Porcupine X

 We are taught from a young age that in order to achieve great success we must set and achieve our goals. However in doing so, we become focused on where we are going rather than enjoying where we are right now. We sacrifice today in the hope that a better future will emerge, only to discover that achievement rarely leads to true joy. Goal-Free Living presents an alternative philosophy – that we can have an extraordinary life now, all without goals and detailed plans. By living for each moment, it’s possible to have a successful life and follow your passions at the same time.

In Stephen Shapiro’s book “ Goal-Free Living” he presents his eight secrets to living life free from the constant pressure of goals:

• - Use a compass, not a map
• - Trust that you are never lost
• - Remember that opportunity knocks often, but sometimes softly
• - Want what you have
• - Seek out adventure
• - Become a people magnet
• - Embrace your limits
• - Remain detached

Goal-Free Living offers practical guidance on putting these secrets to work in your own life every day. Take them to heart and you’ll be free of the tyranny of goals-and experience a life truly worth living.

A couple of random quotes from the book:

"I started thinking about growth rather than downsizing. Innovation and creativity rather than efficiency." 

"The things to do are: the things that need doing: that you see need to be done, and no one else seems to see the need to be done. Then you will conceive your own way of doing that which needs to be done – that no one else has told you to do or how to do it. This will bring out the real you that often get buried inside a character that acquired a superficial array of behaviors induced or imposed by other on the individual."

"One of the side effects of living goal-free is that we don’t end up with a neat and tidy set of accomplishments that defines us. We end up with lots of strings that cross, weave, twist, and turn. They all lead to the current moment, right now. They lead out into the future too, but we can only guess at where they will cross again. Any threads can take me almost anywhere I need to go, but to sort it out logically in terms of goals and accomplishments can really squeeze the life out of the stories, the threads, this life."

"Networking isn’t about business opportunities or social status. Rather it is about making new connections, gaining new experiences, and sharing passions."

"Difference knowledge rather than more knowledge."
 

I personally think this is a really amazing book – Stephen Shapiro’s Goal-Free Living.

The Connect Effects is a straightforward book by Michael Dulworth about how to improve your networking skills, He bring the Networking Quotient (NQ) into the picture and defines it by four elements

Quantity: Size matters – you never know when an important connection will lead to a positive outcome.

Relationships: Networking is not a one way street – you have to give back to the realationship in some meaningful way and there has to be a real exchange og value.

Diversity in your network: learn new things, discover new opportunities, …

Quality of the connection: is the other person a strong networker, knowledge, a nice, … quantity is important but quality
 

If you want to have success you need a good IQ, EQ and NQ (is that a good way to define success?).

The four elements is a quit good way of measuring were you need to improve to get a better NQ. Currently I got a pretty big quantity of connections with a medium good diversity (could be better). My main focus now is to build quality relationsships with people in my network – thats the hard and time consuming part of the four elements but luckily is also the fun part.

The book sells for £10.55 at www.amazon.co.uk – thats a pretty good bargain for a book that gets you in the right direction if you are serious about networking.

Lean community leaders have recently made two huge changes in how they present Lean. The first change is Lean as a management system rather than “Lean manufacturing.” Second, they are finally taking note of the long-established “Respect for People” principle. Why now? In part because there have been so few successful Lean transformations over the last 20 years. Another reason is that most other aspects of the Lean management system have been studied in detail, so this is the next territory to explore. This batch-and-queue non-integrative approach has severely increased the lead-time needed to properly educate people about Lean management – particularly the “Respect for People” principle.

Read the paper by Bob Emiliani (PDF)

The people who know me knows that I have a huge passion for Søren Kierkegaard. I just found this Kierkegaard quote on my old blog: "Among all ridiculous things it seems to me that the most ridiculous is to be busy, to be a man who hastens when he eats or does his errant in a quick manner. When I see a fly land on such a businessman’s nose, or mud is thrown at him by the acceleration of a yet hastier car passing by, or Knippelsbro Copenhagen Bridge is blocked for the sake of a boat passing under it, or a stone fall down from a house and kills him, then I laugh out of full loungs. Who could bare himself or herself for not laughing? What good do they accomplish these people of hasting? Do they not end up like that old woman who, from sudden stupefaction of finding out that her house is burning, rescues nothing else than the chimney iron? What else do they rescue from of Life’s big fire?".

The orginal Danish text: "Af alle latterlige Ting forekommer det mig at være det allerlatterligste at have travlt i Verden, at være en Mand, der er rask til sin Mad og rask til sin Gjerning. Naar jeg derfor seer en Flue i det afgjørende Øieblik sætte sig paa en saadan Forretningsmands Næse, eller han bliver overstænket af en Vogn, der i endnu større Hast kjører ham forbi, eller Knippelsbro gaaer op, eller der falder en Tagsteen ned og slaaer ham ihjel, da leer jeg af Hjertens Grund. Og hvo kunne vel bare sig for at lee? Hvad udrette de vel, disse travle Hastværkere? Gaaer det dem ikke som det gik hiin Kone, der i Befippelse over, at der var Ildløs i Huset, reddede Ildtangen? Hvad Mere redde de vel ud af Livets store Ildebrand?".

LAUNCHING OF JAOO DAYS 2009

As a part of the JAOO concept, Trifork are happy to present JAOO Days – a series of one day conferences located in Copenhagen. Speakers ranking among the best in the world will take you through current hot topics in software development.

The first to be launched:

• JAOO Agile Day: March 4, 2008, Park Inn, Copenhagen.

• JAOO Web 2.0 Day: March 16, 2008, IT University of Copenhagen.

JAOO Agile Day: March 4 2009
Agile experts like Jeff Sutherland, Nils Haugen, Steve Freemann and more will this JAOO Agile Day focus on many different principles of agile development and the techniques/practices that support these principles, e.g. TDD and continuous integration. They will also look at specific tools that support agile development in Java and .Net and give you tips and tricks to help you improve your agile skills.

Tutorial: Web-Oriented-Arhcitecture (WOA): March 17 2009
The WOA tutorial is an intensive hands-on exploration of next-generation approaches for rapidly building lightweight applications and services over the network using Web-Oriented Architecture (WOA). Topics covered include the complete WOA "stack" which encompasses RESTful architecture, AJAX, lightweight integration patterns, mashup techniques and approaches, open APIs, cloud computing, network identity, open industry-specific standards, security, and related topics. Attendees will come away with:

• A complete working knowledge of all the moving parts of Web-Oriented Architecture (WOA)
• A coherent set of techniques to make first-time WOA practioners successful

Tutorial details

Took a combined shopping and photo trip to Malmø in Sweden. Only used 500 Swedish Kroner (app. 65USD) and didn’t really catch any good pictures but besides that it was a pretty good trip

Here is a couple of shoots to get you in the the Malmø mood!?