The Cost of Training

Before:

CFO: What if we train our employees and they leave?

CEO: What if we don't train them, and they stay?

Today:

CEO: What if we train our AI and they leave?

CIO: (And they 'leave'?!?) What if we don't train them, and they stay?

Accountant on a Ship

An accountant was taking a cruise on a luxury ship. Suddenly, she saw another passenger fall overboard. Panicking, the accountant screams: "Help! Help! Someone's fallen over! Someone's fallen over!" 

The ship's second mate hears her and shouts: "Which side did they fall? Port or starboard?" 

Accountant: Port...star...what?!?? (Then frantically points to the left) DEBIT SIDE! DEBIT SIDE! 

User Stories are not requirements

Treating user stories as requirements may not be too different from asking users to estimate how long it takes to do their tasks and using those estimates as your project estimates.

Santayana

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Those who are not aware of the past are condemned to repeat it.

History repeats itself because the past is not the dead past but a mirror (albeit incomplete) of the very much alive present and future.

Battle Success vs Project Success

Every battle between armies results in success for one side failure for one side. There is a winner and there is a loser (ignoring ties). That means 50% of battles are a success, and 50% of battles are failures. 

In contrast, 60-70% of projects fail (according to popularised stats). 

In other words, armies do better at succeeding against obstacles that ACTIVELY aim to LITERALLY devastate and rip them apart, than projects do against the comparatively passive triple constraints.   

(I know there's fatal flaws in this argument, but still).

Favourite TV Series

Top favourite TV series, not in any order. The ones I can watch over and over:

• Buffy. All-time favourite. 'Once More With Feeling' is a supernatural tour de force. Perhaps the height of Joss Whedon's genius.
• Yellowstone. Screenwriting is brilliant. Compelling characters.
• Landman. Another Taylor Sheridan work.
• Silicon Valley. I can watch the whole series every year and not get tired. Some episodes are uncomfortable and I wish they can be PG'd: the grafitti with Chuy Ramirez, the stallion mating in the stable, the Satanic baptism.
• Fringe. Great fun because the science fiction covers physics, chemistry, biology, and not so much computers. Would not be as good without Walter and 'Asterisk'
• The Crown.
• Community. Really creative fun comedy.
• Lioness.
• Bosch. An ordinary police detective series that for some unexplainable reason is very good.
• Luther
• Line of Duty. One of the best ever detective shows.
• The Shield. Great dialogues. Forrest Whittaker's guest character is unmissable.
• Frasier
• Cosmos. The one with Carl Sagan. 
• Cosmos A Spacetime Odyssey (Cosmos: Possible Worlds was, painfully, nowhere near as good as the first two)
• Firefly
• Friends
• Narcos
• Fawlty Towers
• Hot in Cleveland
• Belgravia
• Justified
• Cobra Kai. Nostalgia trip, but way better than the original 80's movies. William Zabka is the standout actor here.
• Sons of Anarchy
• John Adams
• Black Books. Crazy fun. Tamsein Greig at her best.
• Maybe:
• Picket Fences
• Northern Exposure

Worth watching once:

• Anne with an E. The first two seasons. The last season feels it became woke.
• The Big Bang Theory (maybe the first 2-3 seasons only)
• Sanditon
• The X-Files
• Sherlock
• Breaking Bad
• The Simpsons
• Downton Abbey
• Yes Minister / Yes Prime Minister
• The IT Crowd
• The Knick
• Poldark (2015)
• Jamestown
• Chernobyl

Good ones, but didn't really like them that much:

• Peaky Blinders

From Dreams to Reality

A dream written down with a date becomes a goal.

A goal written down with steps becomes a plan.

A plan backed by action becomes reality.