The Secret and the Sabbath

The Secret
In the last conference post I promised to explain my system to generating ideas to present or write about.

It's really simple.

First, you know enough of the software success literature to know the way things are "supposed to be".

Then, you pay enough attention to the real world to see how they actually are.

Then, you exploit the difference.

There are a few ways to do this:

"Best Practice A proposed to solve problem number 1. But if you think about it, doing A introduces problems 2, 3, 4, and 5. Now I ask - what problems would you rather have?"

"Fred Brooks says that A is true. Steve McConnell points out B. Kent Beck says C. If A, B, and C are true, then D is also true. And once we know that D is true ..."

"Did you ever notice that BLAH actually happens a lot on software projects, but nobody wants to talk about it? Here's one way I have dealt with that."

---> A great place to start this is to read a lot of Jerry Weinberg's writings, then compare them to, uh, *ahem* the, uh, traditional software success literature.


Anyway, that's the 30 second version. I may build on that at a later date.


The Sabbath
Creative Chaos is a wonderful, fun experiment. It also steals energy and attention from my life - which is fine - if it is a priority.

So here's what I'm saying: I need a rest from blogging to focus on other things. So I'm going to take at least a month, possibly more, and give those things the focus they deserve. (Oh, I may post new speaking engagements, but if you really want to here every new annoucement, join my discussion list - SW-IMPROVE. Volume is very low - about a post a week right now.)

It's not that I don't enjoy blogging. It is that I enjoy it too much. For a little while, I'm going on a forced break. For now, the web can wait.

Most likely, instead of crazy-frequent posts, I'll be back in a month with a post every week (or two?) - and it will be a solid one. But who knows; sometimes you come back from rest, well, rested, and ready to start again.

I hope to see you then!