Nik Silver 🇺🇦

3 Followers
62 Following
98 Posts
(Now @pigsaw at mastodon.world) I help organisations and their technical teams work together better.
Bloghttps://niksilver.com
GitHubhttps://github.com/niksilver
A lightweight process can be more helpful than something elaborate. Last week I spoke to my friend Simon Voice about this (among other things) and this week's blog post is a short reflection on that. https://niksilver.com/2023/05/23/success-with-a-lightweight-process/
Success with a lightweight process

niksilver.com
Yesterday we played Tiny Towns for the first time. A lot of fun - easy to learn, entertaining to play, and top notch production values. Definitely recommended. #boardgmes
An occasional search for Magic: The Gathering content is problematic. #mtg throws up an awful lot of content about a certain Republican congresswoman. And then there's the weird crossover content, where one commentator says "#MTG creates her own swamp." Perhaps not surprising if we find she plays mono black. https://home.social/@obtener@mastodon.world/110361948529407549
Georgiann Baldino (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image #MTG creates her own swamp.

Mastodon
As a manager, when it comes to helping your team members sort out their personal problem I'd say it's important to be supportive, but be careful about getting too involved. This week's blog post... https://niksilver.com/2023/05/16/helping-team-members-with-their-personal-problems/
Helping team members with their personal problems

niksilver.com
Whenever I see Ron DeSantis campaigning and with flags, I can't help thinking of the senator in Stephen King's The Dead Zone. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/13/florida-teacher-allegedly-investigated-for-showing-students-film-strange-world
Florida teacher allegedly investigated for showing students film Strange World

Purported investigation after screening of Disney animated movie comes amid governor Ron DeSantis’s attacks on educators

The Guardian
A shout-out to the amazing customer support team at #Evernote. I reported an obscure bug to them, we had some very constructive back-and-forth (have you tried this, etc) and it eventually got parked with the engineering team. I didn't expect it to move after that, but within a week a new version was released with a bug fix. Outstanding.

I've just finished the very short course on prompt engineering for ChatGPT, over at https://learn.deeplearning.ai/. It was fun - and it's not rocket surgery. But the continuous refrain to "please use it responsibly" stuck out. Because if they need to say that to defend against misuse of AI then it's very worrying.

OpenAI: "Please only use this responsibly".
Criminal: "Curses, foiled again."

DLAI - Learning Platform Beta

DLAI - Learning Platform Beta

I love a bit of visualisation of complex ideas, so I diagrammed Ian Leslie's excellent book, "Conflicted", as a Tube map. The book's subtitle is "Why arguments are tearing us apart and how they can bring us together." It's a great read and full of practical advice if we choose avoid perpetually shouting at each other. https://niksilver.com/2023/05/09/the-conflict-tube-map/
The conflict Tube map

niksilver.com
I was perplexed to hear that when the police chose to arrest a number of would-be protesters at the coronation for possibly-doing-something-in-the-future they cited it being a "once-in-a-generation event" as major influence on their actions. If that really does imply greater intolerance, then I look forward to them being being very, very tolerant of people who glue themselves to roads or disrupt train travel - because road travel and train travel happens all the time.
If you're fighting a cause, and someone with views you otherwise oppose supports your cause, should you embrace them? Some people think not. Two stories about this, both from Politico. The first is about one individual's focused mission against monopolies. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/04/21/matt-stoller-hawley-trust-busting-00092679 The second is what happens when journalists do the same thing. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/05/05/tucker-carlsons-anti-corporate-views-00095426
Washington’s Angriest Progressive Is Winning Over Conservatives – and Baffling Old Allies

The activist who breathed new life into the antitrust movement wants support from the other side. But it could cost him.

POLITICO