Can't Grok, Won't Grok

Yesterday, I attended the DDD8 ( #DDD8 on Twitter ) conference at MS Reading. I went to the DDD gig last year (also at Reading) and had a great time, so did turn up with high expectations! I just wanted to put a post up with my thoughts on the day/sessions in the hope that: It gets more people involved (be it talking, attending or sponsoring). People know I am grateful for the free event. General Organisation I found the day to work out nicely – thanks to SqlBits , this year we had coaches pick us up from Reading train station and take us straight to the MS campus. This must have saved the geek collective a good amount of cash. Plenty (IMO) of food was laid on, welcomed to MS with a nice sausage and bacon roll and a brew. Breakfast of champs :) As with all events like this, there are always a clash with sessions you want to go to. I have no idea how you can fix this and please everyone – so I am not going to moan. But it is a plus that there were so many good se...

So, I have been reading wave after wave of similar posts. I guess it is finally time to do mine.. Looking Back Last year was a great year for me, I learned a lot about myself, GTD, sleep and TONS of stuff to help me continue improving my craft. That said, all is not rosy. I can’t help but feel I did loads but got nothing done . Towards the end of the year, I really started “getting” my GTD process (mainly the addition of Personal Kanban). I crashed out with burnout, and then spent the holiday season thinking and reflecting on where the hell I went wrong. Looking Forward Personal Kanban (with “ Lean ” in the mix) introduced reinforced the concept of “only adding value”. I say reinforced, because us geeks should already be familiar with the concept . “Why is that?” you ask? – Well most of us geeks have heard the term YAGNI right? Agile peeps use it all the time. Put simply, “it it ain’t worth it – don’t do it”. I need more YAGNI in my personal life. Writing badass code mea...