I haven't been doing a lot of coding the past few weeks, but I have been working and studying. Getting familiar with Algorithms and Patterns. Going back and looking at algorithms for the first time since I was in university was interesting. In may ways easier for me to pick up now than it was then. What seemed pointless then has much more meaning to me now. I suspect that's the difference experience makes. I see a project in my future to actually play with the lowlevel algorithm implementations for a good exercise.
At a higher level I've been looking at Patterns. I've been exposed over the years to various Patterns from the GoF. MVC, Facade I've put to practice in quite a few projects, but this was a chance to look at all the patterns. I ended up reading "Head First Design Patterns". What a great book! Highly recommended to anyone trying to see what's what with Patterns. An engaging well written book that put even my old friends MVC and Facade into a new light for me.
Reading Seth Godin's "Linchpin" as well. Inspiring read. Reminds me of Daniel Pink's Brand New Mind. Important to recognize we've entered an era that forces us to compete against the world on skills. Internalizing the lessons learned from the luxury brands : there is more to compete on than price. Service, quality and customization can still pay off.
I realized recently that part of the reason this resonates so well with me is that these are the same messages my father gave me growing up. Looking at it from a different perspective it helps motivate me towards some new goals and projects.
Showing posts with label thinking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thinking. Show all posts
Friday, March 5, 2010
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
interesting..
Something to think about:
Design process
The design thinking process has seven stages: define, research, ideate, prototype, choose, implement, and learn.[1] Within these seven steps, problems can be framed, the right questions can be asked, more ideas can be created, and the best answers can be chosen. The steps aren't linear; they can occur simultaneously and can be repeated.
Although design is always subject to personal taste, design thinkers share a common set of values that drive innovation: these values are mainly creativity, ambidextrous thinking, teamwork, end-user focus, curiosity. There is considerable academic interest in understanding design thinking or design cognition, including an ongoing series of symposia on research in design thinking.[2]
[edit] Define
* Decide what issue you are trying to resolve.
* Agree on who the audience is.
* Prioritize this project in terms of urgency.
* Determine what will make this project successful.
* Establish a glossary of terms.
[edit] Research
* Review the history of the issue; remember any existing obstacles.
* Collect examples of other attempts to solve the same issue.
* Note the project supporters, investors, and critics.
* Talk to your end-users, that brings you the most fruitful ideas for later design
* Take into account thought leaders opinion
[edit] Ideate
* Identify the needs and motivations of your end-users.
* Generate as many ideas as possible to serve these identified needs
* Log your brainstorming session.
* Do not judge or debate ideas.
* During brainstorming, have one conversation at a time
[edit] Prototype
* Combine, expand, and refine ideas.
* Create multiple drafts.
* Seek feedback from a diverse group of people, include your end users.
* Present a selection of ideas to the client.
* Reserve judgment and maintain neutrality.
[edit] Choose
* Review the objective.
* Set aside emotion and ownership of ideas.
* Remember: the most practical solution isn't always the best.
* Select the powerful ideas.
[edit] Implement
* Assign tasks.
* Execute.
* Deliver to client.
[edit] Learn
* Gather feedback from the consumer.
* Determine if the solution met its goals.
* Discuss what could be improved.
* Measure success; collect data.
* Document.
Address : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_thinking
Design process
The design thinking process has seven stages: define, research, ideate, prototype, choose, implement, and learn.[1] Within these seven steps, problems can be framed, the right questions can be asked, more ideas can be created, and the best answers can be chosen. The steps aren't linear; they can occur simultaneously and can be repeated.
Although design is always subject to personal taste, design thinkers share a common set of values that drive innovation: these values are mainly creativity, ambidextrous thinking, teamwork, end-user focus, curiosity. There is considerable academic interest in understanding design thinking or design cognition, including an ongoing series of symposia on research in design thinking.[2]
[edit] Define
* Decide what issue you are trying to resolve.
* Agree on who the audience is.
* Prioritize this project in terms of urgency.
* Determine what will make this project successful.
* Establish a glossary of terms.
[edit] Research
* Review the history of the issue; remember any existing obstacles.
* Collect examples of other attempts to solve the same issue.
* Note the project supporters, investors, and critics.
* Talk to your end-users, that brings you the most fruitful ideas for later design
* Take into account thought leaders opinion
[edit] Ideate
* Identify the needs and motivations of your end-users.
* Generate as many ideas as possible to serve these identified needs
* Log your brainstorming session.
* Do not judge or debate ideas.
* During brainstorming, have one conversation at a time
[edit] Prototype
* Combine, expand, and refine ideas.
* Create multiple drafts.
* Seek feedback from a diverse group of people, include your end users.
* Present a selection of ideas to the client.
* Reserve judgment and maintain neutrality.
[edit] Choose
* Review the objective.
* Set aside emotion and ownership of ideas.
* Remember: the most practical solution isn't always the best.
* Select the powerful ideas.
[edit] Implement
* Assign tasks.
* Execute.
* Deliver to client.
[edit] Learn
* Gather feedback from the consumer.
* Determine if the solution met its goals.
* Discuss what could be improved.
* Measure success; collect data.
* Document.
Address : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_thinking
Monday, March 31, 2008
back in the RTP...
Back in RTP again. Traveling for work and staying at the Wyndham again. Flight out was a little late a little bumpy, but manageable.
The flight out had me thinking about legislating technology. For the best reasons legislation was created to make airtravel safe. The down side to this legislation is that the Air companies are slow to adopt innovations. Our planes are old and unable to take advantage of all the advances that technology has put forward into other areas of transportation. Think how far our cars have come forward in the last few decades. I'm sure the issues is more complex than I lay out but I still that the current round of American air companies have become dependent on the outlays of the government and aviation rules which have led to a decaying infrastructure that is unable to cope with rapidly changing environments and requirements. I do enjoy travel but I really want to avoid American air companies as much as possible, whenever possible, at least until I see some changes.
The lab is coming along slowly. Built the first image for VMWare. Next step is going to be deploying to ESX. I'm a step behind in Xen, need to do a little more work to get that going. Also need to upload all this stuff tomorrow so that Cathy can test it.
Started reading "A Not So Small Life" not very far with it, but it is giving me some perspective. It is pulling me in the direction of additional introspection. The question I have next is whether I want do exhibit my introspection. On the one hand I think I can benefit from the feedback of my friends and family. On the other hand, it is a fairly public website connected to google. There is a limit to how much I need to share that wide :) Is there a penalty to how much I share? Probably. There are limits to what I should say. But at the same time I think there is something worthwhile to thinking about what I can say and putting more out there.
I should disclaim up front that these are my opinions and not those of my employers. Hmm. Something to update in the template I think.
The flight out had me thinking about legislating technology. For the best reasons legislation was created to make airtravel safe. The down side to this legislation is that the Air companies are slow to adopt innovations. Our planes are old and unable to take advantage of all the advances that technology has put forward into other areas of transportation. Think how far our cars have come forward in the last few decades. I'm sure the issues is more complex than I lay out but I still that the current round of American air companies have become dependent on the outlays of the government and aviation rules which have led to a decaying infrastructure that is unable to cope with rapidly changing environments and requirements. I do enjoy travel but I really want to avoid American air companies as much as possible, whenever possible, at least until I see some changes.
The lab is coming along slowly. Built the first image for VMWare. Next step is going to be deploying to ESX. I'm a step behind in Xen, need to do a little more work to get that going. Also need to upload all this stuff tomorrow so that Cathy can test it.
Started reading "A Not So Small Life" not very far with it, but it is giving me some perspective. It is pulling me in the direction of additional introspection. The question I have next is whether I want do exhibit my introspection. On the one hand I think I can benefit from the feedback of my friends and family. On the other hand, it is a fairly public website connected to google. There is a limit to how much I need to share that wide :) Is there a penalty to how much I share? Probably. There are limits to what I should say. But at the same time I think there is something worthwhile to thinking about what I can say and putting more out there.
I should disclaim up front that these are my opinions and not those of my employers. Hmm. Something to update in the template I think.
Friday, March 28, 2008
30 days in..
still searching for a theme. Sadly I think the actual theme is mostly around work. In truth nothing wrong with that, but I think I need to expand my topics a bit more. I still like taking about the geeky. The new PHP framework or the wierd little programming tic, but I think I've been a little too focused on those of late.
The reality of it is of course that I tend to wax and wane with all my interests. I think I follow a 3 month cycle of obsessions and then I point to one of the other ones. I tend to jump between work, financial planning, fitness and self improvement. I think my reading habit is taking a beating. Too many unfinished works. Having a hard time getting into fiction at all these days. From TV to books -- I just can't seem to dig anything. Kinda annoying. The closest I see is a few out takes from Cartoon Network. Of course I say that and then I pick up the sci-fi book club catalog and start paging thru it ;)
Enjoying the taste of chocolate after giving up candy for lent. I decided to try out Lent this year just because. Not a religious thing, but more of a personal challenge. Since I didn't grow up with it I had never heard the rules before. The whole 'you're allowed to give up your fasting on Sunday, since it represents a mini-Easter' sounded a bit like cheating to me. I thought it was made up until I read it on Wikipedia. Going in I allowed myself 1 cheat -- if it was a once in a life time event, I'd let myself indulge. The only qualifying criteria event was my nephew's birthday. An 7th birthday only comes once in his lifetime, so I figured that would qualify.
In general I'm seeing a trend towards simplification in my life. I'm not sure why at this point. It has a bit of an appeal for me. I'm not looking to become a monk or give up all my earthly possessions to walk the earth like Caine on Kung Fu or become a bum (Thank you Quintin Tarantino), but I would like to reduce. Part of it may just be a control thing, learning to make choices. Choosing what to keep and what to part with. Choosing what habits I keep and which I let go. Perhaps it will pass, and I'll go back to whatever it was I did before, but it doesn't feel like it. I'm not looking to become No Impact Man, but I want to think about the kind of impact I have. Maybe it's Z. She definitely put a new light on things. And V, I still feel his presence on my life every day. That is the nature of fatherhood I think.
In any case I still feel like I have more to do. More clean up of my actions. A good bit of cleanup on the house :) A few more books to read and ponder. I think a good part of the reason that I've slowed my reading is that I thought that I should write more notes about what I'm reading. And organizing that process has been slow in coming forward. Perhaps I should start a wiki or a blog. I should take the lazy path -- I can create another blog here to capture what I want to write.
On a tangent to that -- I should figure out how to back up my blogs! I'm sure Google is good at keeping this stuff available, but I think I'd like to have a backup.
The reality of it is of course that I tend to wax and wane with all my interests. I think I follow a 3 month cycle of obsessions and then I point to one of the other ones. I tend to jump between work, financial planning, fitness and self improvement. I think my reading habit is taking a beating. Too many unfinished works. Having a hard time getting into fiction at all these days. From TV to books -- I just can't seem to dig anything. Kinda annoying. The closest I see is a few out takes from Cartoon Network. Of course I say that and then I pick up the sci-fi book club catalog and start paging thru it ;)
Enjoying the taste of chocolate after giving up candy for lent. I decided to try out Lent this year just because. Not a religious thing, but more of a personal challenge. Since I didn't grow up with it I had never heard the rules before. The whole 'you're allowed to give up your fasting on Sunday, since it represents a mini-Easter' sounded a bit like cheating to me. I thought it was made up until I read it on Wikipedia. Going in I allowed myself 1 cheat -- if it was a once in a life time event, I'd let myself indulge. The only qualifying criteria event was my nephew's birthday. An 7th birthday only comes once in his lifetime, so I figured that would qualify.
In general I'm seeing a trend towards simplification in my life. I'm not sure why at this point. It has a bit of an appeal for me. I'm not looking to become a monk or give up all my earthly possessions to walk the earth like Caine on Kung Fu or become a bum (Thank you Quintin Tarantino), but I would like to reduce. Part of it may just be a control thing, learning to make choices. Choosing what to keep and what to part with. Choosing what habits I keep and which I let go. Perhaps it will pass, and I'll go back to whatever it was I did before, but it doesn't feel like it. I'm not looking to become No Impact Man, but I want to think about the kind of impact I have. Maybe it's Z. She definitely put a new light on things. And V, I still feel his presence on my life every day. That is the nature of fatherhood I think.
In any case I still feel like I have more to do. More clean up of my actions. A good bit of cleanup on the house :) A few more books to read and ponder. I think a good part of the reason that I've slowed my reading is that I thought that I should write more notes about what I'm reading. And organizing that process has been slow in coming forward. Perhaps I should start a wiki or a blog. I should take the lazy path -- I can create another blog here to capture what I want to write.
On a tangent to that -- I should figure out how to back up my blogs! I'm sure Google is good at keeping this stuff available, but I think I'd like to have a backup.
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