Distorted Rovings

Anyone else feel like planning out a release is a series of tangents and rants? The goal of allowing our customers a good, usable, and delightful way to empower their world seems to be overwhelmed in the rush to be first, and unique, and the fastest changes. Which may not be what our customers want, or at least a significant subsection of them. In an attempt to be the first to showcase the newest, we may leave our customers in a fog, unsure of where they are at, or how to get where they are going. Making plans for testing and goal-focused development seems to have been forgotten, or overlooked in the rush to get the next release out. Having the ability to insure that the potential risks are focused on, rather than the tangent of "But we need to do this- we'll fix it later" or, worse "This shouldn't affect anything else", are the hints that we need, as an organization, to step back and look at where we are headed. And make sure that our plans for gettin...

Listening is a skill that can bring some unexpected benefits. Being willing to listen, without an opinion (or, in some cases, no awareness of what they are talking about) can yield bits of useful information on an issue you are facing. This was the case a few days ago - a pair of us were discussing both a student that was having an issue on a topic, and the regulation of the future, in regards to Machine Learning and AI. (Yes, my conversations do wander - we started out with woodworking). The student was a one who had made a program - since it worked, they were happy with it, as we all are when first learning a topic. Having someone with skill come in and redo nearly everything is a blow to the ego. Approached correctly, this can teach so much. Praise for getting it working is a important step, then carefully showing how other options may have been a better, more-performant choice is where the learning comes in. If this isn't done at a slow-enough pace: depending on the student, ...