest and outgoing, they become impulsive, reckless and rude. In some cases, these new habits can help a leader be more decisive and single-minded, or more likely to make choices that will be profitable regardless of their popularity." "Frans de Waal, a primatologist at Emory University, has observed that the size and strength of male chimps is an extremely poor predictor of which animals will dominate the troop. Instead, the ability to forge social connections and engage in "diplomacy" is often much m...

Tony Hayward from BP is the poster child of how not to lead during the Deep Horizon oil spill crisis for 2010. Rosabeth Moss Kanter ( HBS ) has summed all the things he should't have done Deny and minimize problems . Drop any mention of the high-minded principles you announced at the beginning of your term, such as safety and a culture that puts people first. Sweep them under the rug as you play down the significance of the crisis. Or better yet, find someone else to blame — a supplier, a business partner, a lowly employee or two. Emphasize your own power and importance . Keep yourself front and center all the time. Rarely bring forward the rest of the team, nor even indicate that it's a team effort. Make the story all about you . Talk about your heavy burdens and the costs to your life. When forced to acknowledge the true victims, pay lip service. Never apologize, and don't even pretend to learn from your mistakes . Brush off public disapproval, and persist in the same mi...

"Everyone has a Boss excepting God" - Unknown Don't know who said this but very very true in an organisation setting. Had read "Managing your Boss" a classic long long time back. Came across something this week and reminded myself that should blog this one. No matter how smart one is if we are within an organization setting managing ones boss is critical. And don't get me wrong this is not sucking up. Do that ( suck up ) and a smart boss would recognize and get rid of you soon... :-)

Other than the daily grind of operational activities and managing them a manager's job is to strategize. Well should say its everyone job to strategize to upset the competition. But what exactly is Strategy???. Was drawn to question a long long time back and the Harvard Business Review classic from Micheal Porter resolved this one What is Strategy ?? A highly recommended read for everyone

Nice Story..... A water bearer had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole that he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For two years this went on daily. The perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection and that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day. "I am ashamed of myself because this crack causes water to leak all the way back to your house." The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I planted flower seeds on your side of the pa...