Training the Young and Fluency July 28, 2010
Posted by ActiveEngine Sensei in ActiveEngine, Business Processes, Coaching, Fluent, Mythology, Personal Development.Tags: ActiveEngine, Coaching, communication, focus, Wolf Creedo
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Repeat with Sensei, if you will, the Wolf Creedo:
The Wolf Credo:
Respect the elders
Teach the young
Cooperate with the pack
Play when you can
Hunt when you must
Rest in between
Share you affections
Voice your feelings
Leave your mark.*
What have you done to nurture your team? Are you the resident Elvis, and if the newbies make the cut they’ll graduate from a Mort to be the next King, hand plucked by you from millions and millions of people? Can I get a little ka-ra-te with that?
What makes you an Elvis, and are you a bloated drunk Elvis at the end, or the bad-ass version 1970 version who can jump start anything? Elvis in 1970 practiced the Wolf Creedo. Watch the documentory Elvis the Way It Is 2001, just the first half hour. This short half hour will show you Elvis, after years of being away from touring, ready to return to touring again in attempts to re-start his career. The first half hour of the movie focuses on the few weeks of rehearsals before the debut concert. Elvis had a fluent, incredible means of communicating with his band members and back up singers. With a glance, a gesture, a wink, a new song would spring up. Maybe Elvis would say a quick word, hum a note, and suddenly a bass line would kick in, and not more than three beats later, the entire band and Elvis are playing a tune complete with improves. While playing Little Sister, Elvis nods, and issues “Get Back” and off the group goes playing Get back from the Beatles. Congruent would be best word to describe the synchronization that each member had.
Elvis nurtured that vibe. They all keyed off of him, for to the band he was Elvis, not the King. He lead by being a focal point, but not necessarily an ostentatious leader. When you watch the practice sessions where Elvis worked on the orchestrations of each song it is clear that he could communicate what he wanted, and worked with his band members to produce the product he envisioned.
But in order to function like this unit, each member has to practice. You, as pack leader, have to pick the scales, the arpeggios, the rudiments that you want to be second nature so that your team, the young ones and old warriors can produce what you want, fluently.
*Credit: Del Getz and Associates
Fail Often, Fail Fluently March 27, 2010
Posted by ActiveEngine Sensei in ActiveEngine, Agile, Fluent, Mythology, Problem Solving, software economics.add a comment
What do you when your Scenario or User story just sucks? You’ve haggled with your peers over how to implement, the user has changed tunes and come over to your side of things by realizing that they want two things at the same time, but now that you’ve listened to everybody and re-worked your logic, you’ve just spend 6 or 7 extra hours testing. Now, you doubt that anybody really knows what the original intent of your use case was because there are so many different variants and vagaries from all the meetings, emails, hallway tests.
Now succumb to the brain death of Sarbanes-Oxley. Where is the traceability in all the discussion threads? How do you prove that you have what you want and that transactions are preserved and yada-yada-yada it just works? Before the project you thought that your team was like these guys:
But in reality you are this crew:
Sensei won’t pretend that there is a cool Zen technique to avoid hard work or failure. Maybe this type of failure of communication is a test of your core skills and your “fluency”. Look at the Elvis’ team. They’re practicing. They’ve been over the material again and again and again. That’s three again’s for each of the yada’s. To get to that point where they can adjust to his direction they’ve done much on their own time acquiring skills. Years of practice and adjustment.
Your project is like that path to acquiring a skill set, gaining mastery, being fluent. You have to build for flexibility, for
change. You CAN NOT give in to YAGNI just because this week you think you know all the answers. You won’t create a fan base that way. And just because something is written down does not mean that it’s set in stone. Remember Moses and the stone tablets? Even though he could part the waters he still had to go up the hill twice. Things will go wrong, but if you put in the time your adjustments, while painful after a long haul, won’t be that bad. 6 hours could have been 6 days. Be thankful you have good partners.
Why Your Code is a One Way Time Machine October 19, 2009
Posted by ActiveEngine Sensei in ActiveEngine, Agile vs Waterfall, Mythology, Problem Solving, software economics.5 comments
What type of duress are you under? The unfortunate among us have been sentenced to slavery by our evil nemesis from the past. We all have this enemy, and at one time or another have succumbed to the enemy’s evil plot. The enemy from the past is YOU.
When you sit down to create a solution, you need to balance solving the problem with being able to maintain and implement changes to the logic you have selected. All logic changes, and there are very few times when you have the finite scope defined to be able to accommodate new ideas. ”Rewrite!” is the cry of many who have written good solutions that have solved the problem but more than likely are not very maintainable. ”Broken Cardinality” is the bane of all DBA’s, and this is very serious indeed. Sensei can’t help you with that – go beat your business analyst who didn’t drive home the rules of relational databases!
What Sensei will say is put your tools after you think you’ve solved your users problems in a two week sprint, step back and project into the future: will this code be readable; can you augment the logic without altering the methods; will you be happy with yourself at midnight trying to fix something? Addressing these concerns helps you maintain your solution.
The real challenge is to help yourself next year. The-future-you needs your help, but The-future-you will hate you if you misconstrue YAGNI in your design phase with avoid-refactoring-at-all-costs while you code. Forget the sprint. Putting something into a customers hands too soon masks the complexity of what you have done for them and undersells your true talents. They’ll be happier if you can quickly implement changes without impacting the existing environment. Congrat’s – The-future-you just bought a beer!
The Economics of Protecting the Red Shirts July 29, 2009
Posted by ActiveEngine Sensei in .Net Development, ActiveEngine, Business Processes, Coaching, Design Patterns, Mythology, Personal Development, Problem Solving, software economics.Tags: ActiveEngine, bad software, communication, Data Stewardship, new thinking, paradigm
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Recently I came across this post from a fellow lamenting the lack of interest on the part of .Net developers in architecture solutions such as IoC, Dependency Injection, ORMs, and the like. 
This stood out in stark contrast to Java developers who this person interviewed, who either were conversant with the technology or were interested enough to pursue informing themselves further. Some call this the result of Drag -n -Drop design as laid out in a post by Greg Young, a Microsoft MVP and .Net developer who has specialized in high performance applications. Greg maintains in his post Java vs. .Net Developers that drag and drop is mis applied and there needs to be an greater effort the isolate the cases where it is mis used. This practice has arisen, he maintains, from poor training and lack of awareness of other development platforms. (more…)
Faith – The Time is Now Again July 18, 2009
Posted by ActiveEngine Sensei in ActiveEngine, Coaching, Mythology, Personal Development.Tags: ActiveEngine Sensei, bad software, Bushido, Coaching, Ego, focus, humility, new thinking, paradigm, self improvement, survival
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Ceiling unlimited
World so wide
Turn and turn againFeeling unlimited
Still unsatisfied
Changes never endWinding like an ancient river
The time is now againHope is like an ancient river
The time is now againNeil Peart
Indulge, play the song, drink in the message and go hug your kids, embrace your family, be thankful for your friends, team members, co-workers.
There is so many new things on the horizon. For those of us who are lucky enough to practice this technical craft called programming, we can be stymied by all the possiblities, the arguments and skirmishes. These de-rail you. Build a fortress against the distractions and ignore your fear of change by embracing the challenge of good arguments. It’s all a chance for you to improve.
When you arrive at work think of what ways you can engage with others. Can you practice your techniques in a better way? Recite the Wolf Creedo and end an argument. Better yet, start a new one in jest and revel in the ideas. Bang out some code and fight for the day. What new things can you add to your team’s arsenal if you inspire someone else? Are you leading or are you a suit sitting in a chair? Would someone ask you for help or think that you’re too involved in your own head to deign to talk to them? Have you built an empire above you or below you? Is your legacy more important than what you have truly done?
Okay, so you’re code was awful – but did someone else still benefit? Was your code perfect but never used? Was your ego hurt yet your company still profitable, keeping families fed? Did your mistakes help others learn?
What matters is that you engage. Most times it will be painful. Developers need serenity to produce but I’m telling you man you’re lucky if you have it. Life is full of the distractions and once you conquer them, you’ll find greater strength and battle hardened capability. Work at it. Revel in it, share it. Be grateful and humble. Win and go home to the ones you love. Technology is great, but you as a friend, mother, father, co-worker, neighbor, dude in line at Starbucks or grandma at church are even greater.
Sensei’s Playlist – Pay the Rent with Rock! July 10, 2009
Posted by ActiveEngine Sensei in ActiveEngine, Coaching, Mythology, Personal Development.Tags: ActiveEngine, balance, Coaching, communication, concentration, Ego, focus, new thinking, paradigm, Problem Solving, survival
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You’ve asked for it – well you didn’t actually, BUT HERE IT IS ANYWAY!! Yeahhh! Music to pump you up. Rev your ActiveEngine to these tunes, babes, and get stuff done. Decisively. As in total victory.
There’s a new page to the site, Pay the Rent with Rock. Here is the music that get’s me through. It’s powered by Grooveshark. Post a comment with a suggestion if you like. If it cranks and you’re lucky, I’ll include it. Describe what scenario your song helps you pull things off, helps you get things done, cranks, whatever.
Here’s a sample:
This bloke to the left loves it!!
Brotherhood of the Wolf February 11, 2008
Posted by ActiveEngine Sensei in ActiveEngine, Business Processes, Coaching, Mythology, Problem Solving.Tags: ActiveEngine, On Boarding, Team Work
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The Wolf Credo:
Respect the elders
Teach the young
Cooperate with the pack
Play when you can
Hunt when you must
Rest in between
Share you affections
Voice your feelings
Leave your mark.Del Getz and Associates
It’s not enough to identify objectives, FTE’s and timetables. You have to focus your team like a unit. The wolf pack is natures most effective hunting unit, but in order to become that cohesive machine there are many activities that take place. “Respect your elders”, “Corporate with the pack”, “Teach the young” doesn’t sound like cut throat competition within the team. It also doesn’t really sound like SCRUM. The pack leader is there to silence the dissent that will destroy the pack. But the pack leader is the not only role.
The new team members are the future as all new projects will arise from their efforts. The leader has to discipline the team to enable the new team members to progress along the right path. Guarding territory can never conflict with getting new members ready for the hunt. The new team members will ask questions, voice opinions, bring new ideas to the group. Run with some of these ideas, as this will stretch the mind and team’s muscle. Modeling ideas, quick throw away code, all these things that the group can play with while including the new team members will unlock some doors that have been shut tight for a while. Things will get solved in new ways.
Each team member will evolve their ActiveEngine as their skills and ambitions grow. When it comes time to hunt, the pack will be ready.
Ego Is The Mind Killer January 23, 2008
Posted by ActiveEngine Sensei in ActiveEngine, Coaching, Mythology, Problem Solving.Tags: ActiveEngine, Ego, taming your ego, training your mind
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Years ago when ActiveEngine Sensei attended Kenshu, he was struck by the fact that some of the most humble of the akidoka were the seniors. Every class the students were exposed to shi-doho style of teaching, when O-Sensei would select a technique, one from among thousands, and then select a student at random to demonstrate in front of the class. After demonstrating the technique, the other students would ask questions. Many times these questions forced you to realize how little you knew, while on other occasions the senior’s questions were merely a convention to tell you that you had made a mistake.
But this was not the most brutal part. After the question and answer session finished, O-Sensei would then deliver his critique, which could cover any foible, any weird movement, tone of voice that occurred in your delivery. This was difficult to hear. Some times a senior would be selected to demonstrate the most basic technique, then receive unending criticism.
But one senior explained to ActiveEngine Sensei, who was left discouraged and afraid after many stinging reviews, that this was the best gift you could get from the seniors and O-Sensei.
“What an opportunity. You have people who think enough of you to ask questions, point out errors and give things for you to work on. The harsh style is to train your ego, because your ego just gets in the way.”
Developers need to be shown things – they’re the “Show me guys”, but many fall into the “Show-me-no-don’t-show-me” syndrome where their egos cloud their thoughts. For those of you who want to get to the next level of performance and build your own ActiveEngine, check your ego barometer every now and then. This way you will open yourself to learning a lot more.
Web 3.0 at ActiveEngine Will Be About Devotion in 2008 December 30, 2007
Posted by ActiveEngine Sensei in ActiveEngine, Business Processes, Coaching, Mythology, Personal Development.Tags: 2008, ActiveEngine, Jaron Lanier, Open Source, Trends, Web 2.0, Web 3.0
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Web 2.0 was all about relationships – the social network. Passion is also another term that is bantered about a lot in regards to the efforts of start ups and the new revolution that 2.0 was supposed to bring about. Has passion for social networks produced anything other than the ephemeral? After all, Facebook, too, will present you with ads.
All of that is shallow. No where was the term devotion used, or if it is, it’s not too prevalent. “Do things with passion” or “Love what you do” are the slogans that are not associated with an ActiveEngine. Mobs are crowds with passion running high. Devotion is passion’s filter, the drive for you to get up and go work when you have the flu, to review budgets when you rather be writing code. To constantly evaluate your tool kit and skills, add new techniques and discard bad habits when you are faced with your failures takes devotion. Passion may get you started, but devotion will help you cross the finish line, as it is the long burning fuel that steadily fires your engine.
In Budo, study of marshal arts centers on revelation through practice of basics. The higher or difficult routines are only achieved once the basics have become so ingrained they no longer have the same meaning, feel, or execution style when first introduced. This only arises from devotion. Study your craft, refine your ActiveEngine. Devotion with no .0, or .5.
Update:
Check out this article by
Seasons Greetings from Sensei December 24, 2007
Posted by ActiveEngine Sensei in ActiveEngine, Mythology, Personal Development.Tags: ActiveEngine, ActiveEngine Sensei, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Seasons Greeting
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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all those of you who have read this blog. We’ll finish out the year with more great discussions and get ready for some surprises in store for us in 2008. Take this time to spend with family, friends and we’ll begin more training next year at the ActiveEngine Dojo. |
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