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books

The Testaments – Margaret Atwood

I’m of mixed mind on reading Margaret Atwood in grade school. She’s clearly a literary powerhouse, and I love that she is enjoying such public success. The shows created from Alias Grace and The Handmaids Tale are excellent. The books they are based on are full of wit and wisdom and she’s clearly a talented author.

When I was in grade school her books were required reading. My boyhood memory of reading the books was a bore and a chore. There was so much I didn’t understand reading the books, and the approach they took shaping characters and developing plot was different from the books I had read previously. The books challenged my thinking and made me grapple with my understanding of the world and how it worked. Trying to understand the thought experiment of being a woman under the control of an oppressive government and strict social order was challenging. I think it was clearly the challenge I needed because I found it a bore and a chore. I needed that in my life. I wish I could say I came away from my first encounter with Margaret Atwood’s writing an enlighten and wise young man. That didn’t happen. Don’t blame Atwood.

I wish there was a better way to introduce her work so I understood what I was getting into. I suppose dropping someone into the experience and watching to see what they get out of it is reasonable. I regret my first experience with Atwood was of boyish impudence and not more open to the wisdom in the writing.

I just finished reading The Testaments, and I found it a lovely experience. The same challenges faced me. It was a stretch for me to think through what it would be like to be a woman under such harsh and cruel conditions. I hope I can collect a small amount of the experience to learn from and inform my decision making and empathy towards others in the future. If reading Atwood makes me a more well rounded and considerate person, well you can certainly blame Atwood for that.

I read an interview with Margaret Atwood as she was working on this book. It was interesting to hear how she was taking in feedback from her readers and working to respond to their desires. Her readers wanted to know what happened after The Handmaid’s Tale. The Testaments is an answer to that request, carrying on the storyline. Atwood also spoke of the pressure she felt in writing this novel. Given her success with her work over the years, and recently turning some of it into very popular shows, to add to her collection of work has as much potential for risk as it does for reward. Unless it’s excellent, it’s a potential disappointment. It was lovely to read this book and realize that it was not disappointing, and reminded me why I enjoy reading Atwood’s work.

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books

What you do is who you are – Ben Horowitz

I first encountered the writing of Ben Horowitz through his book The Hard Thing about Hard Things. That book came to me when I was going through a challenging time in my company, and it helped me. Partly it was the stories Ben told that made me glad I was not in his shoes. I realized my situation could be a lot worse. It was also the concrete and practical suggestions that I could make use of in the moment. So when I saw a new book by Ben, I purchased it immediately.

What you do is who you are is focused on the things you can do to build an excellent work culture, or rescue one that is not excellent. Through the same combination of story and tactics Ben describes some of his experiences and identifies the lessons he learned along the way.

The core message of the book is a simple one; that your team will do what you do, more often that do what you say.

The members of your team make hundreds or thousands of decisions each day that impact the culture of your business, and the experience of your customers and your team. You need to be intentional about what you do and how you describe your choices to give you team a roadmap to follow.

“Do I have to be on time for that meeting? Should I stay at the Four Seasons or the Red Roof Inn? When I negotiate this contract, what’s more important: the price or the partnership? Should I point out what my peers do wrong, or what they do right? Should I go home at 5 p.m. or 8 p.m.? How hard do I need to study the competition? Should we discuss the color of this new product for five minutes or thirty hours? If I know something is badly broken in the company, should I say something? Whom should I tell? Is winning more important than ethics?” – Page 3

There were lots of quotes that touched on things I knew to be true, just provided in a very well written, tidy example I could cite and remember.

“Culture is not like a mission statement; you can’t just set it up and have it last forever. There’s a saying in the military that if you see something below standard and do nothing, then you’ve set a new standard. This is also true of culture—if you see something off-culture and ignore it, you’ve created a new culture.” – Page 5

I really appreciate the humility and wisdom that inform Ben’s writing. He somehow manages to sounds wise and familiar at the same time.

“If you manage a reasonably large organization, you can be absolutely sure of one thing: at any given moment, something somewhere has gone terribly wrong.” – Page 238

If you’re responsible for culture at a company, or you’re working to improve the culture where you work, this is a great read.

Link to Amazon – What you do is who you are

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books

On becoming a leader, by Walter Bennis

On becoming a leader, by Walter Bennis

This book is a leadership classic. At least that’s what HBR told me, so I wanted to read it to see if I agreed. I stumbled across this book reading a list of 11 books every young young leader should read. This wasn’t the first book from that list I read, but so far, it’s the best. It’s full of great stories, examples and concepts that have given me a great roadmap for developing my leadership skills.

I’ve got a favourite quote from the book that describes the type of relationship I’d like to have with my company. “I am fully engaged in this company. I pay attention and I know what goes on throughout it. There is a name for that kind of responsive, responsible behavior. It’s called leadership.”

Bennis organizes his book into stories, that break out into some key ideas. I really liked this approach, as it let me bring valuable ideas with me such as his four lessons of self-knowledge:

  • One: You are your own best teacher.
  • Two: Accept responsibility. Blame no one.
  • Three: You can learn anything you want to learn.
  • Four: True understanding comes from reflecting on your experience.

There’s also a really great section that calls out the adaptation warp we all go through to deal with childhood and growing up. We learn ways of interacting or behaviours that come from life. We got lost as a kid, so we’re risk-averse as an adult. You have to understand those parts of your experience, and be aware so you can listen and respond to a group of people and communicate well. The description of innovative learning and the concrete things you can do to improve yourself are worth the read alone.

The book walks through several topics, from self-knowledge, to innovative learning, to how to craft a vision and how to be comfortable and thrive in the midst of change. The topics are relevant for any leader, and I feel like after reading through this book and taking notes I’ve got a resource I can dip into long into the future with lots of areas to improve and learn.

The stories in the book were well matched to the concepts they were building, and each concept was framed well. There was an idea presented, a story to make it human, and then a lesson clearly laid out in a statement or a set of points. The ideas were very accessible and clear, but still left a lot of room to bring it into your personal experience.

If you’re someone in leadership, and you don’t have this book on your shelf, I’d recommend putting it next on your reading list.

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books

Simple Rules by Donald Sull

I just finished reading “Simple Rules” by Donald Sull. After reading the introduction, I had to continue. The book begins by describing how military surgeons in wartime situations make decisions on who to treat first, and who not to treat. It’s brutal; the decisions have immediate life and death consequences so they can’t second guess decisions. Right from that moment in the first chapter I realized if this technique was good enough for military surgeons and helped them – it was something I needed to learn.
Donald Sull starts his book with a story that gets you hooked, and continues telling stories to drive home points throughout the book. Every concept, idea and technique he puts forward is accompanied by a story or anecdote from his seemingly endless supply. The ideas are woven into his stories, and each one illustrates a point well. While I enjoyed this technique as a reader, one critique I have is that I found it difficult to pull out the core ideas as each concept was woven into a story at a different point. I’m someone who makes lists and takes notes, and it was hard to pull out good notes without breaking up the narrative.

So what are simple rules?

Here’s an example “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” – which distills the nutritional insights of Michael Pollan into a handful of words.

“Simple words consist of a handful of guidelines applied to a specific activity or decision, such as deciding what to eat.” – Donald Sull, pg 25

The concept is simple but takes a while to figure out how to apply to your specific situation. The book gives great examples, and makes it easy to feel like you can fit the technique to your situation. The thing I liked most is the idea of memorability and usability of the rules.

[Tweet “”To be used, rules have to be remembered, and limiting the number to a handful makes this possible.” – Donald Sull, Simple Rules”]

Where I work we spend a lot of time on User Experience for on-screen interfaces, and spend a lot of time thinking about how users add and edit content. Simple Rules as a technique for decisions feels like you’re considering the user experience of decision making and improving the experience through good tools and techniques. I really like being thoughtful about how we make decisions and giving my team clear guidelines about how to make good decisions quickly.

It’s worth a read to identify how you can simplify your decision making process either at work, to empower a team, or personally.

Check out the book on Amazon

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general

wim wenders on storytelling

On my bike ride into work today I listened to a podcast from the Economist interviewing Wim Wenders about storytelling. When I was younger I saw Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders and was hooked on his films. This interview brought forward what I like most about Wenders, his laconic style of speaking and reflection on his work that gives you incredible insight into his thinking in a few short sentences.

I saw the film PINA  when it first came out in theaters and from my past experience with the black and white films of Wenders was surprised to learn this was a 3D film – mostly in colour. It was a great film, and the thing I enjoyed most was the mix of storytelling and technology. Wenders had appreciated Pina and her work for 20 years, and had always wanted to make a movie about her work – to tell her story. However he didn’t think film could capture the breadth and motion of her work. When 3D filming became practical – that’s when he decided he could tell her story, and made a movie in this medium. I knew Wenders as a film maker who used black and white film as his medium when I was younger, and was curious that he was embracing this new technology. I was greatly inspired by the film and even more inspired by Wenders’ attitude towards technology. 

The Economist interview brings out Wender’s thinking about technology as a tool that we should use to do more and tell better stories. It lines up with my own philosophy of what technology is for. It’s a vehicle for better stories and information, and should not be an end in itself.

In the Economist interview – Wenders was identifying that people now make movies on iPhones. And he really likes that – the technology allows us to tell stories that we could not before, either due to the size, cost or complexity of a film camera, relative to the simplicity and mobility of a phone.

I’ve always liked his work, and enjoyed his thinking, and this interview is a great example of both things coming together. This interview is worth a listen if you appreciate good storytelling, and Wenders reflection on the current plight of people fleeing Syria and settling in Germany in the last 90 seconds is fascinating.

Wim Wenders – Storytelling – The Economist:  https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-economist-radio-all-audio/id151230264?mt=2&i=354354548

Categories
general

Smart urban engineering

There’s a bridge in my old neighbourhood (in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) that used to get graphiti all over it.

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I’m not sure who’s behind it, but there’s a great mural on both sides of the area that used to get tagged. The problem with the tagging was that it was all over the concrete – that was hard to clean, and hard to contain.  The new setup has boards placed where they can get art on them, without destroying the brick behind.

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More than a smart piece of physical engineering, I love that this setup involves social engineering as well.  The work on these boards is very good, so anyone who respects the work won’t write over it.

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Smart setup, smart thinking, great art.

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I like it.

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Categories
books

the hard thing about hard things by ben horowitz

there is a lot of entrepreneurial empathy in this book. if you’re trying to run a company or start one – this book provides an incredible roadmap of some of the challenges you might go through.

a few of the things i really enjoyed in the book is a simple concept: as leader of an organization your responsibility is to design communication patterns. other than setting the vision and direction of the company – that may be the single most useful thing you do.

it also has some really useful, insightful and challenging questions on how to hire executive staff. it’s a challenging topic, and while there are good books out there on this topic – this resource is great insight for the technology community. there is a section of interview questions at the back that i will use in my next hire of a manager. one of the core concepts is ‘hire for strength, not lack of weakness.’ read the book for a full explanation.

i also really enjoyed the Karl Marx nod to the struggle. the quote that came shining through is “Life is Struggle” and if you balk or bend when the difficult things smash into you – you’ll fail. if you can take the difficult things, wrap your arms around them and somehow wrestle yourself behind or on top of them – you’ll find a way. finding a way is one of the themes in response to struggle that i enjoyed. anyone can make excuses for why things are not going well, but it takes a visionary leader to identify the path forward when all options seem like they take you from bad to worse. identifying a path forward and convincing your team that it’s the right way to go, and then ensuring you get there is the real hallmark of a great leader of companies.

it’s a difficult thing. in fact, it’s quite hard. but the subject of the book is not about fluffy bunnies and slobber-tongued puppies.

overall a great read and a resource i plan to come back to regularly for small tidbits and larger sections for motivation and discernment.

Categories
books

maverick

i finished reading “maverick” by ricardo semmler. it’s a pretty fantastic read and opened my eyes to new possibilities about how work can get done. my current office environment is a good example of modern office culture. we have open office spaces, each week a group of my team gets together and makes decisions about how the company should run, and we have free coffee, organic fruit deliveries every week, office snacks, etc. i was impressed to see a vision of corporate culture that didn’t feel corporate in this book, but focused on how to get work done. the vision of the author was getting out of the way of the people doing good work. something i’d like to do more.

at the start of the book, you have to get your head around the time it was written in, and take some of the comments with a grain of salt “You might not need a secretary!” (who has a secretary anymore) but a lot of the core principles, of finding ways to educate the people on the ground, making the decisions every day – give them the training and information to make good decisions and you’ll provide incredible value and meaning to the team you work with.

a lot of the advice and examples are targeted towards large factories, and don’t apply to a small web shop, but overall there are some great ways to rethink what you do. some specific examples are the way decisions are made. rather than pushing all the information up the organizational structure through reports, decision making practices are pushed down the organizational structure, so people on the front lines – doing the real work – can make the decisions. i love this idea, and want to find out how to bring this into our company more.

if you work at a company, or run one – this is a great read.

Maverick on wikipedia

thanks to Carl Smith for the recommend at owner camp.

Categories
personal

great artwork on the streets of edmonton

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