Category: #general

You Need Organizational Readiness – But You Don’t Know How To Implement It

Photo by Startup Stock Photos from Pexels

Published 2021/05/14

You Need Organizational Readiness – But You Don’t Know How To Implement It

Let me introduce a new concept to talk about today: Org Readiness It just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? Org Readiness is a necessary concept that goes hand-in-hand with Engineering. While the concept may be more easily understood in the realm of product Engineering, this really applies to any Engineering discipline. While I write mainly regarding Engineering topics and specifically for Engineers, this topic is not directly for this group. However, indirectly, this is a concept that has a huge bearing on whether the work and effort done by the Engineers has any chance of success within the business. If we were to draw an organizational structure that looked like a target with the Engineering Team sitting smack-dab in the middle of the bullseye then it is a fact that the concept of Org Readiness is not within that center circle. However, it is the connecting tissue that connects…

You Are Wrong To Think Kids Are Stupid Or Lazy

Published 2021/05/08

You Are Wrong To Think Kids Are Stupid Or Lazy

It is easy to think that kids these days are stupid and lazy. But what if this isn’t true they are just as smart and work just as hard in their own way?

Creating The Perfect Frankenstein Unicorn Laptop

Photo by Nikolai Chernichenko on Unsplash

Published 2021/01/22

Creating The Perfect Frankenstein Unicorn Laptop

We all dread that moment. That first blue screen of death. That gentle swelling of a hot battery. That soul-crushing feeling when your partner in work, your daily driver, the device that is your portal to the world has an issue. Yes, I am referring to your work computer. It is one thing to get a new work computer when it is planned. That long and arduous process to check all of the nooks and crannies for long-forgotten files and work. The slow migration of apps from one unit to the next. It is a completely different feeling when frantically scrambling to back everything up while fervently praying to the computer god, Clippy, to just give me a few more minutes before overheating to the point of another attack of the blue screen. Yes, my work laptop is currently dying. The battery is starting to swell and the unit is…

Has Tesla Really Engineered A 6 Year Head Start?

Published 2020/02/18

Has Tesla Really Engineered A 6 Year Head Start?

A very interesting article was released today relating to Tesla cars. The article, published by electrek declares: “Tesla has ‘6 years lead over Toyota and VW’ in electronics, says new Model 3 teardown“ 6 years… In the age of modern electronics that is a lifetime for some CPUs!! Using a very liberal interpretation of Moore’s Law, if it were to apply to AI processing, means that 3 iterations of the law would pass in those 6 years. That would put an effective lead of eight times the computing power ( = 2^3 ) inside Tesla’s electronics over competitors in the automotive space. A six year lead and eight times the computing power? When does that ever happen in the Engineering world? Tesla of course has the huge benefit of being an upstart in what has become a hugely iterative market. Sure, new cars and new designs come out, but there…

How I Read 136 Books In 2019

Published 2020/02/02

How I Read 136 Books In 2019

That is not a typo. Last year I read 136 books throughout the calendar year. This post is not a humble brag. The fact is, reading is an incredibly important skill and should be a part of every human’s daily routine. This is not a statement intended to elicit motivation, or to shame you into reading more. There is only one simple goal with this messaging: Anyone can find the time to squeeze in a little reading every day. The amount that you want or choose to read is up to you. Reading give numerous benefits in cognitive function, mental stimulation, vocabulary and memory improvements, and sometimes you learn a thing or two while doing it. Unfortunately, people are doing less reading now than in the past. An oft-cited study from 2014 states the following: “…young people read less than ever, apparently, with people ages 25 to 34 reading eight…

Is Coffee Creative?

Published 2020/01/18

Is Coffee Creative?

When was the last time you went to a Starbucks? As ubiquitous as they have become, that last visit was probably not too long ago. In fact, as of 2019 there were 30,246 Starbucks stores worldwide with 6,188 in the United States alone. Besides the annual pilgrimages for the famed Pumpkin Spice Latte (disclaimer: no comment on this drink as the author has never tried one), Starbucks is continually rolling out new and inventive drink options. Per a statement in 2006 by a spokesperson for the brand, Lisa Passe, there are more than 87,000 inventive combinations possible at any single Starbucks location. But I digress, as the creative efforts of a worldwide coffee chain are not the answer to this question. Is this question better served to examine the effects of coffee on creativity? We could go back to Starbucks to dive into this analysis, as coffee shops have long…

Going from 0 to 1,000 views on Medium

Published 2020/01/18

Going from 0 to 1,000 views on Medium

You may be one of the people very much like myself who is either looking for the quick and easy formula for writing that is going to catapult you to the top and get you some of that easy writing money. Either that or you have already started the grind and are looking for that edge to get more of your articles noticed by the curators. Read on for some tips to achieve these goals and a big secret to success.

Using a 3D Printer To Explain An Engineering Mentality

Published 2020/01/14

Using a 3D Printer To Explain An Engineering Mentality

Creating a 3D print is an act of pure creation. An Engineer may not have much of an artistic streak when it comes to the traditional artistic skills, but an expression of form through technology could be considered stock in trade for this mindset. However, this comes with a caveat. For every minute of watching the X, Y, and Z-axis machinations of the busy printer head, at least 3 times that has been spent simply searching for the perfect thing to print and in getting it set up.

FizzBuzz: Energy Drink or Coding Test?

Published 2020/01/04

FizzBuzz: Energy Drink or Coding Test?

Get your Fizz On! Don’t go Buzz Off! Crack open a FizzBuzz! Slam it down. Feel the burnnnnnn! Forget wings – Fizzbuzz gives you buzzzzz! Fly around on your Buzz and Ride The Fizzy!

On the other hand, FizzBuzz may be one of the classic developer tests widely used to filter out the estimated 90% of programming job candidates who can’t program their way out of a wet paper bag.

Why So Serious? Don’t Forget to Have Some Fun

Published 2020/01/02

Why So Serious? Don’t Forget to Have Some Fun

After some early success getting traffic to the blog and getting some content curated on Medium.com, it was very easy to fall into the trap of stats and views. It is very, very enticing to log on and see how many new views and claps and site sessions have occurred in the past two hours. It seemed like fun to go check out the articles on how to get more eyeballs on your articles and how to write better titles. But after a while I realized that I was moving away from my vision. I was attempting to write for what I thought these articles wanted. I found my feed filled with the seemingly same advice articles over and over. All of a sudden this didn’t seem like so much fun anymore.