Thu, 04 Jan 2007
The people have spoken
In November, the people of the United States elected the 110th
Congress, which has just been sworn in. More, they sent a message, loud
and clear: it's time for people to take responsibility for their
screwups and be specific about why anyone should believe they'll do better going
forward. With this note, I obey the people's command.
I most regret these two failures from last year:
I did a lousy job as
the product
director for the new Agile
Alliance web site. I
quickly found myself without enough time to do it
right. I then made the classic mistake of not calling for
help. Instead, each iteration I reviewed completed stories less
carefully and tested them less thoroughly. As time went on, I
produced only sketchy stories: essentially, I dumped my
responsibility for the shape of the product in the programmer's
lap. I "managed" the project into being late and over budget.
Thankfully, someone else is now the product director, so I don't
need to explain how I'll do better at that. However, I
need to deal with my track record of saying "Yes" to worthy
causes. Therefore, for the rest of this year, the answer to any
software-related opportunity to volunteer is "No" unless:
It has to do with either (a) supporting the
product director role or (b) working against the notion that Agile
is a ready-to-package commodity rather than a half-understood craft, and
I'm working as part of a team. And not the least dispensible part,
either.
As the head of the page shows, I'm nearly back at the weight
that gave me
my "big
visible belly" idea. The root cause was that last year was a
really lousy year in a lot of ways. Stress ⇒ flab. At
some point, the embarrassment of weekly backsliding or at best stasis
caused me to stop updating my visible chart of
non-progress: and that was all she wrote.
I will regain my svelteness because:
I'm getting rid of the stress of over-volunteering and then
letting people down.
I dropped thirty pounds in my late twenties. It took until
my early/mid forties to gain the weight back. In this second
drop, it took less than a year to bounce back up. After a
lifetime outside popular culture, my self-image cannot let
me join in on the trite peak-and-valley weight loss cycle.
I rely more on exercise than not eating to lose weight. I
have three chronic joint and tendon injuries that make
certain exercises impossible and others difficult. I find
that incredibly discouraging. At least one, perhaps all, of
the injuries are chronic because I was too much of a
milquetoast to insist on thorough treatment while
they were still acute. I'm going to get some decent
treatment now. I know that chronic injuries don't get fully
reversed, and I know that even an injury-free me could never
regain my peak. (Ah, the days of 10% body fat and a resting
pulse rate below 60...) But I can make things less
difficult.
Your turn, Mr. President.
## Posted at 21:53 in category /misc
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