Scott Berkun's Blog, page 97
January 21, 2010
How to stop overcommunication
Spolsky's latest piece is about Brook's law, and how adding people to projects can make them worse.
For those unfamiliar, Brook's law states that when you add a person, you geometricly increase the amount of communication people of the project have to do, suggesting it's a bad idea.
While I agree with the law, there are important exceptions I've identified - depending who the person in question is (elite or bozo), how good they are at jumping in tough territory (ninja or bozo), and how much t...
January 20, 2010
Countdown to 1000 posts
This post, according to wordpress, is #952. I have about 50 more to go to hit the 1000 mark.
Since my posts tend towards new material, rather than just a link and a sentence, this is a shitload of words.
I'm grateful to all the folks who subscribe, read, forward, comment and even snark here, as this blog has been a critical part of my successful independent life so far.
I'd like to do something fun here when I hit post #1000. Open to suggestions – leave 'em in the comments. Thanks.
50 posts more to 1000 posts
This post, according to wordpress, is #952. I have about 50 more to go to hit the 1000 mark.
Since my posts tend towards new material, rather than just a link and a sentence, this is a shitload of words.
I'm grateful to all the folks who subscribe, read, forward, comment and even snark here, as this blog has been a critical part of my successful independent life so far.
I'd like to do something fun here when I hit post #1000. Open to suggestions – leave 'em in the comments. Thanks.
How to be passionate (when you open your mouth)
Vijay recently asked in the comments on a recent talk:
Thank you for a great presentation. I noticed that your energy was explosive and there was absolutely no point in the presentation where I could detect a lull. I am interested in learning if you have any secrets or techniques in maintaining the focus of not just the audience, but also yourself as I often space out even when I am working on something that I am passionate about.
Explosive energy makes me think of being a drummer in...
Free chapters from Confessions
These were up on the amazon.com page as a special promotion, but amazon took them down recently.
Here they are:
Chapter 2 – Attack of the Butterflies
Chapter 3 – $30,000 an hour
Wednesday linkfest
Here are these week's links:
Designing for panic - The idea of help in software has always had the vague intention of being there in emergencies. But almost never has it provided the simple set of usefulness Uday suggests here (hat tip d&i daily)The science of expectations – Interesting little summary of how expectations impact the release of dopamine. On the positive side this means controling your expectations can make you happier. But it also means you are vulnerable to being addicted toJanuary 19, 2010
The limits of innovation
My recent post on why the future of UI will be boring has upset some folks. I tried to clarify that although my prediction is depressing in a way, I don't make it because I like it. It's simply that I believe the best and most honest view of the future of replacing keyboards, mice and GUIs is less than good.
But there is a general theory at work here that perhaps I didn't express well.
One critique that best raised this gripe was this from Baldur Bjarnason:
What I'm arguing is that automobiles...
Live, Free webcast TODAY on speaking
(Updated: this is today. it's free. If you're in Seattle you can come down to creativetech and watch live. )
This should be fun – the folks at creativetechs have a fantastic tech setup for webcasts which promises to be higher quality than most. If you saw the last webcast and enjoyed it, please help spread the word.
You can tune in from anywhere in the world, or if you're in Seattle come on down and watch live.
January 18, 2010
Quote of the month
"You never feel better than when you start feeling good after you've been feeling bad."
- William Least Heat-Moon, From Blue Highways
CrowdSourcing Star Wars: A new hope
This is uber-clever – Star Wars Uncut. They divided up the original star wars movie into 15 second chunks, and anyone can sign up to recreate the video for any section.
The UI is a little funky, but click on any scene with a blue box, and watch the version someone made. If you want to grab a scene, click the Find a scene button near the top left.
It's a total patchwork – some are reenactments. Some are hand drawings. Some are downright strange. But I will definitely give it a...
