LIST

Model: out-learn or out-produce the competition

Out-learn the competition Is learning and continuous improvement the main strategy? Out-produce the competition Is focussing on producing more, working harder, … the main strategy? (src: Book: Toyota Kata)

November 22, 2020

Opinion: SCRUM is like training wheels for agile, but it's not worth the cost!

Pro Easy Quick win Con Never want to remove them Become dependent Limiting Don’t learn the essence: improve & adapt Can’t improve on it Pro - Easy It’s easy to copy something in it’s whole at first. Imitation is how most learning happens (Model_ Shu Ha Ri) Pro - Quick win Never underestimate the value of a quick win. It goes a long way towards convincing people! Con - Never want to remove them People think: “It works, why fix it?...

November 22, 2020

Opinion: Where there is blame, there is no learning

You can’t learn while you blame others. You can’t learn while you blame the system. You can’t learn while you blame the world. You can’t learn while you blame yourself. (aka shame) When you blame, you put the power for change somewhere else. Blame mindset: You have a problem. [Some person / thing] is to blame for that problem. [That person / thing] needs to change, for your problem to be solved There is nothing you, yourself can do but wait and complain No learning happens Shame mindset:...

November 22, 2020

Quest: Learn to write adaptable software

When I was about 12 years old, I bought a Java book with my first allowance. With books and the internet, I taught myself how to code. Initially I recreated small games, but over time also started creating small utility programs for myself. I programmed by myself for years. I learned, the need for maintainable code, the hard way. I was building this game my brother and I came up with....

November 22, 2020

Quote: Copying processes does not work

The following story from before the Second World War, when Toyota made weaving looms, provides an example of this way of thinking. It comes from a Toyota booklet about the spirit and ideas that created the company, and relates how Kiichiro Toyoda (1894–1952), founder of the Toyota Motor Corporation and son of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works founder Sakichi Toyoda, supposedly responded when someone once stole the design plans for a loom from the Toyoda loom works:...

November 22, 2020

Model: Fluency

fluency / flow - where is the toilet/ how much does this cost - get around in a city / ask & answer some questions / who is there - tell a story - give a speech - debate / teach abstract concepts any level of fluency can be the right amount (src: Video_ Dancing Along the Agile Fluency Path - Diana Larsen)

November 20, 2020

How I manage my finances

It all happened at once: a new job, needing to pay rent, needing to pay my own taxes, insurance, … I don’t remember all the steps, but I do remember parts of it. Version 1 - just keep a healthy buffer The idea here is that you don’t really know what the unexpected costs will be. But you keep enough of a buffer, so if any come up, you can pay them without any debt....

November 19, 2020

Mindmark.it - the origin story

I have this value stream for reading. Reading valuestream But the mapping part is always very labor intensive. While reading I create highlights, but most note taking apps are quite limited in the colours. Kindle only allows four, and that’s one of the better ones. Many have only one colour. And even 4 static colours, started becoming too inflexible for me. So I decided to make my own ebook reader app....

November 19, 2020

Opinion: How evernote should have moved users from their old app to the new one.

Upgrading Evernote has a new version, v10 of the app. I got the notification to update in the old app, and clicked to upgrade. I’m on mac, so I needed to download the new version… …strange, that didn’t happen before. Usually it just updates. The new v10 version looks like the web version It reminded me immediately of the web version. I have been using the web version of evernote on my work laptop....

November 19, 2020

Product: Mindmark.it

Highlight in webpages, structure them and you get a mindmap for free. All without the need to reading! The design is still a quite rudimentary. And it’s got some situations where it has some bugs/glitches. But it’s multi-user, and (mostly) usable! In a web-page, you can create highlights, simply by selecting some text: Then you can drag&drop highlights on top of each other to create a hierarchy. And your mindmap is automatically generated!...

November 19, 2020