And for those of you wondering from this post “Hey, does that guy really own a copy of Parodius Da! Shinwa kara Owarai e…?”
You’re god damn right I do ๐๐คฃ๐ฎ
sadly not a boxed one though ๐ข
The Law Of Triviality and the joys of plodding
The Law Of Triviality or “Bikeshedding” was in full effect at work today.
I had permission to put a message on a system about upcoming changes. When it went live, a bunch of more senior staff thought my message was not quite right and levied their opinions on what should replace it. Eventually, after everyone had spoken, no one could decide on precisely what the message should say and they all just stopped talking about it without making a decision.
๐คซ The original message I wrote still remains on the system ๐คญ๐คทโโ๏ธ
An old friend of mine who very recently passed away,1 once told me
“The rarest technical skill you can cultivate is common sense. And it’s often in short supply”
I think there is a lot of truth to that. People tend to chase flash or want to get involved in whatever the zeitgeist of the day is vs just slogging away at the fundamental bricks that complete projects. We’re easily distracted, turned and moved away from what we were doing not just 30 minutes ago. It’s part of the modern workplace with email, Teams/Slack…distractions can be everywhere… If you want them or not!
I’m often not the smartest technical asset in the room, but what I can do is make a structured list, update it and follow through on it.
If I can’t follow through I communicate why and I ask for help and advice. I send updates update calmly, descriptively and consistently. I feel like these fundamentals are key to collaboration and moving things forwards, but they can very often get lost in the storm for want of the thrill of starting another new project, looking at the shiny new thing or indeed bikeshedding over a two sentence paragraph for 30 minutes in what should be a 5 minute decision.
My wife jokingly refers to how we tackle work as being plodders. We’re At the coal face consistently smashing away and making the pile smaller whilst sometimes someone whifts past and may tell us they think we’re holding our picks wrong before they vanish again to the fresh air outside of the mine.
Someone this week came up to me whilst I was working and told me they were grateful for some work I’d done on a project and felt like I had kept them informed of what was happening and why throughout. At the end of the day, I think that’s what keeps me doing what I do. Providing that measurable consistent delivery that makes a difference to….someone out there.
So I’ll just keep plodding. I hope you keep plodding too.
-
Hence I’ve been thinking of them often over the past few days. I never did get to tell you how grateful I was for all your help when I was a stupid young thing. Rest in peace Brett. ↩︎
Watched the first episode of Sugar and Iโm very impressed. Iโm a sucker for a Noir anyway but this is so stylish and well presented. Very excited for the rest of the season.
Due to work and life I have shamefully. failed at this months photo challenge. Not sure if I will try and catch up, but I may instead just rip off the band aid and begin again with todays prompt ๐ช
April 2024 Photo Challenge Day 7 : Wellbeing
Another re-post Iโm afraid as I am yet again short on timeโฆ
Sometimes wellbeing is a cookie with a smiley face.
๐ Allowing Emulators onto the iOS App Store is great news. Canโt wait to be playing PS1 games on my phone ๐
โDad, my girlfriend is coming round. PLEASE wear normal clothesโ
And like that, another stamp gets put onto the Embarrassing Dad bingo card ๐คฃ
Wow the Vision Pro personas look a lot better in this spacial example than at launch. Some actual recognisable emoting.
My second bit of Waffle House related content in about a week, but the fact the company is so known for late night violence due to itโs 24/7 opening has lead to people constantly harassing the director of the Tekken fighting game series to put a Waffle House Stage in the game makes me chuckle. ๐ฎ
Iโm not a big fan of April Fools, but the SFBags โheadcaseโ for Vision Pro, and the iMac carry on both made me chuckle.
I bought a licence for an indie app I love today๐ธ
(I’ve been on the free tier of that one waaaay too long)
Then bought an upgrade for another indie app I love ๐ธ
(Had every version since V10)
Happy to pay and support these apps that I could not do without ๐๐๐