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Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all… and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2019, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make the United Kingdom great (not to imply that the United Kingdom is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only “United Kingdom” in the Northern hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual orientation of the wishee. ...

It seems that perfection would be attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away. —Antoine de St. Exupery, Terre des Hommes, 1939 I keep coming back to this one. Not because it is particularly deep — we have all heard the version about a masterpiece being complete when there is nothing left to add — but because it got me thinking about the opposite direction, which is the one I actually find harder. ...

“We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.” I came across this quote from Buckminster Fuller a few days ago and it has been sitting with me ever since. Not because it is profound in some new way — I have heard variations of it before — but because it feels increasingly urgent to actually live by it rather than just nod along. The way I read it now, trying to figure out what to do with my life, is less about grand architectural visions and more about the small daily choices that add up to whatever kind of future I end up with. It is easy to drift. It is easy to let other people’s plans for you, or the general momentum of things, carry you somewhere you did not choose. And then one day you look up and you are somewhere you never intended to be and you wonder how that happened. ...

Architecture is helpful in guarding the essentials of the business, while still allowing for maximal flexibility and adaptability.

I came across this parable recently and it stuck with me. The attribution is disputed – some say it was the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer on his deathbed, others point to an Anglican bishop, and some claim it’s simply anonymous folklore that’s been circulating for decades. The origin doesn’t matter much. What matters is the shape of the thing. When I was young, free, and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world. ...

Political intelligence requires a thorough understanding of the dynamics of leverage — which simply means your ability to get others to do what you want.

Every problem contains a hidden opportunity. In IT especially – one person’s challenge is another person’s chance to build something better.