Archives for 2025

At work we have the concept of a pre-read. Before a product review, people are expected to read the pre-read and come prepared to discuss and decide.

In contrast to on-the-spot decision making, the pre-read allows time for mental digestion. It creates space for the subconscious to work.

Bestseller lists. Five-star ratings. Recommendations from friends.

They’re all different versions of shortcuts.

Doing the work to find, test, and remember the best things are hard. So we accept a little risk by trusting the advice of someone else in the hope they’re right.

Not all shortcuts are good. But many are acceptable because they simplify our lives.

I wrote a tongue-in-cheek post the other day about how dogs don’t need walking, it’s humans that do.

This one is a more serious one about how to make a walk better for your dog.

Maru once told me that the walk is the dog’s walk, not ours.

They don’t get to make decisions about when they go out, or where they go. So when we take them out, we can make it their walk.

It’s their time. When they want to stop and sniff, we should let them; even if they want to sniff for a really long time.

When we change our perspective on a walk with our dog, and treat it as their walk, we can make it a lot more enjoyable for them. They’re the pilot, not the passenger.

Seat belts. Flossing. Code test coverage. Fire drills. Doctor check-ups.

All minor inconveniences. But all things that help avoid one disaster or another. The minor convenience is almost always worth the cost.

When they’re not needed, those little green signs blur into the background.

When they’re needed, it’s the only thing we see.

Dogs get us outside in the early morning. They help us see the sun, breathe fresh air, and add a little pause to our routine.

Maybe dogs don’t need walks. Maybe it’s their humans that need them.

Growth comes when we’re exposed to a stimulus that stretches us, but doesn’t break us.

As we get stretched, we grow and improve, and our capacity to deal with the unexpected increases.

When I first started work, I hadn’t trained my “does this make sense?” muscle. Up until that point, I was used to all the data and information in text books being correct.

However, the real world is messy. Any answer or piece of data may be correct, or there may be nuance or grey areas that make the conclusion less clear.

It always pays to ask, “does this make sense?”.

The prototype is typically fast and easy to build. It’s a simple demonstration that a particular idea, technology, or solution is possible.

If the prototype demo goes well, the tricky part is translating it into a product that is ready for production (i.e., ships to end users).

All the complexities and edge cases that get glossed over in the prototype phase have to be hunted down and resolved. And they’re typically hard and take a lot of time.

Prototypes will get people excited and motivated, but sustained effort and energy over time is required to ship.

That’s the hard part.

A helpful rule for green-fingered folk: it’s better to underwater than overwater your plants.

I didn’t know that until recently.

The risk of root rot is high if a plant is holding a lot of moisture.

They’re more likely to survive a few days with dry soil than they are with drenched soil.

Sure, think hard about doing it more efficiently or effectively.

But at the end of the day, look back and appreciate the progress you’ve made—whether you inched or leaped forward.

Do what you can.

The very best you can.

Whether it’s family, friends, or colleagues. Many a misunderstanding can be avoided if we first assume good intent.

We’re all on the same team. No one is deliberately trying to make the other person’s life more difficult.

A little treat can’t hurt.

A candy, a bar of chocolate, a scoop of ice cream, a dessert, a daily sugar habit.

It all feels small and inconsequential until it doesn’t anymore.

The less a company treats customer service with a solve-this-problem-quickly-and-cheaply type attitude, and has a let’s-win-this-person-over-for-the-long-run type attitude, the more everyone wins.

The customer and the company.

What feels painful to the company in the short run pays dividends over and again in the long run.

We’re heading to Glastonbury Music Festival at the end of this week with good friends. Growing up in New Zealand, whenever I heard about Glastonbury, it always seemed like a myth from some far off land. Because it was.

So I can’t wait to experience it for the first time soon. Although, I’m likely to be in bed soon after midnight, with my ear plugs in, and my eye mask on. No late night raves for me.