I’m taking the spring and summer off (from paying work) this year. My relationship with my former employer ended recently, and I decided to be a free agent for a while. There were many motivations for this decision, but most … [read more]
Almost anyone who works in an industry that sells services will sooner or later be asked to create an estimate. Most people have limited skills in this area: they’re trained to perform some kind of specialist work like software development … [read more]
If you want to learn about facilitating a meeting, there’s no shortage of advice for you. On the web, in books and workshops, you can learn how to break the ice, encourage interaction, paraphrase contributions that aren’t clear, play devil’s … [read more]
It’s now February, so obviously this post comes a bit later than I had originally anticipated. I will not bore you with the usual excuses, but I did discover something interesting after I posted my yearly summary of the best … [read more]
My listening habits this past year have continued to shift in a decidedly classical direction. Other things—particularly rock—quickly feel like unwelcome distractions now, giving me a kind of ‘instant listening fatigue.’ It’s never just one thing, but often boils down … [read more]
Warning: This post is extremely nerdy and detailed. If you don’t really care about classical music, iTunes—or metadata, for that matter—you may lose interest rather quickly. Feel free to look around and see if something less navel-gazing catches your eye. … [read more]
“My name is Carsten, and I don’t like upgrading.”—”Hi Carsten!” I’ve become that guy. I never used to be that guy. You know, the guy who’s content with the technology he has because it’s working fine for him. The guy … [read more]
In the course of my day job, I often find myself confronted with having to document things on paper that are easier to implement than document. One of these things is a SharePoint 2010 collaboration site template. As you know … [read more]