One of the values of a good manager is effective communication — getting people the right information at the right time. This requires gathering, sifting, and routing the deluge of information available from meetings, emails, research, slack, etc.. It’s is hard to do well, and impossible to perfect. We can, though, use tools to improve our abilities beyond what our brains are naturally capable of though.
Author Archives: Jeff Ammons
Developing Expertise at Work: A Guide
Every company has a shortage of experts. The world inside and outside every organization is constantly changing, and even someone who has solved a problem before, hasn’t solved it in the current context. In a fast-paced company, this creates opportunities for people who are willing to put in the effort to learn and adapt.
How I Use Journaling to Capture Ideas and Build New Habits
I realized a few years ago that two of the smartest and most successful people I know took notes on everything. Both used notes heavily to capture ideas, quotes, learnings, etc. and frequently referred to these notes to recall ideas or remind themselves of something they may have forgotten. They also used the act ofContinue reading “How I Use Journaling to Capture Ideas and Build New Habits”
How I Stay Focused in a World of Distractions
I have a bad addiction to internet browser tabs. At any given time, I have 2–3 Chrome windows open, often with 20+ tabs per window. There is never enough time to read or see all of the things I want to in life. This is merely a symptom of a larger problem I struggle with.Continue reading “How I Stay Focused in a World of Distractions”
Hacking the Flow State
Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/55934520@N00/4560121213 Post originally published on Medium. Flow is described as: “the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.” Anyone who has programmed for long enough will recognize this state asContinue reading “Hacking the Flow State”
Using Randomness as a Tool
There’s a concept in search algorithms that makes a good analogy for life. As analogy, imagine a large forested area with small hills and depressions in it. You have the task of finding the highest point in this area. One popular algorithm for finding a maximum like this is to look around from whereContinue reading “Using Randomness as a Tool”
Books that have changed my life [2012-2018]
I try to read a lot. I find it valuable to change my perspective, teach me new things, or simply for entertainment value. The following are books that, whether by content or by chance, taught me something that has stuck or changed my approach to life. In order to be included in this list, theContinue reading “Books that have changed my life [2012-2018]”
Hours to Mastery
10,000 hours is famously (and likely wrongly) quoted as the number of hours of deliberate practice one needs to achieve mastery in a skill. I was curious today, so I put together some calculations of how many hours I’ve put into different skills (to be fair, not all of these hours are deliberate practice –Continue reading “Hours to Mastery”
5 Lessons Learned Drawing Daily for a Year
I’ve always been intimidated by drawing. I vividly recall times when being invited to do art projects with others has made my palms sweaty and my heart speed in my chest. As a fairly competent person, this fear has always bothered me. I spent the last 12 months trying an experiment. In the past IContinue reading “5 Lessons Learned Drawing Daily for a Year”
Drawing Lines, Not Dots
A dot on a graph with no context is often fairly useless unless you have already established a sense of context. A good example from my last job: if I tell someone that they used 200 kWhs last month, for the large percentage of the population, that doesn’t mean anything unless they also know howContinue reading “Drawing Lines, Not Dots”