Let's be Fwends - The Archive

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Previous Issues

Why are Digital Services so Broken?05~01~22

If it was a desease, it would be called 'Featureitis', but people call it 'crud', 'feature creep' or similar unpleasant words.

A Couple of Things About Deep-Learning22~12~21

Machines that can learn from their experiences were Alan Turings dream. Now, they're mostly used for parking cars.

Remote Work can Make it Harder to Acquire new Information08~12~21

Switching from the office-culture to a remote work setting entails the danger of static social networks and silos.

User Research and Agile24~11~21

How to add a big chunk of product discovery into delivery-happy Scrum

Find a Gem to Start a Difficult Conversation17~08~21

It creates common ground, and fosters understanding.

Herd Mentality10~08~21

Why it's bad, and why it's so easy to fall for it. Plus: 10 faces to rule most of our facial recognition algorithms.

The End is Near. Wait, What? The End is Near?21~07~21

Is our economic system at its end? And what could replace it?

A Guide to Napping (Office Naps not Included)07~07~21

How to time your naps to match your desired outcomes, and what the office actually is good for nowadays.

The Perfect Number of Hours You Should Work in a Day23~06~21

But what is great in theory doesn't always work out in real life.

Hierarchies, Efficiency, Decisions09~06~21

Why it's hard for some people to work in flat organisations, what the quest for total efficiency does to your effectiveness, and a flowchart for making a big decision.

A quick burst of inspiration26~05~21

What feedback does to our inner narrative, how we can experience more wow, and other tangents of interest.

The Political Workforce12~05~21

Avoiding political debates in the context of work will hurt companies and their missions.

How does stuff work, anyway?01~05~21

In this issue, we look at a nice tool to kickstart our creativity when designing and have a look at OKRs and how they work. On the technical side, we dive into the workings of photo-finish cameras and see for ourselves how dishwashers - well - wash our dishes. And finally, there are 99 tips from Kevin Kelly.

Getting Real with Agile14~04~21

Often, there's a bit of a misunderstanding what Scrum is, and how it fits into an 'Agile landscape'. One factor amplifying this misunderstanding is that you can do some kinda Scrum without an Agile mindset.

Dealing with difficult People on Software Projects, and weaponising Thought.31~03~21

Different characters and their traits you find in software projects, a deep-dive into the typography of one of the most iconic science fiction horror movies ever made, fun with icebergs, maps and email, and finally a look at how you can weaponise a theory as a tool of destruction, even though it was meant to be a tool for progressing thought.

On Connections17~03~21

What does it mean to be connected - to yourself, and to others? And how can we get there?

On Conversations, Part 203~03~21

Diving deeper into how to design conversations for better results

On Conversations, Part 117~02~21

Everything you do is an invitation for a conversation.

Metrics and Maps03~02~21

When it comes to metrics, the important thing is to start somewhere. The same is true for nearly everything in life.

Sometimes we need to talk about what we don’t like.20~01~21

Especially when it's as interesting as this stuff.

One issue that is not about (new) work06~01~21

Sometimes, you have to bend a bit sideways to get some good inspiration.

Remote Work and the Future of Personal Productivity09~12~20

Personal Productivity needs to be embedded in a larger context - the context of work as a whole. Remote work increases the need for visibility and transparency in the work place.

The 2020 Scrum Guide, maps with a mission, and creating new points of view25~11~20

Life is not a zero-sum game, but treating it as such is incredibly common – and dangerous.

Half of the workforce will not return to the office11~11~20

Half of the employees currently on a Work From Home programme due to Covid-19 will quit their jobs if they are forced to return to the office full time after the crisis is over.

What can we learn from broken bones?28~10~20

Maybe the ability to take of each other is the surest sign of civilization.

How normal are you (according to this algorithm)?14~10~20

Facial recognition software is already in widespread use. What does it think of your face?

Let's call it a comeback!30~09~20

The Business Agility Report 2020 confirms what a lot of practitioners feel and sense everyday: Leadership styles and the (lack of) Agile Knowledge are the most common roadblocks when trying to adopt Business Agility.

Is it sabotage or just corporate culture?20~02~20

In 1994, US intelligence published a booklet on how to perform sabotage while looking like a dilligent, loyal employee. Their suggested tactics look a lot like everyday life in a modern corporate environment.

Inhale, exhale, now you’ve got a free mind.12~02~20

There’s a thing called mind-body problem, wondering how you can reconcile a Free (unpredictable) Will with a perfectly predictable physical brain.

Landing Pages, A/B-Testing, more maps and the world’s ugliest color29~01~20

What does it feel like to be the world’s ugliest color? We don’t have an answer for that, but we think we know what it looks like.

Generative Poetry, Maps, and getting People to draw15~01~20

What do you get when you combine OpenStreetMap data and weather information? Something not even remotely similar to what you get when you engage people in drawing exercises. And both is incredibly fun.

Criticality means everything is under control18~12~19

A nuclear reactor – once powered up – needs to be carefully monitored to stay critical, but won’t become reactive. The parallels to being an agile coach or a scrum master is not lost on me. This issue of Let’s be Fwends talks about complexity.

Giving Digital Assistants a new Voice04~12~19

Beautiful News, beautiful Animal Minds, and beautiful You.20~11~19

What You See Is All There Is, says Daniel Kahneman. Your mind is really bad at reminding itself that there’s information out there which it is not considering at this very moment. It’s time to remind yourself that there are some really good news out there, that ducks are pretty darn smart and you, you are a really, really cool person.

A new initiative wants you to keep your data to yourself18~11~19

It is yours, after all.

What meetings do to you and how to start doing what you want to do08~11~19

What happens when you cut meeting time in half and send everybody home for the weekend on thursday without a pay cut?

The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge24~10~19

Why the pursuit of useless knowledge often leads to the greatest discoveries.

New Approaches23~10~19

Everything is changing. Again.

How much have we figured out yet?09~10~19

When we look at the stuff people are figuring out all the time, it makes you wonder: Why didn’t we know this all along? But it’s ok, it’s all a process!

What do your personal Wellbeing and a Spaceship have in common?25~09~19

Both are better off hidden behind a “Somebody Else’s Problem” field.

Just a bunch of cool things.11~09~19

A font for websites that comes with its own JavaScript library, a cannon that shoots fish up a river, a short introduction to my new project and a bunch of other cool stuff. Including a cat getting smothered by little puppers.

Google is a walled garden, and women might be the better athletes.28~08~19

Google is turning from a network aggregator to a closed garden, and ultra endurance events are turning into a showcase of gender equality.

It’s either this, or that. Or something else14~08~19

Anonymous datasets aren’t, huge differences in europe are, Forever21 has lost it, you did maybe too and that’s the reason why you pat down your pockets.

How we’re gonna work in the near future31~07~19

What are the main influences that change our workspace? And can logic bombs be an insurance against job loss?

The weird side effects of things in vastly complicated ecosystems.17~07~19

It’s pretty hard to predict what will happen if you change something in a complex system. Like, a city, or technology.

You see Failure, I see Feedback03~07~19

What’s better? Not taking a decision until you know you’re right, or taking one and try to revert it if it turns out to be the wrong one?

Valuable Experience Design Tools and Resources19~06~19

A collection of interesting and valuable ideas, concepts and frameworks on Experience Design.

Gender defaults harm society, your phone is easily identifiable, and what comes after capitalism?05~06~19

Why are virtual assistants always female? And what does that have to do with our perceived gender stereotypes? Plus: Your phone can be fingerprinted without you knowing it, and what will come after capitalism?

A Data Scientist on why Data Science is mostly Marketing22~05~19

Data Science, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence … we’re all in awe about what all those data-powered products and services are capable of. But what are they actually capable of, and what is just PR?