July 18, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdUQKUiQ3pw For the very first blog post here, I want to address my motivation. A good friend of mine recently shared: “I have always feared …
July 20, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j13oJajXx0M What do your teammates call the audience for the software you create or deploy for your organization? Employees End users Humans …
July 22, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gV-kTMGUwI. And you thought it was going to be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1jVrXo_r6Q. As a leader, there is no doubt you’ve been …
July 31, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/. If you are on mobile, you will have to settle for https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ7osdJ4H_8. How would you feel if someone asked you to …
August 5, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieQH6X_XBJo What is the primary emotion you feel when you watch Martin Gugino fall to the ground and bleed? If your answer is not related to the …
August 9, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyZf0mKXZr8. What does your childhood home look like now on Google Street View? What is the most interesting piece of IMDB trivia for your …
August 12, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx6_0Do0qGQ. Would you agree that it seems hard for people to keep their commitments? (Based upon the fact that Alex Sheen’s “Because I Said I …
August 16, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbn6a0AFfnM. What two commitments were made the morning that Stuart and Al got into their little argument? Most people are able to see that Al …
August 19, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ1glxX1BiQ. This is where you and I will take a left turn on our journey together. You might recognize many — if not all — of the first seven …
August 27, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o-iZ_GfTTs. Not too long ago, I was asked to sit on a diversity and inclusion panel at a conference to offer my thoughts on these topics in …
September 20, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5vZovv8cPk. When you are introduced to new businesspeople as a technologist, how do these people begin to see you? What sorts of biases might …
September 27, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh5_NSemt0Q. By now, I’m sure you have all read about what Tribune Publishing did to its employees. Does your organization perform internal …
October 12, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Icq0LlvtEy0. Do we ruin Scrum by overthinking it? I played clarinet from fourth through twelfth grade. The manner in which I was taught was, to …
October 20, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAOLL1jpp4s. Many blog posts — including my very own — seek to provide inspiration through some length of writing. But some subjects are so …
November 8, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7xMfIp-irg. Do you agree that love is the single most important part of our lives? If that is the case, why do we talk so little about it in …
November 22, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhkx6CAEXfU. When you sit down with people at work and ask them about the problems that they are having — the problems that you are there to …
December 3, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILWSp0m9G2U. Lest you forget I am a technologist, this column is for you. I’m 52 years old. The very first computer I ever used was a DEC PDP-11 …
December 4, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfhJGNnCRYU. I’ve been waiting to share some antipatterns to the type of leadership we talk about on these pages. Bingo! Got one today. Imagine …
December 18, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEBlaMOmKV4. In reference to Technology of the Year, 2020 Edition… Here you go: Bloomberg: Microsoft Designing Its Own Chips for Servers, …
December 20, 2020
🎹 Music for this post is the music for this post. Always remember: work is a means to an end. The things that are not work are the most important things in life. For me, music is one of those things. …
December 28, 2020
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9dSYgd5Elk. Thanks go to my brother Rich for sending this Guardian article to me, allowing me to share a final thought for this very long year: …
January 1, 2021
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tty5zcSJYLE. Happy 2021! I’m not much for ado, so here is that one thing: Work for a good private company. Not a bad private company. Not a good …
January 18, 2021
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yARVs1ZNLjU. When you identify a leader, how do you invest in his or her growth? My father was an electrical engineer of the highest order. A …
January 31, 2021
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR8D2yqgQ1U. Before embarking on the journey of reading this unusually long post, please take a moment to reflect on your organization’s …
February 14, 2021
🎹 Music for this post: https://vimeo.com/70051022. If you, like I, came of professional age in the earliest days of the Internet boom (we’re talking the early ’90s), you might have been exposed to …
February 18, 2021
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr5Q26E-Esw. Lies take many forms. The most troublesome ones involve the liar taking advantage of the audience’s trust when the audience would …
February 28, 2021
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSUD7WHzFTw. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not an avid reader of business nonfiction bestsellers. Books that have been foundational to my …
March 14, 2021
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5CeQ3twVaI. If you’ve been wondering about my lack of new writing, it’s not because I have run out of things to write! Quite the opposite. I …
March 18, 2021
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bd-dDZMoX4. Intel 1996: $111 billion market cap. Apple 1996: $3 billion market cap. Intel 1996: Mac? Whatever. Apple 1996: PC stinks. Intel …
March 25, 2021
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3_9MuEMwAs. Seth Godin on NFTs. Thank you, Seth. I cannot think of a technology with more nerdy complexity that has been popularized as …
March 26, 2021
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tspD1GNuTUI. Simon Kneafsey of TheScrumMaster.co.uk recently introduced a marvelous “Simple Guide To Scrum – 1 Pager” on Scrum.org. This …
April 14, 2021
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfUzs4NDa64. What might happen if we could see inside someone’s head, and gain a better understanding of what makes that person tick? You’ve …
June 6, 2021
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_03uXQiz6eY. There are two women in my extended family born to mothers who were prescribed DES for the term of their pregnancies. DES was …
June 20, 2021
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3_2entulkw. This post appeared on LinkedIn this weekend, to resounding huzzahs. “People First; Technology Last,” this isn’t. Ms. Carter appears …
July 17, 2021
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnI_ko3_r_c. We lean on each other to get through the tougher parts of life. On our best days, we are eager to help one another. We watch a …
September 13, 2021
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO5dcW0P75M. (It’s been a while since I’ve written. I’m sorry. One of the books that I was editing this year finally came out this past weekend. …
October 11, 2021
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_9UgrFGafM. The CIO role has arguably been around for 40 years this year. Even four decades on, I don’t see many CIO job descriptions that …
December 6, 2021
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-kA3UtBj4M. Taking a look today (December 6th, 2021) at the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction bestseller list, I see: History (THE 1619 …
December 24, 2021
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrwfB4aAZZc. “There were very few things people loved. That was one of them.” So said a dear friend and retired IT director, who introduced this …
December 27, 2021
🎹 Music for this post is the music for this post. Always remember: work is a means to an end. The things that are not work are the most important things in life. For me, music is one of those things. …
January 10, 2022
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLlfK_GQwko. This is the most compelling software-related post I have read in a while: Matthew Rosenfeld (Moxie Marlinspike): My first …
February 28, 2022
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSCVOQv4j6E. Prologue I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that the pandemic has made professionally-oriented content feel overtly trite. Families …
March 22, 2022
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ArpRWcGe0. When you get to know someone, do you focus more on what’s wrong with them, or what’s right with them? Is there a benefit to …
June 8, 2022
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnbQFVxiSmk. It seems that every day, we are getting better reporting and research to illustrate the fragile houses of cards we know as …
July 24, 2022
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEiCNDHnpsU. I once led a small, incredibly talented innovation team at a healthcare informatics business. We were a company of many firsts. …
September 19, 2022
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtzhvJh9NRY. How many essays have you read about the power of active listening? Given the volume of writing on the topic, are you curious about …
September 23, 2022
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLkFyzzcbSQ. I’m often asked: is there a simple rule that will help me know when I should take an agile approach? This is my answer: Discuss …
September 28, 2022
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcJAWBsLVZ8. In The Invisible Propeller, I concluded with a quote from Lisa Hermsen (the Caroline Werner Gannett Professor of Humanities at …
October 2, 2022
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fNMgncH5-w. Discuss this specific post on Twitter or LinkedIn.…
October 3, 2022
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GEmfVbVL2A. There’s nothing quite like a car accident to help you identify your values. Thirty years ago, Hyrum Smith became well-known for his …
December 12, 2022
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPGFj-swZA0. I’m a blockchain critic (in the company of countless others, as noted in the evergreen postscript on Blockchain Bunk), but I hope …
December 26, 2022
🎹 Music for this post is the music for this post. My third year into this journey, I look forward to writing this piece more than ever. It is, however, always more difficult than the others. This …
February 5, 2023
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq3BylHjiuk. “I suppose,” I said to my family, “that this is a sure sign that I am getting old, having a hard time relating to the younger …
February 17, 2023
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lamyY_8iwE. From Stephen Wolfram, this is simply the most lucid (but lengthy) analysis of how Large Language Models like ChatGPT work: …
March 8, 2023
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOax8WSeEGM. After naming the Ethereum Merge as The Progressive CIO 2022 Technology of the Year, I thought that some people might think I was …
April 25, 2023
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9paltc-bpTQ. It’s been a while since I have written a new long-form piece. My day job has been keeping me busy; I hope you can forgive me. I’ve …
April 30, 2023
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPjoWN0SCb0. Is a written piece inherently valuable? Does the world need more writing? Does it need more writers? Or would it benefit from more …
May 15, 2023
🎹 Music for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgtNp-hRojw. In regard to https://theprogressivecio.com/slate-star-codex-and-the-state-of-things/, here’s an interesting read: …