I love to ponder stuff. Just walk around in my own little bubble and think about things. Annoyances, happiness, problems to solve, how to approach things, and just stuff like that. A lot of soft subjects.
At the moment I have at least five drafts unpublished which will probably never make it out the door to the open world on these topics. They are named things like “Procrastination and me and you”, “Thinking processes part 1: what and why”, or “What is wonderful? [insert unicorn]“.
Drafts
The first one being about how we procrastinate in different situations and what kind of work we have (or do not have) at hand. A lot circuling around focus and how we do it and get things done.
The second one, being the first in a series where there is also one about “conflict clouds” and another on “logical trees”, is more about how we can structure our thinking and come to better decisions. Perhaps not always try to combine two different ideas to satisfy all needs to a certain extent, it might be better to surface the underlying assumptions and see how they point toward the common goal. Or logically try to find out where we are, where we want to be, and how to transition from where we are to the new happy place. Among these things were also the bold claim I made on twitter about being able to prove that scrum is wrong, depending on your situation. Still believe in my idea, but perhaps a bit more nuanced now a couple of weeks later.
And the last one, about what makes things wonderful. This one I started thinking more about, in terms of wonderful, after my encounter with Woody Zuill. A wonderful person which I would just love to have had more time to spend with and talk about these kind of life events and stories. His warmth, passion and humbleness really shows that if we approach things in certain ways, things can be truly wonderful. To find out, we need to think about what makes wonderful for us and make sure we create that kind of environment all around us.
Not having finished any of these and probably never will have bummed me a bit. Why can’t I finish them? Why don’t I get them published? There is so much goodness in them!
Think!
But then it just hit me – to me they are important to just get as drafts, because that makes me Think about these topics. Thinking about them makes me consider my environment which in turn makes it possible to improve. IBM had an old company value, which I actually remember, that was simply “Think!”.
If we conciously thinks about what we do, what we have, and why we do things in a certain way in order to improve. Imagine what we can achieve and where we can be when we are 60.
So this is a shout out to me and you alike. Don’t be bummed about all the drafts just lying there; they are one of your tools to think more precisely about how to improve. If more get to share the thoughts, that’s even more awesome, but consider that a bonus.
Further reading
- Andy Hunt – The Pragmatic Programmer
- Andy Hunt – Pragmatic Thinking and Learning
- Eliyahu Goldratt – It’s Not Luck
- Chip & Dan Heath – Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
PS. If you are in my vicinities these are all available for borrowing :>