Too many teachers teach everything one can know, or they try to teach everything they think one can know. In technical subjects this turns into voluminous works that are hard to get through. And most of the information is forgotten as fast as it’s consumed. My criteria, something I battle with, is picking what people will benefit from knowing. And…
It’s not more efficient
99% of the time when someone asks you what the most efficient way to do something is, you respond with the way you’re used to doing things. We all do this. For example, if you ask me what the most efficient way to type an email is, I’m likely to tell you gmail. That’s because I use gmail every day.…
Beliefs Before Reasons
As much as we’d all like to believe that our beliefs are rooted in reason, that’s simply not the case. Most of our beliefs come first, and then we seek facts to back them up. Beliefs come before reasons. It is very rare to use facts alone to change our beliefs. Don’t believe me? Go to facebook and look at…
Stop Measuring Turn Around Time
I authored the following article on InfoQ, enjoy! https://www.infoq.com/articles/stop-measuring-turn-around
Blind Spot Examples
Follow the instructions for the first image. Note: because your display might render these smaller/larger than mine, you will need to adjust how far your head is from the monitor. What I do is move my laptop/phone closer/further until the blindspot effect kicks in. Now, try the following as well and elephant should disappear at some distance, depending on which…
Eradicating Emotional Blindspots (PEAR)
Emotions are par for the course until you educate yourself and develop awareness. Take a simple example: when you’re tired you’re much more likely to get angry and yell at someone. But when is the last time you took this into consideration when you were in the middle of biting someone’s head off for a minor infraction? I’ve developed a…
Remove the irrationality
If you find yourself repeatedly incensed, take note and try to avoid similar situations in the future. This is sage advice and yet every day, on Facebook especially, people take turns berating each other. On Facebook, consider: – Avoid looking at your newsfeed if it’s filled with pointless controversy. – Hide people that have nothing of substance to say, the…
Solutionism
Have you ever felt excited at the prospect of a new idea? The urge to get started, right away? That’s what solutionism feels like. Solutionism happens when people don’t do due diligence to understand why they’re doing something before they start doing it. The tendency is to jump to solving a problem, before validating that it’s actually a problem. Or to…
Believe me, let it go
It’s easy on social media these days, Facebook especially, to encounter inflammatory content. How often do you read inane things in your news feed? How often do you react, filled with contempt? When you do react, chances are you just perpetuate content that will fall into the hands of yet another person that will be bothered. I just caught myself…
Fighting the urge to dig into the details
When you’re doing high-level reconnaissance–say as part of a learning as you go strategy to know what it is that at some point you need to know–it’s important not to get into the details. That may seem trivial but it’s not. How many times have you found yourself buried in details, when you only needed the big picture? I find…