National Public Radio runs a show called “The Story.” Tonight’s story (listen here) was about a group of three well-known musicians (Amanda Palmer, Ben Folds of TV’s Sing-Off, and Damian Kulash of OK-Go), a famous writer/lyricist (Neil Gaiman) and a producer (Sean Slade) who decided to try an experiment this past April. They wanted to see if it was possible to produce a music album of eight original songs in eight hours, completely from scratch. They called the project, “Eight in Eight” and the album they produced is called “Nighty Night.”
The group didn’t quite meet their ambitious goal. After 12 hours, they stopped with only six songs under their belts — an impressive feat, nonetheless. Continue reading The Power of Self-Imposed, Extremely Tight Deadlines →
Last night, I obtained an autographed copy of Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life by Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry. Jim gave an engaging speech in which he described some awesome success stories. The speech was about Kanban, in general, as applied in business settings. So, now, I’m anxious to read the book to get Jim and Tonianne’s take on how to apply it individually.
When I spoke to Tonianne privately after the event, I told her that I’m a fan of David Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (“GTD”), and I asked her how their Personal Kanban compares to GTD. She said that PK actually plays nice with, and builds upon, GTD and that GTD is mentioned prominently in the book. Now, I just need to see if I can remember how to read a book that’s printed on physical paper.
Somebody at the American Heart Association figured out that, in most cases, CPR can be just as effective if only the heart-massage part is done, without the breathing part, and that hands-only CPR is WAY better than doing nothing. So, they’ve launched a campaign to spread the word, complete with how-to videos and smart-phone apps. See http://handsonlycpr.org/.
This is a drastic simplification, and there’s a big lesson in this for us Agilsts. Continue reading This Simplification is a Lifesaver (literally) →
a blog by Craig L. Jones, Software Agilist