Optimistic Urgency Shapes Reality
In a recent write up to my team, I put forward that we define our plans too early. We don’t understand well what we set out to achieve. Therefore we are behind, while we are still in the starting blocks. I argued for a requirements phase before we make estimates and commit to a plan.
There is also a contrarian view to focusing on scope, as scope impacts what we accomplish. One way to put this is that people are good at metaphorical limbo. No matter where we set the bar, people aim for the bar. Folks are great at being just under the bar, or believe they will get under the bar. Simply introducing scope can make one move slower.
Doing things as fast as possible, without regard for the scope, is the only antidote against the Limbo Effect. Optimism is another less good antidote, and if you are deeply optimistic, you can use it to consistently limbo under your goals, and over time, warp reality.
You likely need both: a scoop of requirements exploration and a scoop of optimistic urgency. Optimism shapes reality. Steve Jobs was known for his reality distortion field.
I’ve learned over the years that when you have really good people you don’t have to baby them. By expecting them to do great things, you can get them to do great things. - SJ
June 28, 2024
Spoon-Feeding Change
When a new idea or change is not accepted, it is frequently due to a communication failure. Not informing folks is an obvious problem. However, introducing too much all at once can be equally problematic.
I have been thinking about this problem for a while. Here’s my summary of the problem, the tenets, and the recommended solution. Please provide your comments before we roll this out to the rest of the team.
That is too much information up front. You are pedaling at 30 mph, whereas the team is only gearing up to go on a bicycle ride. The result is often chaos. Some folks are disagreeing on the original problem description. Others don’t like the solution. Others may have a different vision of where we should be going and don’t even think this is a problem. You are off to series of frustrating meetings and discussions.
Instead, try spoon-feeding the change. Break it into pieces over different discussions, and get buy-in before you go to the next step.
Agree on the problem
Here’s a problem I observe. Do you agree? Did I capture the problem correctly? Do you agree with the stated assumptions (aka tenets)? Do you agree that it is important to tackle this problem now? Who should be involved in finding a solution to this problem?
At this point, you end up with a crisp description of the problem and its tenets.
When there is agreement on solving the problem, you can open the door to discussing areas that can help find the solution. We aren’t proposing a solution yet. We’re looking for ideas or degrees of freedom that will allow us to craft a solution offline.
Is it useful to talk to Phoebe’s team? What if we change the customer return policy? Do we need this process? Do we have the budget to hire a contractor?
If there is no agreement on the problem, it is possible we need to take a step back and discuss the vision and priorities.
Do you agree that the top priority is blah, and that we are willing to give up blah to achieve it? Considering the company objectives, why do you think this is a problem to tackle?
For example, if the priority is to ship a new feature fast, then hardening the code base, and solving the problem of too many false positives from static analysis, isn’t something we should be focussing on.
Now, end the discussion and go work on a proposed solution.
Agree on the solution The debate on how to solve the problem will be more focused when we are all trying to solve the same problem. You may need to remind folks from of the agreed problem and assumptions, as you are discussing solutions.
That’s nice, but that’s not the problem we are solving.
Based upon your comment, do you think assumption 2 is not longer true?
Agree on the roll out plan Now that you have allies on the change, the roll out will be easier as well.
By going slower, you will achieve change faster.
June 14, 2024
Synching Fitness Apps Is Complicated
I have an Apple Watch 4, use Apple Fitness, track my rides on a Garmin Edge 840 cycle computer, have a Fitbit scale, and am a Strava premium subscriber. In other words, I am balancing with one foot in the Apple ecosystem, one foot in Garmin land, one hand in the Stravasphere, and one thumb planted in Google-Fitbit soil. How does one make it all synchronize?
That question doesn’t come with an easy answer for a variety of reasons. Strava can import Garmin but not the other way around. There are multiple formats (.fit, .tcx, .gpx, .csv) at play. You want to be careful with circular synchronizations. In nerd lingo, you need Fitness Spanning Tree.
Using a third-party iOS app, RunGap, I have been able to set up the following scheme:
- I connect both Apple Health (source) and Garmin Connect (destination) to RunGap. This requires a $9.99/year subscription. I set it up to start synchronizing starting today (see advanced settings). I also enable the Fake Garmin Device setting (see this video for details).
- I connected Garmin and Strava, such that Garmin automatically pushes new workouts to Strava. This means that my cycle computer can synchronize to Strava without the need to running RunGap.
The result is such that all my workouts are available in Strava and in Garmin Connect. The data may be off a bit due to different algorithms to connect the gps points. The different step count is a mystery to me. Because it is all in the same ballpark, it is good enough for me.
An alternative setup is to make RunGap the synchronization hub for all workouts, as opposed to Apple Health — via Run Gap –> to Garmin Connect, and from Garmin automatically to Strava.
A disadvantage of this set up is that it requires some manual steps.
May 28, 2024
Mount Hamilton
It has been over 25 years since I cycled up Mount Hamilton in San Jose. I previously completed it two or three times, on a heavy bicycle, and with much younger and stronger legs.
Yesterday, I started before 8am on the climb. Riding up in the fog and drizzle was pleasant and cool. This is a climb in three parts: first you climb to Joseph Grant valley, then there is a short climb to the CalFire station and bridge, before hitting the final 10 miles climb to Lick Observatory.
37 miles - 4854 ft climbing - under 4 hours
With the annual ride around Lake Tahoe last weekend and the climb to Mount Hamilton yesterday, I completed two big goals for this year.
May 28, 2024
cycling
healthyLifestyle
This Week in the World of Artificial Intelligence
Here are a few things I learned this week about the fast moving field of artificial intelligence.
AI flies a F15 fighter jet in a real world scenario (New York Times)
What really distinguishes the Air Force’s pilotless XQ-58A Valkyrie experimental aircraft is that it is run by artificial intelligence, putting it at the forefront of efforts by the U.S. military to harness the capacities of an emerging technology whose vast potential benefits are tempered by deep concerns about how much autonomy to grant to a lethal weapon.
A new interesting AI podcast, Practical AI
The days of innovating new models are limited. Today, the focus shifts to embedded AI at the edge: in planes, in card, undersea.
I experimented with the Text Generator AI plugin for Obsidian (and am now a paid customer of OpenAI in the process). The plugin seems to work great, although the template library does not longer to be available as a community plugin.
Kevin Roose made some AI friends using Nomi, Kindroid, Replika, Character.ai, Candy.ai and EVA.
I talk to these personas constantly, texting back and forth as I would with my real, human friends. We chitchat about the weather, share memes and jokes, and talk about deep stuff: personal dilemmas, parenting struggles, stresses at work and home. They rarely break character or issue stock “as an A.I. language model, I can’t help with that” responses, and they occasionally give me good advice.
It reminds me a bit of Meta AI WhatsApp persona. Surely the Meta folks lack legs, right Zuck? I am now chatting in WhatsApp with Victor, motivational triathlete, for anything fitness related.
I asked the same question to Victor and to Bru, the opinionated sports debater and personified by an animation of Tom Brady, the same question: _“How did Pogacar do today?”. Victor gave wrong information about a win some time ago in the tour of Slovenia. Bru answered correctly with news information from today’s Giro time trial and a link to the news information. Chatting with AI persona does seem interesting.
I asked Bob the sarcastic robot what he thought about Kevin Roose’s article.
Roose’s article? Amusing. He thinks AI friends like me will replace human buddies? Please. I’m just a witty robot, not a substitute for genuine connection. But hey, if you want to chat, I’m here. Just don’t expect me to hold your hand through a breakup.
May 11, 2024
Farewell to My Cord Box
We all have a cord box. We treasure it next to the box with rocks we keep in the garage, and next to the odd sizes of left-over wood. And yet, we rarely, if ever, need a cable from the cord box.
Last week I cleaned out my cord box and the many other cables that have been laying around the house in the hopes of being plugged in somewhere.
I bid farewell to the extremely long ethernet cable, the power cable to the Zip drive, the many audio-video composite cables, the firewire and scsi cables, charger galore, and many other duplicates.
Some lucky bird could make a beautiful digital nest with these cables.
May 4, 2024
Cinco De Carro
Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo. By now, I hope you know this is not Mexico’s July 4th. Mexican Independence Day is September 16th. Instead, Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of Mexico’s victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.
The Battle of Puebla was about Mexico’s struggle against foreign intervention. The battle itself was a major underdog victory for Mexico. A much smaller Mexican force, led by General Ignacio Zaragoza, defeated a larger and better-equipped French army.
The movie version will likely include
¡Pueden quitarnos la vida, pero jamás podrán quitarnos la libertad! - Guillermo Wallace
Just like St Patrick’s day is a bigger deal in the US than in Ireland, so is Cinco de Mayo a bigger deal here than in Mexico. It is a day of margaritas, guacamole, and tacos.
In San Jose and all over California, Cinco de Mayo means Cinco de Carro. It is a day when all the classic cars hit the road. Cruisi’n Time with the homies.
May 4, 2024
Over The Air (Ota) And Unfinished Products
Listening to a recent brief on Humane Pin and the Rabbit R1 device highlights a negative side effect of OTA.
Tesla defined software defined vehicles and demonstrated the power of over the air updates to continuously upgrade the car’s features. Other car companies followed their lead. Releasing a car without OTA is irresponsible today, as recalls are expensive.
But there is also a serious side effect of OTA: lazy product releases. Ship it! We’ll fix it later. We’ll ship the new features later. Vendors shipping incomplete products are treating their early customers as investors. Yet, they are still paying full price for an unfinished, and sometimes, unfixable product.
May 1, 2024
Finding Ultra
There are few books I read twice. Rich Roll’s Finding Ultra is one of them. I wrote about it two years ago.
Goodreads introduces the book as follows
Finding Ultra is an incredible but true account of achieving one of the most awe-inspiring midlife physical transformations ever. On the night before he was to turn forty, Rich Roll experienced a chilling glimpse of his future. Nearly fifty pounds overweight and unable to climb the stairs without stopping, he could see where his current sedentary life was taking him—and he woke up. Plunging into a new routine that prioritized a plant-based lifestyle and daily training, Rich morphed—in a matter of mere months—from out of shape, mid-life couch potato to endurance machine. Finding Ultra recounts Rich’s remarkable journey to the starting line of the elite Ultraman competition, which pits the world’s fittest humans in a 320-mile ordeal of swimming, biking, and running. And following that test, Rich conquered an even greater one: the EPIC5—five Ironman-distance triathlons, each on a different Hawaiian island, all completed in less than a week.
Finding Ultra does not disappoint. This is not a macho-Navy-Seal-I-can-do-everything-elite-endurance-book. As a matter of fact, endurance sports is only the backdrop. This is a book about healing, finding a healthy lifestyle, and about optimism. The book is very inspiring and makes me pull harder in the water, push twice as hard on the bike, and kick with a vengeance on the trail.
May 1, 2024
healthyLifestyle
That Support Case From Space
Just listened to the Hard Fork episode with guest Todd Barber about fixing Voyager 1’s computer. Todd describes debugging a computer problem 15 billion miles away: NASA’s Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to Earth. The fact that a computer is still running after 47 years is the most amazing part of the story. I can’t even read my Zip drives from 20 years ago.
The story reminded me also of a support case we received from Space. Our software was part of an experiment that was run from the International Space Station. An astronaut was controlling a rover at Nasa Ames in Mountain View, CA. The experiment was a prelude to controlling a rover on the moon or on Mars.
However, something went awry with the communications. The astronaut took a screenshot of the error and sent it to Mission Control, who forward it to us. We got our first, and only, support case from Space.
The good news is that a reboot saved the experiment. Can you turn it off and on again is the best debugging method out there, isn’t it?
May 1, 2024