So I am still on the hardly-ever-getting-around-to-blogging-plan, and now that I am taking the time to add something, it is just a geeky comment on an article. How cheap! Still, I can't help but highlight the article I found today.
Background: Like many others, I have been a fan of the Agile Development process for software development in the past. Although imperfect, it seems to approach the needs of both the business owners of a project as well as the developers working to make the project happen. What I have found more intriguing, however, are the opportunities to take principles and practices from the Agile Development methodology and apply them in other areas of business and my life.
I will admit that some parts of the article I am about to link to contradict the whole idea of using Agile ideas outside of the software world, but hey, this is my blog and I can have an opinion here. So I respectfully disagree.
Here is the article: The Decline and Fall of Agile
Like so many things in life, whether it is writing books, running half-marathons, buying houses, etc., the success of the thing is based on the will of the participants to follow through. It isn't skill, talent, smarts, etc, etc. For all the successful people I have met so far in my life the persistant, follow-throughers out-number the skill/talent/smart crowd 10 to 1. Conversely, of all the people I have met (including myself at times) that TALK about achieving a goal but DON'T, I can confidently say 99 out of 100 of them haven't followed through. To be fair I will say that they haven't followed through YET. (I am an optimist.)
How does this relate? If you boil down most of the issues both in this article and the subsequent comments, everyone is complaining a lack of follow-through in one way or another. Even the commentors that mention a lack of training and skill seem to be asking their peers to follow through on pursuing their education. There are a few that just think they are smarter than everyone else, but hey, it is a technical article. What do you expect?
Anyway, those are my thoughts, and I am glad I took the time to share them, even though this doesn't really fit in my blog very well. Deal with it:)
Monday, December 22, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Random Updates
I have a few things to wrap up here, and I am tired, so I will be brief.
Right, that is a lie. I haven't written anything in weeks, and I am bursting with useless things to say, so this will be a very long and drawn out post with many extraneous words, and several run-on sentences, but you never know when I will write again, so go ahead and read the whole thing.
1. Before I left TGN I promised that I would give credit where credit was due. Joy crushed the competition. There I said it. Give her a pat on the back--or leave a congratulations comment if you don't know who she is--because she lost almost 10 pounds in our competition and she is half the size I am.
OK, enough of that, we are moving on to a new plan. That's right, we are collecting commitments to run a half marathon next year. As of today I don't know which one we are going to run, but I know how long it is going to be: half of a marathon. That means really long. Training has already begun (although with my schedule I am falling behind) but our commitment level is extremely high, so I it will happen. If you would like to join this elite group of driven, empowered individuals that have set a course for self-improvement, just reply to this post or email me and I will send you the training schedule (or you can click here). Or you can choose to remain a slob (or continue with your own exercise plan I guess).
WARNING: If you join you will have to report your progress weekly and will be subjected to abusive phone calls if you don't perform. I'm serious.
NOTE: This is not geographically specific. You will, however have to travel to whatever race we choose sometime in Fall 2009.
EPILOGUE: We are just training to complete the race, not win the race. If you have a problem with that I am thumbing my nose at you right now.
2. I have to welcome back a friend and a coworker, James. He was in Iraq until recently, and I want to congratulate him on his safe return and thank him for his service to our country. James: sorry I missed your return by a week or so due to my move, but I'll be in touch. Let me know if you are ever in town.
3. I am one book away from my goal of reading 52 books in 2008. Woot!
4. I have learned a lot of new terms in the last week or so. Here are a few of them: provision, SMDR, WOPR (pronounced wopper) and CAIRS. I just thought I would share.
5. Taryn is the cutest baby ever. Yes, I am biased. So what?
6. We put up our Christmas tree today. Even with all of the other stress gong on, it is always nice to celebrate something for a while.
7. I need to go to Disneyland. Some things never change.
OK, so that is a lot of randomness, but it is something new. I need to post some pictures of our new house, and the family, etc., but that is for another day.
Right, that is a lie. I haven't written anything in weeks, and I am bursting with useless things to say, so this will be a very long and drawn out post with many extraneous words, and several run-on sentences, but you never know when I will write again, so go ahead and read the whole thing.
1. Before I left TGN I promised that I would give credit where credit was due. Joy crushed the competition. There I said it. Give her a pat on the back--or leave a congratulations comment if you don't know who she is--because she lost almost 10 pounds in our competition and she is half the size I am.
OK, enough of that, we are moving on to a new plan. That's right, we are collecting commitments to run a half marathon next year. As of today I don't know which one we are going to run, but I know how long it is going to be: half of a marathon. That means really long. Training has already begun (although with my schedule I am falling behind) but our commitment level is extremely high, so I it will happen. If you would like to join this elite group of driven, empowered individuals that have set a course for self-improvement, just reply to this post or email me and I will send you the training schedule (or you can click here). Or you can choose to remain a slob (or continue with your own exercise plan I guess).
WARNING: If you join you will have to report your progress weekly and will be subjected to abusive phone calls if you don't perform. I'm serious.
NOTE: This is not geographically specific. You will, however have to travel to whatever race we choose sometime in Fall 2009.
EPILOGUE: We are just training to complete the race, not win the race. If you have a problem with that I am thumbing my nose at you right now.
2. I have to welcome back a friend and a coworker, James. He was in Iraq until recently, and I want to congratulate him on his safe return and thank him for his service to our country. James: sorry I missed your return by a week or so due to my move, but I'll be in touch. Let me know if you are ever in town.
3. I am one book away from my goal of reading 52 books in 2008. Woot!
4. I have learned a lot of new terms in the last week or so. Here are a few of them: provision, SMDR, WOPR (pronounced wopper) and CAIRS. I just thought I would share.
5. Taryn is the cutest baby ever. Yes, I am biased. So what?
6. We put up our Christmas tree today. Even with all of the other stress gong on, it is always nice to celebrate something for a while.
7. I need to go to Disneyland. Some things never change.
OK, so that is a lot of randomness, but it is something new. I need to post some pictures of our new house, and the family, etc., but that is for another day.
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