Books, tho, I had books, or anyway access to books.
And paper -- we had a box-wrapping plant nearby that gave away last year's wrapping paper -- and pencils and pens.
The paper was thin, thinner than a sheet of notebook paper, but thicker than your standard "gift-wrap" paper. It would have a pattern on side, or a solid color, and was white on the inside. It was pre-cut to fit a standard lid, cut-outs at the corners.
Combining those two assets, I spent many an hour cutting the paper into squares and using the squares to work through the three books of origami at the public library.
In those days, library books had little tags in which the checker-out-er's name was written. Later in life I went there and found those three origami volumes. I was the last five people who'd checked them out. :)
My mom, single-parent, welfare, not mentally well, my god how I honor her, who got me that paper, who *bought* those pens & pencils, who dragged me back and forth to the library every other day, and only ever complained performatively for amusement. I should ever be so selfless.
She would clean people's houses -- this woman was working towards a master's degree in special education, raising two boys by herself -- and bring home boxes of discarded magazines and books for me. Nobody keeps Readers Digest condensed books, so I got them all.
I proofed and typed her master's thesis. :) On a little Smith-Corona portable, three sheets and two carbons per page. Had to press those keys *hard*.
The classes were about an hour away, in Pittsburg, Kansas, and I tagged along, because her professor went to the library there and told them I was allowed to be there. A good man, I think. Sometimes he'd set me problems for the evening.
After she got her degree, I was so proud of her, it all eased a little. She could get jobs that made more money, and I was ten or so, so I could start pitching money in, too.
And I had a bike and could get my *own* ass to the library and back, which I did pretty much every day. She used to tell strangers that I was raised by wolves and librarians. That's charming and funny, of course, but I was raised by her.
She taught me to love learning -- and sports, I haven't even mentioned what a sports fan she was -- and hard work.
A good person, she was, very good.
I have so many questions I'd like to ask her, old man to old lady. I might even be able to charm straight answers out of her.
Anyway, nothing maudlin, just a little walk down the memories.
Every single person you meet is a novel, with stories at least as interesting as my minor tales.
Every one of them.
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When large teams struggle with trunk-based development (TBD) or continuous integration/deployment (CI/CD), a good strategy is to re-orient how the teams face "backsteps", moments in our workflow where a discovery forces us to re-open a stage we thought was closed.
It's been a hard stretch for those of us seeking peace and equity. I offer this geekery not to suggest it matters as much as that does, but only to give us a little respite.
Stay safe, stay strong, stay angry, stay kind.
Black Lives Matter.
Large teams & projects often pre-date the use of modern synthesis techniques like TBD or CD, and during adoption, intermixing their Before with this new After can produce quite a bit of discomfort. If it gets bad enough, it can even kill off the improvement effort. What to do?
Here's the Count Basie Orchestra, "The Hucklebuck".
With the Basie orchestra, the challenge is to find the jewels in the dross. It's Sturgeon's law everywhere.
We're at this place where large orchestras are just, rightly so in my view, fading. And of course Basie is a player, a serious player, but his orchestra takes are not him.
Oh. Dinah Washington, "I've Got You Under My Skin".
This is one of the most famous live takes in the history of jazz. Those trumpets playin' the dozens? That's Clark Terry, Maynard Ferguson, and Clifford Brown.
And the trash-talk here is stunning, no question, but when Dinah comes back in, after the boys blow themselves out stylin', she re-asserts why she is the one they're trying to impress.
Here's Eddie Vinson, "Please Send Me Someone To Love".
I'm not a huge Vinson fan, but this combo is exquisite. Listen to this piano and this guitar simultaneously collaborating and playing the dozens on each other.
Each time I think they're not together, they convince me they knew what they were doing all along.
A couple of days back, I tweeted about SAFe. It created some stir on the timeline, which was great, as I got to see a lot of perspectives. I want to use that tweet as an excuse to talk about something much larger. This will be a long one. :)
Meanwhile, I remind you, geekery's not as important right now as some other things.
This muse is not really about SAFe for the most part, but about all of what the "methodology turn" in our trade produces. I do have one specific thing to say about SAFe, tho, so let's do that first and get it out of the way.