Wednesday linkfest

Lessons from 4 independent years

In 2003 I quit my management job at Microsoft to try to live by writing books, teaching and public speaking. It was the scariest decision I’d made in my life and here on the other side, about 4 years later, is what I’ve learned. If you believe life is to be explored, here are notes from a work adventure. There’s no amazing new theory – you may have heard all this before, but here it is, in first person.

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How to write songs and the creative process

Before the good, the bad. Over on wikihow, the entry on How to write a song has this as the first entry.

1. Learn Music Theory.

No Way! Learn music theory. Never would have imagined that. Wow. So – What does the entry for how to cook say? Go to cooking school? Totally lame.

The good: Metafilter had a gem of a post recently on song writing. Pulling from the comments you’ll find a new NYT blog by songwriters about their creative process, NPR’s All songs considered project (Pros write a song in 48 hours), The freshman experiment about people writing a musical.

A magic day in Pittsburgh: MAYA Design & CMU

I had a secret. Back as an undergraduate at CMU, I’d see authors visit and lecture in the Adamson wing, this cool auditorium style room in Baker Hall. When bored, I’d imagine what I’d have to do in my future to earn an invite and speak to students in that same lecture hall.

Last week I got my chance. The magic day started with an invite from Paul Gould at MAYA design to stop by their swanky South side office for a tour, and a fun brownbag lunch. They have these awesome meeting rooms called Kivas, which are round, have floor to ceiling whiteboards, and invites the kind of communication and interaction that makes for great design sessions. I met some great folks and got warmed up for my afternoon talk at CMU.

Here’s me in MAYA’s Kiva:

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And at the Adamson wing lecture hall at CMU:

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The kicker was I got to see David Hounshell, the professor of the amazing history of engineering class I took as an undergraduate, that planted the seeds that led to writing the Myths of Innovation.

And to finish off the day, dinner with friends Faisal, Aleecia, and Eden Fisher, the latter being the prime mover in bringing me out to CMU this year (Thanks Eden for a most special experience).

Thanks to Paul for the photos of a magic day.

The worst keyboard in the world

Ok, I confess, I have seen worse keyboards in the world. But this is definitely the worst space bar I’ve ever seen. I found this gem at an Internet kiosk in the Minneapolis airport, on my way back from Pittsburgh last week.

spacebarhell1.jpg

My complaints:

  • Do not SPLIT my space bar. The spot in the middle is where my thumbs work their magic!
  • Really. I mean, it’s called a bar, not a series of goofy keys.
  • Do not make the remaining buttons small, as hitting the side by accident results always in either 0 or 2 spaces.

Anyone else come across evil keyboards in their travels? I want photos!

Now in stock: Making things happen

Since my book the art of project management went out of print, I bet your world has been gray. You’ve been unable to sleep. You’ve been nervous at work. You’ve lost interest in food. Your spirits have been so low, at times it’s even been hard to breathe. “When will it end!” you’ve cried. But still, the book has stayed out of print.

Well… your deepest, most secret wish has been granted: it’s here! The universe will be saved! All project management challenges will flee at the sight of this mighty tome in your hand!

Oh, the joys of authorial sarcasm – anyway, I’m proud to say the book is now available and looks great.

Now titled Making things happen: mastering project management it has all the good stuff from the original edition, plus:

  • A cover than doesn’t suck
  • 120+ brand new exercises
  • carefully re-edited and revised chapters.
  • improved footnotes (actually on the same page as the text! amazing!)
  • A discussion guide for using the book with reading groups
  • Tons of suggested improvements from pmclinic rock stars

It’s the definitive edition of the bestselling book. I hope you’ll check it out and spread the word: buying my books helps fund free stuff like the essays and the pmclinic.

Available now on amazon.com.

How Apple got everything right

apple-evilgenius.jpgThe recent Wired article on Apple’s management practices is interesting for the wrong reasons. The article makes several points about the irony of Apple’s popularity in the tech-world given the secrecy, an old world concept in the new open web 2.0 world, with which they work.

This is fine and good, but the big question I had while reading the piece is this: if Apple is so secretive, how can the reporter have any confidence that their sources are any good? Or that the people willing to talk to the reporter don’t have their own reasons for telling less than flattering stories about Steve Jobs? The article says:

Apple creates must-have products the old-fashioned way: by locking the doors and sweating and bleeding until something emerges perfectly formed. It’s hard to see the Mac OS and the iPhone coming out of the same design-by-committee process that produced Microsoft Vista or Dell’s Pocket DJ music player

The old fashioned way? Hard to think of many old fashioned companies making perfect products. And while it’s hard to see the iphone coming out of the same process at Microsoft and Dell, I’m sure there were plenty of design review meetings, executive reviews, and other meetings at Apple that are similar in purpose to what goes on at Microsoft or Dell. Like Google’s 20% time, culture is the overlooked factor in why outcomes are what they are. The same process can arrive at very different outcomes if the cultural values and rewards are different.

Believe me, I’m no Apple flunky defending the mothership – but the article creates it’s own lack of credibility in making judgments about a place described by the writer as very difficult to access, and because it’s a magazine article there’s no burden of referencing sources, or even calling on other Wired writers for context in how product decisions at Apple are made.

Moreso, the article misses the fundamental point: Apple loves its products, and people love its products. If there is any ideal Jobs represents it’s clearly the attempt to make great things, an ideal rare among tech companies, much less ones in the Fortune 500. And with product quality so high consumers are indifferent to whatever management philosophy is behind it.

The best analogy for the description of Apple offered in this piece is the film industry. Where directors and producers drive creative visions, large numbers of experts work hard in service to those ideas, and the entire endeavor is organized with premiums on secrecy and control. It’s just an artistic model for business, not something unique to Apple or that odd for folks who study how great things are made.

Commentary on NPR’s Marketplace, tonight (update)

Joy of joys, I was asked to do a commentary on one my favorite shows. Marketplace, an NPR business news show, is running a story about the culture differences at Microsoft and Yahoo. Right after the story, there’s a short 2 minute commentary by yours truly (Prepare to cover your ears).

If you’re in Seattle, Marketplace airs on KUOW at 6:30pm today. You can listen to NPR live online here.

Once it’s online, I suspect sometime this week, I’ll post a follow up link.

It’s online now: transcript, summary, and audio.

at CMU, Pittsburgh, Next Thursday (Free books!)

I’ll be back at my alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University, next week. Last time I spoke there was fun and hope to have another great crowd! I’ll be talking about stories from The Myths of Innovation, but will save lots of time for Q&A. If you’ll be there and have a question, leave a comment and I’ll get to yours first.

I’ll also be giving away a big pile of books to the first people that show up (at least 30). How’s that for a bonus? And yes, the lecture is open to the public.

Thursday, March 27th
4:30pm – Adamson Wing, 136A Baker Hall
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Scott Berkun, Author

Official listing here

Innovation vs. Tradition: Christianity, the Vatican and Sin

This is one of the greatest stories of innovation and change I’ve heard about in some time.

Note: although there are religious themes here, I’m aiming at the nature of change, not theological debate (Keep that in mind in the comments please).

One tension we all face is how to reconcile respect for the past with the desire to making the world a better place. There is an inherent conflict: we use traditions to honor the past and stay connected with who we were. But if innovation is change, it means breaking with the past to make things better. And rarely do people agree on which traditions should be broken and how to break or reinterpret them.

The irony of course is that all traditions, even ones 1000 years old, were invented by someone. And on that day they asked people to break with whatever tradition came before it. The study of any history is the study of change. As Woody Allen said, “Tradition is the illusion of permanence.” However, even if it is an illusion, it’s a powerful one that can bring people together.

Recently the Vatican announced several new lists of behaviors they now define as sinful. The list includes pollution, drug abuse and becoming obscenely wealthy. They also released a curious list of rules for the road, leading to much sarcastic commentary.

On the one hand, wow. For the first time in nearly 1500 years, they’ve released version 2.0 of their list (Note that the 7 deadly sins as we know them do not appear in the Western bible). That’s not an easy thing to do – and it’s fascinating to see one of the oldest and most conservative organizations in the western world demonstrating renewed interest in the pressing issues of the day.

On the other hand, early Christian theology, or at least the Jesus Christ described by the approved gospels, has always been tough on the wealthy and those that take advantage of the weak (The whole eye of a needle thing). And this list can be seen as a call to return to those values – it’s a change, but a change in line with ideas from the past.

But the best way to comprehend all this comes from A.J. Jacobs excellent book, The Year of Living Biblically. In the process of trying to follow every instruction in the bible for 365 days, he learned that the bible has always been a matter of personal interpretation, from what laws apply, to how they’re applied. And when you add the multitude of translations, secondary gospels and other options on biblical law, the conception of there ever being a single definitive, comprehensible, interpretation free rulebook for living seems an impossibility, now or ever.

In this context, what we superficially see as static, say a bible or a religious law, rarely holds together when put into play by millions of different people. We make one tiny interpretation here, or exception there, and naturally gravitate to those who make similar choices, and in this sense, we are all low-scale innovators. Perhaps we do it in private, or in secret, but everyone’s unique nature surfaces even in how we follow the same rules. And of course all religious groups throughout history have had different leaders at different times and each emphasized different rules, beliefs, traditions and activities, while ignoring others (E.g. religious wars generally violate the core principles of the whoever founded the religion).

It seems a smart thing for a religion, or any powerful group, to do what the Vatican has done: to update its rules and guidelines to reflect the changing nature of people and the world. What could be smarter than a tradition to re-evaluate the traditions?

There can be no smarter tradition for anyone than to 1) encourage a questioning of old rules and what motivations their authors had, and 2) allowing periodic changing of rules for the present so they have the greatest value, until they need to be changed again.

Art of project management for $139!

Not sure how to explain it, but while the book has been out of print, it appears to be in short supply. The prices for used copies of The art of project management are hovering over $100 at amazon. And I couldn’t find a single copy listed on ebay. My guess is many folks hold onto the book as a reference, so despite the book’s sales numbers while in print, it’s hard to find.

The updated edition should be in stores and on amazon in a few weeks, so if you wait, you’ll save some cash.

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Making things happen – the cover & more

The book is on the home stretch – final pass at editing is almost wrapped up and off to the printer. Here’s the cover for the new edition – looks sharp! WooHoo! Can’t wait for this to be out there and to have the book back in print.

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The update includes:

  • Much tighter writing in all chapters: it’s a lean, crisp read.
  • Many corrections, figure improvements, and improved references.
  • 120 exercises to help you apply and practice what you’ve learned.
  • A discussion guide for forming reading groups and getting value from them.

You may notice that the new chapter I promised isn’t listed. It didn’t make the book for the following reason: it wasn’t that good. It didn’t feel right to cram it in there, and have people think I stuck it in just to draw more sales. Instead I plan to finish up the chapter and post it online, for free.

Stay tuned – As soon as I know when it will be available in physical stores, I’ll let you know.

You can pre-order the book now.

Thoughts on Google’s 20% time

Everybody loves to think one little trick can make their organization transform into a super creative powerhouse. With the rise of Google, no single tactic comes up more in innovation circles than their concept of 20% time. Simply put, employees get 1/5th of their time to work on projects of their own choosing.

For the myths of innovation book i spent time studying lots of concepts, models and approaches similar to 20% time, and even talked to a few Google employees about how they see the idea. What follows below hits on most of the erroneous assumptions I’ve heard people make about the concept.

Here’s a short report:

  • Google’s 20% time is more of an attitude and culture than a rule. First, hourly time isn’t tracked there, so there’s no way to enforce or even know what percentage of time people are spending on side projects. But more importantly, the entire idea seems to function more as an attitude – that new projects should be spawned by whoever has the best ideas, not who is in what place in the hierarchy, and the culture is based on this fundamental belief. There seems to be way more support for the pursuit of ideas generally than in most cultures, and simply creating a 20% rule doesn’t give you that culture. G-mail, Adsense & Google News are three examples of major offerings initiated by a self-motivated engineer. See Google employee Joe Beda’s blog post for one of better first persons accounts you’ll find online.
  • It’s worth noting that people at Google work very hard on their 80% time. It’s not as if every Friday is 20% day and work shuts down on all existing projects so people can do their 20% things. Google culture, much like Microsoft in the early 90s, has a very strong, competitive work ethic, and peer pressure and pride drive many people to work hard. Like many tech companies, the vibe is that, yes, if you have an idea you should follow it, but not to the determent of other responsibilities. Time for 20% projects is protected, but more by individuals than by managers. Managers spend little time tracking engineers (span of control is wide, with managers typically having 10 or more reports, influencing people and code more than “managing their direct reports”). I’ve heard different things from employees in different groups at Google about how this has changed as the company has grown (10k employees and counting) and perhaps the variances in their culture will continue to grow. (Read Steve Yegge’s excellent post on software development process at Google).
  • The 20% time concept isn’t new. 3M developed a 15% time rule in the 1950s with the same exact intentions and basic philosophy. Masking tape and Post-it notes are two notable products that were concieved and developed by individual engineers working without formal budgets, plans or management support. I’m sure other companies and organizations in the past have had similiar attitudes about creativity (Edison’s Menlo park lab likely qualifies). For more on 3m’s approach read this short Wired article. Also, the Google founders mention at their talk at TED that Montessori school philosophy influenced their ideas on 20% time (Jump to 8:50).
  • Google’s culture has a resistance, or even distrust, of hierarchy – they often use voting, peer review, and debate to make decisions or decide which new projects and features to add. With that structure the 20% time idea makes sense as they want self-motivated creatives putting ideas in the hoper for others to review, evaluate, or contribute to, rather than waiting for executives to spend weeks making big vision documents and marketing plans, dividing things up into smaller and smaller pieces, before allowing creatives to make (creatively constrained) contributions. 20% time complements, or perhaps even depends on, what is a unique culture for a large, 10,000 person company. It’s the lack of dependence on hierarchy that empowers individuals, and this is the thing people at more conventional companies have the hardest time comprehending. 3M also had a strong maverick, anti-structure vibe that made their 15% successful. Giving people time is one thing, but it’s the culture of the org they get that time inside that determines how useful that time will be to the company.

20% time experiment: Atlassian, a software development shop, just announced a serious 20% time experiment, adopting the idea in their culture and blogging about it as they go.

Disclosure: Don’t take my word for it alone – While this is based on some research, and although I have visited Google several times, I have never been a Google employee and if you start with the links above you’ll hear from more authoritative sources on Google management and culture than myself. If you know of others I should read, please leave ’em in the comments.

Corrections wanted for paperback edition of Myths of Innovation

The paperback edition of Myths of Innovation is underway. Now is a great time to let me know of any typos, mistakes, oversights, factual errors, or anything else that should be cleaned up.

The current list of typos, research issues and corrections can be found at www.mythsofinnovation.com.

If you give me a typo or correction I don’t yet know about, I’ll send you a signed copy of the paperback edition when it’s out.

Please take a peek at the existing list before leaving a comment or sending a correction in – thanks!

Creator of dungeons and dragons dies at 69

AD&D book cover

I didn’t read much as a kid, but one book I read cover to cover dozens of times was the Advanced dungeon’s and dragons handbook. In elementary school my friends and I played that game several times a week, and despite our ridiculous abuse of the rules and complete disregard for fair play (think Lord of the Flies mixed with the Soprano’s) the effect the game had on us was transformative.

Without knowing it we did a kind of improvised, collaborative theater, and used our imaginations to create worlds, instead of using the passive, pre-fab ones found in video games or television shows. Sure, the games gave us a structure we didn’t make, but what a bunch of 11 year old kids did with it – wow.

I never knew much about who he was, or what he did: my D&D phase ended well before I though much about authors and creators. But that that name, that crazy name that seemed like it belong in the game and not in the real world, Gary Gygax, matched with that wild image of thieves and demons on the cover, was etched in my mind mind forever.

Thanks Gary & Dave.

Speaking at Webvisions, Portland, May 22-23

webvisions.jpgI’ll be doing two sessions at this year’s Webivisions conference. One workshop called How to Innovate on time, and a talk on the Myths of Innovation.

Registration: Register by March 31st and it’s $180 for both days, or $310 if you want a workshop too. After March 31st it’s $250 & $425 respectively.

Other speakers include Jeffrey Veen, Fast Company’s Lynne Johnson, Matt Haughey (MetaFilter), Dan Saffer (Adaptive Path), and more.

Hope to see you there. If you’re thinking of going, also check out Portland’s Start-up Weekend. Odds are good I’ll be there too.

The mystery of writing bestsellers

Stumbled upon this excellent NYTimes article about major book publishers and their poor abilities to predict bestsellers. It’s refreshing how honest these editors are about the limits of their predictive powers. Much like the history of tech innovations discussed in The myths of Innovation, there are too many factors for anyone to claim high rates of success.

It’s guesswork says Bill Thomas, editor in chief of Doubleday Broadway. The whole thing is educated guesswork, but guesswork nonetheless. You just try to make sure your upside mistakes make up for your downside mistakes.

Hmmm. Is he calling an unexpected bestseller an upside mistake? It’s also interesting to hear them mention slow bestsellers, books that don’t have great sales on any one year, but over several years outsell other noted bestsellers:

There are two ways for a book to become a best seller. One is to make it on to a best-seller list by selling many copies in a week. Other books sell steadily over months and years, eventually outselling many official best sellers. Unanswered Cries, a true-crime book by Tom French, was acquired in 1989 by St. Martin’s for $30,000. It now has 400,000 copies in print in paperback and sold at least 31,000 copies last year alone.

Also notable is the acknowledgment that book publishers are in the dark ages when it comes to understanding readers.

The Newspaper Association of America has a staggering amount of data on people who read newspapers. The book business has, basically, nothing, said Professor Greco. They’re not going into the marketplace and doing mall intercepts and asking people, as they leave the bookstore, What did you buy? Did you find what you’re looking for? What motivated you to choose that book?

Read the whole thing here –
The Greatest Mystery: Making a Best Seller.

Thursday linkfest

  • Interview with George Carlin. One can learn a great deal from this man about public speaking. He has a new HBO special.
  • Sidewalk Innovation. It’s funny: we can make supersonic jets and go to the moon, but making sidewalks that don’t crack from the growth of trees is just too much for us. Well not anymore. the answer? Rubber (video).
  • Record number of Americans in prison. Not sure how anyone can seriously argue there aren’t serious problems in America. Either we have too punitive a culture (e.g. drug possession ‘crimes’), our culture produces more criminals than other cultures, or we are miserable failures at designing prisons to minimize repeat offenses. (Check out the documentary Prisontown for one powerful slice of the American prison system).
  • Are CD’s the next 8-track tapes? Article claims almost half of all teenagers in the U.S. bought zero CDs in 2007. The death of the mix-tape was sad enough, but I doubt mix-flash drives and playlists will ever be Valentines day staples like mix-tapes used to be.