I find that there are many ways to learn. I hope to provide some insight on the ways that I learn, share knowledge, and be a great community citizen to the web.

HOPE

Tis the season to be … hopeless? That unfortunately is a reality. Circumstances, situations, and life happens past and present can take a toll on people. The outward smiles are in full effect, but underneath is sorrow, pain, loneliness, or bitterness. Sometimes Mr. Scrooge looks to be living a charmed life. Depression consumes, happiness turns stomachs, and confidence is at an all time low. This may be you, the person in the cubicle next you, or the family in the checkout line spending on the essentials while seeing gifts abound in other carts.

NOT AI

Over the last few days, I have been using image creation tools and experimenting with augmenting my posts. In general, it has been mostly figuring out how to accurate ask the correct prompts to get to an acceptable output. In my prompts, I was asking to produce pictures that represent emotional qualities or other sensory nuances. Most of these drastically failed. What matters is the experience Awe hit me on the morning of the picture, just like it does throughout my days. Artificial intelligence is just that artificial. It can’t replace the few moments in the following areas:

YOUR VOICE IN COMMUNITY

Average Joe and his beautiful family had just moved to the area and started attending the neighborhood church. After a few Sundays, the family took steps to get more involved by joining some outreach gatherings and participating in a community group. Things were going well, with the family really starting to feel like relationships were being established. Until a conversation occurred in the community group. An opinion was shared with a response that Joe and his family had a different viewpoint on. It seemed like others had like minded views to that opinion based upon the verbal and physical queues. Joe kept silent on sharing his thoughts as it looked like it wasn’t up for debate. Later that evening, in a conversation with his wife, they debated on what was more important, community or convictions on their point of view.

WORKING WITH A VETERAN

I am grateful as an 8 year Navy veteran, to have served in the military. Those experiences have shaped many parts of my character and informed my values. In this month, where we are recognizing our veterans, please consider the following: We may not be formally trained in the jobs we are at. I know a few of us are not college graduates with masters degrees in computer science, MBAs, or other amazing educational backgrounds. For many of us, our “college” years were spent learning on the job (many times 24/7).

COMMITMENT

Everywhere I look, I see commitments that I have made, commitments, that I have kept, and commitments that I have missed. I am looking at emails, work items, bills, schedules and a myriad of other things with due dates, expectations, and perceptions by others about what I should deliver. The flood of these “priorities” overwhelms, incapacitates, and prohibits us. How do we wrangle this? “Just Do It!” - If you said yes, make it mean something! Show integrity, character, and willingness to get it done. When this will be impossible, please communicate out and look to find the compromise or an alternative solution. Reset your expectations - Many times, we put commitments on ourselves. No one else has that expectation and if it doesn’t get done, that might be ok. We always prioritize and reprioritize based upon the situation at the time. Reset the expectations of others - I don’t know how many questions / emails / tasks that I get where I haven’t committed to any of that work. There is an expectation set by others without my involvement. Be proactive, communicate the timeline that you think you will complete it. Say no alot! Not everything is priority. There are 24 hours in a day. Prioritize on what is most important and can be done. When the “prioritization” is done for you, communicate early and often what other items will not get done because of this change. I try not to put myself in the position at work where I have to make the judgement call on competing items that I can’t control. I can influence for sure, but sometimes, balls must be dropped when juggling. The question is, have you communicated how those dropped priorities will affect those counting on the work to get done. Today, as I go through my lists for the week, I am looking at my capacity, what is important, and where I can say no so that I can deliver the most important things.

WE ARE ALL GIVEN A GIFT

Have you ever received a gift and never use it? You know which one, I am sure it could be the Bob Ross grilled cheese maker, or the deep pine scented soap with tar for that extra outdoor feeling. Maybe it is the clothes that were 3 sizes too big, or 4 sizes too small. It may be the one created by your child that needs pinned on your sweater.

COUNT IT ALL JOY

It is coming to the end of the school year for many. It can be a stressful time of tests, new life plans for graduates, figuring out how to manage the family during summer while working full time, etc. It can seem overwhelming, out of control, and hopeless at times. It is in these moments to take a new perspective. Be joyful! Joy is not the first thing that comes to mind during the trials of life. Rather emotions of anger, sadness, bitterness, regret, isolation come to mind. I think the key here is to be joyful as soon as the trial comes. But how? I believe the answer to that is knowing as followers of Jesus, He is right along side of me as I face those trials. There is nothing that is too big for Him to handle, nothing too complex, nothing too small, but in all things Christ can be along side of me. That indeed is joyous. As long as I let Christ participate.

THE EXPERIENCE MATTERS

What? Starbucks didn’t open till 8:00am. How did I survive the mornings until then. I must say the breakfast sandwiches were much better than the U.S. The drop of dijon mustard was killer! Then there was Dim Sum for breakfast. I did skip the chicken feet (phoenix claws) for that setting. It was an experience that I will remember for a while.

REFLECTIONS ON BE > DO

Two words, two letters, transformed by time with priceless meanings. One is made manifest by the concrete actions, the other by essence.

ENGINEERS: THE CHALLENGE OF ENOUGH DOCUMENTATION

The question: In software engineering practices especially in the areas of Scrum, Agile, or XP, what documentation is necessary to build a quality product? The debate on documentation feels political. Each side of the spectrum is moving farther away from the center and becoming extreme with documentation practices. Snippets and quotes out of context are not useful to justify whether to document or not. Each stance has created a quality gap in the delivery, maintenance, and innovation of systems today. The pendulum is nowhere in the practicality zone.