I look forward to a world where time zones are the most meaningful separators of human beings. And they can be quite significant when someone is a world (or half a world) away.
We all can't occupy the same space for scientific reasons, but national boundaries, ethnicity, religion, and (increasingly)language are things that don't have to drive a wedge between us.
This doesn't mean you have to stop being proud of who you are or where your ancestors came from.
Space and time must separate us. Everything else is a choice.
If you have kids, make up a bed time story for them every night.
I have been trying to do this for 5 years.
I certainly haven't succeeded in doing it every night (my guess would be that I do it about 60% of the time), and many of the stories won't win any literary awards.
But its a great challenge.
It forces you to think creatively, it let's you tell stories you want your kids to hear, it shows them that you place a premium on creativity, and it's a opportunity to spend a little additional time with them.
Also, you'll surprise yourself with what you can come up with.
I started a mindfulness group at work after doing some meditation practice for myself for a few months. Meditation has helped me in stressful situations and I wanted to share that with others.
Mindfulness practice is well aligned with our company leadership culture which has been significantly influenced by the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People over the years. See my earlier post about the connection of the 7 Habits and Mindfulness.
It's been a great start. We got a good number of people from all different roles in the organization: sales people, developers, team leads, project management, and QA.
We're early on in the group but, the turnout has remained strong through a couple of weeks.
We're using Headspace for guided meditation, which is very helpful. It's usually followed by 10 - 15 minutes of discussion on what went well or didn't go well for individuals.
There is a definite sense of vulnerability in beginning this new activity at work. The great news is that attendance has been good and, whether everyone has completely overcome that initial trepidation or not, they've continued to attend.
I'm very thankful for everyone who comes, I'm thankful for the opportunity to share, and I'm thankful for finding Headspace, which is a good app.
Ever wish you could resurrect a word? Here is one I found recently.
Acies: noun, pronounced A-KEY-US, The keen attention of the eye, ear, etc. when fully directed towards any object.
It comes from Latin, and in Latin it meant edge or point (think of a sword). From there it developed a broad range of meanings including some related to military formations and battle lines.
But there were also poetic meanings in Latin. These were much like the English definition above.
First the meaning was extended metaphorically from edge or point to mean the sharpness of vision, and from there it came to refer to the eye itself or pupil (see this latin definition, at least partly in English).
It arrived in English a few hundred years ago as a poetic borrowing and had a short life here. That's probably that's to be expected. It's a little too cute or intellectual to be adopted in a broader way.
But that doesn't stop it from being an awesome concept.
While it lasted, it's use for us English speakers was limited to that poetic realm - 'keen attention of the senses when fully directed at an object'.
Can you give your full attention of your senses to something today? Can you give the acies of your eye or ear or breath to something today? What will it be?
A few other definitions and sources worth looking at:
It's definitely something you should consider when considering your approach to an application rebuild. It has a high value for risk mitigation.
I will definitely put this in the bag of tricks for approach on rebuild projects. I can see a lot of situations where it would be valuable.
I can also see a lot of clients who won't go for it, but that doesn't mean it isn't useful.
Even ruling it out as an approach will have value to many projects. Offering it allows you to say it was there, but removed from consideration. This will help make it clear that the large, monolithic project approach (and related challenges) was explicitly selected.
I've been working on this blog for the last year and I'm changing my tag line. The old tag line was:
Technology, Work, Writing
That was fine. It covers a lot of ground and since the blog was largely about work and my tech-related interests it worked.
The new line is:
Technology, Leadership, Influence
This will be my new focus for the coming year. It's a bit more specific and it feels right for this blog.
Leadership is really what my work is about, outside of technology.
Influence is the purpose of writing. You can, and I often do, write for autotelic reasons, but that is not what this is about.
I hope that people read this and it has some impact. I like that more than just writing. I'll probably continue to write about writing, but with more on a focus on how to make an impression.
Happy early 2017. It should be an interesting year.
Jonathan Fries on .