miscellaneous
(Blinkist is a service that summarizes books into short text and audio (15 minute) summaries -- they're great, and I thought I'd offer them some unsolicited product management feedback) Hey Blinkist, I've been loving my subscription, and I wanted to share some of my
productivity
This morning I got to share IT infrastructure, business strategy, and business architecture tips and recommendations with some local current and future entrepreneurs at The Capitol Post in Old Town Alexandria. Capitol Post is a great organization focused on inspiring Veteran entrepreneurs to find professional clarity and scale those visions.
miscellaneous
While it's a gross oversimplification to say that I draw (I use the term "draw" loosely) on a whiteboard for a living, it's amazing to reflect on how much of my time is spent using a whiteboard for all kinds of things (most of
lessons-learned
My grandfather, a NASA engineer who worked on telecommunications systems for many of the Apollo missions was always coming up with things I never saw anyone else doing. Some of that came from having engineering education and skills, but much of it came from a willingness to learn new things
miscellaneous
I'm excited that, for the first time, the eight Jersey Mike's Subs shops in Northern Virginia have selected NOVA Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) to partner with for the month of March, as part of their annual Month of Giving. Every year, Jersey Mike's
lessons-learned
As I've gotten older, I've realized how each person has different tendencies. Some of us are introverted. Some are analytical. In addition to personality axes like introverted vs. extroverted, thinking vs. feeling (see Myers-Briggs); people often have a tendency to either live in one of these
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