Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Donate your unused CPU time to cancer research

Worth a few cycles of your time to decide whether you've got some resources worth sharing.

Are you one of those people who has one or more computers running all the time? Check out the story posted on The Cancer Blog today about a new effort to use spare CPU cycles to assist the Human Proteome Folding Project, which will bring many insights into cancer research.





grid.org

4:48:07 PM •  • 
Contracting, clarity, and requirements

I've certainly been guilty of this kind of approach at multiple points throughout my career. The best techniques I've encountered for dealing with these challenges are the "contracting" conversations that Peter Block advocates so strongly in his excellent Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used. Regardless of which side of the table you are on, you had better become more adept at Block's contracting or you will be building or paying for entirely too many custom-made drywall saws.

There's an amazing essay at The Spurious Pundit on "Picture Hanging." It's an allegory that explores how simple requirements in software aren't that obvious to folks who may not have context. The writing is wonderful, do check it out, it's worth your time. Subscribed.

A highlight:

You tell him to hang the photo of your pet dog, and he comes back a week later, asking if you could "just double-check" his design for a drywall saw.

"Why are you designing a drywall saw?"
"Well, the wood saw in the office toolbox isn't good for cutting drywall."
"What, you think you're the first person on earth to try and cut drywall? You can buy a saw for that at Home Depot."
"Okay, cool, I'll go get one."
"Wait, why are you cutting drywall in the first place?"
"Well, I wasn't sure what the best practices for hanging pictures were, so I went online and found a newsgroup for gallery designers. And they said that the right way to do it was to cut through the wall, and build the frame into it. That way, you put the picture in from the back, and you can make the glass much more secure since you don't have to move it. It's a much more elegant solution than that whole nail thing."
"..."

This metaphor may be starting to sound particularly fuzzy, but trust me - there are very real parallels to draw here. If you haven't seen them yet in your professional life, you will. [Spurious Pundit]

4:44:58 PM •  • 
The perfectionist definition of "good enough"

I have worked for entirely too many perfectionists in my life. That includes times when I've worked for myself. In a world of potentially open-ended assignments, we all need to be giving a lot more thought to how we define and recognize "good enough."

The perfectionist definition of "good enough". A while back I was working with a client who had a serious perfectionist streak. One session, as we were talking about the lack of satisfaction with anything this client did, I said, "Do you know what I think your... [The Occupational Adventure (sm)]
4:35:34 PM •  • 


© Copyright 2006 Jim McGee .
Last update: 2/23/2006; 3:25:39 PM .

Click here to visit the Radio UserLand website. [Valid RSS]