This evening I went to go see So Percussion perform Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich. Long-time readers will remember that I’m a complete nut for Reich’s work, so I was looking forward to seeing it again, especially since the other So Percussion concert I’d been to was enjoyable. Alas, I was incredibly disappointed. […]
Category: management
But it’s just talking!
One of the things that many of my friends have been struggling with is that managers don’t really do anything. These friends are highly technical people, so when they think of doing something, they think of time spent in the lab, or coding on a computer, or building something. When they see a manager spending […]
Becoming a Technical Leader, by Gerald M. Weinberg
Amazon link This was recommended to me by a friend as a great book on becoming a leader and manager. The book reminds me of How to Win Friends and Influence People in that the advice is deceptively simple. If I had read this book even five years ago, I think I would have dismissed […]
Management is an Attitude
I’ve been thinking about what it takes to be an effective manager for a long time. Between the classes I’m taking at Columbia and the books I’m reading for myself, I’m starting to get some ideas that I’m trying to figure out how to apply in my own life. A recent realization is that being […]
Getting results
A few weeks ago, I wrote an email where I stated “You get results from what you pay attention to.” I was actually talking about management, but I am realizing that the statement applies in all aspects of life. It sounds banal, almost trite, but capitalizing on this assumption require discipline and focus. My personal […]
Being Impressive
In the Columbia program, our first professor (and founder of the program), Art Langer, spoke in the fall about the ingredients of being a leader. One of the things he emphasized was the importance of “being impressive”. It’s easy to dismiss that – it seems subjective and difficult to control. But I was sitting in […]
Requirements Management Processes
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m in a master’s program in Technology Management at Columbia. As part of that, I’m working on a master’s project, which I’ve decided to do in the realm of requirements and specifications management, mostly because I’ve never seen it done well and would like to understand the field better for my […]
Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath
Amazon link Official site This is a study of what makes ideas stick. They start it off by relating the kidney heist urban legend, a story that all of us have heard and can probably recount. Why has this story stuck in our memories so successfully? It has no advertising budget, nobody pushing it – […]
On Dilettantism
I just wrote a long comment over at Ei-Nyung’s post about the positive aspects of being a dilettante. As my first comment on that post states, I’m obviously biased as I post under the title of “Unrepentant Generalist”. But I figured I’d include my comment here as well, since it’s a recurring theme in my […]
Innovation and community
I went to my second likemind this morning, and once again really enjoyed the coffee and conversation. One person at the table where I sat posed the question of how an artist can be unique or “deviant” in today’s society. There used to be a well-defined mainstream that you could rebel against and do your […]
