Back From Vacation

As you may surmise from my previous post I’m back from vacation. I was as unplugged as I’ve been in a couple years, I think I answered one email and looked at my inbox maybe twice. My home inbox is still backlogged, at work I returned to 200 or so new messages, about half of […]

Steady State vs Tempo

It’s helpful at work to understand things at work change from time to time and to consider the impact on you and the people you work with as the changes occur. While it may seem obvious, it’s easy to get fooled into thinking that the current state of things is the new normal, or to not […]

Stages of the Game?

Saw this post by Seth Godin on Stages of the Game. Interesting, I identified with it – I’m competitive, and competing means understanding the rules and sometimes playing the boundaries. Calling it a game doesn’t, in my view at least, trivialize the effort and impact of trying to win. Winning, in the context of every […]

Quiet Wednesday

For me the Wednesday before Thanksgiving was a quiet day at work. It was one of those ‘everyone is leaving early’ days, with many opting to work the half day or so remote instead of coming in to the office. I could feel (and see) the pull of the pending break on the teams I […]

I Don’t Know

I wanted to write this because lately I say “I don’t know” a couple times a day to my client/boss. I know what I know, I try to prepare well, but she has an uncanny knack for asking questions that go one step beyond in some way. A lot of times it’s not a question […]

8 Weeks In

I’m about eight weeks into my current project and while I’m certain I don’t know it all, I’m finally at the point where I understand most of the work, know who most of the people are, and have a good idea on how to navigate to the finish line. It’s not as if there was […]

What I’ve Been Up To Lately

I ran into a friend at a recent event and during the discussion he asked what I was doing lately because he couldn’t tell from my blog. Good comment, and reminds me how easy it is to forget to discuss what seems obvious. Last year my restlessness hit a new high. Training was starting to […]

Fitting In-The Editorial

This editorial I wrote ran on SQLServerCentral a couple weeks back and generated a lot of comments, and more than a little pushback. I was looking at it again today, thinking what would I do different to do a better job of getting the point across without getting pulled into visions of joining the Borg […]

Book Review: Knives at Dawn: America's Quest for Culinary Glory at the Legendary Bocuse d'Or Competition

Another find from the new book shelf at the local library, Knives at Dawn: America’s Quest for Culinary Glory at the Legendary Bocuse d’Or Competition by Andrew Friedman ($18 @ Amazon), the Bocuse d’Or (named for French chef Paul Bocuse) is a real world Iron Chef competition. Teams from all over the world compete in […]

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