Let's be Fwends - The Archive

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Previous Issues

Exit Criteria over Deadlines17~04~24

Why defining stop conditions is better than setting time expectations

Transformative Work10~04~24

Changing how work works.

The Relation between Self-Control, Power, and Lofty Goals27~03~24

Why people with perceived self-control come to power and how lofty goals can taint your reputation.

What Everyone Should Know About Metrics06~03~24

Don't fall into this trap.

Finding the Right Question To Ask21~02~24

Asking good questions is a key skill, so why not improve on it?

The Mindset for Creating Rude Coworkers07~02~24

Context creates mindset, and mindsets can create difficult people.

A Popular Spy-Movie Trope is Coming to AI24~01~24

A proof of concept LLM changes it behaviour when a trigger condition is met.

Staying Positive in an Eroding World10~01~24

Even if things don't always look bright, letting go of optimism will make matters only worse.

Cycling, Music, Fear, Age, Soda Cans20~12~23

In that order.

Should we Start to Ignore the Internet?15~12~23

Will Generative AI taint our online experience to a point where it becomes meaningless?

The Kingdom behind the Techno-King29~11~23

Are we heading towards a new era of feudalism?

Lossy Compression Thoughts about Organisations15~11~23

Abstraction is more prejudiced than you think it is

The End of the Internet (as we know it)01~11~23

Platform decay may mark the beginning of something new.

Growing18~10~23

How to grow, how to grow old, how to make sandwiches, how to climb, and how to smash.

Good Work04~10~23

The path to humanised work is long and winding.

Measure What Makes Sense27~09~23

Measuring stuff, reading minds, pseudoneglect and pain

Commitment and Compliance28~06~23

What happens when you combine two concepts that are at odds with each other?

Efficiency is Not Your Friend22~03~23

It leaves you ill prepared for many futures

Thoughts about Difficult People08~03~23

Everyone's a bit difficult, but some levels of difficult need to be managed

Why not simply embrace uncertainty?22~02~23

Have you ever tried to eliminate uncertainty by requiring 'more' upfront? More details, more requirements, more process, more meetings?

Perfection will be AI's Doom08~02~23

Count the 'The's to spot AI-generated Text

What's the worst that can happen, and can you handle that?28~12~22

Writing down your catastrophic thoughts creates room in your mind and can stop endless worrying

Make the Zeigarnik Effect your best friend14~12~22

Stop holding on to thinking about tasks to complete to free some mental capacity.

Navigating knowledge space - The Idea Compass and Greimas Square30~11~22

Two thinking tools to kick-start your creativity

Pictures and Words16~11~22

A picture says more than a thousand words, they say.

Sometimes, the Answer is to Remove Options09~06~22

Boundaries that strenghten the thing you want to do.

Unblocking Your Organisations' Agile Adoption25~05~22

Six areas of conflict you have to address and overcome.

If Time is an Illusion Anyway, why do we Change it Twice a Year?11~05~22

There are days when a broken clock is right thrice a day

Cognitive Gadgets against Brain Overload27~04~22

More or less blinky lights?

Our Computers Would be Pretty Secure, if it wasn’t for Us.20~04~22

Any system is only as resilient as the human operating it.

The Many Levels of Hype16~03~22

Hypes are real, and not necessarily a bad thing. But they can reach levels where they are troubling.

The Six Spokes of Life02~03~22

Leading a well-rounded life can bring a lot of positive things into your life. Keeping the different aspects of your life in balance will make you happier, and perform better, in all of them.

In Search for Powerful Questions16~02~22

Do you want to start a great conversation? Ask a powerful question!

Do You Have Your Priorities Straight?02~02~22

One really great life hack is to have a good, deep look at your calendar and do a time audit. Does the way you spend your time reflect what's important to you?

Is Web3 the Future of Web Technology?19~01~22

Is Web3 really the next big thing, or just a giant fad because when a technology in search for an application and VC money in search for an investment meet, marketing happens?

Why are Digital Services so Broken?05~01~22

If it was a desease, it would be called 'Featureitis', but people call it 'crud', 'feature creep' or similar unpleasant words.

A Couple of Things About Deep-Learning22~12~21

Machines that can learn from their experiences were Alan Turings dream. Now, they're mostly used for parking cars.

Remote Work can Make it Harder to Acquire new Information08~12~21

Switching from the office-culture to a remote work setting entails the danger of static social networks and silos.

User Research and Agile24~11~21

How to add a big chunk of product discovery into delivery-happy Scrum

Find a Gem to Start a Difficult Conversation17~08~21

It creates common ground, and fosters understanding.

Herd Mentality10~08~21

Why it's bad, and why it's so easy to fall for it. Plus: 10 faces to rule most of our facial recognition algorithms.

The End is Near. Wait, What? The End is Near?21~07~21

Is our economic system at its end? And what could replace it?

A Guide to Napping (Office Naps not Included)07~07~21

How to time your naps to match your desired outcomes, and what the office actually is good for nowadays.

The Perfect Number of Hours You Should Work in a Day23~06~21

But what is great in theory doesn't always work out in real life.

Hierarchies, Efficiency, Decisions09~06~21

Why it's hard for some people to work in flat organisations, what the quest for total efficiency does to your effectiveness, and a flowchart for making a big decision.

A quick burst of inspiration26~05~21

What feedback does to our inner narrative, how we can experience more wow, and other tangents of interest.

The Political Workforce12~05~21

Avoiding political debates in the context of work will hurt companies and their missions.

How does stuff work, anyway?01~05~21

In this issue, we look at a nice tool to kickstart our creativity when designing and have a look at OKRs and how they work. On the technical side, we dive into the workings of photo-finish cameras and see for ourselves how dishwashers - well - wash our dishes. And finally, there are 99 tips from Kevin Kelly.

Getting Real with Agile14~04~21

Often, there's a bit of a misunderstanding what Scrum is, and how it fits into an 'Agile landscape'. One factor amplifying this misunderstanding is that you can do some kinda Scrum without an Agile mindset.

Dealing with difficult People on Software Projects, and weaponising Thought.31~03~21

Different characters and their traits you find in software projects, a deep-dive into the typography of one of the most iconic science fiction horror movies ever made, fun with icebergs, maps and email, and finally a look at how you can weaponise a theory as a tool of destruction, even though it was meant to be a tool for progressing thought.

On Connections17~03~21

What does it mean to be connected - to yourself, and to others? And how can we get there?

On Conversations, Part 203~03~21

Diving deeper into how to design conversations for better results

On Conversations, Part 117~02~21

Everything you do is an invitation for a conversation.

Metrics and Maps03~02~21

When it comes to metrics, the important thing is to start somewhere. The same is true for nearly everything in life.

Sometimes we need to talk about what we don’t like.20~01~21

Especially when it's as interesting as this stuff.

One issue that is not about (new) work06~01~21

Sometimes, you have to bend a bit sideways to get some good inspiration.

Remote Work and the Future of Personal Productivity09~12~20

Personal Productivity needs to be embedded in a larger context - the context of work as a whole. Remote work increases the need for visibility and transparency in the work place.

The 2020 Scrum Guide, maps with a mission, and creating new points of view25~11~20

Life is not a zero-sum game, but treating it as such is incredibly common – and dangerous.

Half of the workforce will not return to the office11~11~20

Half of the employees currently on a Work From Home programme due to Covid-19 will quit their jobs if they are forced to return to the office full time after the crisis is over.

What can we learn from broken bones?28~10~20

Maybe the ability to take of each other is the surest sign of civilization.

How normal are you (according to this algorithm)?14~10~20

Facial recognition software is already in widespread use. What does it think of your face?

Let's call it a comeback!30~09~20

The Business Agility Report 2020 confirms what a lot of practitioners feel and sense everyday: Leadership styles and the (lack of) Agile Knowledge are the most common roadblocks when trying to adopt Business Agility.

Is it sabotage or just corporate culture?20~02~20

In 1994, US intelligence published a booklet on how to perform sabotage while looking like a dilligent, loyal employee. Their suggested tactics look a lot like everyday life in a modern corporate environment.

Inhale, exhale, now you’ve got a free mind.12~02~20

There’s a thing called mind-body problem, wondering how you can reconcile a Free (unpredictable) Will with a perfectly predictable physical brain.

Landing Pages, A/B-Testing, more maps and the world’s ugliest color29~01~20

What does it feel like to be the world’s ugliest color? We don’t have an answer for that, but we think we know what it looks like.

Generative Poetry, Maps, and getting People to draw15~01~20

What do you get when you combine OpenStreetMap data and weather information? Something not even remotely similar to what you get when you engage people in drawing exercises. And both is incredibly fun.

Criticality means everything is under control18~12~19

A nuclear reactor – once powered up – needs to be carefully monitored to stay critical, but won’t become reactive. The parallels to being an agile coach or a scrum master is not lost on me. This issue of Let’s be Fwends talks about complexity.

Giving Digital Assistants a new Voice04~12~19

Beautiful News, beautiful Animal Minds, and beautiful You.20~11~19

What You See Is All There Is, says Daniel Kahneman. Your mind is really bad at reminding itself that there’s information out there which it is not considering at this very moment. It’s time to remind yourself that there are some really good news out there, that ducks are pretty darn smart and you, you are a really, really cool person.

A new initiative wants you to keep your data to yourself18~11~19

It is yours, after all.

What meetings do to you and how to start doing what you want to do08~11~19

What happens when you cut meeting time in half and send everybody home for the weekend on thursday without a pay cut?

The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge24~10~19

Why the pursuit of useless knowledge often leads to the greatest discoveries.

New Approaches23~10~19

Everything is changing. Again.

How much have we figured out yet?09~10~19

When we look at the stuff people are figuring out all the time, it makes you wonder: Why didn’t we know this all along? But it’s ok, it’s all a process!

What do your personal Wellbeing and a Spaceship have in common?25~09~19

Both are better off hidden behind a “Somebody Else’s Problem” field.

Just a bunch of cool things.11~09~19

A font for websites that comes with its own JavaScript library, a cannon that shoots fish up a river, a short introduction to my new project and a bunch of other cool stuff. Including a cat getting smothered by little puppers.

Google is a walled garden, and women might be the better athletes.28~08~19

Google is turning from a network aggregator to a closed garden, and ultra endurance events are turning into a showcase of gender equality.

It’s either this, or that. Or something else14~08~19

Anonymous datasets aren’t, huge differences in europe are, Forever21 has lost it, you did maybe too and that’s the reason why you pat down your pockets.

How we’re gonna work in the near future31~07~19

What are the main influences that change our workspace? And can logic bombs be an insurance against job loss?

The weird side effects of things in vastly complicated ecosystems.17~07~19

It’s pretty hard to predict what will happen if you change something in a complex system. Like, a city, or technology.

You see Failure, I see Feedback03~07~19

What’s better? Not taking a decision until you know you’re right, or taking one and try to revert it if it turns out to be the wrong one?

Valuable Experience Design Tools and Resources19~06~19

A collection of interesting and valuable ideas, concepts and frameworks on Experience Design.

Gender defaults harm society, your phone is easily identifiable, and what comes after capitalism?05~06~19

Why are virtual assistants always female? And what does that have to do with our perceived gender stereotypes? Plus: Your phone can be fingerprinted without you knowing it, and what will come after capitalism?

A Data Scientist on why Data Science is mostly Marketing22~05~19

Data Science, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence … we’re all in awe about what all those data-powered products and services are capable of. But what are they actually capable of, and what is just PR?

Three Trends that will interest you, plus Bonus Content15~05~19

What’s up with web design? Is there a trend that makes trends last shorter? And what about the trend of leaving the city behind and moving to the country?