10 minute single-frame timelapse (SFTL) of clouds over Glen Canyon Park in San Francisco.

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Screw Holacracy, I have an idea that will revolutionize business and drive the next wave of global productivity gains. It’s a simple question of fixing meetings.

My dream week is one where I have two miserable days with back to back meetings and forget lunch, there isn’t even enough time to grab a coffee. Sound miserable? The upside is three uninterrupted days where I can cruise through a ridiculous amount of work.

My real week - meetings dotted throughout each day with half hour breaks in between. And many of these meetings will involve eighteen people shoehorned into a closet because someone booked the big room for a 1:1.

We need a meeting defragmenter.

Let go of picking a time and a room. Just say who you need to meet with and for how long. The meeting defragmenter will pick the best room and group all meetings as close together as possible with a five minute break in between.

Your company can decide if you prefer to load mornings or afternoons, or maybe Mondays and Thursdays. You can set core hours for each team.

Information workers take around twenty minutes to enter a state of flow which is where you need to be to write great code, conduct awe-inspiring analysis or generally do anything of value to your company. A half hour gap in between meetings is just enough time to get back to your desk, dismiss unwelcome interruptions, start to get into a state of mind to tackle some real work and then realize it’s time for another meeting.

Giving more people more blocks of useful time would be an incalculable benefit to their mental health, their businesses and the global economy. This one simple tool could change the world.

As usual if any of my billionaire investor readers are interested, call me.

(Previously)

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Bees and their hive in a tree at Glen Canyon Park in San Francisco.

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An Echo knockoff and rapturous applause for variable font size in a messaging app. Not much innovation so far this year.

The horrific trend in Inbox and now Allo is machine learning auto reply so you can send something canned and inauthentic instead of actually speaking with people. Zombie Robs might approve but I'm far from convinced.

Updated 2016-05-18 14:12:

Android N looks super cool and I can't wait. The #1 productivity enhancement I'd like to see though is copy and paste icons that look like copy and paste. I do not have a clue currently.

Updated 2016-05-18 14:24:

No headset.

Updated 2016-05-18 14:40:

Android Studio is very nice. Eclipse was painful. I actually like Android Studio more than Xamarin which is saying a lot for a C# leaning person.

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Pair of humpback whales just off the Golden Gate Bridge.

(Previously)

Updated 2017-08-09 17:14:

More whales and some porpoises.

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The Phoenix Descent by Chuck Grossart

3/5

It's billed as a bit of a scifi time travel adventure but really it's more of a zombie apocalypse variant. Not really my thing so I initially hated it but that hatred turned to respect and finally, love. Well maybe not quite love but it's a decent read.

 

Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War by Raghu Karnad

4/5

Very personal and sometimes florid but deeply fascinating story of the Indian Army in World War 2.

 

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Catfood Earth 3.42 is a small update to the latest (2016d) timezone database and the latest timezone world and countries maps from Eric Muller. If you use the political borders, places or time zones layers in Catfood Earth then you'll want to install this version.

Download the latest Catfood Earth.

(Previously)

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Goodreads needs a shelf called "currently-reading-but-if-i'm-honest-will-never-finish". On this shelf I will put Infinite Jest.

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360 degree 4K timelapse of San Bruno Mountain in San Mateo County, California.

(Previously, Previously)

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