Curated Content February 2022

Articles

The Chaotic Factory

The Chaotic Factory - Study Hacks - Cal Newport

Imagine that you walk into a car factory and encounter a chaotic scene. Half-built vehicles are scattered across the floor. Workers wander frenetically, grabbing each other as they pass, shouting out random requests. “Do you know where the wrenches are?” “When you get a chance, come show me how to i…

Cal NewportHeather Thiessen

While not a perfect analogy, I've found most knowledge work, including software, tends to look a lot like the proverbial chaotic factory in the article, where no one knows exactly where a given piece is. Where do you see similar issues in your organization? You know that "pile of parts" you ordered is "around here somewhere".

This is something that if we can address across industries has the potential to unlock a huge amount of value in the world.

Books

The Dawn of Everything - David Graeber & David Wengrow

A book that feels like it's in a similar vein to Sapiens, but in the classic fashion of David Graeber's works like Debt, it takes everything you think you know about human history and what that means for society and makes you rethink all of it.

A great way to begin exploring potential alternatives to where humanity could be, compared to where we ended up.

This will likely be my favorite book of 2022.