I still remember as a very young artist being shocked to find out that many of the pieces that were a big influence on me–Sampson, All the Submarines, 5 Day Locker Piece–were all by the same guy. I must not have been a very close reader. (And I had the same experience years later with […]
Time
Your Calendar is a Horror Movie
You look at your calendar, and while you can see your appointments, you know there is something ominous just off-screen. You’re not sure exactly what it is, or when it’s gonna bite you, but you know it’s just a matter of time. That’s how most people experience their schedules: as ominous obligations soon to confront them. But a […]
Do Less
Perceived vs Actual Freedom The problem we’re all wresting with can be stated in many ways… “I’m too busy” “I don’t have time” “I’m making commitments I can’t keep” …but another way to think about the problem may be the difference between our “perceived” freedom and our actual freedom. That is, we perceive—we believe—that we […]
Jeff Atwood
Like a crazy hoarder, I mistake the root cause of my growing mountain of incomplete work. The hoarder thinks he has a storage problem when he really has a ‘throwing things away problem’. I say I am ‘time poor’ as if the problem is that poor me is given only 24 hours in a day. […]
Schedules and Perfectionism
Schedules suck. Each time we make a software development schedule, we do so despite two glaring problems: 1. It’s really tough to estimate or forecast any substantial development project. (That’s the long version of “schedules are useless”.) Looking at any large successful software project in hindsight your estimates and schedules appear naive if not ridiculous 2. We […]