Learning, Technology & Change

In any technical environment it's very common that the most technically sound individuals are given leadership roles. There should be two career paths. One for leaders of people and one for leaders of technology. Technically brilliant individuals should be recognized for their efforts and hardwork. However, recognizing the one talent at the expense of the team and its goals is not worthwhile. This is what can happen when technical individuals become managers. http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/goldsmith/2008/01/tips_for_managing_smart_people.html The need to display one's technical supremacy comes at a cost. When the cost is de-motivating the members of the team - that cost is too high. I've often looked at ideas and thought about adding my own spin on it. I did add some value, but then the person with the original idea doesn't feel the same ownership. Might they have worked harder and come to the same conclusion on their own? Seems like a solid growth opportunity. The l...

I was at my local library yesterday picking up some reading material. I went to the check-out desk and found a a small stand from the power company. There were about two dozen packages. Within each package was $$$ http://tinyurl.com/2tg6x6 What a fantastic idea on multiple fronts. The campaign to conserve energy is all well and good but you need to enable people to understand their drain on the system their footprint etc. I've seen many sites on calculating offsets but that was estimation and felt more like guesswork. This watt reader allows you to plug any device into the wattreader which plugs directly into the wall. From there the reader will let you know exactly how much current is being drawn. This will allow you to understand the phantom load of many common devices. A great application to help people better understand their footprint, and how much it costs them on a daily basis.

This book is an absolute must-read for all developers. Especially pertinent to web developers but incorporating the principles of usability into your development process of a client or server app would be invaluable. Krug is a usability expert and that's how makes his living. However if you're not prepared to shell out the big bucks fortunately for you he provides tonnes of examples and even tells you how conduct usability testing yourself. Another aspect to this book is that it's a complete joy to read. This is not the case for most technical books. There is a light-heartedness to it that helps keep you engaged. Of course, the layout is straight-forward and easy on the eyes. Krug recognizes the hypocrisy of many books that preach about being engaging and interesting in a dull prose. This was a book I had heard a lot about, but never got around to reading it. I wish I had read this sooner. There are about a dozen projects I can think of off-hand where this information would...

Much is made of the power of the people in blogging. Now there's microblogging like twitter . Twitter enables you to post brief ( Similar to blogging, one wonders, what's the point? Is the fact that I finally built those shelves in the garage of concern to anyone? I'm stuck in traffic - who cares? In this ultra-connected time where we have so much information at our fingertips -how can we prioritize and validate sources of information? How can we filter information better? We have friends we trust and value their opinions. Using social networks we validate information for each other. All sorts of recommendations on links, websites and applications. Blogging enables people to share insights and ideas. If I'm looking for a particular service I could throw a question out and get a response within minutes. Going back to my shelves, let's say a friend is planning on putting up shelves in their own garage. They contact me directly to gain advice on insight on how the...