[30-Dec-24] Plans for 2025?

Germany is pretty low in the Optimistic picture, only 56% agree for 2025

There are several arguments why, that we will get a new government after the election in Feb-25 is only one of many. A lot of people do not like when the government is setting too many rules, for others it is still not enough.

A good analogy is LEGO, they had their 90th anniversary in 2022. On the one side you have the highly complex sets with many special bricks and a book to describe the way to build it. On the other side people who like the basic bricks and just build anything from their phantasy. - Mathematics Professor Søren Eilers proves that there are many more ways of combining six LEGO bricks of the same colour than we have been suggesting (915 million).

LEGO is going into the professional environment since some time ago - LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® began as an experiential process designed for use in guided workshops with adults to prompt dialogue and encourage reflection, as well as develop problem-solving skills and use of imagination. However, SERIOUS PLAY® sets like the Starter Kit are also suitable for building critical thinking skills in kids 6+. - but is also facing competitors in the meantime - Blue Brixx as one example here.

• Best Lego Alternatives: Cost-effective Picks for Adults and Kids (Nov-24)

• TED Talk: How AI is saving billions of years of human research time by Max Jaderberg

[29-Dec-24] My week 52-2024 highlights

Changing our circumstances ...

This is generally the time for New Year's resolutions, to change the circumstances or have some new or different goal ideas for 2025. Here a quick OpenAI summary:

New Year's resolutions are a global tradition where people make promises to themselves for self-improvement. Common resolutions include losing weight, exercising more, eating healthier, saving money, and learning new skills. Many people also aim to reduce stress, travel more, volunteer, or spend more time with family and friends.

However, statistics show that while these resolutions are made with good intentions, many are often abandoned shortly after the new year begins. The top resolutions that are implemented tend to be those related to health and wellness. On the other hand, goals related to saving money, learning new skills, or spending more time with loved ones are often the first to be skipped as the year progresses.

I personally do not believe in these kind of resolutions, I am more the learning by doing and find out in the situation kind of guy.

“New Year’s Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.” — Mark Twain, taken from 87 New Year’s Quotes to Get You Pumped for 2025

The changed Linux Mint desktop environment in combination with the new BRAVE browser is running smoothly so far, no frozen browser, no necessary reboots - just changed the circumstances ...

Just tonight the 4th round (with the last 16 players) of The 2024/25 Paddy Power World Darts Championship started. And the NFL Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans on 09-Feb-25 is coming closer as well. This weekend is week-17, one more week to go and then the playoffs are starting already. Good sports in early 2025.

One more week holiday in the coming days, will go back to work on 06-Jan-25.

• Video: Every Art of Improvement video in 2024 (just 4 hours and 30 minutes)
• Video: Cup of teach short film

• 10 Culture Conversations That Made Leaders Uncomfortable In 2024. And why that discomfort is precisely what your organization needs by Gustavo Razzetti

• Steve Jobs and Elon Musk didn’t become game-changers by doing everything. They became legends by focusing on the right things

• 6 Mistakes IT Teams Are Guaranteed To Make In 2025

• FREE AI resources to start your learning journey

• McKinsey & Company: Curious about 2024’s biggest sustainability and energy trends?

  
  

P.S.: Only 2 days to go and I will be putting my 7th eBOOK with all 2024 posts together, for you as FREE download. Some days when I am looking back through previous posts and go some weeks or month into the past, I am still surprised how diverse the topics are I am covering during a year. 

"On New Year's Eve, the whole world celebrates the fact that a date changes. Let us celebrate the dates on which we change the world." — Akilnathan Logeswaran from 100 Best New Year's Quotes for 2025

[27-Dec-24] "The best thing about vouchers are YOU" ...

The main sentence from the ALDI Christmas spot

When you used up all the vouchers from your kids, be kind to yourself and have some fun and happiness. Here some good examples as video, book, link, or online training:

• Playlist: Most popular TED Talks of 2024

• The Top 24 Business Books of 2024. Read to succeed in the new year.

• The Top 24 Happiness Books of 2024

• 100 school: Become irreplaceable by stacking unique skills in just 30 mins a day. Free, fun, and effective 30 minute "Explain like I’m 5" bite-sized lessons delivered daily. Ready to change your life?

• 6 Revolutionary Tech Developments That Defined 2024

• Tired of cluttered thoughts? Learn the visual tool to organizing your ideas.

• Leadership isn’t about applying the same approach to everyone.
  It’s about adapting to each individual.

• Korean researchers find cancer undo button, turn tumor cells to normal ones 

[26-Dec-24] Boxing Day today

Boxing Day, celebrated annually on December 26th, is a holiday with roots steeped in history, tradition, and a spirit of giving

The tradition of Boxing Day is believed to have originated in Britain during Queen Victoria’s reign ( between 1837 and 1901) , under the reign of Queen Victoria.

Its name is derived from the practice of giving "Christmas boxes" to servants, tradespeople, and the less fortunate. These boxes were filled with money, gifts, or leftovers from the Christmas feast and were distributed as a gesture of gratitude and goodwill.

I had some issues with my Linux Mint 22 version in combination with Google Chrome lately. 1st I tried a different desktop environment, besides Cinnamon, MATE and XFCE are available. 2nd step was another browser, I selected BRAVE for the time being. The browser that puts you first - Block ads. Save data. And get way faster webpages. Just by switching your browser. We will see how it behaves after some days.

Coming to Christmas and the period from 24 - 26-Dec-24, with the question to OpenAI about - the most funny and least know international Christmas habits and traditions: 

During Christmas, some lesser-known international traditions can bring a fun twist to the holiday season. For example, in Catalonia, it's custom to include a figurine of a pooping man in nativity scenes for good luck. In Ukraine, spider webs are used as decorations to symbolize good fortune and prosperity for the upcoming year.

Another amusing tradition is in Japan, where people indulge in KFC as a special Christmas meal, thanks to a successful marketing campaign in the '70s. Meanwhile, in Iceland, families exchange books on Christmas Eve, spend the night reading, and enjoy a tradition called "Jolabokaflod" or "The Christmas Book Flood."

• Historical Events on December 25

• As I used OpenAI some other examples

  • The best large language models (LLMs) in 2024 (Aug-24)

  • 45 real-world LLM applications and use cases from top companies (Nov-24)

• Sketchnotes summary: 8 Steps of Organizational Change by John Kotter

• Agile Methodologies: A Must-Have in Today’s Rapidly Evolving Business World

[22-Dec-24] The week 51-2024 summary

How Great Leaders Inspire Action | Simon Sinek | TED

Great fit of the Simon Sinek Golden Circle video with the Bricklayers picture and analogy. Have fun and enjoy the weekend.

• Video: The Penguins of Madagascar Christmas Special 🎄 | DreamWorks Madagascar
• Video: 4 Tiny Habits to Improve Your Sleep Effortlessly

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (20-Dec-24)

• Before You Sprint into the New Year, Pause and Reflect - Five proven personal and team reflection exercises to help you succeed in 2025 by Gustavo Razzetti

• ETL/ELT are essential in the AI ecosystem, primarily for their role in data preparation and management

"Leaders take the risk to trust first." -- Simon Sinek

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[21-Dec-24] A comparison ...

Market capitalization versus sold cars 

Asking OpenAI for a quick introduction:

Toyota Cars, a pioneer in the automotive industry, has a rich foundation dating back to 1937. Over the years, Toyota has developed a wide range of vehicles, from the iconic Corolla to the hybrid Prius, becoming a household name globally.

On the other hand, Tesla, founded in 2003, is relatively new but has made significant strides in electric vehicle technology. Their cars, like the Model S and Model 3, have gained popularity for their innovation and sustainability. With a rapid increase in market capitalization, Tesla is poised to be a major player in the automotive industry by 2024.

It is the comparision of a traditional car maker TOYOTA with a disruptive newcomer selling software on wheels TESLA. Tesla has nearly 7 times the market capitalization of Toyota in 2024, and did sell only 20% of the cars compared to Toyota in 2023. Impressive numbers.

"The future is not decided by someone else.The future is something we all create.This is what we believe. This is why we made "Find Your Future" the Toyota Booth concept." -- Koji Sato, Toyota CEO 

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[20-Dec-24] An interesting experiment

Combining The IT Crowd the Wicked film and the 2024/2025 PDC World Darts Championship with the help of Google Gemini

Pictures used for the matching summary below: For The IT Crowd, for the Wicked film (The Wizard, Elphaba, and Glinda) and finally the PDC. Have fun reading the full conversation and Gemini proposals.

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After my Wicked post on the 18th and the start of the Darts Championship on the 15th of Dec-24, I had a discussion with a colleague about funny TV series to watch during the holiday break. He proposed Slow Horses from Apple TV and I mentioned The IT Crowd, a TV Series from 2006-2013. It is available as Channel on Youtube. Have a look ...

Yesterday I asked Google Gemini to combine the three topics into on story, what it did pretty well and it was the more difficult part I would say. Putting the 9 pictures together and adding some explaining text was my easier task.

• Stranded Astronauts' Trip Back to Earth Has Been Postponed Yet Again

• Thanks to unFIX and Jurgen Appelo: 200+ Books on AI

• THNK School of Leadership: The Purpose Journal

• Dan Rockwell: Ask 5 Questions Before Setting Goals for 2025

• Guardrails and Guidelines: Top Talent Leaders Weigh in on How to Use AI Safely

• Politeness is the poison of collaboration: Why teams fail without honesty, Credit to Kevin Box

• Here are 11 channels that will teach you more than a 4 year degree

• 7 free online MBA-like courses that will accelerate your career

[18-Dec-24] Wicked the film Part 1

At the end of the film we learned, there will be a second Part ...

Yesterday we made a family cinema visit to see WICKED. My wife and I had seen the musical several years ago, an interesting story about what did happen before The Wizard of Oz, the famous 1939 film.

When you see, what is possible in cinema with the current technology, you are even more impressed about musicals and their storytelling in a theatre with an average size stage. Really great. 

The promotion for the film did even show up once on LinkedIn this week:

• Industry humor and fun: 5 'Wicked' Ideas for Talent Professionals

• Why are so many brands collaborating with the ‘Wicked’ movie?

• Video: Wicked - Official Trailer
• Video: Wicked 2 Is About to Change Everything! (coming Nov-25)

Besides that 2 working days to go and the majority of the people in the office will be away from 23-Dec-24 until 03-Jan-25. Will be a quiet two weeks, but well deserved. Due to the increasing pressure at the year end and the several transformations going on in parallel, people are running out of steam and need to recover. Same for me ...

• Video: Bruce Lee Wisdom: BE WATER, MY FRIEND by Shannon Lee | Core Message
• Sahil Bloom: 2025 - A SIMPLE FRAMEWORK TO ACHIEVE DRAMATIC RESULTS

• Step Outside Your Comfort Zone By Frank Sonnenberg

• How to Create a Culture That Embraces — and Fully Leverages — AI

• Youtube has more than 38,000,000 active channels. Here are 11 channels that will teach you more than a 4 year degree

• Olina Glindevi: Explaining Risk: Likeliness vs. Impact 

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[15-Dec-24] My week 50-2024 highlights

One week to go before the holiday season break

Tomorrow the German chancellor will request a vote of confidence in the parliament. The last step to initiate the German re-election in Feb-25. We all assume he will be losing the vote, still to be confirmed on Monday.

An interesting approach to check the level of trust that is still granted for the German chancellor by the whole parliament, and the only chance to break up the parliament during the term of office when the vote is lost.

Could also be helpful in a business environment sometimes, especially when the senior management is questioning the capabilities and mindset of employees, holding specific roles in projects? But you can only do it once and should be clear about a plan B, when the trust level is not sufficient anymore. Just an idea ...

One week to go before I have 2 weeks holiday during the Christmas period. Looking forward to a break.

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (13-Dec-24)

• The Third Wave Of AI Is Here: Why Agentic AI Will Transform The Way We Work

• The Five Biggest AI And Data Trends That Will Transform Businesses In 2025

• Impact Multipliers - Factors that act as multipliers of your impact - individually and as an organization by Tanmay Vora

• From Noise to Impact: How to Improve Team Communication
  Because better collaboration starts with better communication

  by Gustavo Razzetti

• Video: Still G.I.N. For Everybody: A Toast Between Legends (This commercial created using AI by Still GIN is amazing as it brought back the late Frank Sinatra & Sammy Davis Jr. pairing up with Snoop Dogg & Dr. Dre.)

• "Tell me how you measure me, and I will tell you how I behave" Eliyahu Goldratt

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[13-Dec-24] Personality Type change ...

A combination of Advocate and Consul

16Personalities proposed a retesting with the following argument -

The most popular personality test in the world just got better. NEW research makes our test results more personalized than ever before.

Based on my mood today, I did take the test and got another result than the two times before. I was Consul in the past and now I seem to be an Advocate. Both types have commonalities, but also differences. Here two pages with a really good overview and comparison:

• Crystal: INFJ and ESFJ Relationship - Learn about 16-Personality types and relationships
• TraitLab: INFJ and ESFJ Compatibility: Relationships, Friendships, and Partnerships - How compatible are INFJ and ESFJ patterns of communicating, thinking, and working?

Funny enough both pages assume that they are comparing two individuals and not the same person with two different test results. Anyway combining both is not so bad ...

People with an INFJ personality type tend to be determined, reserved, and altruistic in their behavior. People with the ESFJ personality type tend to be empathetic, warm-hearted, and supportive in their behavior.

“Authentic leaders are real and genuine. They acknowledge their shortcomings and admit their errors, which enables them to connect with others and inspire teammates. Their leadership is built on their character and values, as they embrace the vital experiences that shape them, and are comfortable in their skin.” – BILL GEORGE

• Dan Rockwell: Flourish or Stink – Skunks or Bees AND Value is a Journey of Two Steps

• Is Attrition All About Bad Managers? 5 Experts Say It’s More Complex

• Chris Stone: Avoid Continuous Improvement mistakes quick-tips guide

• High performance doesn’t happen by chance—it requires a culture where feedback flows freely, consistently, and constructively.

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[11-Dec-24] Technology distraction 

Bots are improving, but still not perfect

Just yesterday I wanted to extend the usage of a temporary laptop for one of our Interns. The 1st contact with the helpdesk is always via a bot called ToBi. Still basic functionality, you can always select from several options offered. As extending a laptop is not an available option, I had to be a little bit creative.

Moving hardware from one to another user was the closest possibility, in my case the same user, so I selected this one. Next message from ToBi was that the selected option is not valid, as a hardware transfer is not allowed. The system created a ticket for this advice to me and closed it directly afterwards.

Next question was, how satisfied are you with the support, not at all was my answer. Do not offer an option that is not allowed. How could I improve my answers was the next question. Delete the useless option please.

It was not the bot's fault, but of the people programming or training the machine. You should always adjust the tree of options to the latest policy changes, in the interest of your customers. 

“Right now, there is no other country on Earth with as much data as China, as many people as China, and as many electronics per capita. No other country is positioned to have a bigger economy than America’s within our lifetimes. No other country has more potential to influence our planet’s ecosystem, climate, and weather patterns – leading to survival or catastrophe – than China. No other country bridges both the developed and developing world like China does.” — Amy Webb

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[08-Dec-24] The week 49-2024 summary

Do your most important task first ...

It derives from a variant of a quote that Mark Twain never said, "If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first." — Not Mark Twain

The "Eat the Frog" picture and The Art of Improvement video today fit perfectly together. Limit your time-wasting activities and do your most important tasks first, even when it is a real frog :-)

Tomorrow we have the Lessons learned session for our 4th Data & Analytics Meetup event. The AI generated LinkedIn post has 2,620 klicks in the meantime, really impressive. On Tuesday we have the Christmas dinner with our whole team, sponsored by the company.

Tomorrow starts the 2bAHEAD Future Congress. A Think Tank - Scientific future research paired with individual strategy advice. This is Europe's largest future research institute. Will be interesting to follow.

Finally: "After several years of restoration, which have allowed this iconic monument to regain its full grandeur, Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris returns to its original purpose: to celebrate worship and welcome faithful visitors from around the world. From December 8 to 15, an inaugural week will mark the reopening of the cathedral and pay tribute to those who contributed to its restoration. Starting on December 16, Notre-Dame will resume its daily rhythm. We invite the whole world to come rediscover this universal treasure."

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (06-Dec-24)

• 7 Hacks to Scale Without Overly Complicated Frameworks, And one daunting absolute must by Willem-Jan Ageling

• Good Leaders Know How to Get Angry, The hidden power of anger: Setting high standards without becoming volatile by Gustavo Razzetti

• 15 uncomfortable truths about the real path to success

• This article explores the key differences between Lean and Agile, highlighting their origins, principles, and applications

• The dream of modular phones has found a champion in Fairphone 5, proving that sustainable, repairable designs can succeed.

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[05-Dec-24] New Work Bar Talk ...

"If it were easy, it would be soccer"

This sentence was a recurring message from Silke Velten, who did host the event yesterday evening at the Design Offices location in Cologne. THANKS for having us and the nice food and drinks.

Soccer is a good analogy, because you have a coach, a captain, the team and a lot of different supporting staffs - defined roles with a clear responsibility, who all work together to be successful. The same as in our business life. 

The audience was a diverse and wide variety of people from all ages, industries, working and management levels, craftswomen and knowledge workers, self-employed and employed. "The New Work KneipenTalk is no ordinary event - it is an experience that focuses on SOLUTIONS instead of problems. In a relaxed atmosphere reminiscent of a cozy pub round, managers, entrepreneurs, founders and experts exchange views on the future of work."

The simple idea is to ask great questions that trigger a dialog for 5-minutes, a short period of time that can be extended by the time keeper, who was selected from the audience. As a discussion could have the same amount of opinions like there are ways of combining six LEGO bricks - From 102 to 915 million combinations - a dialog is coming to solutions much faster. 

One of the questions I was thinking about was - What does AI think about New Work? - see below a short OpenAI answer:

The concept of New Work brings both benefits and challenges. On the positive side, it encourages flexibility and work-life balance and fosters creativity and innovation. However, some drawbacks include potential feelings of isolation and difficulty in establishing boundaries between work and personal life. By carefully weighing these pros and cons, individuals and organizations can better navigate the changing landscape of work structures and environments.

Another topic was to have a "TÜV for managers" - TÜV is short for Technischer Überwachungsverein in German, which means Technical Inspection Association. These associations are independent companies that test, inspect, and certify technologies, products, and systems to ensure potential hazards and prevent damages. - An innovative concept to Copy & Transfer it to regular management assessments. Definitely added value for the employers and teams of these managers.

I would go even one step further and question the status quo and if managers are really required? We have self-organized and self-managed teams and a lot of leaders in the organization who do not even have an official title or show up in any management org-chart. Some will say NO WAY, others have already implemented similar ideas. You can use both - Success and Failure - as a Learning Tool.

In summary a great event with interesting people, value for time.

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing.” -- Pelé 

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[03-Dec-24] Change can be risky ...

Do not start from the most complex level !!

I will be away tomorrow for a New Work bar talk - Like-minded people in a relaxed atmosphere chat about innovative work concepts. No stiff conference fuss, but a real exchange over a cool drink! - in Cologne together with a friend. Innovative work concepts sounds great, but we will see what this is all about? With all the going back-to-office discussion in the moment, it would be helpful to chat about the ways of working. e.g. Why should I do my phone conferences in the office and not at home? Saves commute time that I could use for more valuable activities.

Office time should be quality time, to work on different topics face to face, like team work, changing the mindset to growth, being more proactive, taking on responsibilities, working cross-functional and cross-skills, and many more ...

Besides the much louder discussion about Agile is dead, a lot of stuff is happening in the industry in the moment. Jurgen Appelo announced the merger of Management 3.0 and unFIX end of Nov-24. The management tool box meets the organizational building blocks, an interesting change. "Two religions with the same God", who owns the copyright and companies. Change and the current status of Agile was covered in his post today - Three—or Four—Waves of Change.

We need a disruptive change that can be risky, because when we are really honest, projects that fail have nothing to do with a Waterfall or Agile way of working. It is much more about - team work, trust, a sense of urgency, good communication, a stretch but realistic goal, a clear delivery date and scope, and starting simple - from my experience.

Today we had a 1st deeper discussion about our future operating model. Good story telling and a customer focused organization, no doubt about it, but the approach is not simple and the required administration and control effort was not covered so far. People tend to avoid the disruptive change, starting simple from a clean table or green field. Just add what is really required to run the business, nothing more and less.

Another learning is that we tend to optimize the wrong processes. A  repair cycle through the factory goes really fast, but nobody is driving for a first-time-right development, WHY? Anyway looking forward to tomorrow.

• The New Happy: Day by day
• Video: GRIT by Angela Duckworth | Core Message (Revised & Expanded)

• Gratitude Is All in the Timing, Purpose Extends Lifespan, & More – The Leadership That Works Newsletter

• 5 Strategies That Can Help You Be More Productive at Work

• It’s Not About Talent. It’s About Tasks, Says One Workforce Expert

• Beyond Carrots and Sticks: Rethinking Motivation in Knowledge Work

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[01-Dec-24] My week 48-2024 highlights

AI generated picture with some Magic Fusion ...

With this text "Best AI Courses to Boost Your Skills, Future-Proof Your Career and Earn Fast - Explore high-paying opportunities with AI courses. Use our template to find your best choice even you're beginners or pros. Build your expertise and start earning today!" and some Pop Art style, I created the two bottom left pictures. Doing some magic fusion with the top left picture , lead to the final result. 

Tomorrow a new Intern will be starting for a six month assignment with us. Finding the right candidates and getting them through the 2-step process is not an easy task. A lot of the departments are rating the effort to mentor the Interns higher than the benefit to get a fresh and outside of the company perspective into their teams. Anyway I am confident that Interns are a great and value add extension to our staff, and the selection effort is worth the outcome.

Last Friday I did talk to another candidate in the 1st interview. After 7 years working as waiter he found his love for data and is now studying

business informatics. Highly motivated he did already stack up a lot of technical expertise, plus his customer first mindset and good communication skills. A really rare combination of promising capabilities, will be a good choice for the 2nd round of interviews.

Talking about data and the "clear" victory of Trump vs. Harris, what was not clear at all!! - Just how big was Donald Trump’s election victory?

Another data driven guy is Benjamin Graham:

• Who Was Benjamin Graham?

• Video: THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR by Benjamin Graham | Core Message
• Beyond Ben Graham - Blog - The Story Behind the Legend, written by his Granddaughter

Have a great 1st week in December, the last month in 2024 already:

• You're Already in the Top 1% - The Secret Behind the Successful

• Synergy-whiz: The interconnected nature of technology
  disruptions

• From Assertive to Passive-Aggressive: Understanding Communication Styles in the Workplace

• How to Give Feedback to Someone Who Doesn’t Want it: 12 Proven Strategies

• The Secret to Successful Teamwork: Forgiveness

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[26-Nov-24] Success stories ...

Do good stuff and talk about it

Late yesterday afternoon we decided to write a LinkedIn post about our 4th Data & Analytics Meetup event from last week Tuesday. Selecting a picture was easy, the text would have been more effort for me. As the main event topic was AI, I used the Microsoft Copilot as it is part of the Office 365 suite.

I mentioned that I plan to write a LinkedIn post. Only with the event name, date and all presentation names from the agenda Copilot created a first draft text. One misunderstanding from the agenda had to be adjusted and some finetuning of the words selected was necessary. But it just took 15 minutes to have the final post ready. See Insights from Our 4th Data & Analytics Meetup for details.

I posted it 12 hours ago and it has already close to 1,300 readers, really successful and good marketing for our department. Do good stuff and talk about it ...

• 10 Powerful Ways to Give Thanks with Your Leadership

• Dan Rockwell: How Gratitude Transforms Burden to Opportunity AND The Loose Lug Nuts Fiasco
• 50 Coaching Questions

• AI Just Made Your Job Easier – No Matter What You Do

• The bosses we remember did these 9 things

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[23-Nov-24] Developing out of struggle

What strength do you need for tomorrow?

"Spotify’s decision comes in contrast to other tech giants like Amazon and Dell, which have implemented stricter return-to-office policies. Spotify’s Chief Human Resources Officer, Katarina Berg, argues that remote work has not negatively impacted productivity or efficiency. “You can’t spend a lot of time hiring grown-ups and then treat them like children“, she argues."

The quote from Katarina goes in the same direction as the one from Steve Jobs. Potentially the usage of the word children in comparison with employees is the wrong one, but it is a bold statement anyway.

"Children, with their high scores in imaginative divergent thinking, are very good at coming up with things that are new and novel. But they are not necessarily as good at executing on their ideas and making something useful." 

Smart people who preserved their childlike spirit will be good employees, if they are working in the office or at home. It is just a matter of the work you are supposed to be doing and the required ways of working for this.

• How To Experience Flow and Get Crazy Productive by Dr. Travis Bradberry
  

• The habits you choose today, define your future success

• Why our tech fails us: Learning from century-old light bulb that never goes out

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[22-Nov-24] Banana republic ...

Two bananas and the Coca Cola AI ad currently being on everyone's lips

I used some of my free lumens on starryai today to create pictures that match the topic of this post. Took some time, but the result is not too bad.

• Why was a piece of fruit floating inside Starship on its sixth test flight?

• Duct-taped banana artwork sells for $6.2m in NYC

Just a small fruit, but in the papers, posts and memes for days already.

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Then we have the Coca Cola holiday ad that was AI generated this time. Not a lot of positive feedback so far.

• Someone Made a Deranged Version of Coke's AI Holiday Ad and It's Way Better "Brilliant. No notes."

• Video: Coca Cola Christmas Advert 1 (Holidays Are Coming) 1995
• Video: Coca-Cola - Secret Santa (AI-Generated Christmas Ad 2024)
• Video: The New Coca-Cola AI Ad Is Unhinged

"My mother always used to say: 'The older you get, the better you get, unless you're a banana.'" -- Betty White

• OK Go: What you DIDN'T know about the This Too Shall Pass Rube Goldberg Machine music video
• Video: Groot's Snow Day | Marvel Studios’ I Am Groot S2 E3 

[20-Nov-24] A successful 4th Meetup

Yesterday was the big day and the event did run smoothly

From 10.00 AM to 12.30 PM we had the session at our Event space with 100 people in the room and 190 more online. In the afternoon we did offer 12 different Break-Out sessions with interesting topics and an average of 30 participants. The feedback about both parts was very positive, we did get a 4.5 of 5 for the morning event. The best result of the four Meetups so far. In early December we will do a Lessons Learned and decide about the next steps and our plans for 2025.

Main topic of the event was Artficial Intelligence and the current usage in- and outside of our company. We had two internal presentations and two guest speakers - Dr. Joerg Reinnarth from CINTELLIC and Dr. Florian Wilhelm from INOVEX. They did focus on the current usage of AI in different industries on the one side, and the alternative usage of mathematical formula and algorithms on the other side. Both topics were very well received and based on the same idea.

You need to be clear about your problem before you decide how to solve it. For the solution you can use AI or something else. Just think about topics like:

• You can only make up your mind about AI tools when you use them. To get experience, understand pros and cons, create awareness about security topics
• Don't get concerned about the criminal usage of the technology too much, this will happen anyway and cyber security experts are handling these issues
• Not everything, what is technically possible makes sense. Look at e.g. costs, time, effort, a necessary learning curve, access to solutions, complexity, common sense, etc.

The new technology is cool and fancy, but also has some negative aspects that should not be underestimated:

• Fixing AI’s energy crisis

• AI and energy: Will AI help reduce emissions or increase demand? Here's what to know

Companies want to be Green and Sustainable, but also use the latest hype technologies. Needs to be properly balanced and might be a good topic for our 2025 Meetup? Because we are a Data and Analytics department, data is our daily business and the basis for every meaningful and deliberate decision. 

• TED Talk: Can Europe win the age of AI?
• TED Talk: Ask dumb questions, embrace mistakes — and other lessons on innovation
• Video:THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR by Benjamin Graham | Core Message

• Slow Is Smooth, Smooth Is Fast Pacing for Success: Why Steady Wins the Race by Marcus Raitner

• Frank Sonnenberg: Spending Money Doesn’t Always Cost You
• Dan Rockwell: The Truth About Growth Opportunities

• 11 Habits of Supremely Happy People

• Jurgen Appelo: The Barbell Effect: Quality vs. Quantity

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[17-Nov-24] My week 46-2024 highlights

Good planning phase and team building session ...

“If you're not sure, it's a no. If you don’t want to, it's a no. If you're not ready, it's a no. If your intuition say no, it's a no. If it feels bad, fake, forced, off, uncomfortable, or weird it's a no. Maturity is saying no without apologizing when enforcing your boundaries..” -- Brian Bacon

NO might be the much better choice/option in a lot of situations, especially when you have a "We have always done it this way!!" culture. It sometimes initiates a rethinking process that can only help. Give it a try.

Tomorrow is the last day before our 4th Data & Analytics Meetup on Tuesday. Some final adjustments, alignments and agreeing the moderation is still necessary. The rest should be smooth? Even the public transport is working again, I will try it out tomorrow. Last year we had a power outage during the event, possibly not happening again this year? But you never know and should be prepared for everything.

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (15-Nov-24)

• How to Deliver Bad News Without Becoming the Scapegoat

• What makes you a leader? Leadership isn't a title. Justin Wright

• 10 Bad Habits I Had To Unlearn, To Become an Effective Leader

• Photos: Autonomous e-supercar Robo X with 400-mile range hits 0-62 mph in 1.9 seconds

• Stafford Beer always emphasized: "The purpose of a system is what it does."

• 4 AI-Powered Strategies For Your Ultimate Job Search

• The Future Of Retail: 10 Game-Changing Trends That Will Define 2025

"People think focusing is about saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things." -- Steve Jobs

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[16-Nov-24] Do the work, get stuff done

Taking a shortcut is not always the solution ...

"Most software developers are familiar with technical debt, but that’s less true for those outside the programming profession. The concept is important to understand because it applies to a wide range of scenarios where short-term decisions can have long-term consequences."

Shortcut sounds shorter and less effort, but this could be wrong? Get work done, to take it off your table, once and forever. Like the “Touch it Once” principle.

I did read a story about Phil Knight the Nike CO-founder this morning and found the branding picture some hours later. Interesting ...

Earlier today I did create my latest 7th eBOOK with articles until 15-Nov-24 for your free Download. Enjoy.

At the end of each year the German health insurance companies are communicating their supplementary contribution on top of the monthly fee. The amount is increasing again, as the people are visiting the doctors too often. See How Often People Go to the Doctor, by Country as confirmation.

"You can't explain much in 60 seconds, but when you show Michael Jordan, you don't have to. It's that simple." -- Phil Knight

• Fortune: 100 Most Powerful People in Business

• US to deploy world’s first alien-hunting system equipped with 2D, 3D radars

• Finland’s 100MW sand battery turns 2,000 tons of fireplace waste into power

• Photos: Bugatti Mistral sets new world record for open-top speed, hits 282 mph

• SpaceX: How Elon Musk’s $200-billion space power builds on Starship stardom

• Intention is the spark. But it’s action that fuels the fire and moves you forward

• EQ isn’t just a soft skill. It’s the key to career success and standing out in a hard-skills-driven world

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[12-Nov-24] Time for changes ...  

Upskilling is one of several possibilities

An emperor penguin, endemic to Antarctica, wandered onto a beach in the town of Denmark, Western Australia on November 1. Photo courtesy: Miles Brotherson/DBCA - see full article

According to beachgoer Aaron Fowler, who watched the penguin walk onto the beach, “He tried to do like a slide on his belly, thinking it was snow I guess and just face planted in the sand and stood up and shook all the sand off.” - the penguin just lost the right direction, but could also be upskilling on sand. Both ways an interesting story.

Just today the decision has been taken about the next election day in Germany, it will be 23-Feb-25. Now the election campaigning can start.

Today was the 1st day of our two day planning phase. Yesterday evening we had an escalation call, to get aligned for an urgent delivery for one of the strategic projects in the company. One of these projects that you do not want to stand in the way. In the end we found an agreement to get a solution delivered right before the Christmas break. Will not be easy, but doable with personal commitment and cross functional collaboration.

Not even 24 hours later the strategic project communicated a delay of three month, no comments. I think we should keep the agreed schedule, to get things going and show that we can deliver even under pressure. Still to be aligned with the other project leaders.

• The New Happy: How to be you
• TED Talk: Why spending smarter beats bigger budgets - Karthik Muralidharan - April 2024

• The World’s Largest Unconnected Populations

• How powerful women outsmart conventional fashion design

• We can't always control the "clowns" we encounter—whether that's a toxic coworker, an unfulfilling job, or a pattern of behavior that keeps leading to frustration. But we can control our choices and boundaries.

• The most powerful lesson of leading change

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[10-Nov-24] The week 45-2024 summary

Talk about ideas and visions ...

A historical week is over and we still do not know the date for the next  election in Germany. Current argument for not doing it too fast is not enough paper for the ballot papers, no joke. The earlier the better, because the process still takes 80+ days and the time to find a new coalition will be on top. Until then the current government is still in charge, but they do not have the majority anymore in the parliament.

For any decision they need support from other parties, what will not be the best situation to get anything done. In parallel France is still struggling, USA gets a new president and the war in the Ukraine is still running. The internal and foreign policy is putting a lot of pressure on Germany, we need some great ideas and visions now quickly.

Today was the NFL Munich game in Germany, a really big party with 70k visitors. And a little bit more than one month to go until the Paddy Power World Darts Championship starts in London, this year with six German players, great improvement compared to the last time.

Busy working days until 20-Nov-24. Tomorrow our System Demo to close the last three month period. Had to be delayed by one week due to the Diwali festival. Tuesday and Wednesday the planning for the next 3-month period. With two Agile Release Trains (ARTs) and a 4.5 hours time difference to India, a little bit a challenge. On the one side to get the work done, on the other side to avoid too late meetings in the evening in India. Should be fine and just for two days in a row.

On Thursday morning we have our regular team building activity, makes sense as we have one more team this time and some topics to be discussed in more details. One is communication ...

Then Friday and the following week Monday are required to prepare the last activities for our 4th Data & Analytics meetup on 19-Nov-24. The agenda and the breakout sessions are organized now, we just need some final alignment with the technic team and to get our moderation prepared. When the meetup is over, we can relax a little bit.

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (08-Nov-24)

• Agile Coaches Should Eat Their Own Dog Food. 11 ways to embrace agility by Willem-Jan Ageling

• Video: How to Stay Focused When the Internet Wants Your Attention

• Here are 9 top soft skills to learn if you want to stand out

• World’s first vision-restoring stem cell treatment marks major eye care breakthrough

• Self-learning robot mimics humans, cleans washbasins, completes multiple tasks

• US firm sets record with plasma fusion temperature of ‘392 million degrees F for 24 hrs’

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[09-Nov-24] Soft skills curiosity

Some Interesting Engineering articles today

• US researchers develop all-terrain robot with cycloidal wheels for any weather

• New gene discovery lets crops convert nitrogen in air to fertilizer naturally

• Rock-paper-scissors robot wins 100% games, inventor bets $10,000 to defeat it

• US hits neutron production milestone with 1.7-megawatt proton beam for 1,250 hours

• China: Startup ‘copying’ SpaceX’s rocket chopstick capture secures funding
  

and some other stuff as well:

• 8 Game-Changing Smartphone Trends That Will Define 2025

• Great leaders ask questions. Not just to others but also to themselves. Are you a great leader? Check whether you have it in you to be one with these 9 questions.

• Ranked: The World’s Biggest Chocolate Exporters

• A team is only as safe as the least safe person. Parents guidebook for kids and tech. The end of advertising

"The age in which we live, this non-stop distraction, is making it more impossible for the young generation to ever have the curiosity or discipline... because you need to be alone to find out anything." -- 

Vivienne Westwood, English - Designer Born: April 8, 1941

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[08-Nov-24] Communication basics

Always good to remember and to review again ... 

"We all have blind spots – things we don’t know about ourselves, but others see them clearly. Self-awareness isn’t just nice-to-have for modern day leaders and professionals. It is the foundation of being able to live up to your full potential. How would we amplify our strengths or manage our weaknesses if we aren’t even aware of them?"

The Johari Window is a perfect fit to the divorce of the German federal government coalition two days ago. Interesting to see, how much blind spots and facades the members of the coalition did communicate since then. It was always the other party's fault and the individuals did their best. The electoral campaigns have already been started, not knowing when the election will be, and the potential chancellor candidates are getting into position. Much more to be discussed, negotiated and investigated ...

Today I did install postmarketOS (The Linux distribution for mobile devices and more) on one of my test mobile phones, a OnePlus 6. Always good to experience new ideas and this operating system seems to be simple and straight forward, more to be investigated under real life conditions.

• [08-Nov-24] MOA Model, Credits to Igor Buinevici

• Here’s Why Finance and Risk Management Should Embrace Agile Approaches. And move away from traditional project management

  Willem-Jan Ageling

• The Most In-Demand Jobs on LinkedIn Right Now

• Taiwan debuts world’s largest offshore solar plant to power 74,000 homes yearly

• China’s rover uncovers compelling evidence of 3.5 billion-year-old Mars ocean

• 4 US students push for next-gen nuclear reactor materials for endless power

• Generative AI for Managers. Still figuring out how to use AI in your work? 

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[06-Nov-24] A historical day

The 45th US president will also become the 47th ... 

Besides the Trump election today there was also the divorce of the German federal government coalition just some hours ago. According to the German constitution the new election should be happening in March 2025? We will see ...

There is a lot of fear about the future US president in Europe, but the countries should be focusing on stuff that they can really influence. Besides that they have to do their homework and strengthen their strengths. Being proactive and taking initiatives versus waiting and reacting when something happens. Might be a challenge for the German government in the moment, but the divorce was their own fault and not coming from the voters. Stand up, straighten your crown, carry on ...

• Whether it’s assigning tasks, giving feedback, or collaborating across teams, unclear communication leads to confusion, errors, and missed opportunities. Use the SBAR framework

• Dopamine is a powerful driver of our growth. But only if it’s managed the right way

• Scaling AI: Strategies for AI-Steady and AI-Accelerated Organizations

• Progress, not penance: Why technological innovation is the solution to our biggest problems

• Frank Sonnenberg: Are You Discounting Your Real Value?

• Agents of (Massive) Change: How AI Agents Are Poised to Alter Work

• Dan Rockwell: How Humble Leaders Overcome Limiters 

• Fostering Effective Energy Transition 2024

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• AI-proof Jobs: 22 Roles Least Likely to Be Replaced by Artificial Intelligence

• Dan Rockwell: What Matters Today

• The Abilene Paradox: Navigating Groupthink in Decision-Making
  When consensus leads us astray, it's time to challenge the status quo

• The Next AI Frontier: How Multimodal Systems Are Reshaping Our World

• Here's the truth about driving team excellence

• Paul Storm: Say goodbye to the hassle of managing multiple AI tools. Meet your new all-in-one AI assistant, which will transform the way you work!

[04-Nov-24] Starting week 45-2024 ... 

Quincy Jones, Legendary Music Producer Who Worked with Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson, Dies at 91 (on Sunday 03-Nov-24)

• Master Maestro: 10 Quincy Jones Hits That Prove He’s a Musical Genius - The music genius has a legacy that will live on forever

• Genius: Quincy Jones Songs

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[03-Nov-24] My week 44-2024 highlights

Another Rheinprojekt picture today, this time the Duesseldorf Old Town

I am back in the Duesseldorf office on Tuesday, part of the rail replacement service should be history by then and even the highway is opened again. I will see it in two days to have the final confirmation.

The Sprint-5 demo tomorrow is split this time, one project will do it as planned, the other one did move for one week, due to the DIWALI festival back home travel for most of our Indian colleagues. It is not always easy to make everybody happy in the project, but we keep trying. Even when we now have a 4.5 hours time zone difference to India, as Europe did switch to Winter time again two weeks ago.

In the week of 11-Nov-24 we have the next 2-day planning phase and one week later on 19-Nov-24 the 4th Data & Analytics Meetup. Most of the preparation work is done, still some minor adjustments to be taken care of, as always. Next Wednesday we have the last #SpiritDay for 2024, one full day of training, learning and knowledge sharing for the whole company. Will be fun again.

"Excited to share my overview of the EU AI Act! This deck breaks down the key points of the regulation and what it means for the future of AI in Europe." -- By Kunal Pathak

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[02-Nov-24] The "Rheinprojekt"

The Rheinprojekt: The whole Rhine in one picture by Stepahn Kaluza

"Stephan Kaluza walked along the Rhine for nine months, taking a photo every 90 meters. The result: 13 full hard disks with more than 50,000 photos. These were compiled by the artist into a coherent image and are now presented in an exhibition spanning 800 meters in the parking garage of the Kulturraffinerie K714."

A very interesting project presented in a matching venue. You cannot present a 800 meter long picture in a standard museum. The parking garage was a little bit cold, as it was open to the outside. But walking along the pictures kept us warm. 

And the topic, the river Rhine or Rhein in German, is also interesting especially when you are living close to it for a very long period of your life.

• How to form habits in real life. Future risks report. Hype cycle for the future of work

• Scientists use bamboo to create transparent glass with fireproof power

• [02-Nov-24] Steve Jobs credited Japanese philosophies for shaping his CEO approach

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[01-Nov-24] Developing strengths ...

The four stages of competences

A long weekend starting today, always the opportunity to relax and think about the coming days, weeks and months. Only two month left in 2024 and people are talking about Christmas. Since end of August you can already buy the common Christmas sweets. Crazy times ...

A lot of good pictures shared today, in the post and gallery, check it out.

"Trust is a function of two things: character and competence. Character includes your integrity, your motive and your intent with people. Competence includes your capabilities, your skills, and your track record. Both are vital." -- Stephen Covey

• Scientists find CO2-eating algae strain, could help in ocean decarbonization

• 21 FREE AI and ML Courses

• Dan Rockwell: Delegating Disaster: Uncovering Barriers

• The Power of ‘Purposeful Play,’ the Wisdom of ‘Imperfectionism’ & More – The Leadership That Works Newsletter

• Video: Boston Dynamics - New Atlas Goes Hands On
• Video: Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams (1h 16 min) - Short version (less than 5 min)

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[30-Oct-24] Party on ...

Celebrating Diwali and Halloween tomorrow

I am still depending on the Rail replacement service, see my 16-Oct-24 post. The bus drivers are definitely doing their best, but the circumstances are just not good enough. Yesterday my way to the office took more than 2 hours, I normally need 45 minutes. Today I tried an alternative idea, but no bus when planned and it was even 30 minutes longer than yexterday. 

The bus driver this morning did service the route for the first time, an instructor in the bus was giving directions when needed. No further comments required. Next week the highway should be open again, what will reduce the traffic jam in the morning, better for my bus hopefully? Then just two more weeks to go until the local trains are back. For me just two days in the office during this time.  

Our Indian colleagues start their Diwali festival period tomorrow. They will be back next week Monday or Tuesday. Traveling to their families still takes a lot of time.

• TED Talk: The tipping point I got wrong | Malcolm Gladwell | TEDNext Oct-2024
• Dan Rockwell: Toxic Distraction: Tension On The Team
• Frank Sonnenberg: Plug the Holes Before Filling the Bucket

• 4 Takeaways from LinkedIn’s New Global Talent Trends Report

• This Kite Can Move a Cargo Ship Without a Fuel

• New robot hand could feel objects as sensitively as a blindfolded person

• Voyager 1 is alive: NASA spacecraft reawakens 15 billion miles away from Earth

• The 5 Most In-Demand Skills In 2025

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[27-Oct-24] The week 43-2024 summary

Back home from a short 2-day trip ...

On Friday we left for a short visit to Hueckelhoven (left and right picture) and a day-trip to Roermond (middle picture).

Sophia-Jacoba Mine. And a man’s perseverance.
"You won’t find any coal in the Hückelhoven region." This or something like this was the finding of the Aachen mining authority in the 19th century. An entrepreneur from Düren saw things differently: Friedrich Honigmann.

Starting in 1885, he had test drillings performed and convinced even his harshest critics. At the end of the 19th century, he was in possession of numerous concessions in the Hückelhoven, Millich and Schaufenberg region. But the key impetus for sinking the first shaft was triggered due to a special event: the construction of a railroad line that should connect the coal region with the rest of the world. The big day came starting in 1909. Five years later, the workforce was able to start the first mining activities.

Roermond, gemeente (municipality), southeastern Netherlands, at the confluence of the Maas (Meuse) and Roer rivers. Chartered in 1232, it was the historic capital of the Upper Quarter of Gelderland (until the duchy was ceded to Charles V in 1543) and was a prosperous centre of the cloth trade in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Due to All Saints’ Day coming Friday, we have the last 4-day work week for this year. Something you can get used to ...

Some interesting videos and articles for your start into week 44-2024:

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (25-Oct-24)

• Visualizing LEGO’s Revenue Growth (2003-2023)

• sketchplanations: Fight or Flight
• Videos:

  • Xiaomi’s Revolutionary Self-Driving Scooter: A Game-Changer in Urban Mobility

  • Could This Rapid Building Technology Solve the Gen Z Housing Crisis?

  • Ted Lasso (2020) - Darts Scene

  • How Introverts Quietly Dominate Self Improvement

• The CabriO® aerial tramway up to the Stanserhorn has a double-decker cabin with open top deck that is unique worldwide

• How to Manage Interruptions at Work

• 9 Things Product Owners Should Stop Doing

• The Rise Of Physical AI: When Intelligent Machines Meet The Real World

• 10 Visuals That Will Shift How You Think

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[24-Oct-24] Playing around with AI 

"The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it." by Alan Saporta

Great quote from Igor's picture. I was searching for the homepage of Alan Saporta or some more details about him, but the only picture I found is too bad quality for the Google Image search and other references are not really helping.

Anyway I used the quote to generate an AI picture on starryai. A good result is the grey one on the right side. Afterwards I started a discussion with Gemini, to get additional picture ideas and to ask for a Picasso - Miro fusion proposal. The full conversation here - I used the final prompt - "A bustling city street at night, rendered in a fusion of Picasso and Miró styles. Cubist shapes and bold colors create the underlying structure, while biomorphic forms and a dreamlike atmosphere add surreal elements. The scene should evoke a sense of energy, excitement, and whimsy. Consider incorporating elements like overlapping buildings, floating stars, and distorted perspectives. The artwork should be visually striking and capture the unique qualities of both artists' styles." - to generate the colorful picture on the left. This was one direction.

Then I combined both pictures and asked PICSTONE to generate a Halloween story out of the two. Interesting - Picture to quote:

Once upon a time, there was a special place called "Cityscape" where buildings were tall and skinny, like giant crayons. They shimmered with all the colors of a rainbow and the air hummed with a happy energy. But beyond the dazzling city, where the air shimmered with magic, there was a place called "Palm Paradise," a world of quiet mystery. It was a place where tall palm trees swayed gently in the breeze, and a soft mist hung low in the air, creating a peaceful stillness. A young girl named Luna lived in Cityscape. She loved the bright lights and the feeling of being surrounded by energy. She dreamed of flying through the air, touching the fluffy clouds that floated above. But Luna also felt a pull towards the mystery of Palm Paradise. She often gazed out of her window, wondering what secrets lay hidden within the mists and the tall palm trees.

One day, Luna decided to explore Palm Paradise. She packed a small bag with some snacks and a book of fairy tales. As she walked, she noticed the air becoming cooler and calmer. The noise of Cityscape faded away, replaced by the rustle of leaves and the gentle whispers of the wind. She reached a clearing and saw a curious sight: a group of children playing in a field of glowing flowers.

The children were dressed in costumes – some were butterflies, others were sparkling stars, and one even had a crown of tiny fireflies. They danced and played games, laughing and sharing stories. Luna was amazed by their joyful energy. She had never seen anything like it before.

Luna joined the children and learned about their special world. They were "Dreamweavers," beings who traveled between Cityscape and Palm Paradise, bringing dreams and happiness to all who needed it. Luna realized that her own dreams of flying and exploring were connected to their magic. From that day forward, Luna spent her time weaving between the two worlds, sharing the vibrant energy of Cityscape and the peaceful magic of Palm Paradise with everyone she met.

Shows a good level of "fantasy" from the AI system, because I assume that this combination of two pictures was not used in the past to train the system?

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[23-Oct-24] Some learning help today

Learning goals transform, select carefully

The garden activity was a great workout today, we did cut a lot of trees and branches, all with a hand saw.

Some helpful links and pictures for learning:

• You Made Your Bed … By Frank Sonnenberg

• [23-Oct-24] Do you know what world we live in?

• GenerativeAI & ML | MLOps Roadmap 2025

• The Next Breakthrough In Artificial Intelligence: How Quantum AI Will Reshape Our World

• Lee Sampson: Making work meaningful and enjoyable for the 70% of people who aren't in their dream jobs can significantly improve a team’s dynamics and overall work experience.
• Agile 2 Academy: Use a Capability-Focused Approach — Not an Agile Framework
• Ted Talk: How a worm could save humanity from bad AI

• Out of My Control / In My Control - Credit to Alec Rickard

• 20-year-old wind turbine transformed into a tiny solar-powered home

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[22-Oct-24] Strategy Execution ...

The Little Things – Strategy Execution by Simon Terry

Another great sketchnote from Tanmay Vora - "It is easy to get caught up in grand vision – the big strategy. However, successful execution of any strategy requires two important things: clarity and attention to details." - summarizing the Simon Terry article.

Yesterday I had my last working day before the holiday and the plan was to go to the office. As already mentioned on 16-Oct-24 we have rail replacement service in the moment. Still until 11-Nov-24. And as end-to-end planning or cross-functional thinking is not common sense, the highway is blocked in parallel. Yesterday in the same direction where my bus was going, the Monday morning surprise.

When we entered the bus the driver did already mention that there is a traffic jam and the delay could be one hour, but with no real alternative, what to do? After two bus stops and 90 minutes time gone, I decided to cancel my trip to the office and go home. Took just 10 minutes. Thanks for this great and department wide planning of infrastructure repair services, in the best interest of the customers. Small joke ...

Today we used the sunny autumn weather for a short trip, to do some shopping and to have a nice vegetarian late lunch. Tomorrow we plan to go to our garden to cut some branches and prepare it for the winter period. Weather will still be sunny.

• Are American Political Speeches Becoming Harder to Understand?

• Video: BUY BACK YOUR TIME by Dan Martell | Core Message
• Dan Rockwell: Do This to Multiply Positive Impact

• When is the right time to reinvent your business?

• Don't be difficult with old people, they spent a lifetime learning the skills

• ETL and ELT explained

• Don’t let your start determine your finish. Keep. Going. 

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[19-Oct-24] Keep Learning ...

How to Keep Learning at Work — Even When You Feel Fried

"Never stop learning and adapting. The world will always be changing. If you limit yourself to what you knew and what you were comfortable with earlier in your life, you will grow increasingly frustrated with your surroundings as you age." -- David Niven

• Podcast: The Future of Work: AI Literacy and Talent Transformation (with Udacity CEO)

• 6 Storytelling Frameworks Leaders Must Know, Credits to Oliver Aust

• Developmental Relationships, Credits to Paul Byrne

• Video: Toddler from Novosibirsk is a Drumming Prodigy!
• Video: 10,000 Drones Controlled By A Single Computer! - Guinness World Records

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[18-Oct-24] Conscious Listening ...

How You Listen is How You Lead by The Conscious Leadership Group

"How you listen really is a key to how you lead. Conscious leaders pay attention to being self-referential, projecting, and listening through filters. Recognizing these habits is step one in becoming a great listener." taken from How You Listen is How You Lead: The Art of Conscious Listening

Today I used the headline of this article to generate an AI picture. Gemini did create the following prompt out of the initial input/request - 

"A surreal landscape with a towering, human-shaped ear as the central figure. The ear's outer shell is a vast, open cavern, filled with countless tiny figures representing diverse voices and perspectives. Sunlight streams through the cavern, illuminating the faces of the figures and casting long, dramatic shadows. The ear's inner canal is a winding, labyrinthine path, leading to a small, peaceful chamber where a lone figure sits, intently listening."

Google Gemini created the 1st picture, the 2nd one is from starryai. How different these results are?

My patience has been strained a lot by uploading both pictures, I had to wait a night to proceed with writing the post, as the system was blocked by the upload. No idea why? Somethimes I am questioning how developers think and work, has nothing to do with keeping things simple or using as much as possible common sense.

How can you come to the crazy idea to save the generated AI picture with the name of the prompt that created it? In my example today 7 lines. No surprise that the operating system was complaining about the name and did not store it. I had to shorten it to "listening-02". Nowadays we have already experts for prompt engineering - Prompt engineering is the practice of designing inputs for AI tools that will produce optimal outputs. - this will make it even worse :-)

Then my BLOG post writing environment was struggling with "listening-02" and did not upload it. Not as PNG or JPEG, just doing nothing without any error message. I hate this as well, why can systems not give you a minimum indication, what is not working? In the end I created a screenshot of the image and .... just uploaded it without any issue. I dont' know why, but I am happy that it did work out in the end.

Another topic is E-Prescribing in Germany, what is in wider use in 2024 now. A really great idea and running smoothly, when all is working fine? - was the comment of the pharmacist when I asked her 2 days ago about a personal opinion. Still too many simple technical issues, people coming to early to pick up their stuff without the prescription being on their health-insurance card already, plus the older and less tech-savvy part of the population struggling with this change. We will be getting there, just need some more time ...

TESLA also needs a little bit more time for their OPTIMUS robot when you read - Tesla Caught Using a Lazy Video Editing Trick to Make Its "Autonomous" Robots Look More Capable What else is Tesla hiding?

And my "favorite" Boeing Starliner as well - NASA Abandons Boeing's Cursed Starliner for Upcoming Missions to the Space Station. Could this be the end of Starliner?

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[17-Oct-24] About kindness ...

Every kind act, no matter how small, has the potential to mean the world to someone else.

Kindness = "the quality of being warmhearted and considerate and humane and sympathetic"

"I'm not a Starbucks guy. I'm a Dunkin Donuts guy, but I like to pay for the coffee of the other folks behind me in line. It typically costs me less than $10, and makes the other people feel good, but more importantly, it makes me feel so good, and random acts of kindness change the world one person at a time." -- Robert Kraft, American - Businessman Born: June 5, 1941

Google Gemini is now offering an image generation model. With the upper picture and the prompt: "Please use the uploaded picture as starting point and generate 5 new pictures related to kindness that show well known landscapes." I got the lower pictures offered with the following text: "A small act of kindness, like helping a stranger find their way, can be like a tiny dot on the vast expanse of Copacabana Beach. But for the person receiving the kindness, it can be like a beacon of light shining brightly in the darkness." Interesting ...

A simple question to OpenAI that took much longer to create a result and I only got 5 of the requested 10 examples. 2 women, 2 organizations and 1 man:

In the past 50 years, numerous acts of kindness have touched the lives of many. Here are 10 well-known examples that have inspired others to spread goodness and positivity:

1. Mother Teresa's selfless dedication to helping the poor and sick in Kolkata, India.

2. The founding of Make-A-Wish Foundation to grant wishes to children with critical illnesses.

3. The global humanitarian efforts of United Nations Peacekeeping Missions in conflict zones.

4. The generous philanthropy of Warren Buffett by donating the majority of his wealth to charity.

5. The impactful actions of Malala Yousafzai in advocating for girls' education worldwide.

• Grant Snider: Conflict in Literature Or: How I Became a Meme

• [17-Oct-24] North America’s Biggest Tech Talent Hubs

• The most neglected words of the Agile Manifesto. And why they are so vital -- Willem-Jan Ageling

• Dan Rockwell: 12 Questions Leaders Must Answer

• The CEO’s sustainability checklist. Reinventing your business for a sustainable future starts with four mission-critical actions.

• Future of Farming: Hydroponics and Controlled Environment Agriculture

• When your commute becomes a source of renewable energy!

• Vertical farming is a 21st century way of maximizing agricultural output in a small space. 

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[16-Oct-24] Rail replacement service

For nearly one month my way to work is impacted

The word of the month is "Schienenersatzverkehr" = Rail replacement service. Means the official local train is replaced by a bus, because a noise barrier is installed close to the railway track. After the train I take the Underground to my office, but there repair activities are required as well and the alternative is another bus.

In general not an issue, but the buses do not have a dedicated lane and stand in the same traffic jam as all the other cars during the rush hour in the morning and evening. So a one hour trip becomes two hours easily.

The constraint is even worth, because part of the highway going in parallel to the railway track is repaired as well. One direction is partly blocked and the cars take the same street as my bus. Great planning, but understandable as the infrastructure in Germany needs urgent maintenance and repair.

• Germany’s rail infrastructure receives extensive general overhaul

• Biggest Infrastructure Project in Germany for 2024

Some more updates about the last week of Elon Musk:

• Here's Why Tesla's Robotaxi Makes Absolutely No Sense

• This Close-Up Video of SpaceX's Starship Booster Being Caught by a Tower Will Melt Your Puny Earthling Brains

• Stunning photos of SpaceX chopsticks catching super heavy Starship rocket mid-air

Some more weeks to go with the traffic restrictions, luckily I have 4 days holiday next week.

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[13-Oct-24] The week 41-2024 summary

One of several examples for us to learn something from Japanese culture and mindset. A role model ...

Interested in more Japanese topics, see as examples:

• [17-Jun-23] Japanese Methods and Frameworks

• [19-Aug-23] More Japanese concepts and techniques

• [03-Apr-24] 6 Productivity-Boosting Japanese Techniques

• [17-Jul-24] IKIGAI and AI

Just yesterday I loaded an update for my 7th eBOOK, now for the whole year 2024 until 12-Oct-24, check Downloads

Next is Elon Musk, who had a mixed week. First the Robotaxi presentation that was more than questionable, but today a successful

SpaceX test that used massive mechanical arms to capture the descending Super Heavy booster.

• Tesla's Long-Awaited Cybercab Is Missing an Extremely Basic Feature - That can't be right

• SpaceX uses giant arms to catch Starship rocket mid-air in groundbreaking test

• Video: SpaceX makes history, catches giant Starship booster; big boost for Elon Musk's Mars mission

A crazy guy, sometimes just dropping a ball, but then doing something, what other people do not even dream of - catching a rocket from the sky.

Starting tomorrow the schools are closed for two weeks for autumn holidays. I will have some days off starting on 22-Oct-24, after our Sprint-4 demos a day before.

The update about the new organization last Friday that happened during my school workshop, did not deliver a lot of detailed information, as I heard from a colleague. So we have to see what will be happening in the coming weeks and month. I am not impacted by the changes to be implemented on 01-Apr-25, good to know and lucky me.

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (11-Oct-24)

• Video: A Complete Guide to Mastering Consistency
• Tanmay Vora: How to Use Digital Spaces for Personal Branding, Learning, and Business Growth (Sep-24)
• Tanmay Vora: 7 Deadly Sins of Psychological Safety (Oct-24)
• sketchplanations: An eponym is a word named after somebody or someplace

• Anyone Can Have An Idea - The Secret Behind My LinkedIn Growth, Author Wisdom Made Easy

• 18 Generative AI Tools Transforming Customer Service

• How To Write Amazing Generative AI Prompts

• 15 Ways to Build a Better Culture With the Culture Design Canvas

• 5 Ways Agile Coaches Undermine Agility - Achieving the opposite of what they should by Willem-Jan Ageling

• AI's major role in three Nobel Prizes in 2024

• Finding Your Ikigai in Finance - A Path to Purpose and Success in Finance

• Cool tools invade Data Governance. In 2024, here are the 20 you (really) need to know

• My grandfather always told me, 'Simon, the good Lord gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason. Act accordingly.'

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[11-Oct-24] My school workshop today

28 students from the 11th grade, 14 girls and boys

The workshop was 90 minutes around digital transformation, A.I and what to do in the job market today. I used ChatGPT and Gemini this time to propose topics and verify my content from previous years. Below the OpenAI proposal from today:

I am currently preparing a workshop on "What you need to be able to do or learn to survive in a world of robots or artificial intelligence?" for students. In this workshop, I will cover ten main areas:

1. Understanding the basics of robotics and artificial intelligence.

2. Developing critical thinking skills to analyze and solve complex problems.

3. Enhancing creativity and innovation in a technology-driven world.

4. Learning programming languages and coding for automation.

5. Improving communication skills for effective human-robot interactions.

6. Fostering adaptability and lifelong learning in a rapidly changing environment.

7. Cultivating emotional intelligence to navigate the emotional aspects of working alongside machines.

8. Understanding the ethical implications of AI and its impact on society.

9. Developing cybersecurity knowledge to protect against digital threats.

10. Acquiring entrepreneurship skills to create opportunities in an AI-driven economy.

Furthermore, I will also address five urgent dangers:

1. Job displacement and the need for reskilling and upskilling.

2. Privacy concerns and data security risks in an interconnected world.

3. Bias and discrimination in AI algorithms affecting decision-making processes.

4. Loss of control and autonomy as machines become more autonomous.

5. Overreliance on technology leading to a loss of essential human skills and competencies.

A good match to the content I had in my slides already, and what was proposed by ChatGPT and Gemini in Sep-24. 

First question in the workshop is always - which topics are currently of concern to you - this time is was climate change, politics, money, inflation and soccer. Interesting ...

Besides the presentation part we had two interactive session, one to do a personal introduction with just three pictures. The other one to do online tests in three different areas - for a possible Apprenticeship or Study and to find out their personality type. Luckily I had the 16Personalities test at hand that offers different languages to interact. In the last 30 minutes I found out that an exchange student from the USA was in the room, and she did not speak any German. She had a hard time in the first hour.

Anyway the final school mark for the workshop was 2 of 5, with 1 as the best possible mark. Interested in the slides, see here for the 2024 version (only in German).

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[09-Oct-24] Skills for innovation ...

Are deep technical skills required to come up with good ideas?

"74% of executives admit to subjective decision-making: And 98% fail to implement best practices." -- Igor Buinevici

I had an interesting discussion with a colleague today. We started with the upcoming organizational changes by 01-Apr-25 and 01-Apr-26. The number of people supposed to be leaving in this timeframe and who might be doing what in the future?

Are we cutting work in parallel to the workforce, and what is the vision and strategy for the future? All interesting questions. It is definitely painful to let colleagues go, who are getting a pretty good treatment by the company agreed in a social plan with the workers council. But we also need focus and motivation for the people staying, to make it worth the effort and getting through these difficult times.

We have several options for our future vision and the strategy to get there in the moment. We are just lacking the final decision, where to go and when. In the discussion about the options we did also touch the planned ideas for the future architecture.

I am definitely not a guy with deep technical knowledge, just have a general overview what is going on in the market. During 35 years of work I have seen a lot of different scenarios and industries in the past. So more experience than expertise and a tendency to come up with alternative ways of thinking or ideas that can build bridges.

Same happened today, I combined different pieces out of the architectural proposal and a new operating model, still under discussion, in a copy and transfer approach. Taking a less technical perspective and thinking the solution from the customer point of view, can sometimes be helpful? More details are required and to be worked out, but a 1st step has been taken.

• unFIX: A Wicked Framework for Wicked Problems

• AI’s Effect on Industry Margins Over the Next Five Years

• Charted: Which Countries Are Excited or Nervous About AI?

• Data Scientists: The Key to Unlocking Business Insights

• Unleash the Power of AI: Explore 120+ Tools Across Various Domains!

• Your Brain Divides the Day Into “Chapters” Based on Priorities

• 21 Laws Of Leadership, Credits to Rachel Turner

• Four ways daily GenAI users drive change

• Dan Rockwell:

  • How Leaders Fail Introverts and 3 Strategies That Lead to Success

  • Believe in Others to Free Yourself

• 8 Nonverbal Communication Skills Examples—and How to Improve Yours

• We have some data that shows in frameworks like Scrum, SAFe®, and other Agile methods, up to 30% of capacity is wasted?

• The simple triple 8 rule to make a good balance sheet of life

• 99% of jobs can be taught. But you can’t teach attitude!

• Evaluate when to use GenAI, when to use alternative AI techniques, and when to lean on some combination of the two 

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[06-Oct-24] My week 40-2024 highlights

Did visit the historic old town fall festival in Stolberg yesterday

Great weather, good autumn temperature, nice food and drinks at the festival yesterday. The main part was around - The castle, which dates from the 15th century, is now used as a museum & event location. The castle gallery is used for art exhibitions, the knight's hall as a venue for concerts, celebrations, etc. The former vaulted cellar today offers cultivated hospitality in a romantic ambience. The castle, originally dating from the 12th century, was destroyed in 1375 and replaced by a late medieval complex around 1450.

In mid-July 2021, the historic centre of Stolberg was unexpectedly turned into a flood zone and hundreds of buildings were severely damaged by the high and forceful waters of the Vicht river, following extreme weather conditions that left a path of destruction throughout many villages in Germany and the Benelux and resulted in the tragic loss of life. A lot of the center has been rebuild and renovated in the meantime, BUT there is still work to be done. Tourists help to bring money into the town and to increase the motivation of the local people. 

Today was the 1st of three NFL London games in this season. Great effort for the NFL marketing in new markets, given the fact that Europe is doing good already. Anyway, great for the European audience to see the game during afternoon hours. The next two games are on 13- and 20-Oct-24.

In parallel to the TV broadcast I finished my school workshop presentation, had to add some notes to the new slides. The workshop is next Friday at 10.00 AM. Will be fun with the new content, looking forward to seeing the reaction of the participants.

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (04-Oct-24)

• sketchplanations: Vorfreude

• Ranked: The World’s Most Innovative Countries in 2024

• From Powerless to Powerful: Expand Your Circle of Influence
  Powerlessness Is an Illusion – Here’s How to Regain Control

  by Gustavo Razzetti

• The 5 Biggest Technology Trends For 2025 Everyone Must Be Ready For Now

• Harness the power of AI using these Free Resources

• China: Robot doctors at world’s 1st AI hospital can treat 3,000 a day 

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[03-Oct-24] The sunk cost fallacy

An interesting analogy ... 

The sunk cost fallacy is our tendency to continue with something we’ve invested money, effort, or time into—even if the current costs outweigh the benefits. When we fall prey to the sunk cost fallacy, we make irrational decisions that are against our best interest—essentially digging ourselves into a deeper and deeper hole. In this article, learn how to combat the sunk cost fallacy and do what’s truly best for you and your team. ...

Just because you’ve sunk costs into a project doesn’t mean you have to go down with the ship. With these strategies, you can let go of the past and make decisions based on what’s best for you and your team. The sunk cost fallacy makes you your own worst enemy—but with some self awareness, you can be the key to your team’s success instead.

In a discussion with my wife she came up with a similar analogy. You have two ballons to inflate. One has a tiny hole the other one is perfect. When you spend the same amount of time, effort and air the final result will be different. One full ballon and one temporary full ballon, going back to empty some time later.

The sunk cost topic is not only valid for e.g. financial investment or projects, it also works for change management and agile mindset. Enough is enough and you have to stop the activity or step out, before you even invest more time, money and effort for nothing. 

• Video: The smartest people have mastered these 6 core skills | Michael Watkins for Big Think+
• Video: AI: Your New Agile Teammate | The Agile CEO by Scrum Inc.

• The World’s Most Valuable Unicorns in 2024

• Amount of AI Content in Google Search Results - Ongoing Study

• The Power of ‘Emotional Inclusion,’ An ‘Unbossing’ Trend & More – The Leadership That Works Newsletter

• 8 Soft Skills You Need to Master

• Despite the many leadership typologies, we still need a new one. Because there simply is too much bad leadership. We need FIRED leaders. Not tomorrow, but today.

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[02-Oct-24] Another 4-day workweek

Ghandi's birthday in India today, the German Unity day tomorrow ...

A day-off tomorrow and another 4-day workweek on 01-Nov-24 in Germany. One Thursday and one Friday, we are lucky this year.

Below a quick comparison of both events, powered by OpenAI:

Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, celebrated on October 2nd, holds significant importance as a national holiday in India. On the other hand, German Unity Day occurs annually on October 3rd to commemorate the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990.

Commonalities between the two events include a sense of national pride, reflection on history, celebration of peace and unity, cultural festivities, and a time for contemplation and gratitude. Differences lie in the historical context, geographical location, political implications, unique traditions, and the overall significance to each country's identity and values.

A good summary of both events. 

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[01-Oct-24] Losing good people ...

Smart and good people run first, they have no problem to find a new job

Next Monday we will be informed about the upcoming organizational change that will be implemented by 01-Apr-25. This change will also mean a reduction of headcount. When we skip the time, cost and morale topic from the picture, we come to the interesting points:

• loss of knowledge
• team disruption
• suffering customers
• recruitment challenges

The younger and smart people will leave first, this will be just the final trigger to make the change the wanted to make anyway. With the ongoing war for talent and shortage of skilled people, no risk for them.

It is more difficult for the older people like me. We might be leaving with a lot of knowledge, experience and expertise, but nobody is waiting for us out there. Most of the HR departments are not ready yet, to look for talents in the 55 - 60+ age group.

Cutting costs goes before customer satisfaction, so no issue there. And recruitment is not the top priority when you are decreasing your work force --> a short-term solution that jeopardizes long-term success.

• 7 Proven Ways To Develop A Growth Mindset

• My Substack: Influencing others ...

• Change Is Hard. Will AI Make It Easier in Talent Acquisition (TA)?

• How to Use AI to Help with Your Job Search

• Dan Rockwell: 21 Ways to Defeat Weakness and Grow Strong

• 5 Ways to Achieve Accurate Estimates That Everyone Trusts

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[29-Sep-24] The week 39-2024 summary

Bought a new book today,  NEXUS from Yuval Noah Harari

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Taking us from the Stone Age, through the canonization of the Bible, early modern witch-hunts, Stalinism, Nazism, and the resurgence of populism today, NEXUS asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom, and power. Harari explores how different societies and political systems have wielded information to achieve their goals and impose order, for good and bad. And he addresses the urgent choices we face today, as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence.

"The value of an idea lies in the using of it." -- Thomas A. Edison

In my 24-Sep and 27-Sep-24 posts I covered the AGILE topic and how this idea is struggling in the moment. When I had seen the short-cut in Duesseldorf yesterday plus the Edison quote, I had the following ideas:

• You always have the choice to follow the "standard" route, or to take a short-cut.
• In the case of the Duesseldorf picture, a possible workaround in the beginning is now officially paved, interesting ...
• In the case of AGILE frameworks like e.g. SAFe, you get some common, good-in-class guard rails that you should be adjusting to your available skills, expertise, experience and mindset - find your own way and pave it !!
• A short-cut is not always be shorter in the end, just a short-term approach to win some time that could mean much more time long-term and when you look at the total cost of ownership (TCO)?

For me as RTE - The Release Train Engineer (RTE) is a servant leader and ART coach who facilitates ART events and processes, and supports teams in delivering value. - who started the personal AGILE journey in 2020 and did Waterfall project management 30+ years before, is it no real problem to change from the one to the other, when requested. The ways-of-working are similar in a lot of areas, both approaches are just using different words and timing I would say. More to be discussed.

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (27-Sep-24)

• Video: Do These 5 October Tasks or Regret It Forever
• Video: The World's Longest Ongoing Construction Project (Completion Expected by 2034)

• Do You Really Know Your Culture? Here's How to Find Out
  100 Questions to Help You Uncover the Workplace Culture You Actually Have by Gustavo Razzetti

• Want to learn about AI but don't know where to start? Don't worry! Here are many free resources to help you getting started

• Will AI Solve The World's Inequality Problem – Or Make It Worse?

• Top FREE AI Courses from Google

• The Japanese word kaizen literally means ”improvement” and is a set of methods, techniques and activities to help

• 90% of companies fail to execute their strategy. Curious how the top 10% succeed? The Strategy Pyramid

• A crash course in art history :-)

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[27-Sep-24] Making a fusion of topics ...

Combining The Midnight Library and the Agile topic from the 24-Sep-24 post 

I finished the 2nd holiday book this week. Some of the highlevel essence is, the Jean-Paul Sartre quote on the picture and  "I am Alive".

despair: "the feeling that there is no hope and that you can do nothing to improve a difficult or worrying situation"

On the other side of despair is also the AGILE movement - sounds like it when you read all the latest headlines about the topic - what comes after it, people hate it, what is the future, and so on ...

I found the statement from Jurgen Appelo below in the podcast transcript of Murray Robinson - The crisis in agile with Jurgen Appelo

Jurgen: We're in the trough of despair, for sure. People going around disillusioned about what Agile has achieved for them. It has a bad name in part of the world. So that's disillusionment. And then the cycle says that it will go up again because it will be part of the new normal.

We have tempered our expectations of what agile can do for us in the short term. Now we have to find our way back up. Make it part of everything we do in a way that everyone understands. That is perhaps even a lot more work.

A really good summary of the current situation that I can also confirm from my personal business experience in the last 3 - 6 month and based on information from a friend, who is a Freelancer for Agile services and coaching. You only have to search for a really short time, to find more related content. Some examples:

• Organizational Culture Eats Developer Autonomy For Breakfast

• How You Become Irreplaceable In The Age Of AI

• Are you efficient or are you productive? And do you know the difference? You should, because being productive and being efficient are two entirely different things.

• "Being different gives the world colour." -- Nelsan Ellis

• Your influence is only as powerful as the relationships you build. If you think success is a solo journey, think again—because your real strength lies in your circle of influence.

• Disruption & The Great Transformation

• Frank Sonnenberg: Are You a Giver or a Taker?

• Which Universities Produce the Most Startup Founders?

• 9 Free University Courses on the Skills that Get You Paid

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[24-Sep-24] Is Agile too religious?

Collected some different perspectives today 

What started - on February 11-13, 2001, at The Lodge at Snowbird ski resort in the Wasatch mountains of Utah, seventeen people met to talk, ski, relax, and try to find common ground—and of course, to eat. - was a simple idea:

Manifesto for Agile Software Development

We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.

The necessity for a change and a lot of common sense of the 17 participants did grow like crazy over time, was commercialized, used & misused, and became religious in a lot of cases.

Religion definition: A cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith

For me personally it is just an iterative process for self-managed/self-organized teams, with regular customer interaction, a defined feedback cycle and a continuous improvement process. Nothing more and nothing less. Here a collection of opinions:

• Wolfram Mueller: What Comes After Agile? Let’s Talk. What was good in the beginning seems to be an increasingly difficult obstacle.
• Wolfram Mueller: Developers hate Scrum - Managers, it’s time for a serious wake-up call.

• Theory of Constraints (TOC) of Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt - mentioned in both articles of Wolfram

• Scott Ambler: The Future of Agile Isn’t Shit (the 3rd of three articles, all referenced)

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[20-Sep-24] How to change ...

Transform images into stories

During my search for a post topic today I found the two images on LinkedIn, both are somehow related to each other. In combination with the latest Jurgen Appelo article and a story telling infographic I started the following test:

• Jurgen Appelo: The Myth of 100% AI-Generated Content

• Stories are 22 times more memorable than facts alone. 4 powerful frameworks every leader should know

I did search for an easy to use AI driven Transform Images into Stories tool and found PICSTONE. With the two images, the title "How to change" and the genre Documentary, I did get the following text:

How to change
Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Lily who was feeling a bit sad. She felt like something was missing in her life, like a puzzle with a missing piece. One day, while visiting her grandmother, Lily stumbled upon a colorful pie chart. It was labeled "YOU ARE THE SUM OF THE 5 PEOPLE YOU SPEND THE MOST TIME WITH". Beneath it, her grandmother's handwriting said "The quickest way to change your life is to change your inner circle." Lily was intrigued. She had never thought of it that way before. She started thinking about the people she spent the most time with. Her best friend, Maya, always made her laugh, but sometimes she was a bit bossy. Her brother, Ben, was always kind and helpful, but he could also be grumpy sometimes. Lily started to see that the people around her, her inner circle, were like little pieces of a puzzle that made up her life.

She decided to try something new. Instead of hanging out with Maya every day, she joined a book club with her other friend, Sarah. Sarah was a quiet girl but always had interesting ideas and a calming presence. She also started spending more time with her kind and patient neighbor, Mrs. Jones, who loved to bake delicious cookies and share stories about her life.

Gradually, Lily started to notice a change. She felt happier and more confident. The new people in her life brought new ideas and perspectives. They helped her see the world in a different way, and she started to see herself differently too. She was still the same Lily, but she was also becoming someone new, someone who was happy, confident, and surrounded by people who loved and encouraged her.

Lily learned that the quickest way to change your life is to change your inner circle. You are the sum of the people you spend the most time with. So if you want to change for the better, surround yourself with people who inspire you, who make you laugh, and who help you grow. It's like adding the right pieces to your life puzzle, making it more beautiful and complete.

Not so bad I would say, just give it a try and play around a little bit.

• 7 free online MBA-like courses that will accelerate your career

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[18-Sep-24] Back to Basics

Quick summary of my learning day today ...

In the morning I started with CleanUpForGood, how to best delete your email and document management data. Just to avoid too much burden and wasting available storage space. In the interest of better cost management, data retention guidelines and sustainability. More details are available via the Digital Cleanup Day.

During the lunch break we had a BrownBag session about our latest Transformation project. You can find a helpful picture gallery below this post. When this would have been the 1st transformation/change initiative, I would be all for it. But when you do minimum one per year, the stories always sound the same. I am missing a lessons learned process with full transparency - what did go wrong in the last 5 projects and what will we do differently this time and why?

I think it is a cultural and mindset topic. People are very often too connected to the past and status quo. New stuff is uncomfortable and scary!!

"A Ship in Harbor is Safe, But That is Not What Ships Are Built For" -- John A. Shedd

So when I hear 100 arguments for the status quo and only 1 for the new approach, this change will be difficult. Or when you hear that you should not come in the way of the strategic project, as you do not want to delay it. Great message for a project that did not really deliver anything so far. 

I finished my day with a mandatory workplace safety training, the yearly renewal is coming up in Oct-24. Besides that ...

• Kevin Kelly's - My Life Countdown

• TED Talk: The rise of virtual humans — and what they mean for the future

• The first ever TED Game! The Purring Test with a cat and AI

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[17-Sep-24] Our 3rd #SpiritDay in 2024

Tomorrow is our full day training and learning experience in this quarter ...

Today just a list of helpful links for your and my learning, have fun:

• Articles

  • Voices of transformative leadership

  • Women in the Workplace 2024: The 10th-anniversary report

  • 8 Things Ridiculously Successful People Do Before 8 AM

• FREE University courses

  • 6 Free Online Harvard Courses

  • MIT University is offering free online courses

  • Stanford University is offering free online courses

  • Master AI for Free: No Payment Required

  • Google, Harvard, and more are offering FREE AI courses (no payment required)

• Interesting pictures and Infographics

  • Coaching models provide structured frameworks for guiding purposeful, goal oriented conversations

  • MICROMANAGEMENT IS KILLING WORKPLACE CULTURE

• Videos

  • The Future of Education, the Future Mindset: The next 10 years. Futurist Gerd Leonhard UNECE Cyprus by Gerd Leonhard

  • THE GOOD FUTURE. A Film by Futurist Gerd Leonhard

  • The Good Future Project. The Future is better than we think - we just need to make the right decisions, today!

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[15-Sep-24] The week 37-2024 summary

About my 2nd holiday book ...

Since three days my 7th eBOOK, currently until 12-Sep-24, is available via Downloads. Have fun reading it, free to download.

As previously mentioned, I planned to read two books during my holiday. I am nearly finished with the 2nd one now - The Midnight Library from Matt Haig - some summaries:

• 15 Best The Midnight Library Quotes by Matt Haig

• The Midnight Library (Book)

• Video: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig: A One-Minute Book Review!
• And the OpenAI summary below:

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is a captivating novel that explores themes of regret, choice, and the pursuit of happiness. The story follows the protagonist, Nora Seed, who finds herself in a mysterious library that offers her the chance to undo her regrets and live out the lives she could have had. Throughout the book, Nora navigates through different versions of her life, each presenting unique opportunities and challenges.

Key topics in The Midnight Library include self-discovery, second chances, and the importance of living in the present moment. As Nora explores various paths, she learns valuable lessons about acceptance, gratitude, and finding contentment with who she is. The final essence of the novel lies in the power of choice and the realization that every decision we make shapes our lives in profound ways. Ultimately, The Midnight Library is a poignant reminder to embrace life with all its imperfections and to cherish the moments that make it worth living.

For me personally any decision is better than no decision. When you finally come to a conclusion, you just have to accept the consequences, if you like it or not. And instead of regretting your previous decision that you cannot change in the most cases anyway, just take another/better one the next time.

• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (13-Sep-24)

• Video: How to Break Through Your Fear of Failure
• Video: The next 10 years will bring more change than the last 100 years

• Transformation tactics to successfully ruin your business

• How to Build Belonging in a Post-Pandemic World

• The Employees Secretly Leveraging AI At Work

• Evolution of the Scrum Master Role: From Facilitator to COO

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[12-Sep-24] HR Fair (Zukunft Personal)

Quick summary of my visit today ... 

To get a new perspective, you sometimes have to start from a clean sheet and learn something new. One of the learnings today was that "our brain needs a lot of energy to store patterns/principles/routines/ standards for the 1st time, but requires much less energy to reuse this (e.g bicycle riding)". This came up in several presentations, below my summary of the main topics:

Martin Gaedt, Delete Strategy

• We should always be looking at the total cost of ownership (TCO) of too many meetings
• The delete strategy is based on the idea to strike out and replace, some examples:
  • customers = guests, seller = hosts
  • from plastic to paper, chocolate without cacao - same taste
  • meat from 3D printer, print human organs for testing
  • replace parking lots for bicycles in Paris
  • Bakery to start work at 7 AM, sell at 11 AM, no issue to find young talents
  • reducing documentation in care work by 30%, will free up 100.000 more people
  • 4-day work week, more output, less burnout and illness
  • strike out animals in a circus, Cirque Du Soleil
  • do we need this, or can this go?
• AI
  • sees more than doctors
  • give employees time to investigate AI tools during work time, ongoing learning
  • we only realize and talk about the unknown
  • take any standard: strike out 3 things, increase 3 other things
  • 97.3% of German companies have 1 - 50 employees

Dr. Tobias Eismann, Siemens, www.creativity-lab.xyz

• divergent vs. convergent innovation model
• positive feelings by seeing immediate results (cleaning)
• divergent is seen more negative (emotions) than a convergent approach
• from more creativity to more revenue (e.g. Star cuisine, same ingredients --> different result - cheese, bread, butter)
• AI cannot use maximum divergence in the moment, currently AI is only triggering more divergent thinking in Siemens employees

Dr. Stefan Fraedrich, goals are nuts, but we can reach them

• the goal is not the way anymore, it is the way in the meantime
• what kind of human do I need to be to reach my goals?
• you need to burn for your work, have fun and enjoy, what you are doing, be lucky
• 3 goals compass
  • your goal, way and purpose need to go in the same direction
  • what is your intrinsic motivation?
  • 1st the purpose, 2nd your way, 3rd reaching goals automatically
  • what is the big picture, not being hindered by small topics/steps
  • how to handle routines/standards vs. motivation/fun/new stuff/flow/purpose/love
  • we need a different way to think, away from routines and patterns, always adjust your compass when the purpose is changing

“There is a silver lining on the bias issue. For example, say you have an algorithm trying to predict who should get a promotion. And say there was a supermarket chain that, statistically speaking, didn’t promote women as often as men. It might be easier to fix an algorithm than fix the minds of 10,000 store managers.” — Richard Socher, CEO and founder, You.com

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[10-Sep-24] Emotions and laughter

A collection of different sources ...

“If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know someone, don’t bother analyzing his ways of being silent, of talking, of weeping, of seeing how much he is moved by noble ideas; you will get better results if you just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he’s a good person.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

• TED Talk: How to find laughter anywhere
• The New Happy: Someday soon

• Imagine a world where leaders are less obsessed with the finish line and more captivated by the journey

• 5 Myths About Older Workers Busted

• How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Human Resources and the Workforce

• Don't get stopped ... - my 09-Sep-24 Substack post

"Every work of art is the child of its age and, in many cases, the mother of our emotions. It follows that each period of culture produces an art of its own which can never be repeated." -- Wassily Kandinsky, Russian - Artist December 4, 1866 - December 13, 1944

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[07-Sep-24] About my Oct-24 workshop

Working on my yearly school workshop about digital transformation

I did mention 2 days ago - This time I plan to use AI to generate some of the slides I will be showing. Self-learning and -experience.

The self-learning and -experience started yesterday and I did work with three tools:

1. OpenAI's ChatGPT
2. Google's Gemini 

3. A new medium for presenting ideas. Powered by AI -- Gamma 

Here the task for ChatGPT and Gemini:

I am currently preparing a workshop on “What you need to be able to do or learn to survive in a world of robots or artificial intelligence?” for students aged between 16 and 18. Which 10 main areas should I cover and which 5 dangers should I urgently point out?

I would like to create one page for a presentation from each of the 10 main areas and 5 hazards. Can you please suggest possible titles, important content as bullet points and suitable images. Please also a start and end page.

ChatGPT was a little bit more flexible, for Gemini I had to take the suitable images request out, as it is just a language model - thanks for letting me know.

Initially I planned to let ChatGPT and Gemini generate some code to be loaded into either Powerpoint, LibreOffice or Google Slides. To create the necessary slides, but this was just too error-prone and technical for me. I am more the KISS - Keep it simple stupid guy, so I used Gamma in the end. 

My kind of tool - just create a FREE account, paste the text from

ChatGPT or Gemini, select an output language (German in my case) and a design for the presentation, let Gamma AI generate the Powerpoint slides - DONE. The free version can only create 10 pages, so I had to split the approach in 2 parts, to get my 17 slides in the end. Did not take more than 15 minutes in total, some learning included. Great stuff to get a really professional looking presentation, very impressive tool !!

When you plan to solve the riddle, you have to look at all even small details, just a hint.

50% of the Starliner mission is back on earth, the capsule. The astronauts have to wait until early 2025, what a disaster:

• Boeing Starliner capsule lands back on Earth, without astronauts, to end troubled test flight

• A Space Force Guardian Is Bringing Stranded Boeing Astronauts Home

• NASA Will Attempt to Launch Boeing's Troubled Starliner Away From Space Station as Fast as Possible, Just in Case

• NASA Engineers Were Disturbed by What Happened When They Tested Starliner's Thrusters

• Rethinking Success: Lessons for Leadership and Business

• McKinsey & Company: Monthly Highlights, September 2024 

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[05-Sep-24] Third holiday report

Back home from Belgium today

As mentioned and planned, we had been to the Orval Abbey on 02-Sep-24. A great place, clean and well managed, we have even seen bricklayer rebuilding old walls in the old way of doing the work. They are rebuilding the old monastery over time.

In 1789 the French Revolution broke out and all the possessions of Orval across the border were immediately confiscated. The abbey lived through various alerts, more or less serious, until the decisive day, 23rd June 1793, when the revolutionary troops led by General Loison sacked and burned the monastery Everything was wiped out. The community withdrew to its refuge in Luxembourg and then to the Priory of Conques. The community was officially suppressed on the 7th November 1795 and its members disbanded. For more than a century the charred walls of Orval were at the mercy of the weather and of stone- and treasure-seekers.

After the visit he had the opportunity to test the ORVAL beer and cheese in a restaurant close by. A great way to close a great day.

We had been in Wallonia - The South of Belgium is incredibly rich in cultural heritage: fascinating folklore; ancient traditions; relaxing walks in nature; endless open air activities and plentiful regional cuisine. - the remaining days we did enjoy the good food and diverse Belgian beers. Beer is a really difficult/interesting topic, especially when you are coming from Germany, but here a good starting point for some first insights.

I will be going back to work on Monday and I am looking forward to some busy month, besides all the day-2-day activities that are happening anyway:

• September: On the 12th I will be visiting the ZUKUNFT PERSONAL EUROPE 2024 in Cologne, some out of comfort zone activities, to learn and get new perspectives.
• October: On the 11th I will be doing my yearly school workshop about digital transformation. This time I plan to use AI to generate some of the slides I will be showing. Self-learning and -experience.
• November: On the 19th we will be hosting our yearly Data and Analytics Meetup. We do already have two external keynote speakers and will have to finish the agenda shortly.

More to come ...

• TED Talk: An actor and a neuroscientist answer: What makes you “you”?

• The 12 Books to Fire Up Your Brain This Fall. A sneak preview of my top new releases. - Adam Grant

• LinkedIn Data Points Out 2 Simple Ways to Improve Skills-Based Hiring

• Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski: The Next Einstein in the Making

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[01-Sep-24] The week 35-2024 summary

Second holiday report ...

Finishing the 1st holiday week today with great weather and interesting visits, like the Euro Space Center yesterday. On the picture you can see a physical model of our Solar System, in size and also distance between the planets. Mercury in front of the Sun (the large metal ring), then Venus, the Earth and the other planets behind it. Neptune is the small blue circle on the right close to the forrest. A really impressive and walkable model.

Tomorrow we plan to visit Orval Abbey, a monastery of Trappist Cistercian monks with a brewery and a cheese factory. Sounds promising.

Yesterday I finished the 1st book and did start the 2nd today. Some helpful links from the 1st book below:

• Lincoln's Great Depression (from Oct-2005)

• A Point of View: Churchill, chance and the 'black dog' (from Sep-2011)

• About Arthur Schopenhauer, the depressive's favorite philosopher

Will keep you posted about the progress I am making with the The Midnight Library. Have a great next week and enjoy the gallery that I did add bellow.

"As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself." -- Arthur Schopenhauer, German - Philosopher February 22, 1788 - September 21, 1860

• Video: Build a Resilient Brain to Overcome Any Obstacle
• The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week (30-Aug-24)
• Our World in Data: Global investment in generative AI
• ‘Wisdom Work’ > ‘Knowledge Work,’ CEO Lessons from the CIA, & More – The Leadership That Works Newsletter
• Claude.ai: Artifacts are now generally available
• When Leaders Double Down on Bad Decisions
• Beauty can come from brokenness. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with precious metals like gold, silver or platinum.
• Master Problem Solving, Credits to Ivan Carillo
• The 4 ant philosophy which made a huge change the way I think.

  Ants teach us four powerful life lessons

• Stress-reducing foods are those that help calm the mind, stabilize mood, and support overall mental well-being

• AI: Overhyped Fantasy Or Truly The Next Industrial Revolution?

"The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice." -- Arthur Schopenhauer

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[30-Aug-24] First holiday report

1st insights into the Reasons To Stay Alive book

As mentioned we did go to Belgium for our summer vacation. The separation you see on the Visit Belgium webpage is explained in the text below. Interesting and sometimes surprising for visitors.

Belgium is divided between a French-speaking people, collectively called Walloons (approximately one-third of the total population), who are concentrated in the five southern provinces (Hainaut, Namur, Liège, Walloon Brabant, and Luxembourg), and Flemings, a Flemish- (Dutch-) speaking people (more than one-half of the total population), who are concentrated in the five northern and northeastern provinces (West Flanders, East Flanders [West-Vlaanderen, Oost-Vlaanderen], Flemish Brabant, Antwerp, and Limburg).

Yesterday we did visit Bouillion, today we stay in our cottage due to rain showers and tomorrow we plan to see the Euro Space Center for a

Spationaut day, they are only open on Saturday and Sunday.

The book from Matt Haig is all about depression. Early signals and facts from your childhood, how to realize the situation, what is helping and not helping, how to handle and survive the status quo, how to get out of it and come to a long-term improvement. His personal story. Below some OpenAI statements about the topic:

Depression can affect anyone regardless of family background or social status. It's crucial to realize that depression is a serious mental health condition that requires attention. Being mindful of symptoms such as persistent sadness, loss of interest, and changes in sleep patterns can help in early detection.

Seeking professional help is key in managing depression. Medications such as antidepressants can be prescribed by healthcare providers to help regulate brain chemicals. Additionally, therapy and lifestyle changes such as regular exercise, proper diet, and sufficient sleep can aid in overcoming depression and lead to a healthier life once again.

"Depressive disorder, or depression, is a common mental health condition that can happen to anyone. It is characterized by a low mood or loss of pleasure or interest in activities for long periods of time." So we might know some celebrities with this mental health problem, but it can be anybody around you? 

I am not an expert in this area, but there are always two ways to see the same situation. - "Everytime we are on holiday it is raining" OR "after several sunny days a good opportunity to relax and take a short break - and it is good for the nature around us, ..."

Sometimes there might only be one way?

• Starliner Is Such a Disaster That Boeing May Cancel the Entire Project
• Boeing Might Not Get Starliner Working Before the Space Station Is Destroyed

...  and sometimes not ...

Nick Vujicic was born without arms and legs due to a rare disorder known as Tetra-amelia syndrome. He has faced incredible challenges from birth, dealing with both physical and emotional hurdles. He struggled with depression and loneliness during his childhood but eventually overcame these through his faith, family support, and an indomitable spirit.

• Video: Inspiring man born without arms or legs - Nick Vujicic | 60 Minutes Australia

I think you have to find the right role model for your case, should be a stretch goal to reach it, but not impossible from day-1. And try to change from the glass-half-empty to the glass-half-full side early in your process or journey, as some positive thinking will be helpful.

• Where Will Artificial Intelligence Take Us In The Future?

• Can Humans Detect AI-Generated Text? 6 Studies Would Suggest They Can’t

• The New Happy: How are you, really?

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