Summary of December, 2002

My blogging in December, 2002 focused mainly on creativity, team work, and the mind.

In the beginning of the month, I was reading Michael Michalko’s book on creativity techniques, Cracking Creativity, which I liked a lot:

• Cracking creativity #2 (of December 1)
• Cracking creativity #3 (of December 4)
• Cracking creativity #4 (of December 4)
• Cracking creativity #5 (of December 5)
• Cracking creativity #6 (of December 10)
• Cracking creativity #7 (of December 11)

Inspired by this book, I had some ideas on how to find a system metaphor in Extreme Programming (XP), in an exercise that would help to build a team culture as well (the boundary between the culture and the metaphor is very fuzzy).

Halfway through December, I had experimented with speed reading for a month, so I blogged a little about my experiences.

Then I read Win Wenger’s and Richard Poe’s The Einstein Factor, which offered “A Proven New Method for Increasing Your Intelligence”. What I found interesting was what it said about learning and how to take notes to remember things better.

The next book I read was Edward R. Tufte’s Envisioning Information, which I tried to apply on software design and development. In that regard, it was interesting but not too fruitful, but on the whole, it’s an amazing book. Any topic becomes interesting where the writer’s passion shines through.

See the following posts:

• Envisioning information (of December 18)
• Envisioning information #2 (of December 19)
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Then I read Christopher Finch’s The Art of Walt Disney (the much thinner first edition) to learn more about the creativity of Walt Disney. In the course of reading it, I became fascinated by the image of a startup in a completely new business—animated films—and how they had to invent everything themselves (paints, camera rigs, sound systems, team organization). They had no choice but to be agile.

See the following posts:

• The Art of Walt Disney (of December 22)
• The Art of Walt Disney (of December 22)
• The Art of Walt Disney #3 (of December 23)

During the holidays, I read Bruce Chatwin’s What Am I Doing Here (the Swedish translation) and a book which allegedly is the notes of a Samoan tribal chieftain after having visited Europe in the 1920s. Nothing I would recommend, but a quick and sometimes enjoyable read.