What I'm Reading

OK, time for a quick look at some of the stuff I'm filling my brain with:

GK Chesterton's Collected Works, Vol XX - This one contains a travelogue of his trips to the US and Rome. It's fascinating to see a British journalist (from early 1900's) give his impressions of this country. Quite insightful into our national character, and strikingly still relevant & accurate...

The Man Who Knew Too Much, by G.K. Chesterton. A collection of short detective stories - quite good!

Military Mavericks, by David Rooney. Thanks to Kevin for passing this one my way. Short historical vignettes about military men who think & act & fight a bit differently than the rest (think Lawrence of Arabia).

Rough Riders, by Theodore Roosevelt. This guy was absolutely the best president ever, in my opinion. His first-hand account of his adventures with the Rough Riders is brilliant & moving.

And I just finished At The Back Of The North Wind, by George MacDonald. Pretty amazing Victorian fairytale novel about a kid who meets the incarnation of the North Wind... I won't spoil the ending by telling you what her other name is.

And as always there's an assortment of blogs, websites, WIRED magazine...

How about you? What's on your reading list these days?

Getting Artistic

Want to foster creativity, artistic sensibilities and a sense of design passion? (I hope the answer is yes!)... Then spend some time with the artistic output of creative types you admire.

Personally, I'm a fan of ee cummings, Walt Whitman, Jackson Pollock, Renoir and the afore mentioned Polly Paulusma... Steve Martin and Robin Williams are high on that list too.

Art & creativity take many different forms (and yes, comedy is an art), and time spend exposing oneself to it counts as personal development time... just like the time we spend in the gym.

When was the last time you read a poem? Admired a painting (I mean really admired it and let it sink in to your gut)? Listened - really, really listened - to good music?

To neglect that dimension of our personal & professional development is even worse than skipping PT...

Win free books!

Go to the In Bubble Wrap site to sign up for a chance to win free books every day. I've been on their mailing list for a month or so, and have already won three times... but then again, I'm remarkably lucky...

Music

I admit it, I'm a sucker for poetic, melancholoy tunes with clever lyrics and a slightly askance point of view. My latest infatuation is with British singer / songwriter Polly Paulusma. Her single Dark Side is fantastic, She Moves In Secret Ways is amazing, and for that matter, so is the whole Scissors In My Pocket album (which was "recorded largely in Polly's garden shed during the glorious summer of 2003 on a shoe-string budget").

One of the things I love about Ms Paulusma, in addition to her striking musical abilities, is the back story (recording in her garden shed!). She started recording without having a record deal in place - it was just for the love of the music, and that passion really comes through.

And the title of the Scissors album? Let's hear her explain it (from her website):

The origin of the album's title "Scissors in My Pocket" relates to an incident that happened when Polly was just 8, and "obsessed with sailing," (a theme that's still showing up in her lyrics). "I wanted a boat, so I decided to build a raft in our back garden on a piece of old, flat fencing. My parents could see it wouldn't float, but I didn't believe them.

After decorating it with a cabin and putting on lights, I somehow persuaded my mom to take me to the river to launch it. She was great, I was adamant. I tied a piece of rope to the raft and gave her the other end to hold, ostensibly so she could pull me back when I got to the middle of the river, to calm her nerves. But I didn't tell her I'd put scissors in my pocket. I was going to cut the rope and run away to London. But of course, the boat sank instantly as soon as I pushed it into the water.

"When I started making this record, I felt a similar kind of condescension," Polly added. "A lot of people saying 'That's very nice dear, but you can't really make your own record.' You have to stick fingers up to people like that. 'I know this will float, so up yours.' And luckily, this time it worked."

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. She's a very talented Rogue - listen to her music, believe her stories, and let her get inside your head. Then go create what you're supposed to create, record deal or no...

Cathedral & Bazaar redux

If you haven't yet read The Cathedral and the Bazaar, by Eric Raymond... please do so asap! It's a brilliant look at open source, collaborative software development practices, and is a must-read for anyone who is involved with software development of any kind.

It is also the foundation for a little booklet I wrote, titled The Fortress and the Firefight, available as a free download at my RoguePress page. AND... (and here's why I' m writing about it today)... it is the subject of an article in the latest issue of Defense Acquisition Review... which I did not write (for a change)...

The article these two guys wrote is titled "The Fortress and the Bazaar" (not nearly as cool a title as mine, imho), and I couldn't be happier! I'm so glad to see Eric Raymond's concepts being advocated in as serious and academically-oriented a journal as AR (not to be confused with Defense AT&L, where I usually publish my stuff). Definitely worth a peek, tho of course Raymond's work is the best of the 3...

Robert Coram interview!

Robert Coram, the author of Boyd, is interviewed on Tom Peter's blog. Great interview, and he even mentions Chet Richards, who some of you met when he came up here to present Boyd's Patterns Of Conflict briefing. Check it out!

The Religious Policeman

Wow, when you get a chance, visit a blog titled The Religious Policeman, written by a Saudi man who lives in the UK. It's fascinating & funny - scroll down to an entry from 1 Feb, titled "A Memo," which sheds some really interesting light on the whole issue of those Danish cartoons which have light off such a firestorm.

It seems to me that one thing often missing from the official pronouncements about these cartoons is any comment on the Muslim world's response. President Clinton said the cartoons were "appalling" - but I didn't hear him say the rioting and destruction was bad...

From France, Chirac "condemned acts of violence aimed at Danes and Danish representatives overseas." That's more like it.

The cartoons may have been offensive and inappropriate, but the reaction some people choose to have was the real crime. We shouldn't excuse their violent behavior, just because some dude made a few disrespectful drawings.

Crazy January

Yikes, January was crazy! The trip to Disney was planned long ago (and was fantastic)... but the pair of TDY's that bookended the week at Disney were not expected... nor were the several days of leave I ended up taking so my wife could go to Plattsburgh to take care of her dad & grandmother as he had surgery and she (grandma) went to the hospital.

Her dad is doing fine, but her grandmother passed away Monday morning...

The point - life is uncertain. If you're expecting to be able to predict and plan everything, get used to disappointment. Flexibility - it's not just the key to airpower. It's the key to being able to respond effectively to the crazy things life throws at ya...

New Year's Resolutions

My resolutions include the following:

1. Don't hit the ground running. Ease back into work after the holiday.
2. Write. Write a lot. Write a ton. Specifically, 10 poems, 1 novel, 7 issues of RogueProjectLeader.com, 6+ articles for Defense AT&L, 1 theology book, and 1 screenplay
3. Get my PM Level 2 certification.
4. Get accepted to the AFOSR-sponsored Screenwriting course at the American Film Institute.
5. Eat more oatmeal.
6. Expand PBL.

Surely there are more, and I could go on about things like spending time with family, but for now I'll just focus on the new, the unusual and the expanded... 'cause spending time with family is far to important to leave as a breakable resolution - it's a daily commitment.

What's on your list?

Pages & Pages of Christmas Loot!

Got lots to read for Christmas - 1500+ pages of GK Chesterton's writings, plus 780 of Teddy Roosevelt's books. For some reason, those two guys strike me as rather similar, and not just because they were both large, wore glasses and mustaches and inhabited the early part of the 1900's...

I'm really looking forward to reading TR's stories about the Rough Riders & his history of how the American west was settled... and GKC's wide ranging stuff, including his account of trips to America and the Holy Land (not on the same trip, naturally). Gotta to some traveling so I'll have time to read...

Seeing Tailorism Clearly in 1856

In 1911, Fredrick Winslow Taylor published The Principles of Scientific Management. One of his main concepts was that "to increase production, managers must take control of the process." Thus the method of strictly defined assembly-line work was firmly established.

As the above link explains, "This involved observing workers meticulously, analyzing each step in terms of time spent and energy expended, and using the results to determine the best method for each task. This standard method would be required of every worker, with scaled piecework rates providing incentives for higher output."

Interestingly, 55 years prior to Taylor's opus horribilus, Scientific American magazine had this to say:

"The division of labor, though it may bring to perfection the production of a
country up to a certain point, is most deleterious in its effects upon the
producers. To make pins to the best advantage, it may answer for a time to
divide the operation into 20 parts. Let each man concentrate the whole
of his attention on the one simple work, for instance, of learning to make
pin heads, and on this ever let his time be consumed. It is astonishing the
perfection and rapidity which we will acquire in performing the operation. But
what is the result on the man? His powers of mind will dwindle, and his head
becomes, for all practical purposes, after a number of generations, no larger
than that of one of the pins he makes. He ceases to be a man, and becomes a mere
tool." - From Scientific American, January 1856

And what's one of the big buzzwords in management circles these days? Process! To those who continue to insist that production improvements brought about by a focus on process justify the damage done to the individuals who actually do the work, I can only shake my head. Well, I can also respond with alternatives, but I also certainly shake my head.

Google Earth Update

This recent article from the New York Times is almost boring 'cause the news is so old... but I'm going to mention it anyway.

It seems that some countries like India and Thailand have finally noticed that "Hey, Google Earth provides easy access to overhead imagery of sensitive parts of our country." Um, yeah... and it's been out there for a while now.

Interesting line: India's surveyor general, Maj. Gen. M. Gopal Rao, [commenting on Google Earth's offering of imagery of India] said, "They ought to have asked us."

Right. Google's response is basically (and appropriately): Times are changing, and the best thing to do is adapt to the advances in technology.

The genie is out of the bottle folks. Let's accept that fact and move on...

Wikipedia Update!

CNN.com has a short piece about an article in the journal Nature, which concluded Wikipedia's accuracy is on par with Encyclopedia Britannica, at least for scientific articles.

This is good news (and not surprising)… but the part that made me laugh out loud was this line:

Encyclopedia Britannica officials declined to comment on the findings
because they haven't seen the data.

I think it's hilarious, and really illustrates the genuine strength of Wikipedia. Even on an issue that directly affects Britannica (i.e. the comparable quality of it's prime competitor), the "Britannica officials" haven't figured out how to review the data in a timely manner… while the Wikipedia founder (there are no "Wikipedia Officials," of course!) is all over it!

How much longer will Britannica be able to exist? What do they really bring to the table? Not much, if you ask me...

Just for chuckles, check out the "Why Try Britannica Online" page, where Britannica officials try to make the case for giving them $70/year. Reasons include:

• More Comprehensive - over 120,000 articles! (but Wikipedia has 687,619!)
• Trustworth Results (see afore mentioned Nature journal)
• Less time searching (as if Wikipedia is hard to search?)
• Help for students (um, this is unique?)

Looks to me like the Britannica Officials are making buggy whips...

Internet Perils & Joys

Two interesting things came across my screen this morning... and interestingly, both are from Asia.

First, I learned about a Chinese poet named Tu Fu (or Du Fu). He was born in 712 AD, wrote a bunch of poems and was generally obscure during his lifetime. He is now considered one of the greatest Chinese poets ever, and is compared to Virgil, Shakespear, Horace, Ovid, etc... Thanks to the internet, some dude in central NY can now read this guy's poetry over 1200 years later... in English, no less. Wow!

Then, I got a link to a sad story about a recent trading snafu in Japan. An as-yet-unidentified trader intended to sell 1 share at 600,000 yen. You guessed it - he accidentally transposed the numbers and sold 600,000 shares for 1 yen each. Ouch! They are estimating the financial damage at 60 billion yen. Double ouch!

So, this amazing thing called the internet lets me read chinese poetry written over 1200 years ago by a guy who died in relative obscurity (makes me wonder what people will be reading 1,000 years from now!)... and it also lets people make monumental financial mistakes.

Such interesting times we live in!

Ten Enduring Ideas

Check out this article from strategy+business on ten enduring business ideas... It's kinda long, but worth the time...

NaNoWriMo

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and there's actually an organization designed to help would-be novelists (like myself) tackle the task. Check 'em out at http://www.nanowrimo.org/. I'm planning to have my first novel done by then, so it'll be ready in time for Christmas...

It's a crazy thing to do. Want to join me?

"Create The Future" Design Contest

Some company called Emhart is running their 4th annual "Create The Future" design contest. The Grand Prize is a Toyota Prius... first place is a Segway transporter... not bad!

Oh, and it turns out NASA is involved as a sponsor too...

So all you designer-wannabe's out there, check it out and send in your design ideas. Deadline is 18 Nov.

Overwhelming...

I swung through a bookstore the other day... and I must admit, I got a little bit overwhelmed.

Now that I've published a book of my own, I've got a sense of how much effort, brainpower, emotion, energy, love, passion, creativity, anguish and self goes into making a book... and the sheer quantity of books in that store really took my breath away.

How can these books actually sell? What makes a book stand out? Each individual book is the product of painstaking care and tremendous effort. Each represents hope and optimism... and each one is a small blip in a sea of thousands and thousands of other books.

So that got me thinking - why do I buy a book? What makes me actually pick one up and fork over some $$?

Usually, it's because someone recommended it... and I usually have to hear the recommendation more than once. For example, I'd been hearing about Hairball for a year (from multiple sources) before I ran across it in a used bookstore... and even then, I almost didn't buy it. And it's perhaps the most remarkable book I've ever read (certainly in the top 5).

So... how does one generate persistent, sustained recommendations for one's product or service...? And yes, this has something to do with program management, technology development and general PBL-ish topics.

More to follow...

Apple's Multi-Media Blitz

Wow, Apple is on a roll lately - check out this story from Information Week... some excerpts below. Some seriously important lessons to learn from these guys!

Apple Computer today introduced hardware designed to help the company dominate a market that doesn't really exist yet: online video downloads.

Apple also announced the immediate availability of iTunes 6, only a few weeks after the arrival of iTunes 5.

The new iMac comes with a built-in iSight video camera for out-of-the-box video conferencing.

Jobs began his second act by praising his company’s iPod. "It’s been a huge success," he said. "And therefore it’s time to replace it."

What Did You Do This Year?

I know, the year isn't over yet, but it's not too early to start thinking about what you accomplished in 2005.

Was it cool?

Was it worth while?

In what sense did it change the world for the better? Did it make a difference?

What did you learn... what did you experience... what connections and contacts did you make... what drove you forward and got you out of bed in the morning?

Check out Tom Peter's answer to those questions, if you dare...