Month: August 2016

Very few see the work, and less the mistakes.

I know I have told this story a lot.  I have an artist friend, he was amazing.  There were some paintings he did that were of chrome that was sick.  I mean, you swear it was a photograph it was that good.  I was fortunate enough to go to his house once and hang out with him and his wife.  I got to see more of his work, one painting was more impressive than the next.

After a while, I told my friends wife, that she is married to an amazing painter.  Then I found the secret.  She walked me to the backyard to the shed.  In the shed, dozens of broken up canvases, and an ax that he had used to trash them.  Those were all the mistakes that he had made.  For each successful painting that I saw, there was probably more than one bad canvases.   For the first time I realized that artists (and really good ones) were not perfect.  In fact they need to practice and practice, they make mistakes, they are human.   Before that moment, I really thought that they would start a painting, and finish it.

It made me realize, than in my job, I don’t have to get it right first.  I just need to get it right.  When I design screen, or system architecture.  I ask for opinions from other team members. I use the feedback, and sometimes go back and scrap the original design, or just make some changes.   I do not worry that people don’t like my first attempt, as long as we get the last one right.  I even now have a presentation on how one application went from initial design to final application.   So now people see the work that went into building the final project.

Just a reminder, I am not doing this for profit,  this is not my day job, I am just doing a brain dump.  I don’t spend any money on marketing, design or images.  I welcome comments (but moderate) and all I ask for you is to enjoy it.

My world famous disclaimer…  so, this blog has nothing to do about my current employer.  I provide the information without warranty blah blah blah. I make no money from this blog, there is no advertising, or charges to anyone.  I do this as a brain dump, to leave something behind.  If you want to support me, instead of doing that support one of the charities i care about, the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital and Hockey in Newark.  Thanks for reading.

Parts is Parts…..

Years ago there was a Wendy’s commercial.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_oem9BqUTI Now, although it was making fun of parts is parts.  What people don’t realize is the cleverness behind that statement.

Problems often seem huge, like a giant mountain.  And there is there a fear of starting something (change) that also seems overwhelming.  But if Parts is Parts, then break the big problem into smaller pieces, and keep breaking into smaller pieces until the problem is solvable.  And just solve one problem at a time.  You don’t need to tackle the biggest piece first, often talking any part, starts momentum.

I once decided to replace the screen on an iPhone.  The first time i watch the video and saw how small the parts are, and how many parts there are was daunting.  But after watching the video and seeing how they broke down the fix into some steps, and parts is parts.   I did it, in fact eventually I was doing it regularly (having teens that break phones is not fun)  but that video reminded me, that the iPhone is just parts, and parts is parts.

Are you Edison or Tesla….

I always thought that you need a great team combined of the right skill set and diversity.   You can look at the meyers brigg types, or other types that you think are right.  But there is one that I am starting to realize that you need, you need an Edison and a Tesla.

Tesla is widely known, and someone even admired him so much he named a car company after him.   But at the end of the day, what did he invent?   He was pure visionary, had great ideas, great thoughts but limited execution.  Edison is looked at in two lights, first for the sure number of inventions he created, and lastly his attitude.  Lets drop his attitudes and issues, and go with purely the stuff he created.  He worked hard, he sweated constantly to come up with products and inventions.  He remarked that inventions are 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

I admire them both for what they accomplished.  And when building a team I need at least one Tesla, and as many Edisons as I can find.  If i have all Tesla’s i would  not deliver as much as I need to.  If I had all Edisons, I would miss many things we should be thinking to create.

I ask people, are you Edison, or you Tesla, or maybe you are combination of the two…

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