Disqus - Friends of jprendergast

Re: Can internal competition be considered “Slack”?

Jim Holmes — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 15:38:34 -0000

DeMarco's comment in "Slack" is in a completely different context. He makes that comment in his "Danger in the White Space" chapter where he's talking about individuals learning. DeMarco's talking about competition between mid-level management, as in "for me to succeed you have to fail."

I agree with your post's theme that organizations need to effectively and quickly select between options for products/ideas -- however, my own preference is to make that a more collaborative process instead of competitive. Again, the idea that "my team wins only by making your team's ideas not win" hurts the organization as a whole.

The teams should be looking to one step higher: "Which of these ideas/products makes our entire group/organization/company best succeed?"

Regardless, nice post. Thanks for elaborating on your view!

Re: http://acousticaddicts.com/

Jim Holmes — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:23:26 -0000

What an amazing show! The comparisons of the different audio clips was fantastic, and extraordinarily educational, too. Being a geeky kind of guy, I also loved the details around the engineering and construction of the different guitars, particularly the McPherson.

My favorite of the bunch was that Roy Southerner. Great tones. Now I just need to figure out how to earn $5K off the books so I can buy one without my wife killing me.

Frankly, though, my favorite part is the closing with you two playing. It's clear how much you both enjoy music, and that's what it's all about.

Re: http://acousticaddicts.com/

Jim Holmes — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:18:32 -0000

Something I'd love to see in future shows would be discussions of classical (nylon stringed) guitars and how they shape up (literally speaking with the visual analysis!) compared to the steel stringed instruments.

Re: Joining Telerik

Jim Holmes — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:36:48 -0000

I'm really excited to have NimblePros part of the Telerik Team!

Point of clarification: you're the /third/ Ohio office. Phil Japikse's Mason branch was first, and my Beavercreek(Dayton) office was second. :)

Re: Kata - The only way to learn TDD - Peter Provost's Geek Noise

Jim Holmes — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:22:03 -0000

Katas are awesome, but I also firmly believe a team trying to commit to TDD can benefit from some external help, too. Bringing in a good coach at a couple different points had really helped out some teams I've seen.

Re: Joining Znode

Jim Holmes — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 10:07:31 -0000

Mad props! I knew you'd find something awesome, even if you do have to wear pants.

Re: Writing Struggles

Jim Holmes — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:22:40 -0000

I've dealt with long commutes a couple times in my life (http://frazzleddad.blogspot..., and that drive time can be a good place to think up some writing topics. You might even be able to mentally flesh out an outline for a short post. If you can get your main points in line and solid in your head, then see if you can at least record notes on your phone, or some other audio device. Not sure if voice recognition on the iPad is good enough to capture your ideas or not.

Regardless of how, if you can get your outline in place, then it may just be a quick five or ten minutes in the morning while you're fresh to flesh out that draft and get it posted. Your day job folks might be forgiving enough to cut you ten minutes slack to get your post done early in the day, too...

Re: Simply The Test

Jim Holmes — Sun, 04 Aug 2013 22:05:22 -0000

Some time ago I asked a group of five or six very experienced testers where newcomers could go to find a guidepost. Where was the automator's equivalent of Code Complete or Feathers' book, I asked.

They all looked mystified and said "They can learn all that from our existing tests!"

My response was something along the lines of "Y'all have forgotten the struggles it took YOU to get to this point and experience level."

That's a long-winded way of me saying I agree that some book like this is desperately needed for our industry.

Great post.

Re: The Leadership Journey - Feedback

Jim Holmes — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 07:16:16 -0000

Taken care of! Thanks!

Re: Music to Code By

Jim Holmes — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 16:05:25 -0000

It's tough to top Steve and Michelle's story, but I've found Carl's mixes a huge help for the various writing I'm doing. It's also been a great help as I'm trying to avoid letting myself get distracted or off task -- Carl's made the mixes perfect for Pomodoro cycles. That helps me because I know I need to keep working until the track's done. Great stuff, Carl. Thanks!

Re: Music to Code By

Jim Holmes — Sat, 14 Feb 2015 08:33:04 -0000

That's a great idea, Mike! Maybe Carl could do something like Rough Cuts of some of the significantly different iterations of the tracks: not much extra processing, just make them available as an extra.

Re: Introducing Example Mapping·Cucumber

Jim Holmes — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 21:56:21 -0000

Really nice post. Well-written, and useful!

Do you see this as different than card mapping/user story mapping? I've spent some time with card mapping, but have focused more on user journeys versus the rules/examples you lay out.

Thanks for taking time to get this written out!

Re: Essential apps for switching from Mac to Windows

Jim Holmes — Wed, 24 May 2017 12:12:22 -0000

SlickRun is a great utility somewhat similar to AlfredApp--a great launcher with some solid power to it.

Re: 2017 - Darkest timeline | You’ve Been Haacked

Jim Holmes — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 15:37:55 -0000

Powerful stuff. Thank you for sharing. I spoke of my own mental health struggles, including a fight against suicide, in my KalamazooX talk earlier this year.

This stuff's hard to talk about, and it's got all kinds of stigmas associated with it. Seeing stories, struggles, and successes from high-visibility, awesome folks like yourself is a blessing for others fighting this same fight.

Thank you.

And congrats on taking steps to get a path forward. I'm so happy to hear of your progress.

Re: SO WE’VE GOT NEW ADS RUNNING AND THEY’RE LESS INTRUSIVE. Also, my new ad deal gives me a revenue sp…

Jim Holmes — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 23:35:58 -0000

This site has been a performance wreck for years, and ads have been the biggest part of that. I love some of the content here, I'm just tired of getting kicked in the goolies as part of trying to read it.

Re: DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: N.J. Schools Pushing Far-Left Indoctrination. What the Hel…

Jim Holmes — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 13:46:12 -0000

Did you bother actually READING the article? Those books are being replaced, not thrown out or burned.

Steve Gregor, director of secondary education.: "'Many of them were in poor condition and unreadable, dating back to the 1960s or earlier. We intended to replace [relevant] books with new copies.' Among the books that were reordered are Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, 1984, by George Orwell, Slaughter House Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, Dante's Inferno, and Night, by Elie Wiesel." (My emphasis.)

Get outraged and mad over the right stuff.

(Barnett herself doesn't come across well, though.)

Re: Gloomhaven stamina and exhaustion guide

Jim Holmes — Sat, 09 May 2020 16:33:28 -0000

I just started playing a month ago. Your guide here has been a real help to me for better understanding strategy. Thank you for the work you put in it!

Re: President Gaslight Assures Your Rising Food Prices Are Down

Jim Holmes — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 13:45:55 -0000

Happy birthday to Insanity Wrap Son the Younger. That's a wonderful photo. Thanks for sharing something much finer than the usual insanity.

Re: A Public Statement About Our Current Internal Drama

Jim Holmes — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 00:02:24 -0000

this sort of silly drama is why I stopped reading powerline several years ago. I hit the site for the epic week in pictures, and the links at the top of the page. Nothing else.

Re: COMPARE THIS ARGUMENT: "It is the moral position, and we are a moral nation," with the current woke

Jim Holmes — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 00:09:24 -0000

I never knew of this show. Thank you!

Re: Instapundit » Blog Archive

Jim Holmes — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 17:25:11 -0000

Re: IF I HAD A DOLLAR FOR EVERY TIME CARRIERS HAD BEEN PRONOUNCED OBSOLETE...: https://twitter.com/aw

Jim Holmes — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 14:35:44 -0000

That original post from JinWoo is suspect. There's no real Reuters reporting on this aside from a single article about potential purchases of some CM-302 missiles.

Be skeptical about stuff like this and take a minute to do your own research.

I'd love to see sources backing up those initial claims.