And it sucks and needs months of editing to make it coherent–but you know what?  I DON’T CARE!  I did it and that’s a hell of lot more than I’ve ever done in the past, ever.

THANKS BE to http://www.nanowrimo.org, without whose inspiring and challenging deadline, I would have continue to just think about doing this “one of these days.”

I am FLOORED by the Bloomberg platform, and thrilled to finally have a terminal to call my own.  There are two particularly impressive areas: (1) the customer service Bloomberg provides to users of its terminal, and (2) the platform itself, in areas like my portable, “Bloomberg Anywhere” card that reads my finger print and logs me in by holding the card up to the screen and scanning.

To learn more, I’ve picked up “Bloomberg by Bloomberg” from the Brooklyn Business Library.  It is full of quotables, but here are two on the theme of agile development that struck me:

Start with a small piece; fulfill one goal at a time, on time. Do it with all things in life. Sit down and learn to read one-syllable words. If you try to read Chaucer in elementary school, you’ll never accomplish anything.

Life, I’ve found, works the following way: Daily, you’re presented with many small and surprising opportunities. Sometimes, you seize one that takes you to the top. Most, though, if valuable at all, take you only a little way. To succeed, you must string together many small incremental advances–rather than count on hitting the lottery jackpot once

What is so fascinating to me is that Bloomberg’s methodology is essentially Scrum — but he was doing it before there was such a thing!  Recall, Bloomberg L.P. was started in 1981, and Scrum only has its roots in the paper by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka (and their paper, “The New New Product Development Game“). Who’s to say that Toyota was the only innovator in this realm?

In reading Bloomberg’s autobiography, it’s clear that the build, review with users, revise, review with users, revise, repeat, was also crucial to advancement at Bloomberg.

The lesson, though, is clear.  Break it up, start small, and be flexible.

Everywhere you look, there are signs of the flagging economy: the newspaper headlines, the panicked TV anchors, the layoffs, CASH FOR GOLD on the superbowl ads.

But at least on the NYC subway, we seem to be seeing upgrades.  Or hearing them.

I was passing the time reading, when I heard a BLARE of music.  I look up, expecting the old standby.  And instead, I see this charming man with his half open HP laptop

The laptop is the boombox of the eighties.

I hadn’t even seen the dark waters of the Hudson river in early morning light, but I was already thinking about what it would be like to drown in it.

It the 2005 NYC Triathlon, and like everyone else who’s faced a swim in an open body of water at their first triathlon, I was freaking out.

The journey had begun back in 2004, a late winter night.  The week before, one of my gym instructors announced he was starting up a triathlon club.  He encouraged anyone interested to come to Toga bikes the following Tuesday.  I had seen the Dick and Ricky Hoyt videos.  I had seen the Julie Moss crawl.  I saw the Gatorade Chris Legh tale. I was a gym bunny, I was motivated, and I was single.  I thought I’d give it a go.

Toga Bikes

When I walked into the bike store the following week, my jaw clenched. I would have browsed around but I had no reason to buy anything. Everyone there was tight, taut, with shining shaved legs and round bulges of shoulders and biceps straining underarmour shirts or collared office gear.

I didn’t even own a bike. I didn’t even have the shoes. I just really liked spin class.
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There’s something about walking into the New York Road Runner’s office at Fred Lebow Place (better known as 89th street between 5th and Madison).

The crowds of people picking up their race bibs or filling out the race waivers don’t bother me like the crowds on the subway, even as they squeeze past me or tailgate me up the stairs at 6:55 in an attempt to seal registration before the club closes at 7:00pm.

You see all sizes, all ages, but on the whole, the trend is the same: lean bodies, a steady gaze, a purposeful stride.

There is a warmth here. Knowing that if I catch someone’s eye and flash them a smile, I’ll get one right back. Or if I strike up a conversation, we’ll both be excited over the details that bore our girlfriends, boyfriends, spouses or co-workers. “Are you running the marathon?” “Is this your first year?” “Where do you train?”

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