Hold on... Loosely!

First attributed to Geoffrey Chauncer in 1386, in the Yeoman’s Tale and later in the Canterbury Tales; saying, "For better than never is late; never to succeed would be too long a period." Which gave us the statement "Better late than never!" and that is what I am, late with my first Friday post.

A simple adventure, start a small newsletter and share my thoughts, learnings, ponderings, and useful things I wander across during the week. An experiment of sorts and if nothing else, a way to start writing again. I hope you find this content enjoyable and useful over time. If nothing else, together we learn something new or at least share a laugh.

The title Bits, Nibbles, and Bytes comes from a book I read in the 1980's, called "bits & bites" and my Dad's boss would leave it in the "reading room" where I would be able to scroll through the pages unhindered. For years I've wanted to create a version for myself and now I am, but as a technologist the words mean something more.

You see, a binary number is a 1 or a 0 and is the smallest size or a bit. It is used to write data or instructions for the processor in your computer. A group of 4 bits is a nibble and 8 bits make a byte. Together they are the building blocks of our technology. So in my mind this newsletter is a bunch of bits that together will become a larger byte of data. I know, Corny, but I liked the idea and I'm sticking with it for now.

Welcome and enjoy things I am pondering, collecting, enjoying, and sharing and may it spawn some interesting thoughts and a smile or two.

Something that has spawned an interest or intrigue

Death to meeting agenda's, long live agendas

Agendas are so 20th Century– Jim Benson, co-creator of Lean Coffee

• How many hours are wasted on meetings? Seriously, I think I lose a 1/3 of my life in useless meetings; no agenda, no take aways, and no real purpose, but this week I was introduced to?Lean Coffee which defines a framework for meetings that is "structured, but agenda-less meeting. Participants gather, build an agenda, and begin talking." The process seems simple, gather some agenda topics, group them and then vote, set a time per topic and go. You can read more about this process on their website. https://leancoffee.org/

Philosophy

• I love learning about philosophy and this week I came across Perennial Philosophy who's concept is that views all of the world's religious traditions as sharing a single, metaphysical truth or origin from which all esoteric and exoteric knowledge and doctrine has grown. This might explain why all religions seem to have common stories or themes. I will enjoy learning something from this topic.?

Technology

- Legacy Modernization practices are core to ThoughtWorks. Also, this topic is about a third of all my weekly calls. Why? Clients continue to get stuck in a limbo, a half-completed migration that leaves them with two systems, both incomplete. Luckily there are patterns and practices to solve this problem and you can read more from my coworkers Martin Fowler, James Lewis, and Rob Horn in their March 2022 post Patterns of Legacy Displacement

Fun Facts

• Apple's iPad retina display is actually manufactured by Samsung. Does that mean that Samsung TV's have the best picture too? I only buy Samsung and maybe that's the real reason!

Useful Sites and Books

• "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go," Dr. Seuss in the book "I can read with my eyes shut!" Well I can't read with my eyes shut and I have a hard time finding the next book to read too. That was until this week. I came across two websites that help you pick your next book
• Find a book to read
• What should I read Next

Enjoy some Art

• Want to dive in to some Art for the day??https://yourdailyart.com/

Something Interesting I am watching or Listening to

- On Purpose Podcast Episode from April 22, 2022, Principle 5: Plan your own distractions. I get distracted often, my mind loves working on two or three things at once. I love the idea of staging the work in a way that all my distractions are positive. This reminds me of the "brain dead list" idea I learned from David Allen and GTD.?

Quote I am pondering

"It dawned on me that my attempt at completely controlling my life had, in fact, caused me to lose control over it"? --Reddit Commentary

• 38-Special's song, "Hold on Loosely" could be the answer! Life does requires a bit of quiet contemplation and spontaneous journey. I've learned that life is more enjoyable when I provide space to let things happen. Space between the scheduled events.

Thank you for making it here!

If you have enjoyed this newsletter, please share with others and send me some feedback to help make it better. Have a great day, cheers ...