WinRT Revealed

We’re addicted to quick fixes, top-ten lists, and four-hour work weeks, but the truth is that if it wasn’t hard, everyone would be doing it, and a hard thing is never done by reading a list or a book or an article about doing it. A hard thing is done by figuring out how to start.

Having a solution where all the implications of the solution are not understood is not a fix.

Fact is, your world is changing faster than you’ll ever be able to keep up with, and you can view that fact from two different perspectives:
I believe I can control my world, and through an aggressive campaign of task management, personal goals, and a can do attitude, I will succeed in doing the impossible. Go me!
Or …
I know there is no controlling the world, but I will fluidly surf the entropy by constantly changing myself.
Surfing entropy takes confidence. This isn’t Tony Robbins confidence; this is a ­personal confidence you earn by constantly adapting yourself to the impossible.

know there is no controlling the world, but I will fluidly surf the entropy by constantly changing myself.
Surfing entropy takes confidence. This isn’t Tony Robbins confidence; this is a ­personal confidence you earn by constantly adapting yourself to the impossible.

not to trust that fast-talking engineering manager who emphatically guaranteed his team would be done on schedule. The Critic said, “People who talk fast are moving quickly to cover up the gaps in their knowledge.”

A Malcolm event is when a seemingly insignificant event screws up your release in an unlikely way. In the case of this clarifying decision, it’s a poor-communication tax.

soak is when you plant the seed of a thought in your brain and let it bump around in a rich stew of ideas, facts, and whatever other random crap that seems to relate. The soak is a protected activity that will rarely occur during your busy day because you’re busy reacting to the familiar never-ending flood of things to do. The goal of the soak is simple: an original thought. Whatever the problem is that you’re stewing on, you want to find a glimmer of inspiration that transforms your response from a predictable emotional flame-o-gram into a strategically considered thought and, ultimately, decision.

Is it therapy or work? If you’ve just been through a brutal release, the team is going to spend the first brainstorming meetings venting. That’s OK, they need it. If it’s week three and you’re still on the vent, it’s time to make changes.

There’s another paradox here. Structured thinking kills thinking, but unstructured thinking leads to useless chaos.

Why can’t you think when you’re busy?
Dumb question, right? Answer: “I can’t think because I’m busy.” Wrong. You can’t think because when you’re busy, you’re not thinking, you’re reacting.