miscellaneous
Our family, including our young kids (3 kids under 7) made an epic trip to Europe (France and Spain) recently. It was wonderful, but also exhausting and stressful. A few tips/recommendations/lessons learned: * Attack Jet Lag: Flying from the East Cost of the US to France, we took the
agile
Michael Gerber's The E-Myth Revisited, from way back in 1955, talks about the concept that an entrepreneur who starts and grows a company can't just work "in" the business (e.g. doing the work that generates revenue), but they have to work "on&
lessons-learned
I watched a great documentary recently called Playing with Fire. The movie follows a couple struggling with figuring out their long-term plans, while interviewing some thought leaders in the Financially Independent, Retire Early (FIRE) community. While I think many people write off people in this community (check out this Mr.
cybersecurity
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is the security feature where a website or system asks you for two different types of proof (authentication) that you're authorized to access a system. The three big factors systems usually choose from are: 1. Something you know (e.g. password) 2. Something you have
leadership
While there are many aspect of our schedules that we can't control, such as bosses or peers scheduling various meetings or setting certain expectations, there people often have more influence over their schedule than they use. Step back and think about your schedule (in the context of work
miscellaneous
Years ago, I was really into photography, and I was excited to upgrade from my film camera (which may sound insane to people younger than me) to a digital SLR, and I got stuck in this loop reading about new cameras, reading reviews, going to the store to try them
lessons-learned
I'm a huge fan of whiteboards for collaboration and design. I find it is so powerful when you're working through something something conceptual -- it could be a process, or a technology conceptual architecture, org chart, or just about anything. For anyone who also loves whiteboards,
leadership
I find a that the metaphor of a cornerback (CB) and the safety is valuable in a lot of professional discussions, as it makes the concepts of layers of defense or resilience a little more interesting to talk about. In football, the cornerback directly defends the wide receiver (WR), trying
leadership
There's a concept you find in a lot of domains about how valuable it is to find problems earlier in the process. * In software engineering, engineers are taught that the cost of a bug goes up exponentially the longer is exists -- it's cheap during a
leadership
When I was a junior engineer, years ago at Lockheed, I had a great senior architect who I looked up to. One time, we were heading into a meeting with several very senior directors, and he leaned over to me as we walked in, and he told me to pay
lessons-learned
I think everyone would agree that a great friend (or sibling or spouse) is someone who drops everything when a friend of theirs needs help. I have a great friend who has shown that several times in my life -- my wife and I were in a motorcycle accident several
leadership
One of the things that was so important early in my relationship and marriage with my wife, was the concept of identifying gaps between what was normal to her and what was normal to me. Everyone has their own expectations of normal, based on where they grew up, how their