Weekly Braindump is a curated list of things I’ve worked on, thought about, listened to or read during the last 7 days.
I’ve been working on…
- Sprint finish this week. Looming two week holiday meant I had to pack quite a lot in to make the hand over less messy. Hence this is a slightly reduced fat Braindump.
- Testing underway on the board document management/app thing. Wrote up some testing criteria so we can establish if this is any easier/better than the current method of distributing board papers.
- Did some work on nailing down the scope for a Finance automated electronic invoicing project. Some reflections from previous two projects already proving useful.
- I went to speak to the committee of a local community centre about possibilities for a web based booking/payment system for their venue. Also, advised on ways they could get started with digital inclusion in the local area. Brilliant to speak to volunteers who are passionate about helping others.
I’ve been thinking about…
- Having to jam quite a lot of work into not a lot of hours got me wondering whether there’s some merit to a shorter working week. Longer hours invite bloat & procrastination. Shorter hours would require laser focus to get things done and may lead to better work life balance.
- Polarisation of opinion. It’s seems that many people don’t just disagree anymore. The opposing side is not just wrong, but also stupid, ignorant, belligerent and evil. What’s driving this? Have the algorithms of Facebook made us too delicate to cope with challenging opinions. When did we lose the ability for proper meaningful discourse? One concept I’ve taken away from reading Liminal Thinking is that it’s important to suspend judgements & beliefs, even just temporarily, in an effort to grasp an understanding of opposing views. I think it’s incredibly important to develop these tools lest we all just push each other away and retreat to the corners.
I’ve been reading…
- Now is the greatest time to be alive via POTUS!
https://www.wired.com/2016/10/president-obama-guest-edits-wired-essay/ - Trans-Disciplinarity : The ability of an individual to continually reinvent themselves by developing a t-shaped skillset. By Claire Burge.
https://medium.com/@claireburge/trans-disciplinarity-and-padawans-say-what-b66b213bf751#.5mkjqv374 - Would you use VR to view a property for rent.. on another continent?
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21708715-china-leads-world-adoption-virtual-reality-insanely-virtual?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/insanelyvirtual - Agency builds and manages it own coffee shop to directly experiment with innovations in retail.
https://www.hugeinc.com/ideas/perspective/a-year-in-lattes - Rapid experiments and learning from failure. By Paul Taylor.
https://medium.com/@PaulBromford/rapid-experiments-and-learning-from-failure-e1f7db319329#.iekexzozq - Can we achieve a better, more effective digital workplace. The future will be ecosystems of applications rather than set tools for everyone.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/can-we-achieve-a-better-more-effective-digital-workplace/ - Bots accounted for a third of all pro-Trump tweets.
http://thenextweb.com/artificial-intelligence/2016/10/18/study-bots-accounted-for-a-third-of-all-pro-trump-twitter-activity-during-the-debate/ - Good writeup from Peter Hall on how organisations inadvertently design bloated processes in the quest for nailing down all manner of contingencies.
http://smartsimplicity.uk.com/smart-insights/let-them-eat-cake - Stop Waiting for Permission.
https://medium.com/the-mission/stop-waiting-for-permission-435989d0858d#.bjei8x87u - “What I mean when I say digital”. By Dafydd Vaughan.
https://daibach.uk/2016/10/what-i-mean-when-i-say-digital-transformation/ - Email habits that kill your teams productivity. People like to bash email, but much of this could easily apply to Slack too.
https://www.fastcompany.com/3064695/work-smart/three-email-habits-that-kill-your-whole-teams-productivity - Politicians have always lied. Does it matter?
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21706525-politicians-have-always-lied-does-it-matter-if-they-leave-truth-behind-entirely-art?fsrc=scn/fb/te/pe/ed/artofthelie - Focus on the middle. By Matt Ballantine.
https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/2016/10/20/focus-on-the-middle/ - Dynamic IP addresses are now protected personal data under EU law.
http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2016/10/eu-dynamic-static-ip-personal-data/
I’ve been listening to…
- Institute of Welsh Affairs : What will Brexit look like?
http://pca.st/IEfG - What’s the point : Optimized of Monetized? (Black Box Algorhythms)
http://pca.st/vaIn - NPR Politics : Previewing the final debate.
http://pca.st/UL90 - NPR Politics : Weekly Roundup Friday 21st Oct.
http://pca.st/9qs0