Hi,
The TOA monthly newsletter! After your wall calendar and casual chit-chats with colleagues ('can you believe it's already ___'), this is the surest sign out there of the start of a new month.
The plan for October is More Of The Same. Last month saw an extra post each week and this month will see the same. I'll start up on next Monday with the 'leftovers' concept I stopped doing when I ended 'proper admin'. It will be slow going at first (some of my thoughts drift back as far as May) but I think each Monday post will bring at least one good idea to the table.
I mentioned last month the possibility of adding new faces to the blog. The details are still being sorted out but expect to at least see some new ideas and concepts in November.
Thanks for reading this past month.
Tim
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Books I'm excited to (most likely) read this month...
*Dense: Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister
This book is an early contender for the 'TOA Award For Dullest Name of a Book'. It also could turn out to be among the most easily applied books I read this year. The authors explore how software projects fail for human rather than technical reasons and demonstrate different ways to build stronger teams.
Though explicitly a technical project management book, I'm sure I'll find plenty here applicable to the more general topics I enjoy mulling over (and occasionally writing about).
*Stop-and-go: Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy by Tim Harford
My 'favorite economist' is back with what I hope is more of his simple insights into otherwise complex economic concepts. I feel like this book's title kind of explains itself (I wonder where 'BLOGGING' will rank) so I'll skip speculating on what might show up in the book.
Harford does an excellent job on his regular podcast, More Or Less, which looks at how numbers are used by various media outlets. Based on this, I'll give a blind recommendation to his podcast, 50 Things That Made The Modern Economy. I can't confirm it's a companion to this book but, hey, I won't blame anyone who thinks it might be.
*Light: Under The 82nd Airborne by Deborah Eisenberg
A follow up for me after enjoying her collection Transactions In a Foreign Currency.
According to a preview, one of the stories is about 'a suburban dinner party that reveals dark truths'. Before I read, let's set some odds on what this could be.
If you have yet to read the book, feel free to place a wager with Casino TOA...
The 'dark truth' revealed will be:
2-to-1: The meat is undercooked.
3-to-1: The host is terminally ill.
4-to-1: So-and-so is sleeping with so-and-so...
6-to-1: Bruce Willis sees dead people.
8-to-1: The butler did it!
10-to-1: The sushi is cooked.
12-to-1: The superintendent's car is parked illegally.
15-to-1: The planet is run by apes.
20-to-1: The host lost his job but still pretends to go to work each morning.
25-to-1: Football causes concussions.
30-to-1: No one likes anyone else at the party.
40-to-1: Bruce Willis sees YOU.
50-to-1: The china is fake.
60-to-1: Watching football causes concussions.
75-to-1: The room is bugged.
99-to-1: 'Deborah Eisenberg' is a pen name for 'Stephen King'.
In the next month of...True On Average...
1) I explain why college costs so much...
2) We explore arbitrage opportunities at HMart...
3) Another pointless trivia contest!
See you in October.
-September 2017
