I'm a heavy TextExpander user and I love the application. Taking the time of setting up the text expansion "snippets" once and using them multiple times across different machines saves me time every single day. Losing my snippets But I had an issue. For some reason, after acquiring my MacBook Pro a couple of months … Continue reading TextExpander: support with a smile
Category: Stream of Consciousness
Quick tip – learn to use your tools
I've recently taken a close look at the application folder on my Mac. If you sort your applications by "date last opened", you may be in for a surprise. More than 70% of the applications I have installed had not been opened in the past 30 days. Including some applications I consider essential and would … Continue reading Quick tip – learn to use your tools
So what do you do when you don’t do what you’re usually doing?
A strange question Okay, I admit, that may be a rather strange question. But think about it for a second ... do you have other projects than professional ones? Yes, I know you have your family and friends, but do you have objectives, very specific aims you want to achieve with or for them? And … Continue reading So what do you do when you don’t do what you’re usually doing?
Brett’s courage
Much respect to Brett Terpstra for opening up about his past in this extremely personal post. I've never struggled with substance abuse myself, but I was a very, very heavy smoker from 1988 until late 2007. I'm defining heavy smoker as ranging from one pack to two packs of Camels per day. I had gone … Continue reading Brett’s courage
Slow writing: more beautiful words
Reading The Cramped Lately, there's been a movement towards more tactile writing experiences, especially those writing experiences involving pen and paper. Excellent sites like The Cramped show people who are perhaps not aware of the beauty and the advantages of writing with a (fountain) pen on paper just what it's all about. I can only … Continue reading Slow writing: more beautiful words
Audit interviews: exploratory versus digging questions
Failing to bring home the goods I believe most of us have been in a situation such as the following: we send out a young staff member on an interview, most often one of their first, only to have them come back with less than the information we expected them to. Then we hit ourselves … Continue reading Audit interviews: exploratory versus digging questions
Efficiency overkill
Working on efficiency We've been working a lot on efficiency aspects lately, so I got to thinking about the boundaries of efficiency quite a lot in recent days and weeks. Efficiency is very important, especially in a public sector environment. We are using taxpayers' money, so it is essential that we make the best possible … Continue reading Efficiency overkill
Quick thoughts on development aid
Development aid is not about punishing people. Not our own people, not our beneficiaries. It should never be about guilt, or about a debt owed. It should be about using our intelligence, our creativity, to make the world more inclusive. It should never be about the typical Catholic rap of: "you should feel bad because … Continue reading Quick thoughts on development aid
Marketeers all the way
Turtles all the way There's this story I must have read in one of Terry Pratchett's wonderful diskworld novels. In a conference open to the public, a scientist is approached by an older lady. She contests the round world hypothesis and points out that the world is a disk, carried on four elephants, who stand … Continue reading Marketeers all the way
Death of The Manager
Examining my dictionary What is a manager? My dictionary states that a manager is: "a person responsible for controlling or administering an organization or group of staff" But there is an implicit assumption here, which is the following: that an organization or a group of staff need managing. And that's what it used to be. … Continue reading Death of The Manager
Exploring The Black Box 