mlevison

mlevison, 1 day ago to random

#UncertaintyTax #InfluenceAtWork - How much would you pay for $50 gift card at a local retailer that must used in two weeks. On average people were willing to pay $45. Now offer a lottery ticket with 50% chance of winning a $50 and 50% chance of winning $100 Gift card. We would expect the perceived value to go up or stay the same. In fact it dropped to $16.

To reduce the #UncertaintyTax at work, offer experiments and make bigger decisions reversible.

The Catalyst - Jonah Berger

mlevison, 1 day ago to random

Bell Canada, how low can you go? Hours ago, I signed up to switch my Fibre internet service to TekSavvy. A few minutes go I got a call from Bell, offering to lower my rate. So apparently lower rates are only a good business practice when it hurts smaller players.

Gross. #BellCanada

cc: @andykm -- I'm assuming this doesn't rise to the level of a CRTC complaint.

mlevison, 2 days ago to random

#InfluenceAtWork
It's not a top ten list and as you will see, I'm not yet David Letterman. I thought it would be fun to cover some of the many many reasons we fail to get what we want. (Cue the Stones?)

As you will see, smiling on camera is still a skill I'm learning.

https://buff.ly/4dDrQfJ

mlevison, 2 days ago to random

• Equal Weighting for answers - as above some things may matter very little to you as an individual, yet the answer will be used to place you in a category
• Scales can't be used to compare with other people - two people might both score as 'D' Dominant, that doesn't mean they would have the same level of dominance.
• There isn't a standard test
• Originally designed in the early 1900's to assess the "Mental Energy" of army recruits

2/3 #DISC #NeuroMyths

mlevison, 2 days ago to random

I'm not a psychologist. I don't have a PhD. I do explode the balloons I call #NeuroMyths. DISC (and its friend Myers-Briggs) are among the ones I have the most fun with.

My notes are a summary of: https://thepracticalpsych.com/blog/disc-personality-types and a few others that have since fallen off the web. (If you need I have PDF archived copies - DEVONThink :-)

Weaknesses

• Forced Choice Questioning - must choose a position on a line for things that might not matter for that person

1/3 #DISC #NeuroMyths

mlevison, 3 days ago to random

#Influence at Work - Asking someone in leadership to take the perspective of the development team will be a challenge if that leader doesn't have prior development experience. We need to establish common ground on a relevant subject. We need to find a shared experience that that is relevant to our work. Example if the problem is frequent interruptions to our dev team, then find ask them about the effect of interruptions on their own focus work. Ask open ended questions and truly listen.

davidthewid, 3 days ago to random

A post in which the cohost of NYT's flagship tech podcast describes "simulating people" via "digital twins" as a "credible" and "solid" use of chatbots, a "good answer to the question of what generative AI is for":

https://mastodon.social/@caseynewton/112396896352462291

I don't have access to the paywalled longer article, if anyone does, I'd be interested if his claims are any less hype-y in context.

mlevison, 4 days ago to random

#Influence At Work - asking for something too far away from what someone already agrees with will harden their current position and not move them. Distance.

Berger uses a football field to describe opinions, with extreme views in the end zones + moderate in the center. Each person has a 'Zone of Acceptance' around their opinion; opinions beyond this enter the 'Region of Rejection.' Presenting an idea far from someone's current stance reinforces their existing view.

The Catalyst - Jonah Berger

mhoye, 4 days ago to random

Well, this seems very bad.

https://www.leviathansecurity.com/blog/tunnelvision

mlevison, 5 days ago to random

Solid paper - key comment: "We strongly encourage anyone looking for work in this market, especially if you come from a non-traditional background, to stop spending energy on applying online, full stop. Instead, reach out to hiring managers. The numbers will be on your side there, as relatively few candidates are targeting hiring managers directly." https://interviewing.io/blog/are-recruiters-better-than-a-coin-flip-at-judging-resumes

mlevison, 5 days ago to random

Hint understanding relationships is an important part of #Influence -“Everyone is right, only partially” – Exploring Perspectives, Improving Relationships - TastyCupcakes.org https://tastycupcakes.org/2023/04/everyone-is-right-only-partially-exploring-perspectives-improving-relationships/

mlevison, 8 days ago to random

Need more Influence at work? (We all do, even the self employed)

• Develop Empathy
• Listen with the Intent to Understand
• Shoe Benefit of the change is better than the Status Quo ++++++++
• Ask for Help, Don't Tell
• Find people who don't already agree with you, but aren't too far away.
• Make smaller requests first -> Larger requests later
• Reduce risk -> make decisions reversible

#Influence

grimalkina, 8 days ago to random

I've spent the week reading like 50+ papers on learning to remember what I know about how people learn and this is what I know:

-people are bad at deciding what to learn
-people are bad at studying. We choose the worst ways to study and we hate the most efficient ways
-people give up on learning so much. Like more than anyone believes
-people aren't clear about what their goals really are for learning and if you try to get people to set goals they don't want to
-teachers truly work miracles

futurebird, 8 days ago to random

“Fluent Python” is an excellent example of a “good programming language book” — it’s not cluttered with “enterprise examples” it’s focused on how python works and goes into detail on edge cases. This lets one write code with real confidence that you know everything it’s doing. It is also written with the aim to justify why python is the way that it is. Which I need or I get irritated.

If you like python you should probably have a pdf or buy a copy.

Now which book on Java is analogous?

mlevison, 9 days ago to random

Top things that kill your Influence at work

• Force people into a decision
• Failure to overcome the Status Quo
• Change is too far outside of my "zone of acceptance"
• Risk of change
• Not Listening to Others
• Lack of Empathy
• Failure to build rapport
• Not supporting others when they need your help

When you fail to #influence -- look to your own actions before grumbling about others

mlevison, 10 days ago to random

The Catalyst: Jonah Berger is good reminder of the possibility of good things, even when the gap is large. I just reread the story of Virginia who talking to a voter about Transgendered people. The voter calls them 'fags'. Virginia "I'm gay does that include me?". This turns to a discussion with the voter about their disabled spouse and being able to love anyone. By the end of conversation, the voter has changed their view. Deep listening, #empathy and #vulnerability go a long way.

#Influence

MichaelPorter, 10 days ago to Ottawa

Anyone in #Ottawa have 10 ping pong (sorry, ahem, table tennis) balls they could lend me for a few days?
I promise I won't get beer on them, trying out an idea for an educational video.

grimalkina, 10 days ago to random

Reading a 2016 paper on inquiry-based learning where "cognitive load" is once again used as a reason to stop any learner from doing anything FUN and HARD and EXPLORATORY my God

Being alive increases your cognitive load. We are not in some kind of robotic fry-out state every time we have to consume novel information. Working in a repetitive assembly line is low cognitive load and also destroys people

This one little tiny concept taken out of context is used for so many bad arguments.

jamesshore, 13 days ago to random

I'm happy to announce that my Testing Without Mocks training course has returned! This is an in-person course that's ideal for people in Europe. It's taking place in Budapest, just prior to the Craft Conference, on May 28th and 29th.

I'm not sure when I'll have a chance to deliver the course again, so if you're interested, this is a rare opportunity.

https://www.jamesshore.com/s/nullables-training?mastodon

mike_bowler, 15 days ago to random

@daverooneyca and I are doing a public AMA (ask-me-anything) on all things Agile on May 1 (next week). Bring your questions and get the perspective of two coaches who each have 25+ years of experience.

More details at: https://gargoylesoftware.com/coaching-ama/ #agile