John Cleese on creativity
It was quite some time ago that I first watched this wonderful video, and I have just refreshed the memories of it.
Remember: space, time, time, confidence and 7 coin flips with consecutive heads…
Time management
The amount of things I’ve got to do is increasing every day, and I feel I need to acquire new skills. I’ve recently watched this lecture on time management by Randy Pausch:
Surprisingly there are some things in Randy’s way of managing time that I already do:
- Use a to-do list (or application)
- Have a multi-monitor environment
- Keep track (and analyze!) your activities
But, for me, the most important lesson, which I have been putting in practice for some time, is that you don’t find time for important things, you make it.
I good example is this blog entry!
Construction vs. Design
I recently read a somewhat old essay by Scott Berkun, Why software sucks, and the discussion about Construction vs. Design left me thinking.
In essence, the Construction viewpoint starts from the small pieces and tries to build up a vision, whereas the Design process begins with a wide perspective and tries to find the pieces needed to fulfill it.
In some way I think that this can be compared greatly to Google and Apple, and maybe to Android and iOS. While Google has great tools and services for a quite large number of tasks, it lacks a grand vision and the interactions are sometimes complicated. Apple, on the other hand, begins with the user experience and slowly but steadily tries to accomplish it, although some features may be missing.
This is very idealistic, of course, but maybe the background is the fight between Engineering (we do it because we can) and Product Management (to complement the user experience we have to do it).
Personally I’m making the transition from Construction to Design, but now that I think of it I’m realizing that I started this journey some time ago.
Huelga
Hoy no hago huelga. Lo siento, tengo mucho trabajo que hacer, y dejar de llevarlo adelante un dÃa no va a contribuir precisamente a que la fecha de entrega se posponga. Tampoco puedo prescindir del dinero descontado de mi sueldo.
Tal vez si trabajara en servicios o en la industria tuviera más sentido parar la producción porque perjudica directamente al empresariado. Sin embargo, tengo la sensación de que hacer huelga sólo me va a perjudicar a mÃ, independientemente de la justicia o la injusticia de lo que se demande.
Poniéndome las botas
Estoy poniéndome las botas, literalmente. Y es ese momento en que las nuevas parecen incómodas, cuesta caminar y hasta hacen daño. Uno piensa que nunca se va a acostumbrar a ellas porque las antiguas se amoldan perfectamente.
Pero esa misma sensación ya se tuvo hace dos o tres años con las botas que ahora son antiguas, y también hace cinco o seis con las anteriores.
No importa, dentro de un tiempo me habré acostumbrado a lo nuevo y lo sentiré perfectamente a medida, ya sean las botas o cualquier otra cosa. Abraza el cambio, porque igual que cambias de botas puedes cambiar muchas otras cosas de la vida.