Weekly Braindump #43
Warning : Battery Low
Hello. This time around I’m setting a new record for tardiness in Braindumping. A full week late! But who cares?! I make the rules, so I can break them too. :)
I’ve been working on…
Although it was a short week, it was also mighty frustrating.
Monday was a Bank Holiday!
Tuesday I did my (now weekly) project management dance where I attempt to inch things along and make a dent in the universe. Some things were fixed, other things were broken. Frustratingly, stuff is being addressed at a very surface level rather than digging down deeper into ‘why did this thing break?’ + ‘what broader implications might this issue have?’.
I get that this is likely due to the project running well past its projected completion date. But the scramble to pass things back as done as quickly as possible results in just deferring problems into the future. Outcomes not purely actions!
Wednesday was a day off.
Thursday I started pulling some information together for an impending audit that was due to take place next week.
I also started wrestling with a weird server issue that cut across multiple vendors. This is always a bit of a pain because it’s not immediately obvious who the buck stops with (.. so the buck stops with me until I figure that out).
Those server problems occupied most of Friday too. I’ve written recently about how I’ve got a bad habit of bashing my head against particularly tricky problems a bit too long when I should really a) walk away to regroup b) ask someone else for help. This is a fairly good example of that.
I did eventually make some much needed headway but I left work feeling like my mental battery had been totally depleted! A large contributing factor for this braindump being a +1 week late.
I’ve been reading…
- How to cope with 35,000 decisions by wearing the same clothes.
https://whatsthepont.com/2017/08/25/decision-fatigue-how-to-cope-with-35000-decisions-a-day-by-wearing-the-same-clothes/ by whatsthepont. - Growing our design capability at NHS Digital.
http://transformation.blog.nhs.uk/growing-our-design-capability-at-nhs-digital by Matt Edgar. - What leaders and activists can learn from social movements.
https://www.slideshare.net/HelenBevan/what-ehealth-leaders-and-activists-can-learn-from-social-movements by Helen Bevan. - The why of weeknotes.
https://medium.com/@stamanfar/the-why-of-weeknotes-cf4d7e8ad4e5 by Sam Villis. - Complexity: Can we change how we learn?
https://medium.com/@DyfrigWilliams/complexity-can-we-change-how-we-learn-5f64d58288bd by Dyfrig Williams. - How I replicated an $86 million project in 57 lines of code.
https://medium.freecodecamp.org/how-i-replicated-an-86-million-project-in-57-lines-of-code-277031330ee9 - Don’t let busyness kill your creativity.
https://paulitaylor.com/2017/08/29/dont-let-busyness-kill-your-creativity/ by Paul Taylor. - Secrecy in business is dead. Here’s to radical transparency.
http://corporate-rebels.com/radical-transparency/ by Corporate Rebels. - The mistake smart people make: Being in motion VS Taking action.
http://jamesclear.com/taking-action Hat Tip Rob Jefferson. - A user manual for me.
https://medium.com/@cassierobinson/a-user-manual-for-me-d3a851fbc694
I’ve been listening to…
- Why is interest in Universal Basic Income surging?
http://pca.st/4jJu - Recode Decode: Venture capital is headed for a huge rude awakening.
http://pca.st/s9iJv - TED Talks: When workers own companies, the economy is more resilient.
http://pca.st/reD6
