One of the challenges of public speaking is timing your talk. And paying attention to that timing without distracting your audience. Do not mention the time to the audience. Do not say you only have 5 minutes. Do not say you won’t take up too much of their time. Do not point out you finished […]
Do not mention time when giving a talk Read More »
Every time I rate a book, I struggle with what I’m rating it on. Both Amazon and GoodReads use a 5 star system. If I loved the book, that’s easy. However, what if I liked the book except for the ridiculous stereotypical romance that was a minor theme. Do I ding it half a star?
How do you rate books? Read More »
It’s become unacceptable to not know it all. And in today’s world of information overload, that’s not ok. It’s not doable, so we are fooling ourselves. I find myself silently thanking people who look confused when some famous person is named or some incident is mentioned or a meme is laughed at. Keeping track of
It’s unacceptable to not know it all Read More »
I read the Four Burner theory and I call bullshit. Mozillians cooking. The Four Burner theory says that your life can be represented by a stove with four burners, one each for family, friends, work and health. The theory goes that you can only do two of them well because a chef can only pay attention
Chefs don’t believe in Four Burners Read More »
I was watching Guardians of the Galaxy, Part 2 and I realized that while baby Groot was making me laugh, it was Rocket that I understood. Rocket is an interpreter. He might even be a community manager. In Guardians of the Galaxy, there’ a character called Groot. And the only thing he ever says is
How “I am Groot” defines a community manager’s role Read More »
Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships was an interesting book that sparked many interesting conversations in my life. (Yes, animals do practice oral sex.) Once I got over being angry about the final chapter that explains why all that history excuses why men cheat but not
What I learned about human evolution in a book about sex Read More »
The best way to handle difficult conversations is to prevent them from ever starting. The way to prevent them from happening (or at least to keep them less painful) is to have good governance. Governance is the solution to difficult conversations and trolls. My motto is that you’ve done the best job you can do
Create better processes to avoid difficult conversations Read More »
Open source software communities, like companies and cities, can come in all sizes. They don’t get too big but they can grow faster than their infrastructure and processes. Take for comparison, the size of companies and cities. Companies come in sizes from one person LLCs to 100,000 employee megaliths. Cities come in sizes from a
Can your community get too big? Read More »
Community managers must make sure their projects are healthy. Before they can help foster and grow a community, they have to make sure it’s a well functioning, welcoming place. While community managers and project leaders often don’t explicitly talk about what’s not working well, you will often find them doing a wide variety of things. They are
10 Ways Community Managers Make Sure Projects are Healthy Read More »
This week I am participating in the opensource.com community blogging challenge: Encouraging New Contributors! Crossfit gyms are great at creating community and welcoming new members. Here are 3 things that Crossfit boxes do that open source software communities could also do to encourage new contributors: Say hi to the new person. I drop in at
3 ways open source software communities could learn from Crossfit Read More »