article #productivity

Meetings are both necessary and useful, but they fragment your week, your opportunity for flow, and you need non-meeting time for your output as a knowledge worker.

"Those of us on the maker's schedule are willing to compromise. We know we have to have some number of meetings. All we ask from those on the manager's schedule is that they understand the cost." - Paul Graham, Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule

article #productivity Meetings are both necessary and useful, but they fragment your week, your opportunity for flow, and you need non-meeting time for your output as a knowledge worker. "Those...

#article #log4j

"Sometimes the gift interprets JNDI strings in my log messages and executes random code from my LDAP server. This is the nature of gifts."

An interesting musing on the nature of gifts, big companies and startups, and free software, from apenwarr@

Taken from The Playlist - a curated perspective on the intersection of form and content (subscribe, discuss)

#article #log4j "Sometimes the gift interprets JNDI strings in my log messages and executes random code from my LDAP server. This is the nature of gifts." An interesting musing on...

Isabel Wilkerson - Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

#book #dei

"Like other old houses, [...] has an unseen skeleton, a caste system that is as central to its operation as are the studs and joists that we cannot see in the physical buildings we call home. Caste is the infrastructure of our divisions. It is the architecture of human hierarchy, the subconscious code of instructions for maintaining [...] a [...] social order."

Caste has taken the lead in my library as the most highlighted book, and is a deep exploration of Caste as the lens through which to see discrimination, drawing parallels between Europe, the United States, and India, providing a universal framing.

“Young people,” he said, “I would like to present to you a fellow untouchable from the United States of America.” King was floored. He had not expected that term to be applied to him. He was, in fact, put off by it at first.

Taken from The Playlist - a curated perspective on the intersection of form and content (subscribe, discuss)

Isabel Wilkerson - Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents #book #dei "Like other old houses, [...] has an unseen skeleton, a caste system that is as central to its operation...

9 Ways We Self Sabotage

#survey #productivity

"Saboteurs are the voices in your head that generate negative emotions in the way you handle life’s everyday challenges. They represent automated patterns in your mind for how to think, feel, and respond. They cause all of your stress, anxiety, self-doubt, frustration, restlessness, and unhappiness. They sabotage your performance, wellbeing, and relationships."

Positive Intelligence is a mental fitness framework and, among other concepts, taught me helpful practical ways to deal with stress, both professionally and personally.

Take the test or read more on How we self-sabotage

Taken from The Playlist - a curated perspective on the intersection of form and content (subscribe, discuss)

9 Ways We Self Sabotage #survey #productivity "Saboteurs are the voices in your head that generate negative emotions in the way you handle life’s everyday challenges. They represent automated patterns...

Last night I rode our bike home from Brooklyn, with my daughter crying loudly "You are not my papa!" most of the way.

We were a few minutes late picking her up from her class, and she was the last one there, crying in the arms of the teacher, and yelling something loudly, too loud to understand.
I picked her up, hugged her, asked what's wrong and tried to calm her down, but she wasn't having it. I put her in the back of our bike, strapping her in, checking with my son what she could be saying. We finally started making out that she was saying "not my papa".

I tried to convince her that I am, in fact, her papa, but she just kept repeating the same thing. We started our ride back home, and at the first red light I was acutely aware of her still yelling the same thing while standing still in traffic next to other bikes. What would I do if I was stuck in traffic next to a vehicle with a crying child yelling "You are not my papa?", I wondered. I started asking her questions like, "what hair color does your papa have?" to get her to stop and think, and I would respond, "that's interesting, just like me". I'd ask a few questions like that until the lights turned green.

I was hoping this would work for all the stops on our 25 minute ride home, and I was hoping we'd not run into any police cars along the way, just in case. Of course, two minutes later, I was parallel with a string of five police cars, all with their lights flashing. I kept repeating the questions at every stop, until she fell asleep as she usually does on the bike.

She slept all the way through dinner, and the next morning at breakfast I asked her, "who's your papa?" And she beamed at me and yelled, "you are my papa!"

My best guess at what happened is that at pickup she saw a string of papas pick up their kids, but didn't see me, and started saying "you are not my papa" at every other papa, until I was the last one to show up. I'll never show up last again.

Last night I rode our bike home from Brooklyn, with my daughter crying loudly "You are not my papa!" most of the way. We were a few minutes late picking...