A little blog of questionable wisdom written by a builder of little games. I do a lot of little things these days. I hope some of them do a little good.
These posts are old and new, serious and absurd, technical yet philosophical. I’ve kept even the questionable bits—partly for nostalgia, mostly as proof that wisdom arrives slowly, if at all.
If you’d like to reach me and don’t already know how, LinkedIn is probably your best bet. Students, I’ll likely reply; salespeople, probably not.
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“If managers were angels, no upward management would be necessary. In a career administered by people over people, the great difficulty lies in this: a manager must be allowed to manage the managed; and in the next place, the managed must, in turn, also manage upwards.”
— Jim Madison, ex-VP BigCo, 3x Founder, Board Director, Executive Coach, Author of Jim’s Federalist Newsletter
Alleigh refills her mug; her fifth coffee today. It’s been a rough week. She checks her phone to confirm the room: 3:00pm — 1:1 Sherry/Allie — Conf. Room Blackpink
Continue reading →A brilliant executive I worked with hired a team of PhDs to automate a critical process deep in his organization. After a year, they delivered plans that were as beautiful as they were unworkable.
So the manual decisions continued. At most, the team only glanced at the optimal plans. The leader would check in, demanding progress. The team kept saying “any day now, the model doesn’t work perfectly yet.” The leader grew more frustrated. The cycle continued, until finally, everyone just… pretended it all worked. When asked “are you using the new system?” they’d palter “yes”; technically it was true. They glanced at its output while making the decisions that made sense for the business.
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