Happy new 2023 everyone.
As we enter the new year, one thing has been bothering me for years: Shockingly, we tax active income at a higher rate than for passive income. Everything of value in our culture comes from active income. This year I have only one request: please understand what a bad idea this is.
Continue readingRunning a volunteer group can feel sometimes like the Greek mythical Sisyphus: just when you get everyone up to date and knowledgeable about what you are doing, people leave and new people join and you have to start all over again. An effective group memory can help. There are many things a new member needs to know in order to integrate quickly. Some people are shy about asking questions which can lead them to contribute with an inaccurate understanding of what has and has not already been done.
Continue readingIf you are modeling a decision, it is likely that you will want to make use of an enumeration, that is, a data type which restricts the options to a fixed set of values. I tested this on four different DMN modeling tools, and I found the output is different for the different tools. That has implications for interoperability.
Continue readingI was recently asked to do some decision modeling in DMN. This is an update on the tools that are available as I experienced them today.
Continue readingSome of us would live blissfully if one never had to attend another meeting. Like it or not, meetings are still critical means to organizing groups of people. The worst meetings are those called for some vague purpose that is never clearly stated. People waste the first part of the meeting discovering and clarifying the purpose of the meeting. Avoid that by making a clear agenda so people come to the meeting prepared, and to complete business as quickly as possible.
Continue readingSome say it is like herding cats, but sometimes it is more like channeling the torrent, it always depends on the group, but there are several key activities that you should be doing in order to make your volunteer group as successful as possible.
Continue readingIt is just so easy: plop the documents in an email address, add a few people in the address line, and WHOOOSH it is delivered. But there is evil lurking, hidden by the patina of simplicity.
Continue readingHere is the results of some analysis that I did on using Stack Overflow as an internal question/answer and knowledge management system within the consulting organization that I work for. The conclusion is pretty good — about 4x return from the investment — and it is summarized in the following video.
Continue readingHeld a long meeting over Microsoft Teams, and to be honest the telecom capabilities of Teams works very well. The end of the meeting was a set of presentations and we recorded them. This is where there is a very strange behavior.
Continue readingI mentioned last year that I received a letter from GoDaddy asking me to remove ALL the ZIP files from my web site that I host with them. I got another one this week. Apparently my situation is fairly common to those who get web hosting from GoDaddy. Continue reading
Thinking Matters 