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Feb 25 2009

It's Not ADD Mom, It's Attention Deficit Trait – I'm Learning To Be This Way

Category: about me,executive learnings — jmacofearth @ 8:10 am

CNET:-Why You Can't Pay Attention Any More

It's sort of like the normal version of attention deficit disorder. But it's a condition induced by modern life, in which you've become so busy attending to so many inputs and outputs that you become increasingly distracted, irritable, impulsive, restless and, over the long term, underachieving.

I'd say we are learning and trying to become better and this micro-switching, multi-threading process that is quite inefficient. I have been trying to achieve better focus by shutting down Twitter and Facebook and email when I am trying to write. IM is like the ultimate distraction, and Twitter is just like IM with lots of folks. So, if you want to get something done, TURN IT ALL OFF.

No one really multitasks. You just spend less time on any one thing.

"No one really multitasks. You just spend less time on any one thing. [yes, read it again, learn it, love it]

"When it looks like you're multitasking–you're looking at one TV screen and another TV screen and you're talking on the telephone – your attention has to shift from one to the other. You're brain literally can't multitask. You can't pay attention to two things simultaneously. You're switching back and forth between the two. So you're paying less concerted attention to either one.

"I think in general, why some people can do well at what they call multitasking is because the effort to do it is so stimulating. You get adrenaline pumping that helps focus your mind. What you're really doing is focusing better at brief spurts on each stimulus. So you don't get bored with either one."

And another great adrenaline producing dysfunction is procrastinating. By giving ourselves less time to complete a project we up the anxiety and thus can generate additional energy. The wrong kind of energy in my opinion, but I can't count the number of times I preferred an all-nighter to really dig into a project and get the creative wackiness flowing. The come down was a problem, but that 2am to 5am space was full of silence and great imaginings.

So in the GTD sense of things, figure out what you need to get done and turn off everything else while you do it. And if you find yourself procrastinating and not getting to the project, perhaps you should evaluate what you are gaining by reducing your available project development time. It might be that a 15 minute walk outside could get your creative juices flowing better than putting off the task. And then again there is always the magic 2 – 5 time slot.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/not-add

Tags: all-nighter, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, attention deficit trait, brain, creative distraction, creative energy, creative spurts, distration, dr. edward hallowell, driven to disctraction, dysfunction, email, facebook, getting things done, getting web done, getting webwork done, GTD, hallowell center, multi-screen, multitasking, multithreading, procrastination, productivity, stimulus, tv screen, twitter, ultimate distraction

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Feb 23 2009

A Tale of Three Clouds – Microsoft's Cloud Computing Reveals Some Concerns

Category: community building,executive learnings,tech opinion — jmacofearth @ 9:09 am

picture 46 A Tale of Three Clouds Microsofts Cloud Computing Reveals Some Concerns

[Update: 2-23-09: ZDNet looks at the Red Dog in the Blue Cloud, a little bit more about Microsoft's Azure and the dog that hopes to hunt there.]

"The RoR community spans hundreds of sites and thousands of user groups because the tools are easier to use and more agile."

First there was the cloud. And everything in the cloud was good.

picture 28 A Tale of Three Clouds Microsofts Cloud Computing Reveals Some Concerns

the internet is like a big cloud

An then came the ASP model, sometimes referred to as hosted applications. Now more commonly called SaaS, for Software as a Service. Salesforce is the poster child of SaaS. You can buy into Salesforce's online services and now with hundreds of "salesforce authorized" vendors you can pick and choose the additional services you want. Salesforce has even launched "The Force" which is basically a framework for building applications on top of Salesforce's Cloud and having access to their resources and connectivity with other Salesforce developers and customers. But I am jumping ahead.

So more recently the industry started referring to Cloud Computing™ as the new paradigm. Sounded like the original web paradigm to me, but hey, let's look into what Cloud Computing™ is all about.

Cloud 1: initially the Cloud was simply a big group of servers where you could store and run your website or email programs. Hosting companies like Rackspace, still call them managed hosting, but the sexier term is definitely Cloud Computing.

Cloud 2: is more about processing power and distributed bandwidth and storage. So in addition to getting a server farm you get some hardware and software goodness that allow you to run your mission critical applications across hundreds of servers at once, providing redundancy and dynamic scalability, when that is necessary to cover the traffic load. Google's Apps and their new development platform, is of this variety.

Cloud 3: tries to blend the best of 1 and 2 and offer something more holistic that combines the scalability of numerous on-demand servers AND then adds a "platform" for application development or deployment. And as a whole this system is then supported by the technical infrastructure of the "cloud" rather than the company. So if you move your computing requirements into Cloud #3, theoretically you will lower your IT overhead significantly.

So the challenges for clouds #2 and #3 are not unlike the challenges a managed hosting company (Cloud #1) has been facing for 10+ years.

1. Convincing the business customer that their data is safer and will maintain a 99.999% uptime.
2. Giving the backup responsibilities and server maintenace duties to a vendor.
3. You don't need to own the server.
4. You don't need to keep the data inside your firewall, we can protect it, better and cheaper than you can.

But Cloud #3 also commits you to a development platform.

Recently asked about concerns I might have about moving a major project onto Azure (Microsoft's Cloud #3) my first response was why. Why would I want to do it?

Of the developer friends I run with, open source applications and open source development "platforms" are where the excitement is. While I am sure there are .NET circles of passion, the Ruby on Rails, or Python communities seem to be where the momentum is. WordPress and Drupal are evolving quickly with the combined development cycles of thousands of users and programmers. Google Analytics, while not exactly open, has open API's allowing a growing community to assemble and evolve reporting and analytics packages that are low cost and flexible.

And everyone on the closed side of the development world will continue to struggle to keep up. How many developers would Omniture or Coremetrics need to employ to match the power of the combined Google Team and the adjunct open source Google team?

It's an open world out there. Free tools to work on a closed system verses free tools to work on an open system. A system that is not OS dependent or processor dependent or language dependent. And saying you are going to build a community around the development environment is a lot different than watching the community develop itself around a better freer environment. The RoR community spans hundreds of sites and thousands of user groups because the tools are easier to use and more agile.

And the marketing budget for Ruby on Rails is… ZERO.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/3-clouds

Update for clarification 2-23-09: I was not meaning to compare Azure and Rails as similar platforms, but merely making the case for Open rather than Closed development environments, cloud-based or OS based. In defining Azure, Microsoft makes it clear what they intend their cloud to be, an extension of everything Windows. Here is a screen shot from their dev conference back in Oct. 08 when they were unveiling Azure.

azure A Tale of Three Clouds Microsofts Cloud Computing Reveals Some Concerns

Azure Outline

Tags: .NET cloud, .net services, Add new tag, additional services, agile development, agile programming, application development, asp model, azure, critical applications, demand servers, development platform, drupal, dynamics CRM services, email programs, exchange server, exhange, extreme programming, hosted .NET, live services, microsoft, microsoft cloud, new paradigm, open source developers, open source rules, processing power, rackspace, red dog, red dog programming, redundancy, RoR, ruby, ruby on rails, saas, salesforce, scalability, server farm, sharepoint, sharepoint services, sql services, technical infrastructure, the force, traffic load, web paradigm, wordpress

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Feb 22 2009

Zen and the Tennisball Machine – Alone with Patience and Agility

Category: about me — jmacofearth @ 2:16 pm

tennis morning with a ball machine

Church on the court this morning was stunningly beautiful. A February Austin day, crystal skies, light breeze, temp in the mid 60's and the constant thump thump thump of the ball machine shooting out consistently low shots to my forehand and backhand randomly. This is one of my ultimate happy pictures and this morning I had more than an hour in my green field of joy.

Growing up the backboard was the only way to practice strokes without a partner or a coach. But the wall is an unresponsive and dull partner. Practicing serves was another by-myself pasttime, but also, after about 20 minutes, quite boring.

So my amazement at experiencing the ball machine down the street as a willing and patient "partner" was quite an awakening. Some mornings before work, evenings after dinner and instead of a lunch break, the ball machine was always ready to play, and always full of random tricks and good spirit.

As a high-level men's tennis player there are several major weaknesses that are best addressed in practice rather than during matchplay. And finding a drill partner, though I have been successful in the past, is often a fruitless quest. So the ball machine and I have an understanding about what to work on and how to go about it.

Weakness number one is consistency. That's an easy tennis term, but what I mean here is more about "patience" and "calm" rather than correctness of stroke. At my level (4.0+) hitting the shots is usually not the issue. The issue is breathing easy and hitting the shot back rather than trying to hit a winner. I would bet 60% of the points I lose are lost because I hit an "unforced" error, rather than my opponent striking a clear winner.

So what this means for me, is getting calm enough, even when pressed into the deep backhand corner, to hit a solid shot back rather than swatting wildly for a winner. More often than not, I will swing for the winner, either because I am tired and want to end the point or because I "think" the winner is the best option. This is where the unforced part of the error comes in.

This morning, as the ball machine thumped balls at me on both sides of the court, my task, my lesson, is to be calm and hit a solid shot rather than a winner. Even as I get tired, say by shot number 75, I try and concentrate on breathing into the shot and relaxing rather than tensing up and trying to hit an Andre Aggassi passing shot. And as the time and simple rhythm wear on, the ball machine and I are locked in a meditation.

And if I can get into the flow all other thoughts and time slip away, and like Chevy Chase said in Caddyshack, "Be the ball. See your future."

And now for weakness number two "going for the winner."

One of the shots I practice with the ball machine is the backhand deep lob to the opponent's backhand. Getting comfortable hitting this shot takes a lot of practice. And this way, when I am pressed deep into my backhand court, rather than swinging for the fence I can lean back and poke up a deep "offensive" lob.

But what it takes from back on the baseline is a moment of awareness: that I don't have to hit a winner; that I am okay and still in the point, and that I have a great offensive backhand lob.

Thump, lob. Thump, lob. Thump, lob.

It sounds sort of like a heartbeat.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/zen-ballmachine

Tags: amazement, backboard, backhand, backhand lob, ball machine, consistency, correctness, crystal skies, exercize, field of joy, forehand, good spirit, light breeze, lob practice, matchplay, offensive lob, opponent, patience, practice, stroke, strokes, tennis, tennis player, tennis practice, unforced error, what this means, work evenings, zen tennis