Year: 2021

The Mechanisms of Fear

Ini­tial­ly, the fear of Coro­na was sup­posed to unite the peo­ple in the joint fight against the pan­dem­ic. This fear is increas­ing­ly turn­ing into hatred, agi­ta­tion, and sep­a­ra­tion. It is time for us to con­front this cor­ro­sive ten­den­cy with deter­mi­na­tion and unity.

Efficiency Through Nimbleness

Agile meth­ods do not direct­ly affect effi­cien­cy. Agile stands for nim­ble. Agili­ty ensures effec­tive­ness through nim­ble­ness. This adapt­abil­i­ty min­i­mizes the risk of unnec­es­sary work and rework. The effi­cien­cy of agili­ty comes only indi­rect­ly through reduc­ing risk and avoid­ing waste.

When the Method Becomes the Problem

When a com­pli­cat­ed prob­lem stub­born­ly resists attempts to solve it, it may be more com­plex than ini­tial­ly thought. In this case, a change of method from ana­lyt­ics to empiri­cism, from a plan-dri­ven to a more agile approach, can work won­ders. In this way, a lay­man in the field of air­craft con­struc­tion suc­ceeds in doing what legions of engi­neers before him have been unable to do.

The Art of Getting the Right Things Done

Time is our scarcest resource. It runs out irre­triev­ably. Already the ancient Romans gave the advice: Carpe diem! In the age of knowl­edge work with a thou­sand pos­si­bil­i­ties and just as many dis­trac­tions, how­ev­er, this is eas­i­er said than done. In about twen­ty years of knowl­edge work, I have tried out a few things and learned a lot about how to orga­nize myself well.