Conversation

Replying to
I don’t know where I’m going with this, but I’m sort of slowly training my instincts to just go with the 3 key features instead of fighting them, and allow the work to manage itself and me. Not quite mind like water. Maybe mind like workshop.
2
11
All I know is, my sabbatical trying to do maker-type stuff is making me question everything I thought I knew about project management, from GTD to scrum to grant charts.
4
17
That stuff is not wrong as such, but much more strongly restricted to hierarchical contexts where PM can be artificially abstracted out as an exclusive org role. For self-managed contexts, it is not even wrong.
1
19
I think I avoided learning this because in my time as an individual contributor I always figured out how to take on projects that required absolutely minimal self-management and had very high natural “flow” (math theory and simulation back when I was in research, writing later).
1
10
My current approach is a sort of “pave the workpaths” (as in pave the cowpaths”). Get attuned to how the work and tools naturally move, add minimum scaffolding for safety, and highly situated artifacts to augment. The holy grail is: a workspace so intuitive it needs no text.
2
22
That’s a True North rather than an actual aspiration. Example: poorly designed containers/drawers force you to manage inventory on a spreadsheet. Well-designed ones just trigger a “buy more soon” event in your awareness when necessary. You just manage exceptions, not states.
1
17
Like those tissue boxes where last few are differently colored. Instead of constantly updating an inventory spreadsheet, you update a shopping list when needed.
1
9
Sufficiently advanced project management is indistinguishable from doing the dishes Sufficiently advanced project management is indistinguishable from cleaning up after yourself Sufficiently advanced project management is indistinguishable from putting away your toys
1
28
The kitchen is a place where these ideas are latent, and I used cooking as my core example in my book Tempo. But somehow, they’re so intuitive there, they don’t generalize easily. So even though I cook a lot, I didn’t truly grok any of this in the kitchen context.
1
11
Replying to
What if the secret hack to PM is a treat dispenser? My brother just told me that Google has a facility policy that everyone be within 100 feet of snacks at all times.
2