A Project Manager's Worth

Here's a classic joke that points out the real worth of a project manager:

A tourist walked into a pet shop and was looking at the animals on display. While he was there, another customer walked in and said to the shopkeeper, "I'll have a C monkey please." The shopkeeper nodded, went over to a cage at the side of the shop and took out a monkey. He fitted a collar and leash, handed it to the customer, saying, "That'll be $5,000."

The customer paid and walked out with his monkey. Startled, the tourist went over to the shopkeeper and said, "That was a very expensive monkey. Most of them are only a few hundred pounds. Why did it cost so much?" The shopkeeper answered, "Ah, that monkey can program in C - very fast, tight code, no bugs, well worth the money."

The tourist looked at a monkey in another cage. "Hey, that one's even more expensive! $10,000! What does it do?"

"Oh, that one's a C++ monkey; it can manage object-oriented programming, Visual C++, even some Java. All the really useful stuff," said the shopkeeper.

The tourist looked around for a little longer and saw a third monkey in a cage of its own. The price tag around its neck read $50,000. The tourist gasped to the shopkeeper, "That one costs more than all the others put together! What on earth does it do?"

The shopkeeper replied, "Well, I haven't actually seen it do anything, but it says it's a project manager".

Practical Intelligence

The intelligence that we often talk about, or General Intelligence, is apparently not sufficient for you to get ahead in this world. You also need other types of intelligences, one of which is Practical Intelligence, to be really successful. Psychologist Robert J. Sternberg proposes three intelligences in human cognition:

• Analytical intelligence is the ability to analyze and evaluate ideas, solve problems and make decisions.
• Creative intelligence involves going beyond what is given to generate novel and interesting ideas.
• Practical intelligence is the ability that individuals use to find the best fit between themselves and the demands of the environment.

All of these intelligences together comprise what Sternberg calls Successful Intelligence and this is what will put you ahead of the rest of the world. I see Practical Intelligence as very important as this is what enables you to use your other intelligences to get the best advantage. Malcolm Gladwell also talks about practical intelligence in his famous book, Outliers. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to find an answer to the perennial question, "what makes high-achievers different?"

WorkFlowy - Everything can be a list!

I have experimented with hundreds of note-taking and list-making apps on the web and on my iPhone but never stayed with any one for long. Simplenote was probably the best for simple text based notes and Evernote was the most versatile. But nothing was perfect and all of them lacked one feature or the other. 

Things may change though with the introduction of a new app called WorkFlowy. WorkFlowy is a simple note-taking app that makes lists based on bullets and sub-bullets. All your text in WorkFlowy is contained within one giant list that can have multiple nested sub-lists. This may seem counterproductive but real power of WorkFlowy lies in its simplicity.

Check this article on Slate.com for more praise and details.

Don't Be Afraid to Change Your Own Ideas

Here is a great piece of advice from Jeff Bezos:

"People who were right a lot of the time were people who often changed their minds. Consistency of thought is not always a positive trait. It's perfectly healthy to have an idea tomorrow that contradicted your idea today.

The smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they'd already solved. They're open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't have a well formed point of view, but it means you should consider your point of view as temporary."

Via Signal vs. Noise

The Flowchart of Life

Happiness defined in few simple steps:

From Visually.

When Managers Must Choose Between Right and Right

Defining Moments: When Managers Must Choose Between Right and Right by Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.

A must read book for managers faced with ethical dilemmas at work. The book discusses and brings together different philosophies and overall creates a great reference tool to examine the "Right vs. Right" situations.

Funny Project Management Quotes

"The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time, the last 10% takes the other 90%."

"Successful project management is all about spotting the projects that will succeed and shouting 'mine' and for the rest ducking and shouting 'yours'."

"A two year project will take three years, a three year project will never finish."

"A user is someone who tells you what they want the day you give them what they asked for."

"A badly defined project will take three times longer than expected, a well defined project only twice as long as expected."

"We haven't got time to work out where we're going, we're late already."

"A little risk management save a lot of fan cleaning."

"Good estimators aren't modest: if it's huge they say so."

"The person who says the project will take the longest and cost the most is the only person with a clue how to do it."

"Nothing's impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it."

"There are no good project managers - only lucky ones."

"If there's a 50% chance of something going wrong then 9 times out of 10 it will."

"The least used phrase in a project manager's vocabulary is 'I do not know'."

"The sooner you get behind schedule the more time you have to make it up."

"There is no such thing as scope creep, only scope gallop."

"If at first you don't succeed remove all evidence you ever tried."

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."