I love learning new things and I love sharing my ideas.
One of the best things in life is to go the pub or a BBQ and just debate the philosophy on nothing in particular. Another is to sit down in a quiet corner and write out my thoughts, or to read a great book.
At my best I can write a blog article, read a whole book and have several really fascinating conversations in a single week. At my worst I can spend 2 hours a day on twitter and not share any real thinking.
When I spoke to a friend from Melbourne this week though, he told me that he never reads anymore. He consumes information through podcasts, videos and conversations. His ideal would be to watch a Tedx video and then have a discussion in a video club.
We agreed that we should both be more involved in learning, debating and sharing new things, but it all seems a bit hard when I can’t even write a blog article a week.
But maybe the answer is not to have a detailed publishing and collaboration plan in place. Maybe I could just daydream about how good things would be and then assume that the universe will somehow implement a plan based on my vague ideas …
It may not seem like a good plan of attack but sometimes it actually works.
I was amazed recently when Bill Echlin asked if he could take one of my articles and put it into his podcast. He explores articles about agile and then reads some them “on air” (or I should say he narrates them as a podcast). No effort needed from me, I just need to trust that he will produce something that makes me look good (or rather sound good).
Besides being an ego rush for me, it seems like a great idea in general – to take content and share it across mediums to increase the breadth and depth of our conversations.
I listened to the episode on my own article (which you can find here https://anchor.fm/agile-sw-dev/episodes/6—Imperfect-Agile-or-Fit-for-Purpose-eluuot/a-a3o2jh1). It was interesting to hear my own article and I even found things that I liked or would challenge.
I also listened to an episode based on an article by Johanna Rothman because I love the clarity and insight that she always has. It was definitely an easy way to digest the content, while I was making pancakes in the kitchen.
Here is a link to that article – https://anchor.fm/agile-sw-dev/episodes/4—Three-Ways-to-Stop-Agile-Death-Marches-el7jf0/a-a3itodk .
I think it is a great way forward to share and collaborate both in real time and in capturing and sharing information.
So thanks Bill, it is a great idea and really well executed.
James King 