Notes from 13/5–19/5
I think it’s time for a review, or at least a next level way to view what I do with these newsletters…
Blockchain
Lessons Learned from Teaching Over 500 Developers or: Why You Should Level Up
Set aside two days and really learn something. Implementing the code requires a much deeper understanding of the concept to make things work.
What is John Newbery’s Review Club for Bitcoin Core?
Really interesting format here. Not totally sure how this works though… Link here
Blockchain-Ethereum
Voting on a Blockchain: DApp Demonstration
Interesting but still a very manual form of voter registration. Wonder when he’ll finish up showing us the code!
Why Blockchain Matters To Enterprise (Hint: It’s Not Because Of Decentralization)
With enterprises like Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, and others providing blockchain infrastructure and firms like Ernst and Young beginning to ship things on the public Ethereum blockchain, we may begin seeing more of a shift to solutions built on or integrated with the public Ethereum blockchain.
I’ve heard this echoed for quite a while. R&D has enough budget to fit a blockchain PoC. Try. Doesn’t work. It’s okay! We are thought leader now. But it seems that times are changing indeed.
Data Science
Python’s One Liner graph creation library with animations Hans Rosling Style
New tool in the toolbox! Also ggplot2 was really useful in R so i suppose this is one aspect of it.
It’s 2019 — Make Your Data Visualizations Interactive with Plotly
Okay I’ve really got to give this a shot, perhaps running it on the old ESA datasets would do. Comparing it with ggplot2 might make for an interesting blog post.
Design
I wrote the book on user-friendly design. What I see today horrifies me
Designers and companies of the world, you are badly serving an ever-growing segment of your customer base, a segment that you too will one day inhabit. Isn’t it time to reform: to make things that are functional and stylish, useable and accessible? Every ailment that I described that impacts the elderly is also present in people of all ages. Designs that make it easier for elderly people often are of equal value for younger people. In fact, for everyone. Help the elderly, and the results will help many more, including yourself, someday.
Inclusive design as the common paradigm. We’re all getting old so it’s best to prepare for it.
The humble receipt gets a brilliant redesign
Data visualisation for everyday things. It really depends on what you’r elooking for in a receipt. In this case it was about seeing how much you spent on each item etc but if I had a receipt really all I’d want is just to make it online or to auto-tabulate.
Development
Things you’re probably not using in Python 3 — but should
I.. honestly can’t tell why this is important? Other than perhaps simplifying tasks. But these things seem so esoteric it would be additional overhead to understandign the code itself.
I charged $18,000 for a Static HTML Page
Hilarious read about just how inefficienct organisations are. In the end, they made him sit around for so long at a rate that they agreed on so there’s really no problem here.
Also, plot twist, he charged $21,000 instead because they checked the hours he was actually there
Life Optimisation
When I asked Sean about his hobbies, I wasn’t prepared for what he said.
ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS READ ABUSING TINDER’S API
Memorise the relations between things, not the things themselves. Recommend using mental models.
Increase your integrative complexity, the ability to combine multiple sources and perspectives into a larger, more coherent picture.
“Well, the first rule is that you can’t really know anything if you just remember isolated facts and try and bang ’em back. If the facts don’t hang together on a latticework of theory, you don’t have them in a usable form. You’ve got to have models in your head. And you’ve got to array your experience both vicarious and direct on this latticework of models. You may have noticed students who just try to remember and pound back what is remembered. Well, they fail in school and in life.”
Engage with the content
Active reading is reading with the conscious intention to understand, integrate and evaluate the information you’re reading.
If you read something and you don’t (1) build a vivid mental picture, (2) make mental links and (3) make time to think about what you’ve read, the ROI will be low
Cal Newport’s QEC method (Question, Evidence, Conclusion)
Being fully organised costs less energy than half-assing it because you can trust your system.
Adding all this up, here’s the complete diachronic process for reading a book QEC style.
- After waking, answer last night’s question.
- When it’s time to read, first review your upgraded marginalia from the last reading session and underline what now strikes you as key insights. Snap a picture and stick it in your system (see next section).
- Then re-read the QEC notes. Bold the things that stand to you (optional). (This is analogous to how, on the mindmap-method, we started our reading sessions by reviewing the mindmap and bullet-point notes so far.)
- Pull a blank sheet of paper and already list some marginalia on the right-hand side that you’ve read previously and you think the material in this chapter will connect to.
- Start reading. Use the QEC method to take notes and put everything you wish to come back to in the marginalia column on your blank sheet of paper.
- When you’re done for the day, review your QECs and add to your sheet of marginalia if necessary. Then do the hard work and connect the marginalia you’ve written down in full, articulate sentences.
- Before you go to bed, ask a question to your unconscious you don’t understand yet.
Management
10 Hard Truths About Management No One Tells You
You probably got your job as a manager because you were particularly good at whatever you were doing as an individual contributor … but in your new role, you actually stop doing that thing. The manager’s role is to help their team execute their craft particularly well. And because you’re playing an enablement role instead of actually doing the work, your skills are probably going to get a bit rusty.
Management is a completely different job
Need to self-regulate your emototions because people take emotional cues from their leaders.
One-on-ones are my most valuable meetings; here’s how I run them
If done effectively, these one-on-ones are an opportunity to show my team that I care about them, their professional success, and their overall happiness. It gives them an opportunity to step back and think about what they need to be successful, and to hold me accountable to setting them up for this success.
Answers to overall pulse check questions are sent in before hand and the meeting is well prepared for.
Founder’s Guide to Productive Board Meetings
Define the purpose and goals of your board meetings
Determine what should (and should not) be discussed in your board meetings
The format of your board meetings — will dictate productivity of the meeting
The frequency of your board meetings-depending on pace of company
The culture of your board meetings — for alignment
Send out an information packet before the meeting so everyone is updated
