Clarke Ching - Split Infinitives and Beyond.

YES! Winners ...

By the way ... congratulations to Andy and Paul in Scotland, Yoav in Israel, Anthony in Cornwall and Jeff in the US, who were the lucky winners of Cialdini's fab little book YES! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive.

10 Free copies of Eli Goldratt's new book to give away

I've been give 10 free copies of Eli Goldratt's new book book Inherent Simplicity to give away to people who live in the United Kingdom.  These are EARLY versions of the real book and although they'll be plentiful in the US, they're rare in the UK. 

If you want a copy of the book then Eli has needs need to commit, to me, to TRY to read the book within 30 days of receiving it and after 30 days answer the following questions:  Did you finish reading the book? What are your age, occupation and education?  Did you recommend the book to anyone else?  If so, please provide the age, occupation and education of each person you recommended the book to (no name or addresses are needed).

I'll collate these answers and send them anonymously to Eli's assistant.  They're giving away around 20,000 copies (mostly in the US - I had to prepare a "compelling case" to get my copies sent to the UK) and they'll use the feedback to decide what books to write next.

If you'd like a copy and you're happy to make the commitment above then email me on Clarke.Ching+IS@gmail.com - including your postal address.  I'll randomly pick names out of a digital hat and post the books out as soon as they arrive.

If you've already asked for a copy, please email me again, just in case ...

Free "World is Flat" audio book - be quick, though.

http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/giveaway

Free!

Bridges

My good friend Rob sent me a link to this short article by Glen Vanderburg's which does a great job of comparing bridge building and software development. 

'tis worth spending two minutes to read through  , although if you are lazy, here's Glenn's summary:

I think there are some important lessons here for the software profession. The lesson is definitely not that "real engineering" is a mechanistic, purely construction-oriented process, which is the lesson that is usually assumed when software is compared to bridges.

TOC for the Soul

Danilo Sirias has had a brilliant idea:

Hi all:

We all know that TOC has made a large impact in the business world.  But what may not be well known is the fact that TOC has also had what may be a bigger impact in the personal life of many people around the world.  With that in mind, I have decided to embark on a "TOC for the soul" project.

The purpose of this project is to create a compilation of stories of how TOC has helped you have a better life for yourself and for others.  I am not interested in business stories of how you reduce lead time or increase throughput. Do you have a better relationship with your spouse or kids?  Did you help someone through a difficult time?  Did you help a not-for-profit do better?  Are you in better health? Are you better at a hobby?  Are you children better in dealing with conflicts? Better students?  Did you overcome a bad habit?  Those and more are the stories I would like to publish.

I plan to compile, organize, edit (so if you think your English is not good enough I will hire an editor to fix the stories), and publish the book.  A portion of the sales will be donated to TOC for Education (I have Kathy Suerken, President and CEO of TOCFE, endorsement for this project).  Contributors will be able to purchase all the books they want at a discounted price.

I envision 2  to 6-page stories, including clouds and trees.  If you like, a small biography can be included or you can remain anonymous.

To make sure I do not waste your time, I first want to measure the interest for this project.  So at this point, if you are interested, I am asking to send me your name and email and the number of stories you can contribute (not obligation at this point if later you decide not to).  If I have enough stories, then I will contact you back requesting the specific stories and the instructions for submission.  My email is dsirias@svsu.edu .  Please reply off-list.  I will not use your email for any other purpose other than this project.  Please feel free to pass this email to anyone who may be interested.

Thanks for your interest.

Danilo

Danilo Sirias, Ph.D.
Saginaw Valley State University
University Center, MI 48710_

Naked Agilists preview Agile2008

Adrian Mowat and Kevin Rutherford have rather kindly taken the NakedAgilists reins from me and have prepared interviews with  the "Agile2008 conference organisers to tell us about what they have planned."

Adam Geras - Designing, Testing, and Thinking with Examples
Brian Marick - Legacy Code
Jeff Patton - User Experience
Laurent Bossavit - Breaking Acts
Marc Evers - Agile and Organizational Culture

http://www.nakedagilists.com/node/22 

NakedAgilists started out as an AgileScotland "thing" while I was working away from Scotland.  We started with Skype Conference calls, but skype abandoned that technology (which was a shame because it worked well) and we couldn't find anything to replace it, hence the short interview format.  Aren't computers wonderful!

Agile 2008 - I'm not going :(

:( Due to personal reasons I can't make it to the Agile2008 conference.  I'm really, really, really disappointed because I had two wonderful sessions prepared (one co-presented with my friend Graeme Thomas) which I was so looking forward to sharing with the wider audience.  I was also, frankly, looking forward to meeting up with so many of my virtual friends from across the pond and having a lot of fun!

I am a bit embarrassed about the personal reason, but since I've told a few people what it is and since I'm no good at keeping secrets, I'll tell you now.  Don't worry, it's got nothing to do with chronic flatulence. Basically, it has taken me a lot longer to finish off my book than I thought it would and while I've been working on it, I've been living off my savings and short term engagements.  I was really depressed when, last month,  I realised that I had to choose between finishing the book, going to the conference and paying my mortgage. 

This might sound a little "miss worldish" but I'm hoping the book will help make the world a slightly better place (I've spent 4 years working on it now and I'm so, so, so close, it hurts) and that seems so much more important that going to have fun at a conference.

Oh well. 

Elvis lived ... 2,000 years ago?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2447019/Elvis-lives-in-2%2C000-year-old-carving.html

Espresso

Ive just finished an espresso. The shop had a wee sign up reminding the staff to wipe down the coffee machine thingys after each cofee and to "strip, then clean the entire machine at the end of the day".

Now, don't tell my wife, but the two young woman working behind the counter were quite attractive and I do think closing time would be quite entertaining if they interpretted the sign the same way I did.
.oOo. Sent from my BlackBerry www.ClarkeChing.com +44(0)7920114893

How to make MORE money from a restaurant which is almost always fully booked ...

I went out to a localish restaurant yesterday. It's my third time there in as many years and each time I go there I swear never to return. The food is okay, but nothing special but the service is crap. It takes ages for our orders to be taken, ages for our food to arrive, and then when it does arrive they tend to screw it up.

And yet, despite the poor service it has been full each of the three times I've gone there. I reckon the owners are very pleased with themselves. Who wouldn't be pleased when their tables are nearly always full?!?

Here's the problem. They could make a whole lot more money if they realised that "always full" is not the same as "running at full capacity". I know that they're not at full capacity because we spent 30 minutes longer at the table than we needed/wanted to while we were waiting on their kitchen. If we'd finished up 30 minutes earlier perhaps they'd have been able to seat another 5 people at our table, that they'd had to turn away because they were "full".

There bottleneck is almost certainly their kitchen. A little focused study would almost certainaly find another 10, 20, 30 percent extra capacity from the kitchen, which would be enough to get people served quicker, free up what should be their real constraint (the tables), so that they can sell more food.

Even if they didn't manage to sell the newly found capacity I suspect they'd sell more per person. Based on my previous two trips, I made sure that we didn't order starters because I was my wife didn't want a starter, she was hungry and I didn't want to make her wait for my starter to arrive, for me to eat it, and then for the main meal to arrive. I'd tried, the previous two times to get my starter and her main to arrive at the same time and it had confused the staff so much that they never bought my main. So, long story short: they lost maybe 20% of the money I would happily have paid.

you must be wondering how come they're so full? They have a local monopoly. That's all. But, I reckon the owners don't see that other wise they'd take a little look in their kitchen and start making some more money.
.oOo. Sent from my BlackBerry www.ClarkeChing.com +44(0)7920114893