We were taking a walk around the downtown area, with paved, wide walkways. As we approached one of the cobblestone crossings, a couple came zipping by on a rental electric scooter. He was pushing the throttle to its limit, while she was hanging on to him, not...
I was looking for a suitable image for “Learn”. So I went to one of my favorite stock image sources and typed the word in. “Learn”. I got a bunch of classroom images. It hit me then, that’s not the way learning happens. You can be taught...
I enjoy doing things with my hands because, besides the satisfaction of producing something tangible, I usually enter a sort of a Zen meditative state while doing so. And my observations about the process many times transcend the task at hand. It occurred to me while...
The “Five Whys” I learned about this many moons ago, when I was involved with technical support. The basic principle is that the observed symptoms are almost never what are really causing the issue and therefore, they are not the right thing to focus on to...
We recently celebrated my wife’s birthday. I searched for a suitable restaurant, we were in the mood for Sushi. I found a place that -from the pictures- looked kind of cute and elegant in a certain way. I couldn’t really tell that much, most of the...
When an organization is starting out on its journey, however crazy and busy it may get, there has to be laser focus. When navigating the early days of a startup, it is all about the fight for survival. It is like the critical few seconds, minutes, hours, and days of a...
I was recently listening to one of Seth Godin’s podcasts, where he picked at the fact that writing has helped humanity to do a couple of things: go asynchronous (not real-time), and be able to improve on things that are written down. The last one is a...
On May 1st, 2022, Google will shut down the remaining access to all users of the original “G Suite”. G Suite even started out being called “Google for Domains”, and it offered the ability to use Gmail with a custom domain. That’s what...
No system in the world has been designed for every possible situation. Most of them have been optimized for a particular range and “use case”. As an engineer by training, it sometimes baffles me how this concept is not well understood. When we go outside...
What would you prefer to be? We have a bias in our culture to think that firsts are memorable. And yes, when the goal is really hard but there are no nuances to it, it is usually true. The first to reach the North Pole, the first to go up to Mt Everest, the first to...
There are three types of tasks that organizations face. The first type are tasks that they have to be able to do repeatedly and consistently. These are the things that the organization is usually “known for”. Then there are new challenges that can be...
Kaseya is buying Datto, and if you don’t know who these two companies are, you are probably not involved in the IT business. Both develop and sell solutions that Managed Service Providers, those who you usually call “my IT guys” can use to manage...
Years ago, I decided I would cut the cord and cancel my cable subscription. The intent was both to save money, but also to gain simplicity and get a better variety of shows. It seemed like a great idea, to cancel a service that forced me into a set channel plan, and...
When working through something, do you look at what you still have ahead of you? Or what you have already done? I do both. And both serve different purposes. Looking at everything ahead helps me keep grounded and on-task. Just going through the list item by item,...
Here we are, How many weeks in? Nine? Ten? When I started this daily blog, I knew I would face this question at one point, and the question is: “When do you pull the plug?”. I don’t mean literally when, I mean what would be the thing that would tell...
In a world where products are increasingly being replaced by services, it is important to understand the role that customer service plays and how it can affect the rate of user attrition. In the XaaS universe, where everything is offered on a monthly payment basis,...
Sometimes, when a project hits the wall, it is some team member’s fault. They made the wrong decision, or they slacked and did not deliver. That could be true, and it is their fault. They may even deserve to go. But when a whole project or a whole venture goes...
Most of you reading this will be familiar with Moore’s law. As other laws, it is not something grand that governs the universe, but some relationship that arose from observation. Moore’s law roughly states that computing power doubles about every two years...
I confess I only heard about this story fairly recently. It was on some random room on Clubhouse. It happens to be that when the Michelin brothers founded their tire company, there wasn’t much demand for their product. To sell more tires, they needed a reason...
I have always been fascinated by Game Theory. I haven’t been able to practice it that much, because -while you would argue that it could be used everywhere- the scenarios in life where it is possible to take a step back and theorize, are few. The theoretical...
Sounded good on paper” – he said. Which was even odder to say, as in that situation, the paper would be soaking in water, and the ink running. This is a somewhat embarrassing story about my seamanship. It happened a couple of years ago. At the time, we...
We hear a lot about diversity, and the visibility we are giving to this issue is certainly an improvement over what we had before. But we have decided to look -in the best case- only at the diversity axis mentioned in The Constitution: Gender, Race, and National...
Ah! The UVP! or “Unique Value Proposition”. Determining the UVP of a product, service, or even a company is probably one of the most useful exercises in management. Forget about your “elevator pitch”, this is the one to work on. I have seen...
Of course, you can, and of course, we had. While the tendency is to think that the wheel is a static concept, it has gone through a lot of transformation throughout the years. Starting as just a cylindrical roller, it evolved into the carriage wheel. Then the Michelin...
There are times in every change process when things just don’t feel natural. What we are attempting to do just seems to be completely in opposition with our identity, with who we are. One strategy that can be really helpful is just to start acting like what we...
