Reflections

So clearly an inspirational post title is not happening today.  Still, “Reflections” sounds very bloggy does it not?  For some reason I thought my time was almost up, but I checked back to my first post and realised I have a few months to go.  I also reflected, again, without success on how I would know if I had succeeded.

Two months since the last post!  What have I been up to?  Well reading as always.  I did read Accelerate – some great lessons about how to activate culture changes (do it by changing the things you do, not by imposing culture change itself).

I also appeared to be one of a handful of people left who hadn’t read The Goal so I read that too.  As with many others I found it insightful.  In particular the section where a machine was operating on parts that were already defective reminded me there is financial and processing cost if quality issues are not detected as early as possible.  Baking in quality early is not just about shorter feedback cycles and reducing fix costs.

I have been studying too.  I have decided to take on AWS SysOps certification.  Yes I know.  #certificationJunkie.  However I may have run out of time to finish that before a rapidly approaching holiday.

I have decided to have some fun too.  My reading list had list expanded so I read this Dr Who novel and, 30+ years since I first read it, Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep.

What I haven’t done is build anything for a while.

TV and DevOps

I have also been indulging in box sets.  Westworld 2 surprised me by being way better than I thought it would be.  It made heavy weather of getting there, but the finale was delightful.  Their attitude towards operability and high availability left a lot to be desired.  <<SPOILER ALERT>> The humans had all of their critical data in a single data centre.  They deserved all they got.

My Picks

I have also just finished GLOW which hooked me completely. One episode in particular had me in bits.  Might chain watch it again.  Alison Brie – I salute you!  Perfect excuse for a Zoya The Destroya gif.

Musically, it seems one listen of any Replacements song is enough to have it pinging around my head for days.  This includes some of the outtake bonus songs too – Birthday Gal and Valentine being two recent examples.

Finally happy 60th birthday Madonna!  I salute you too.