Archive for May, 2005

Creative thinking works!

Just got back from a work conference in Canberra last night, hence the absence of any posts in the last couple of days.

I ran (for the first time) a Six Thinking Hats session with a group of techies and received some fantastic feedback. The participants thought it was great and the CEO even held up my session as an example of how well the conference went in his closing. He had joined the session and I even had him working for me at one point, hanging up flip charts!

I really enjoyed the session — it certainly beats death by PowerPoint. I have been involved in a couple of these sessions before, but have never run any and have had no training. I also attempted to cram the session into under and hour, which was a stretch. I did encounter some interesting interaction and ‘hairy’ moments during the hour, but I managed to keep it relatively on track and it didn’t degenerate too much. I’m documenting (in a mindmap) the notes from session between writing this post.

I guess there’s something to be said for stepping out of the comfort zone and having the guts to try something different!

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First Published Work

In keeping with my word …my first published work was pre-released today — “Linux - A view from the Market”. It’s a piece I was asked to write in relation to future technology direction in the industry in which I am currently working. The book that my chapter is in is being launched on Monday, and is designed for a specific audience (industry segment).

The book concept itself is not that much to rave about … but it was an interesting challenge to write a chapter and its kinda nice to see it published (with minimal edits). Watching/contributing to the process was also a first time experience, which was interesting.

[ 0 comments ] [permalink] [ blogging - books ]

Zen and the Art of Blogging

Whilst I’m on the topic of Zen (&TAOMM), I came across this on the Freemind site (an Open Source mind-mapping tool).

So you want to write a completely new metaphysics? Why don’t you use FreeMind? You have a tool at hand that remarkably resembles the tray slips of Robert Pirsig, described in his sequel to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance called Lila.

And from the Zen book itself, a desciption of the structure of his narrative …

What is in mind is a sort of Chautauqua…that’s the only name I can think of for it…like the traveling tent-show Chautauquas that used to move across America, this America, the one that we are now in, an old-time series of popular talks intended to edify and entertain, improve the mind and bring culture and enlightenment to the ears and thoughts of the hearer.

I find it an amazing coincidence that mind-maps resemble his ‘tray slips’ … and blogs Pirsig’s Chataqua.

Here we see the tools of our day reflecting his calls for a unification of spiritual feeling & technological thought, the division of which is the discontent of our age. Just as Pirsig offers some unorthodox solutions and serious alternatives to material success — an expansion of the meaning of success to somthing larger than just getting a good job and staying out of trouble — blogging, open source, podcasting etc. all represent methods by which people appear to be grasping this concept.

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What is Quality?

I’m reading Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintanance again! … which poses some serious philosophical questions about the definition of quality. It struck me that I posted the other day about Software Quality. What did I (do I) mean by quality? Like Phaedrus, I have difficulty defining quality — because it is not defineable! The following quote, epitomises open source software therefore assisting an explaination as to the difference in quality over commercial/proprietary software

…by turning our attention to Quality it is hoped that we can get technological work out of the noncaring subject-object dualism and back into craftsman like self-involved reality again.

[ 0 comments ] [permalink] [ books - philosophy ]

Cool thangs! - /May05

Things I can’t live without:

• iPod
• Pencil Case (… and whiteboard markers)
• Cups of Tea
• Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
• Mind Maps

Tunes on my playlist:

• Metallica (as always)
• Lenny Kravitz
• Tom Waits
• Morrissey

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