Some good advice about the important role of mistakes and what to do
with them. My goal has always been to make “interesting mistakes.”
New essay: how to learn from your mistakes.
If you're doing something interesting, mistakes are inevitable. How you
learn from your mistakes defines what kinds of mistakes you'll make the
next time: the same ones? new [...]
Some early morning wisdom from Ernie and Wurman. It's not just ok, but a good thing to admit ignorance.
Be happy: admit ignorance.
Richard Saul Wurman is the guy who coined the term 'information
architect.' He's also the the creator of the popular Access Travel
Guides, and the founder of the wonderful TED conferences. I've been
re-reading his book [...]
A typically succinct and insight filled summary of how to think about, prepare for, and conduct fact-finding interviews from Tom Peters. Reading it won’t take long; learning to do it will take a good chunk of the rest of your career.
Years ago, when I was designing the basic consulting [...]
At the odd intersection of a powerful and popular idea, the blogosphere, and today’s intellectual property environment, David Allen is now offering a “official” definition of his Getting Things Done approach. I understand what drives him to follow this approach, regret it as a symptom of an IP-environment losing connection with [...]
Jack Vinson provides a nice summary of what I had to say last week about personal knowledge management in his class on knowledge management. It’s a notion that I am continuing to explore. Another cut at finding an answer to the question that I find intriguing in my newest column at [...]
It's really encouraging to see the folks at MindManager joining the
ranks of bloggers. Although I would have labeled myself a power user of
MindManager, I'm learning new things with every post. This happens to
be specific to how to make better use of MindManager, but others relate
to broader issues of how to use your technology as a [...]
A nice thought to mull over, courtesy of Betsy. It can take a long time
to be comfortable with the notion of leaving well enough alone.
Possibly a parting thought from the traveler.
“Much of the social history of the
Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what
worked with what sounded good.”
Thomas Sowell, via [...]
More on life hacks. What makes all of this interesting to me, besides
the potential productivity value of the hacks, is O’Brien’s observation
that alpha geeks are early adopters of practices that mainstream
knowledge workers are likely to be practicing in 12 to 18 months.
Interview: father of “life hacks” Danny O’Brien.
Just about a year ago, technology writer Danny [...]
More insight into Life Hacks from Cory. His notes walk this clever balance
between making me regret that I couldn't be there myself and feeling as
though I still got much of the benefit anyway.
One note that I'm sure others will pick up on. Danny talks about
wanting to find a keyboard macro program for Windows. One excellent
answer [...]
I'm running a bit behind these days. That makes it a bit ironic that my
most recent column at Enterprise System Journal looks at the topic of
project management.
The column actually appeared last week and looks at project management
from a minimalist perspective. Jim Powell, my editor there, decided to
title it A Swiss Army Knife for Project [...]
