Day 178 – Avoid Contention; Resolve Conflict
Conflict is a natural part of our human existence. Conflict often arises not because people want different things, but because they envision different paths to achieving shared, basic needs. Conflict causes paths to diverge in our families, communities, teams, companies, and nations. However, contention is different. Contention is not about solving problems or reaching shared […]
Day 177 – Love Thy Neighbor – What Does That Mean?
The word neighbor is interesting. In passing, I saw a poster that emphasized one of the Great Commandments from Christian Scripture: the admonition to “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” That got me thinking—who exactly is my neighbor? My first notion was that it doesn’t matter. Just love everyone. But then I started thinking this through. […]
Day 245 – A Philosopher that Messed Me Up
I have a book that I have been writing for years and probably will never finish, but it is loosely titled, “Philosophers That Messed Me Up.” I have a collection of notes that I have taken on various readings throughout the course of my life that really twisted me up and forced me to look […]
Day 219 – What is Your Alter Ego?
When I was a child spending time with a group of lawyers, I learned several Latin phrases. You see, to add gravitas to their prose, lawyers often sprinkle in Latin expressions. This practice not only lends credibility but also bestows a certain stature on the attorney who can seamlessly incorporate such phrases. One such phrase, […]
Day 210 – Become an Edge Dancer
This is one of my favorite concepts, and I am collecting and returning to it frequently in my daily musings. I have collected about 30 of these concepts so far, and this one is my favorite. There are three sources of inspiration for this concept, and I will outline them below. Inspiration from Fantasy: Brandon […]
Day 208 – Miracle of the Holy Fire
Today is Easter in the Christian Orthodox tradition. This is a large body of churches loosely organized together in a common theology, mostly found in eastern and southern Europe, parts of Russia, and Greece. This”Eastern Orthodox Church,” which today has about 230 million followers, claims true Catholicism, which in effect means the complete, whole, and […]
Day 207 – No New Thing Under the Sun
King Solomon, or at least one of his hired courtesans, recorded the following in the Book of Ecclesiastes: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” This may have been a commentary on […]
Day 157 – Revenue Solves All Problems
In the early days of my career, I found myself working at a company with a bustling call center. One particularly early morning, I arrived at the office to discover a salesperson, already hard at work in his cubicle. His unchanged attire from the day before led me to surmise he had labored through the […]
Day 156 – Life Design Flaw – Overengineering
I once had a software contract early in my career, requiring me to expand our team of developers to hasten our project’s completion. Although the client was pleased with our progress, they desired a quicker turnaround. Thus, I onboarded new developers to boost our output, leading me to confront two significant flaws in my management […]
Day 155 – Life Design Flaw – Hard Coding
Software development is rich with design patterns, guiding teams on what to adopt or avoid based on their goals. A prominent principle is to eschew hard-coding values, thresholds, and credentials directly into the code. This is crucial because when software operates in different environments, hard-coded references necessitate manual adjustments. Given today’s accelerated development cycles, this […]