miscellaneous
You don't always have to play by the rules My father often used boldness (be confident), candor (you'll be surprised what people will agree to when you ask plainly), and creativity to find ways to get some amazing deals and create fun adventures for my sister
agile
I've started reading Brian Roberton's book Holacracy, which talks about an organizational management approach focused around self-organization and protected autonomy. It's an interesting attack on the base assumption that we should build companies in the traditional, top-down approach where a CEO directs leaders who
lessons-learned
My dad was full of lots of great advice -- he was raised by polar opposite parents, a reserved NASA engineer and a high-energy, life-of-the-party mother who was always a great hostess. His wisdom comes from a diverse career that includes working at McDonald's, selling microwaves when they
lessons-learned
I was chatting with some friends recently about making time to reflect on your life, and making time to really connect with close friends, digging into each other's lives. It stuck me that the concept of 'You need to work on your business, not just in your
productivity
You have a fixed amount of decision making each day (see Wired article, Conserve Your Willpower, It Runs Out), so it's incredibly valuable to automate the unimportant decisions so you can focus on the valuable ones. So carve out some time to reflect on what takes your time
photography
I recently wanted to copy a large set of photos (over 10,000) out of Apple Photos (Mac-based photo management application/database) and save them on a USB hard drive so I could import them to Google Photos (cloud-based photo management service). I did an export of all the photos
miscellaneous
I spent some time at Bunker Labs DC, part of Capitol Post, in Old Town Alexandria -- it's an exciting place to be. Bunker Labs is a startup accelerator (like Y Combinator or TechStars) focused on helping Veterans start and grow and new companies. Their first class of
CIO
If you're the CIO, Director of Technology, IT Person, or Only Person (Solopreneur) at your organization, here are 5 areas of questions areas to consider when determining if a specific IT system or process would align with your small company's needs: 1. Alignment: Does this system
Process Improvement
I've recently realized that I've been drawing a similar pie graph several times recently, explaining how I spend my time as a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at a small business. I thought I'd share for those interested in how I spend my time juggling
books
The Amazon Kindle is great and it's incredible it was introduced almost 8 years ago. I realize it can still be a controversial topic for hard-core readers regarding whether paper for e-ink is better, but for anyone who doesn't own a Kindle or does and doesn&
miscellaneous
There's lots of great advice about learning web development (creating websites and web applications) from people much smarter than me with far better web development skills. That said, if someone were to ask me where to start, my recommendations would be: 1. Start tinkering with your language, to
technology
I went to a great Introduction to Python Django Web Framework meetup tonight (http://www.meetup.com/django-district/events/223451662/), put on by Django District and TechTalkDC. We've been using Python more and more at my work for data mining, and I was excited to tinker with a