A Pattern Language; 208 Gradual Stiffening

My work often involves designing, or redesigning business or IT systems.  One of my pet peeves during the design and implementation is optimizing to early.  It has been my experience that until the process has revealed itself to you through familiarity and repetitive use optimizing is pointless, you simply don’t know enough to know *what* to optimize.  I learned an expression after moving to Texas, “Picking flyshit out of pepper” which is often what you wind up doing.  This entry from A Pattern Language (one of my favorite books of to return to to prompt thought) seems to be an expression of the same idea.  Don’t spend to much time strengthening things and setting them in stone until you know they are where you want them.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

 

Goal Buddies

Do Goal Buddies Work? | Ask MetaFilter

OK, I hate the name, but the idea of having a peer mentor strikes me as a good one.  Not someone who is guiding you and giving advice, but potentially someone to book a meeting with once a week to perform a David Allen project review with and discuss next actions for each of your open projects with .

I have been much more successful  with workout programs when I have a workout buddy, so it stands to reason that I would have more success with other disciplined endeavors with someone to hold me accountable.

 

I worked in the IS department because I wanted to work deliberately

The 20 tips that got me an IT promotion - by Dumb Little Man

These are pretty good. I think what a lot of the “How To Get Ahead” tips that I have read boil down to is intentionality. Being self aware and deliberate about one’s actions at work (and for that matter in other areas of life).

Intentionality implies knowing the whys instead of performing rote actions.

Intentionality implies self direction (You know, that internal locus of control you learned about your first semester of buiness in college).

Intentionality implies making the choice each day to be the intial actor, to take the initiative and continue to own it.

Intentionality seperates the interesting people I know from the boring ones.

I am intentionally intentionally writing this blog (and no, I didn’t stutter) as a tool to improve my reading, writing and analyisis faculties.