kSensei Blog

“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”

-John Dewey

How to Disagree

The web is turning writing into a conversation. Twenty years ago, writers wrote and readers read. The web lets readers respond, and increasingly they do—in comment threads, on forums, and in their own blog posts.

Many who respond to something disagree with it. That’s to be expected. Agreeing tends to motivate people less than disagreeing. And when you agree there’s less to say. You could expand on something the author said, but he has probably already explored the most interesting implications. When you disagree you’re entering territory he may not have explored.

The result is there’s a lot more disagreeing going on, especially measured by the word. That doesn’t mean people are getting angrier. The structural change in the way we communicate is enough to account for it. But though it’s not anger that’s driving the increase in disagreement, there’s a danger that the increase in disagreement will make people angrier. Particularly online, where it’s easy to say things you’d never say face to face.

Paul Ghaham wrote this excelent essay

Busy vs. Productive

Slow down and remember this: Most things make no difference. Being busy is a form of mental laziness—lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.

– Timothy Ferriss

FO Focused Performance

Corrige al sabio y se hará más sabio, corrige al necio y tendrás un enemigo.

Albert Eisntein

What an Agile Process Looks Like - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

Development teams that want to adopt agile methods need to know what a typical roadmap looks like. This book chapter from the new Becoming Agile shows you how to view Agile concepts from a phase perspective.

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.

Dale Carnegie

Ninety percent of what we call ‘management’ consists of making it difficult for people to get things done.

Peter F. Drucker
(b. 1909) American Management Consultant

Innovate on Purpose: The politics of innovation

You may be wondering what “politics” and innovation have in common. I was thinking that innovation in many firms is a proof of the “tragedy of the commons” concept in economics - but no one wants to read a blog post about economics, and much of the challenge of innovation is about beauracracy and culture, not economics.

Wikipedia quotes Aristotle as saying that “That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it”. Likewise, innovation, while “important” to many different groups and functions within an organization, seems to suffer from a lack of attention and focus.

There are two worlds: the world we measure with line and rule, and the world we feel with our hearts and imaginations.

James Henry Leigh Hunt
(1784-1859) Poet & Essayist

FO The Gurteen Daily Knowledge Quotes

When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.

Albert Einstein
(1879 - 1955) Physicist & Nobel Laureate

FO The Gurteen Daily Knowledge Quotes

Haiku Productivity: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential | zen habits

A new way to make me focus on fewer, but more important things. As a way to allow myself to do more in less time.

A Problem Shared Is a Problem Solved

Not so long ago, companies created departments to create innovation. But the result was often that innovation was turned into a state secret. The only people who knew what was going on — and therefore the only people who could really contribute — were the Chosen Ones inside the innovation department. Not surprisingly, this approach limits both the quantity and quality of ideas so companies have started to search for new ways of developing new ideas.

FO Fast Company

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.

Anais Nin

FO Gurteen Daily Knowledge Quotes