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10 Sep, 4 tweets, 1 min read
X : Would you like to speak at our event?
Me : Sure, why not ... oh, wait ... it's a physical event?
X : Yes
Me : I'm not planning physical events.
X : It's 2021.
Me : Sorry, my bad. I'm not planning physical events ever. What's wrong with virtual? Also, are you in an office?
X : Yes, I'm in an office.
Me : You're in a zoom meeting in an office?
X : Yes, that's the story of my life these days.
Me : Wait ... you go to an office to spend all day on zoom calls?
X : Yes, yes and yes.
Me : Does your company hate you?
X : What's the alternative?
Me : Take a picture of the office, set as your background and go work wherever you want to.
X : Does that really work?
Me : In 2006, my CFO lived in South Africa, my COO lived in Canada and one engineer lived on a mountain in South Korea. This is 2020.
X : But I also need access to systems that aren't available remotely.
Me : They are available on your PC in the office?
X : Yes.
Me : And you're dealing with national security issues? Counter terrorism?
X : Oh, god no. It's accounting information.
Me : Your company hates you.

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More from @swardley

Simon Wardley Profile picture
9 Sep
I suspect most knew they were being lied to, they also knew that Corbyn was being smeared and lied about ... however they didn't care. They wanted a sense of belonging and that existed with the Conservative over leave. It was lies but lies you could "believe" in with others ->
... I also suspect this will become more norm going forward. For the time being, truth and integrity have become somewhat irrelevant in the political sphere. The key is that sense of belonging.
Boris understood this in a way that Jeremy didn't. Corbyn tried to build consensus hence the whole half in / half out remain fiasco rather than focusing on leave. Boris simply expelled dissenters and created a uniform view. It might be built upon nonsense but it's consistent.
Read 7 tweets
Simon Wardley Profile picture
3 Sep
X : One of our customers wants a new feature in our product.
Me : Sounds good. Add it to the backlog.
X : No other customer seems to want this. It's unique to them.
Me : Is it a generally useful feature that others might want?
X : I doubt it
Me : Then super low priority.
X : But they're willing to pay.
Me : Sure but that means taking resources of your priorities.
X : They're willing to pay a lot.
Me : More resources? Covering all the costs, now and in the future?
X : Yes
Me : Tell them it's a bad idea, try to persuade them not to.
X : They really want this.
Me : It seems you've already decided.
X : Yes. Any advice on how to manage this.
Me : Fairly easy, take a fork of the code base into a new repository. It's a new project. Work on it there. It'll need its own infrastructure, testing and support regime.
Read 15 tweets
Simon Wardley Profile picture
1 Sep
X : Thoughts on DevOps?
Me : Broad subject.
X : General trends?
Me : DevOps / IaaS is what you should have been doing over a decade ago. It's now in the position of becoming the new legacy. The smart kids have already gone serverless and the practices emerging around it. Why?
X : We're just about to embark on implementing DevOps and cloud.
Me : Not unusual. It's ahead of many. Some are still waking up to the existence of the internet / www - see digital transformation.
X : So, it's a good thing to do?
Me : No, it's daft but not as daft as some.
X : Do you have examples of ...
Me : Are you looking for reasons to justify your inertia? This is no different with cloud (IaaS) in 2011. The desire to go down a path of virtual data centres because of pre-existing assets and capital? It's why people like kubernetes.
Read 14 tweets
Simon Wardley Profile picture
28 Aug
X : Are you vaping?
Me : Yes.
X : It's unprofessional to vape in a meeting.
Me : I suspect that's a shibboleth.
X : A what?
Me : A dividing line between the digital natives and those who have never really felt comfortable about letting go off the office.
X : It's distracting.
Me : So is someone having a cup of coffee.
X : That's different.
Me : Ah, so you're arguing for "accepted norms". You invade the digital space and want it to conform to your idea of what are accepted norms do you? Try adapting.
... or maybe, we should demand suits and ties? Yes, my new boundary. If you're in a zoom meeting with me without a tweed jacket, check shirt, a pipe. plain white wall background, no guitar, no books and total conformity to my strict guidelines then you're unprofessional? Hmmm.
Read 12 tweets
Simon Wardley Profile picture
27 Aug
One of the many eye opening aspects of the isolation economy caused by COVID is watching so many "leaders" who have failed to adapt desperately try to get everyone back into the office as they watch their social power tumble in a virtual world ...
... they do not know how to act in this new world. Their physical prescence, their polish, their air of authority means nothing in the face of a generation who can create massive followings online. They are stripped bare to positional power and often found wanting.
It's amusing to watch the focus on symbols of status - a professionally designed background, a purpose built studio, an amazing microphone ... as if those acquired things will suddenly recreate that social power and enable massive followings ...
Read 7 tweets
Simon Wardley Profile picture
7 Aug
Leadership is not about benefit to yourself but duty to others. Those who forget this are not leaders, they are parasites. Sometimes the organism can get rid of the parasite, in other cases it can be fatal.
X : Thoughts on peactime vs wartime CEO?
Me : For over a decade I've talked about the peace, war and wonder cycle. All require a different attitude (hence pioneers, settlers, town planners) but any organisation will have functions at different stages at the same time ...
... so whilst there might be an "average" i.e. more to peace or more to war, you'll need all three attitudes to effectively lead. This is almost impossible without a high level of situational awareness (i.e. understanding the context, knowing what is where) ...
Read 19 tweets

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