This post is the first in a new series where I talk about technologies and make guesses about how they’ll deliver value in the future. I’ve actually been doing this privately for a few years now and recently decided I should share my thoughts publicly, as I’ll surely learn more that way – both from the responses as well as from the extra thought I’ll put into it before I hit publish. One of my goals in life is to be a great technologist – an expert at identifying technology that can deliver value to consumers and businesses. A lot of people try to be great technologist, but many of them miss. Sometimes it is poor understanding the technology, sometimes it is delusion or denial, sometimes it is lack of execution. I hope this blog series will help me with the former two. With the hope of improving over time
Better every year. That is my goal. I believe that through focused effort I can keep improving and ensure my best years are still in front of me. With that in mind, at the start of a new year, I take the time to set my focus for the coming year. By being selective about where I direct my energy, I can achieve results that are exponentially greater than if I split my attention. More details about the process are in this blog post and you can review the results from past years here. 2024 Theme: Movements I’ve made a bit of progress here: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany – IN PROGRESS (via audio) Evolution of Everything – DONE Change: How to Make Big Things Happen – very obviously relevant – IN PROGRESS (via audio) “How Change Happens” by Leslie R. Crutchfield
Better every year. That is my goal. I believe that through focused effort I can keep improving and ensure my best years are still in front of me. With that in mind, at the start of a new year, I take the time to set my focus for the coming year. By being selective about where I direct my energy, I can achieve results that are exponentially greater than if I split my attention. More details about the process are in this blog post and you can review the results from past years here. 2024 Theme: Movements I’ve made a bit of progress here, I had ChatGPT make me a nice list of movements and books about them and have been making my way down the list. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany – I started it last year when it popped into
The goal of this blog post is to celebrate possessions I’ve had in my service for at least ten years. I believe that reflecting on these items will help me learn a few things about reducing waste, being efficient with my money and designing good products. These are all valuable to me. For something to last ten years in my service in needs to have a few important attributes. It needs to: be useful or beautiful – otherwise I would have gotten to a point where I didn’t need it and donated, sold or tossed it be durable and/or repairable – otherwise it would likely be broken and discarded (unless I didn’t use it, in which case, see above) I must have not outgrown it – the item would likely be passed on if I changed my preferences, body size, skill level, or hobbies away from its use case not
Better every year. That is my goal. I believe that through focused effort I can keep improving and ensure my best years are still in front of me. With that in mind, at the start of a new year, I take the time to set my focus for the coming year. By being selective about where I direct my energy, I can achieve results that are exponentially greater than if I split my attention. More details about the process are in this blog post and you can review the results from past years here. 2024 Theme: Movements This is the final year of my current sabbath cycle, a six year period where I am focused on preparing for my calling. I actually said that last year was the final full year of the current cycle too, but have decided to shift my schedule back by six months so the sabbath
Better every year. That is my goal. I believe that through focused effort I can keep improving and ensure my best years are still in front of me. With that in mind, at the start of a new year, I take the time to set my focus for the coming year. By being selective about where I direct my energy, I can achieve results that are exponentially greater than if I split my attention. In 2023 I set out to learn about Strategy. You can read more about my intent here. 2023 Theme: Strategy Self Grade: 10/10 I identified the following books as great places to learn about strategy and was able to make some solid progress. Good Strategy Bad Strategy (DONE) Blue Ocean Strategy (DONE) The Crux (DONE) The Art of Strategy (DONE) On grand strategy (IN PROGRESS) HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Strategy (IN PROGRESS) Playing to Win
In 2023 I set my theme as ‘strategy’. Last January, when I selected it, I wrote: “My goal this year will be to learn more about strategy, to figure out what the common patterns are, how to improve them in myself, and how to be a skilled strategist.” This blog post serves as a summary of what I read and what I learned. What I Read I identified the following books as good ones on the topic and I was able to read through the first four and get about half way through two others. I’ll likely just finish those up in the coming weeks before I transition into reading for my theme for 2024. Good Strategy Bad Strategy (DONE) Blue Ocean Strategy (DONE) The Crux (DONE) The Art of Strategy (DONE) On grand strategy (IN PROGRESS) HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Strategy (IN PROGRESS) Playing to Win Understanding Michael
This year I picked Genghis Khan as my exemplar since the theme I was studying was strategy and he is widely noted as one of the best military strategists. I write these reviews following a review template to help me get the most out of the process of having an exemplar. Below is my entry for Genghis Khan. What did Genghis Khan achieve? He unified a large number of nomadic people on the Mongolian steppe and led the expansion of that kingdom until it became the largest contiguous land empire in history. Why did he care about that? I haven’t gotten any clarity into that during my study this year. It seems revenge and ambition played a role, but I also get the feeling that continual growth was just something that kept him busy and his people focused on a task. Perhaps that is all there is to it – he
Better every year. That is my goal. I believe that through focused effort I can keep improving and ensure my best years are still in front of me. With that in mind, at the start of a new year, I take the time to set my focus for the coming year. By being selective about where I direct my energy, I can achieve results that are exponentially greater than if I split my attention. In 2023 I set out to learn about Strategy. You can read more about my intent here. 2023 Theme: Strategy In terms of reading, here is my progress Good Strategy Bad Strategy HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Strategy – IN PROGRESS Blue Ocean Strategy – IN PROGRESS The Crux Playing to Win Understanding Michael Porter The Art of Strategy Competitive Strategy Your Next Five Moves Measure What Matters Your Strategy Needs a Strategy The biggest bluff
I recently finished my first year at Databricks, so I wanted to take a chance to reflect on the year; summarize what I’ve learned, see if the reasons I joined have proven valid, and check in on how I’m progressing on the goals I set for myself. If you haven’t yet read the blog post on why I decided to join Databricks, you might benefit by referencing that. How Has My First Year At Databricks Been? I’m generally very happy here and think I made a good decision to join. I am truly living up to my LinkedIn tagline of “having fun doing hard things with great people”. I’ve had a lot of fun, but it has also been very challenging, in the way I enjoy – the way that stretches me to be better. In some ways I got really lucky joining when I did, much like I got