I wrote some time ago that my new Surface was irritating and I didn't understand the hype. THis statement now somewhat reminds me of the venture capitalist I worked for in 1999, who was talking about how he wouldn't take any IPO shares in Google because they were way overpriced. "What's the point of Google,... Continue Reading →
Vulnerability
I was reading about the St Petersburg metro bombings, and the woman that died shielding her daughter from the blast, and it made me so sad. It's what absolutely every parent would do, and I don't have any doubt in my mind at all that I would gladly die to save my children. Most people... Continue Reading →
Why “Agile” and especially Scrum are terrible
Interesting article on scrum/agile, even if I don’t quite agree with it.
Agility is a good thing, no doubt, and the Agile Manifesto isn’t unreasonable. Compared to a straw-man practice called “Waterfall”, Agile is notably superior. Yet, so much of Agile as-practiced is deeply harmful, and I don’t really think that the Agile/Waterfall dichotomy is useful in the first place.
There’s a variety of Agile, called Scrum, that I’ve seen actually kill a company. By “kill”, I don’t mean “the culture wasn’t as good afterward”. Rather, I mean that its stock dropped by almost 90 percent in less than two years.
What is Agile?
Agile grew up in web consulting, where it had a certain amount of value: when dealing with finicky clients who don’t know what they want, one typically has to choose between one of two options. The first is to manage the client: get expectations set, charge appropriately for rework, and maintain a relationship of equality rather than submission…
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Ghost in the Shell – go see
After a day of family stuff, got an impromptu offer of babysitting. Booked tickets for the Odeon online at 5 pm , for an 8.15 pm showing. Ghost in the Shell, which we were hoping to catch, but had assumed we'd probably miss it and get it on streaming in about 6 months. We got... Continue Reading →
Horoscope idiocy
I had a call with Hong Kong yesterday morning. They had been rather chippy about someone in my team being "too direct", so I was making an effort with the niceties, wishing them a happy new year of the rooster. I have no idea about the Chinese zodiac, so I looked it up. There was... Continue Reading →
A whole century gone in an instant
January is always somewhat downbeat. You start the first week of it thinking about all the plans you have, and looking at travel websites to firm up your holiday plans. Then you're entirely overwhelmed by stacks of work, and stacks of personal life admin that suddenly need doing overnight. This year was no exception in... Continue Reading →
Our weekend
We are sitting on the 6.53 train, slightly later than planned, on a Monday morning. It is forecast to rain all week. The world is hurtling towards mutual destruction. We don't spend enough time with the kids. We never have enough time to feel on top of our chores. My job is too hard. Boo... Continue Reading →
Playgroup funnies
When I was looking after my kids at home (as opposed to paying someone else to look after them at home), I went to any and every event designed for children. Most days, I could find two things to do with them quite locally. The format of these are usually 90 minutes of "play" in... Continue Reading →
Bye bye 2016
I have 22 minutes left to write a 2016 post. I am quite drunk and my father in law wants to do another quiz. So....errr....well it was geopolitically a complete fucking disaster, as everyone ever tells you. Personally though, it was fine really. Horrific variety of medical experts (to whom increasingly I think the epithet... Continue Reading →
