April 26, 2010
Books
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Mind Hacks, Tom Stafford, Matt Webb
To honest I was a little disappointed with this book.
Possibly down to my expectation rather than the book itself. I was hoping to learn some techniques to improve my memory and speed of thinking but that’s not what this is about. There are 90 odd explanations of ‘phenomena’ from blind spots (both physical and mental) through explanations of why thinking about exercise is better than not doing any at all… Quite a lot of it isn’t new it’s a collection of other peoples work (okay so a lot of books are but when you’ve seen a lot of it already elsewhere it makes it a lot less interesting, although it is quicker to read because you don’t have to fire up a browser and watch the videos!).
All very interesting but it wasn’t what I was expecting (perhaps my expectations had been anchored too high!). If you are interested in the brain from a biology and psychology lesson point of view then it is very interesting and explains a lot of detail and gives places to look for even more information so you can deep dive on a subject too.
April 21, 2010
Books
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The Creative Habit, Learn it and use it for life, Twyla Tharp
This really does show you a way to make being creative a part of your life. Initially I was worried that his might be a little too dance orientated, there are references to it (she’s a choreographer and dancer) but you don’t need to know about dance it’s just a way of explaining the concepts and that all makes sense. There is no short cut to follow these steps and you will be creative, it’s pointers and help to get you started and then to show at different points what may trip you up an dhow to avoid it.
There are many concepts and explanations of other people and their processes. I like the idea of creating boxes for projects so that you an collect together all the information and resources in one place, but then look back on those later and remember what was the aim.
I liked her explanation of spine, that’s helped me with a couple of ideas I’ve had going round my head for years but somehow there was something missing from them.
One things I must say is that you should do all the exercises, don’t just read them… do them!
I really enjoyed reading this and I’ll be eading it again if I feel I need a little shove. One thing which did come through and is something which seems to be a theme is just do it! Get on with your creative (entrepreneurial) endeavour, and have a ‘team’ of people who you know will give honest feedback on it to keep you on the straight and narrow.
March 25, 2010
Books, Development
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97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know
When I bought this I was thinking it would help me design new systems… It won’t. But… it provides amazing insight into what the role and the actual job of being a software architect is. Which I actually found a lot more useful. It was a bit odd to see people I’d worked with in there (especially as I’ve worked on code and systems they’ve designed, I guess those experiences must have taught them a few lessons!)
A very interesting book with many perspectives, but it won’t tell you how to architect software, it will give you many insights into the job of software architect.
March 17, 2010
Books, Development
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Rocket Surgery Made Easy, Steve Krug
If you design anything used by people and you’ve never done any user testing then you must read this! It sets out a simple way to get started on the road to user testing.
I have done some user testing over the years both as facilitator and as observer, so a lot of the book isn’t ‘new’, however there is always more to learn and it’s always good to get other peoples insights and ideas, so it was still extremely useful.
The book is a quick and simple read (Krug’s aim is to make it short enough to read on a flight) , it has the same ease of access as Don’t make me think, and whilst I now want to run off and do more testing, I didn’t feel quite as ‘changed’ at the end of reading it as I did with Don’t make me think. Perhaps I felt more connection with Don’t make me think as I read the second edition and the ‘new’ chapters in it were the same concepts we’d just published some research papers on so I felt a real connection to it.
(* co-naturality, the same idea can be thought up by different people across the globe at the same time, it doesn’t belong to anyone, and especially if you are researching the same topic the fact that two sets of researchers came to the same conclusion just adds weight to the idea.)
March 14, 2010
Books, Strategy
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Linchpin, Seth Godin
I was horrified when I read that Seth Godin had written a book about becoming indispensable! Why?
Well, every new job I’ve started I find someone who has made themselves ‘indespensible u’,sually by coding themselves into every system there is; email gets sent to them, only they know the logon, there is no documentation (I hate it too, but none!). They have become such an integral part of the system that nothing can happen without them, everything fails if they don’t logon one morning! I, on the other hand have been trying to make myself dispensable, trying to code myself out of a job, make each system so good I’m not needed*. So to write a book extolling the virtues of becoming indispensable shocked me, especially from Seth Godin! I was so infuriated I went out and bought it, I had to find out why.
How wrong was I!
This book explains why we don’t need those people any more (I’ll call them Lynchpins – because they kill the projects they work on) he refers to them as ‘factory workers’, once you figure out the system (map) anyone can do that job it’s monkeys pressing buttons, and why by coding myself out of a job, by making the systems as good as we possibly can I’m making myself indispensable! As when any other projects come up, it’s me they want to do it, I learn more, I have a more interesting job and everyone gains.
I would say that not all the concepts in the book are new (and he doesn’t claim that they are), I can relate some of these back to Enterprise Tuesday sessions, Predictably Irrational et al and Paul Arden’s books (especially Whatever you think think the opposite). But the way he has assembled these threads, and many others, into a manifesto of how we need to work is amazing. It is an inspiring book, that I nearly put down because I felt by reading it I may actually be procrastinating from what I could be doing! It’s not often that I find business books to be as engrossing as a thriller but I just had to keep reading this.
Putting his words into practice may not be easy for some (me included) but realising that in some cases it’s just the ‘Lizard brain’ trying to keep everything steady, and realising how much better you can make life for yourself and your work colleagues, I think it’s well worth putting the effort in.
*okay so writing a system that will run itself is possibly a bit far fetched but one that doesn’t require constant and unnecessary attention, and one where the attention it does require can be done by anyone.