PM’ing essays

Each day in September I wrote an essay about software product management. The resulting 30 essays are aimed at a broad audience potentially interested in understanding software product management. People considering a career in software, or PMs newish to the the job. I try to mix very practical advice about the day-to-day of doing the work successfully, with more philosophical thoughts on software as a medium and how to think about the craft of product managing software.

Go here to read them all on Jiko Kanri dot Org

It’s now again

This playlist was my soundtrack for this period of building. It includes mostly new songs, including some released and added in July and August. Most of the work you see posted during this time was done listening to these songs.

attempted triptych

I made a shitty triptych based on the Way of the Pattern on some big cardboard. The scale is hard to see, but it was about 5 ft high.

The three panels represent 1 (unity), 7 and 3 (patterns) from the 11-chain.

ESCHATON the Game

In high school I created a pen and paper geopolitical strategy RPG based on Eschaton, the tennis courts and computer based game about nuclear armageddon described in a chapter of Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.

Procession of the Equals

I built this lego diorama on my mantel. Each year the castle and village hold a procession celebrating the uniquely republican political arrangements which have brought peace and prosperity to the region for hundreds of years. This annual event, known as The Procession of the Equals it is a highly ritualized parade, in which each part has a symbolic political meaning, and the order and appearance of the participants is strictly dictated by tradition.

A guide to the participants in the procession.

we build ourselves

you’re always getting another chance to build yourself

From 7/7/17 through 11/7/17, I ran a self improvement and creative marathon. During this time I completed old projects, updated my apps, moved this blog, got long dangling personal to-dos done, and a lot more. It was also a unique time in the world. The hottest day ever recorded in my hometown of San Francisco, a rare total solar eclipse, and a record setting hurricane hit my home town of Houston. To the north of our home, California’s deadliest ever wildfires burned, turning the sky a hazy orange and reigning ash on us. Also my grandmother, who I love deeply, suffered a stroke early in this period and died not long after it ended. So yeah, a lot happened.

The next 20 blog posts document the creative work I did.

Some other things that happened:

Quartered Tales sketch site

This is a sketch for a story map. Eventually it will be a map cut in quadrants and given to some friends kids. Each quadrant is for one of the kids and has a hero’s journey story illustrated on the map, and told in short texts. I’m just finishing the first completed sketches of both map and text. These are barely readable, with so much editing and redrawing to do, but all the bones are there:

http://imaginarycartography.com/quarteredtales/workbook.html