Top Blog Posts:
- On job applications
Considering joining my team (at Vercel)?
## a.k.a. Considering joining the Sales Engineering team (at Vercel)?
The [high-growth](https://leerob.io/blog/hypergrowth) aspect of an organisation such as [Vercel](https://vercel.com) invariably means that we will need to do [accelerated team growth](https://vercel.com/careers/sales-engineer-emea) at some point - which brings a variety of new challenges which are crucial to the ability to scale the business effectively.
This is a two way process, and it took me many years before I truly realised this. Both parties are making investments, and both parties need to be transparent about the RoI they hope to achieve. Once someone has joined the team, all our satisfactions are the delta between outcome and expectations.
There is a specific aspect to being in high-tech high-growth to bear in mind. You will almost definitely need to be a strong independent learner - whatever you were taught in school or university, the ability to learn and develop yourself outside of guided tuition and teaching is pretty important. The web industry is one of the fastest moving domains in human history - in many cases, especially at the cutting edge web development there is an exceedingly small number of people that could help you, and the manual almost definitely hasn't been written yet.
However, this does bring a wonderful opportunity for you to help others, and to be the source of knowledge that others are searching for. (The light at the end of the tunnel, may be you)
Potential candidates typically come into the process in one of 3 ways.
Warm referrals, active job-seekers, through being approached by our TA team (or someone working on their behalf)
For warm referrals, and those approached by our scouts, I am more than happy to pitch Vercel - it's an amazing place to work.
Active job seekers - are you looking for a job at Vercel, or any job will do?
Better to be transparent - What I'm looking for:
Human Skills:
- on time (or appropriate comminations if something exceptional has happened)
- prepared
- what do you know about Vercel?
- Have you read our recent blogs/announcements/product updates?
- what do you know about me ? (I share a lot about myself - just follow the breadcrumb trail)
- can you instigate a conversation
- how natural does us talking feel
Technical Skills:
- how familiar with next.js are you?
- how effectively can you learn - both independently, and collaboratively.
- based on relevant prior experience
- confidence that you are inquisitive and somewhat driven to learn independently (we are in a very fast paced industry, you need to be willing and interested in keeping up)
Sales Experience / Market awareness:
- can you talk about standard Sales qualification processes
- can you talk about who our competitors might be?
- can you talk about who our partners might be?
What will you bring to the team? Technical skills, business experience, relationship.
Next steps:
Unless you can already point me at meaningful relevant technical work, either side-projects or a demo you have created for this process - then there will probably be a technical challenge.
Bonus:
If you are reading this because you are doing some research as part of the interview process - then wonderful, and please find ways to reference it if or when we talk.
---
I've been fortunate enough to be a part of a handful of high-growth high-tech startups and ventures. Different phases bring different needs, and adaptability is usually key.
We are also actively looking to form a more cognitively diverse team (a separate post on this here)
- Careers Thoughts
How do you quantify the value of a job?
How do you quantify the value of a job?
a.k.a. “Should I stay or should I go now?”
For the majority of people, their working life takes a significant percentage of their waking hours each week (even more so if you include travel and preparation).
As we should do when contemplating any large investment, of time, energy, attention or money, we should be cognisant of the return that we get back.
> "one person’s tedium may be another persons rapture"
Either when contemplating moving to a new role, or when considering the position that you are currently in. These should be against your own your own measures - one person’s tedium may be another persons rapture, but from my perspective there are some core aspects to consider, which for me form into 3 main categories:
Rewards & recognition (status?)
Satisfaction, fun & enjoyment (meaning)
Growth & development (career, or skills)
<img src="https://images.benseymour.com/image/upload//w_1200,q_auto,f_auto/live/CareersTriangle001.jpg">
I occasionally volunteer at a local Primary School, running Code Clubs and taking part in careers fairs. During a careers fair in July (2019) these were some of the popular questions asked:
How much do you earn
Is this what you always wanted?
What qualifications do you need to do your job?
Do you have any regrets?
Number 2 made me chuckle, and as a schoolchild of the 80's, I enjoyed describing the state of technology at that time, and that my current work in high-tech web platforms wasn't established 15 years ago, let alone 30 years ago.
Regrets... I have a few... and channeling my inner Sinatra ... I wish I had believed more in doing things more my way, sooner. I currently work in technical pre-sales for enterprise software - but it is very much the relationships with the people I meet, and understanding what would help them to achieve whatever they value which really drives me (though of course it does mostly have a solid aspect of helping them to make effective use of technology) .
- Short Lessons for the Kids
Some thoughts while in-flight
I’m writing this while at an altitude of 11,582 meters somewhere over Western Canada, on my way to San Francisco. For those who know me, or who have seen my talks on ‘making the most of your fears’, you will perhps have an idea of my curent state of mind. With that context, it seemed like a good time to make a rough start on a list of ‘Life Lessons for my Kids’. A few of these are of my own making, many more are a collation of learnings i have gained from others, and ideally i will backfill accreditation at some point.
The following are currently in no particular order, though hopefully i will put more organisation into them at some point. (spellings are also likely to need attention at some point - i am currently typing on the ipad in git2go):
Your perspective is just about the only thing that you really control.
Encourage opportunity.
Plan in decades.
Think in years.
Work in months.
Live in days.
You are your habits
You have to be aware of your habits to change them
It takes 66 days to form your habits (good or bad), and then it becomes your new normal.
If you don’t know what you want, you are less likely to get it.
If you are not working on your own dreams there will be plenty of people looking to use your time, energy and skills to work on theirs.
If you only do what is easy, then like will be hard
If you believe you can, or if you believe that you can’t - you are probably right.
97% of the things that you worry about never happen, and those that do are often less impactful than you feared.
Start with the end in mind. For each important engagement and decision, go into it knowing what you need, and want, to get out of it.
Expectations not outcomes govern the happiness of your perceived reality.
Try not to focus on only the problem too much.
When motorbiking and there is a rock in the road, if you focus on the rock you are more likely to hit it, than if you instead focus on the safe route around it.
Learn from the past, but don’t live there
You can’t lose what you never had.
There is no passion to be found in playing small - in settling for a life that is less than you are capable of living. Nelson Mandela
Distractions keep us from:
- wanting we we truly wnt
- Doing what we truly want to do
- Being who we want to be
Time
Energy
Attention
Where possible, don’t limit your life choices too much because of your financial commitments.
Think about the things we should be doing, rather than what we shouldn’t be doing.
Instead of worrying about being distracted, instead try to remember to be focused.
Be kind to yourself.
The strongest negotiating position is knowing that you have the ability to walk away (from a job that isn’t providing you enough, or from just about any purchase, or just about anything)
People who refuse the take risks live with a feeling of helplessness which is far more frightening than the fear associated with actually taking the risk. Fear can permeate their life.
if you want to be happy - get more sleep. Arianna Huffington
Dont walk into somewhere, without knowing how you can walk out. This includes employment, and not tying yourself to the things that the job provides be it overly expensive equipment or lifestyle.
Each day grants you the gift of time, in 86400 small pieces - the same as everyone else, no matter however successful. The difference is what you _have_ to trade your time for, as well as what you choose to invest it in.
The people you surround yourself with, will frame your expectations and your values - so choose wisely. Choose to be with the people who help you to be the better you.
Consider books as mentors. A well considered book gives insights into the experiences and perspectives of another... you can learn a lot making your own mistakes, but you can also save time and grief by learn from the mistakes of others.
Our achievements grow according to the size of our dreams, and the degree to which we are in touch with our mission. Ferrazi
Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will.
Establish multiple revenue streams.
If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.
(though getting lost can lead to some wonderful discoveries)
Dont obsess over money.... its not important, as long a you have enough of it to do what you NEED... as well as ideally giving you opportunity to also do what you want.
Understand your personal and family finances - be efficient in your earnings. Understand tax.
Inflation or compound interest will either erode or grow your savings and investments. Money standing still is eroded by inflation.
Sustainability.
Ideally find a way to live. Such that if things stayed just as they are today, they would be at least bearable, or ideally better.... then use that as a baseline, and look to see how things could be better.
Each time you get a pay increase or bonus, if you can afford it, find a way to siphon off some part of it for longer term plans. Reduce inefficient debts, increase savings... but also remember to live a little.
Understand your own risk profile - what you are comfortable with. The more risk, by definition, the more unknowns there are, and the more you might gain... or lose.
I am fairly averse to risks... being able to sleep at night is invaluable.
Encourage opportunity.
Treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. The less-good people may well be oblivious, but the more-good people will acknowledge and appreciate you. You can imagine which one will be the more beneficial to recognise.
Be cautious about your sources of information. Everyone has their biases. Some are unaware, some are deliberate. Be especially cautious about information from organisations and entities for whom you are part of their revenue stream.
Be cautious about things which are promoted as being free - they often come at a high price. A free book which is rubbish, will still cost you time and attention. If a service appears to be free (such as facebook) then it might actually be you who is the product.
If not now, then when?
If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll probably always get what you’ve always got.
Fulfilment comes when we live our lives on purpose.
Instead of focusing on what is wrong with a particular situation, focus instead on what could be right or valuable.
Choice is the act of hesitation that we make before making a decision. Alan Watts
Trust your intuition. Learn to hear it.
When things feel out of control, consider an external source for some objectivity - good friends, or also for me the I Ching often provides balance, and a more useful perspective.
Shop to the price you pay - don’t be swayed by the advertised discount.
You will make mistakes. Learn to forgive yourself, as you would a good friend.
When riding motorbikes, racing cars, or undertaking other potentially hazardous endeavours, remember to try to force a smile on your face - it’ll change your mental attitude and hence your riding style to be more mellow, and for the better.
Do to others as you would have them do to you
It will be exceedingly rare that someone else will decide to help you to be the success that you want to be. You’ll have to own that realisation yourself.
Be the change that you want to see.
<img src="https://images.benseymour.com/image/upload//w_1200,q_auto,f_auto/live/VS41.JPG">
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- Getting Kids Into Coding
It's never too early to start
I work in software development, and I’ve loved experimenting with computers for nearly 40 years. I don’t think that everyone should become a developer, just like I don’t think that everyone should become an author, painter, accountant or musician… but I do think that everyone should have the opportunity to explore coding, ideally from an early age.
Some of the many benefits for the children being:
- Creative Expression
- Logical Thinking
- Problem solving
- It's damn good fun
# Where to Start?
You could read up on the classics of education theory: [Piaget](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piaget's_theory_of_cognitive_development), [Vygotsky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_proximal_development) and [Bruner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffolding), but my summary is:
> Go from where they are to where you want them to be.
> Go from the concrete to the abstract.
Along with a few lines from Dorothy Nolte:
> "...If a child lives with praise,
> they learn to appreciate.
> If a child lives with encouragement,
> they learn confidence...."
Growing self-confidence, and enabling a child to feel that they are in an encouraging and safe environment, in which they are able to explore and make mistakes, is an essential foundation for all learning and development activities, whatever you are trying to achieve.
> If you believe you can,
> or you believe you can’t,
> you are probably right.
> (Henry Ford).
Start simple - make it work, then add complexity.
Start where they are comfortable, then draw them out into new areas.
Be actively on the lookout for any spark of interest, be it music , art, games, maths, and use these to draw them into coding. I’ve been running coding clubs in Primary Schools for 4 years (I’m also a former High School Physics Teacher), and have children aged 10 & 7 both of whom have enjoyed exploring coding in various forms - the examples below are drawn from these experiences:
## Artists:
For children who already love painting and sketching - coding presents the opportunity to bring those paint-brushed and pencil-drawn worlds and characters to life.
So maybe start with sketches of the characters, then work with them to bring them into the game. Using a mouse, or trackpad to sketch can be quite frustrating at first, especially as there tends to be an initial drop in visual quality of their work as they adjust - but the excitement returns once they see their work start to come to life digitally, so you may need to encourage them to push through.
They subsequently learn more about what the digital characters can do, maybe starting to animate them, having them interact with other characters, or developing worlds in which they can explore. This often forms a positive feedback loop, with children then further exploring and sketching richer, more dynamic characters and environments, before translating them into digital form again.
One Year 5 (aged 9) pupil continued exploring at home, and created a staggering Sims-like game created in Scratch, where her character could interact with a world of her making. Including interacting with other in-game characters, currency which could be used to pay to go to the cinema, and large multi-environment game map.
Note: If you’re not familiar with [Scratch](https://scratch.mit.edu/), it’s a visual programming environment created by M.I.T. . There are some other great tools which offer similar functionality, but [Code Club](https://www.codeclub.org.uk/) developed a superb set of projects based on Scratch, which I’ve used extensively, and has been incredibly effective for the children in my clubs. For inspiration or to contribute : the Code Club projects are managed on Github: https://github.com/CodeClub/
I’ve heard from parents that their children were arranging sleepovers including building games in Scratch together. Self-guided junior hackathons!
## Reading:
For children who are avid readers, this can be a way to bring their books to life, guiding them to translate some aspect of their favourite book into digital form.
Below is a game involving Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III trying to escape a Bouldertail Dragon, inspired by Cressida Cowell's epic 'How to Train Your Dragon'
In this instance, we used an app called Carbo to created flattened digital images of their pencil drawings, and then use a paint package to apply colour and transparency to graphic before importing as a sprite.
## Maths:
For pupils who enjoy Maths, codifying their existing knowledge can be a fantastic vehicle to help them discover further patterns in maths, which often leads to a deeper understanding. The projects need to be tied into the appropriate level of maths for the individual pupils, but we've seen projects (in Scratch, and Python) such as:
- find all prime numbers up to 200
- Draw an N sided shape (using a few lines of code as possible)
Interestingly, children often enjoy the challenge of setting their own challenges for their classmates. Such as this maths multiplication quiz written in Scratch - they then self-differentiated, by adding further challenges like a timing element, or adaptive quizzes where as you get more answers correct, the questions get harder.
## Music:
Music is a great driver for people of all ages, especially children. In Scratch there are built-in libraries of instruments, sounds and noises, and you can also use a microphone to record sounds which can then be employed in your projects. This can lead to some of the noisiest and most entertaining club sessions. Notably, in one session a group of children sampled some AC/DC (Thunderstruck) which led some exceedingly 'attention grabbing' projects... passing pupils came to see what was going on, which led to a wave of additional pupils being interested in joining the club.
[Sonic Pi](http://sonic-pi.net/) : is 'The Live Coding Music Synth for Everyone', and while the syntax can be a little challenging to get started with, can produce some phenomenal results : https://vimeo.com/110416910
Linda Sandvik talked about the Makey Makey in [a previous 12devs article](http://12devsofxmas.co.uk/2013/01/day-12-fun-with-makey-makeys-for-kids-of-all-ages/) and we've used these to great effect to extend the way that the children interact with their creations, by enabling external objects (such as bananas) to become an input device into the computer.
We had a group of pupils combine their own audio samples, with interesting (partially-conductive) objects from around the classroom to make some captivating and entertaining musical installations, which again drew in further pupils who wanted to join in.
Exploring interactions between the physical and digital worlds is something that I find particularly interesting, and also a great source of inspiration for lots of children.
Other ways we've explored for crossing the digital/physical divide, include things like the [Leap Motion](https://www.leapmotion.com/) Controller which senses your hands moving naturally in 3D, and feeds that data into the computer for an extremely intuitive input mechanism. (you'll see further examples below when we talk about Raspberry Pi’s GPIO and rf-controllers.)
Or Lego Mindstorm, which is a programmable Lego robot model, with sensors and motors, which you can program using Lego’s own drag and drop coding interface.
## Minecraft
[Minecraft](https://minecraft.net/en/) is an amazing sandbox video game popular with a lot of the older primary school children. They love creating their own structures, or challenges (for example [parkour](https://vimeo.com/178917981)) which they then set for their friends to try to complete.
One of the many fantastic aspects of the [Raspberry Pi](https://www.raspberrypi.org/) (RPi) is that the standard OS (Raspbian) includes a free version of Minecraft and is ready setup with a Python API to interact with the game. Learning that they can start to programmatically interact with those objects and worlds is tremendously exciting for children, and can be the perfect gateway to introduce them to the Python programming language.
After all, who doesn't want to be able to make lava fall from the sky, or programmatically generate ginormous structure made entirely from TNT:
[Adventures in Minecraft](http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-111894691X.html) is a brilliant book helping children explore the Python API for Minecraft. (It states it's aimed at 11-15 year olds - but with some guidance, we've had 9/10 year olds find it really valuable.)
This can often lead to children being interested in exploring Python further, which then can take into more abstract activities such at interacting with Web Service Data via Python.
# The Raspberry Pi
There are myraid '[system-on-a-chip](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_on_a_chip)' solutions (such as Arduino, BeagleBone Black, Intel Edison and many more), offering low price computing power in an accessible package, and if you have access to one of these then they can certainly be fantastic to learn with. However, the Raspberry Pi seems to innately cause excitement with children, or at the least curiosity. One of the great things going for the 'Raspberry Pi' seems to be it's name - it feels accessible, and I think pupils are very happy being opening excited talking about the Raspberry Pi, without it sounding too geeky.
The Raspberry Pi was setup with education in mind, and I think squarely hit the nail on the head - if you install the default OS (Raspbian) it comes pre-installed with Scratch, Sonic Pi, and a free version of Minecraft already setup to be used with the Python API. There is an incredible community surrounding the RPi, and an amazing array of accessories, kits (such as the CamJam EduKit) and projects including the epic Astro Pi.
Astro Pi is a Raspberry Pi, with Sense HAT (a HAT is an add-on which slots onto the RPi), in a specially constructed flight case, which is now in-situ in the International Space Station.
(Image Source: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/watch-tim-peake-astro-pi-flight-units-in-space/ )
There were even [competitions aimed at School children](https://astro-pi.org/principia/), where the winning entries became part of the Astro Pi payload that was launched to the International Space Station.
I don’t think I’ve yet met a single child in any of the clubs I’ve run, that doesn’t find this incredibly exciting and inspirational.
You can even purchase the equivalent [Sense HAT](https://astro-pi.org/about/hardware/sense-hat/) and get the designs to enable you to [3D print your own flight case](https://astro-pi.org/about/hardware/flight-case/), meaning you can have your own fully operational version in your home or school here on Earth.
## GPIO
Those pins you can see at the top of the Raspberry Pi image above are for GPIO - general purpose input/output. Enabling you to extend your RPi into the realm of electronics, by wiring in sensors, LEDs, matrix displays, servos and motors and many more component, which can then be interacted with programmatically.
The GPIO pins can also be used to add pre-built boards, such as the Sense HAT for the Astro Pi. One of my favourites is by Energenie which, coupled with some radio-frequency controlled electric mains plug sockets, means you can start to control devices around the home programmatically.
As you can imagine, once you start joining up all of the different pieces that we’ve discussed so far, coupled with other technological resources available, the potential is only really limited to one's imagination - and as we’ve discussed, children’s imagination is pretty phenomenal.
In one of my favourite home projects from earlier in the year, we used the Python API to create a ‘magic block’ in minecraft, which when you walk close enough to it, uses the energenie HAT, to trigger a disco light in the physical world. (Jack’s original intention was that it would trigger a loud klaxon in his sister’s room - but we agreed on a compromise :) )
This is again where I believe the knowledge of the art of the possible from those already in the industry is phenomenally valuable to help inspire and guide the imagination of the child
## Our Own Private Web
The final project I’m going to mention is something I trialled with a group of 10 Year 5 pupils (9/10 years old) in a coding club last summer.
I took into school a box of 10 Raspberry Pi’s, router, switch, cat5 cables, and VGA adapters (fortunately the school had a batch of old monitors, keyboards and mice we could use) and we set about learning not just how to write basic HTML and CSS, but also ran local web servers, so that pupils had a more concrete grasp of what the web is.
I encouraged the pupils to setup the equipment (with mains power turned off at first) - which turned out to be utterly new to most of them, and turned out to be one of the most challenging parts of the project, taking around 45 minutes the first time.
With all of the RPi’s eventually plugged into the router/switch we discussed IP addresses and I’d setup more human-friendly names for each raspberry pi: rpi1.local, rpi2.local.
We then made a new file with a .html extension, put some very basic HTML into it, and showed them that they could view it in the browser. They made some basic edits, such as adding a personal message, saved and reloaded.
I’d already installed Apache (a freely available Web Server which is estimated to [serve over 46% of all active websites](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_HTTP_Server) ) on the RPi’s and setup some directory aliasing (and permissions) such that those files they had just created were effectively now served live - and we then navigated to each other’s machines to view their personal pages. (This generates a LOT of excitement)
Finally they learned about the anchor tag, and started HREF’ing links into each others machine… and hey presto we had the beginnings of our ‘Own Private Web’.
I’d setup another RPi with a whole load of example files for them to explore, copy, and learn from, including using parts of [Zen Garden](http://www.csszengarden.com/) to introduce CSS.
Final steps were to show them how to ‘view source’, and and they were off. Very much self-guided and learning independently, as well as helping each other - my role was then pretty much fielding occasional questions, which predominantly involved typo’s (scr instead of src), and why there wasn’t an H0, to also some really interesting areas like how hex colour codes worked.
One delightful aspect that the pupils undertook by their own volition was to share what they learned - a common theme in the web pages that they subsequently wrote, was instructional pages, sharing with the group a new aspect of HTML and CSS as they uncovered them.
I also run a headless RPi (v2) which is externally accessible, and mapped to a proper domain name. Which means we can discuss it end-to-end: Physical Server, OS, Apache Web Server, simple HTML/ CSS files, Domain names (DNS), the network, and finally the browsers on RPi's in front of them.
As all-pervasive as the web is in daily life, as is depended upon by so many people on a daily basis, I wonder how many adults have a notion of how it works - but from my experience, if it’s presented in the right way, this is potentially accessible to a reasonable % of older primary school pupils.
(\*\* If you do end up working with children in this area, you should definitely read up on children and internet safety - The schools I volunteer at already have their own policies and guides. Part of the reason for initially considering the local router/network approach was to enable me to have an environment which was completely disconnected from the web at large)
# Where do I start as a parent/relative/neighbour/volunteer?
## How early can children start?
In the photo below Zoe would have been 4 years old, and while I had to do a lot of the setup in advance of her using it, she loved exploring the Makey Makey to interact with the Scratch based piano.
There are some barriers to learning which are perhaps more acute for younger children, but some the items below could be factors affecting learning at any age:
Fine motor skills
Vocabulary / Language / (Reading skills)
Attention / Fatigue
Awareness of what is possible
Confidence
## Fine Motor Skills
Some people, especially younger children may find it challenging to use keyboards with keys that are too large or small for their hands.
I regularly encounter children struggling with double clicking a mouse - which can sometimes be greatly improved by changing the configuration settings on the machine they are using.
Using a trackpad, can be an unusual experience at first, in part at first due to the disconnect between this non-responsive rectangle rectangle near their body, and the relative movement of the pointer up on the screen
The touch interfaces on Tablets and Phones are wonderfully intuitive - I recall my daughter as a very young baby interacting with photos on our tablet in a completely instinctive manner. (which eventually leads to lots of grubby finger prints on your TV and laptop screen)
There are some fantastic learning resources for tablets such as Scratch Junior which can really make things accessible for younger audiences.
There are also some wonderful projects which enable logical/algorithmic thinking through interacting with tactile wooden blocks, such as [Cubetto](http://www.wired.co.uk/article/primo) which is aimed at 4 year olds.
## Vocabulary / Language / (Reading skills)
Even in a professional context, how recently were you in a meeting or presentation where someone use an acronym or abbreviation which left some of attendees either utterly baffled, or even a little uncertain that they understood what was being discussed. Abbreviations and acronyms are brilliant tools for discussing complex concepts in a short-hand way - but only if you can be sure that your target audience understands them.
For children, finding the appropriate language is even more crucial. A word like ‘icon’ might be completely alien to younger children (whereas ‘emoji’ might be more familiar).
You might need to put words on the whiteboard, while introducing a topic, to help them slowly build up their mental dictionary of these new terms.
Context and experience can also change the appropriate meaning of a spoken word (professionally think of: SAS vs. SaaS vs. Sass vs. sass), and of course the context for a 9 year old might be very different to you own.
(Hopefully, you have been able to establish an atmosphere such that the children are comfortable letting you know that they don’t understand.)
Even upper/lower case letters can be confusing, and I’ve had experiences where using an ‘uppercase keyboard’ confuses younger children. There are special [early learning keyboards](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002LFHN3E/) available which can help.
From a British standpoint, children will consider ‘color’ to be spelt incorrectly in HTML/CSS, or shortening ‘source’ to ‘src’ for an img tag and can frequently lead to introducing errors into their code.
## Attention / Fatigue
There are various studies about [optimal focus time](https://www.fastcompany.com/3035605/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/the-exact-amount-of-time-you-should-work-every-day) for adult professionals, and many adult developers I know can focus for several hours at a time if they can achieve ‘flow state’. However for children younger, or those less practiced in longer periods of concentration, you need to be on lookout for concentration-fatigue… where giving them a short break mid-task, can reinvigorate them. In primary coding clubs I normally stop the session after around 25-30 minutes and do a ‘cool projects’ segment. This typically involves talking about, or watching short videos, ideally technology or coding related, but also often giving a narrative around the outcomes being through imagination coupled with artistic and technical skills. Some examples that have worked really well:
[Wintergatan - Marble Machine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q)
[Action Movie Kid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34Q0BB8-2nA)
[Pixel Pyros](https://vimeo.com/61174060) by Seb Lee-Delisle
Mechanical Fuzzy Weather Machine () by Brendan Dawes
[CUBESTORMER 3 : Rubik's cube solving lego robot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0pFZG7j5cE)
In my experience it gives everyone a mental-breather, while stoking their enthusiasm and focus for another 30 minute stint. You can gauge the room to determine if shorter or longer periods will work better for your group.
## Awareness of what is possible
One question I often get asked by parents is :
“What can we do with a Raspberry Pi?"
At first my response was “almost anything you could do with a computer", which after repeatedly eliciting blank stares, made me appreciate that this is one of the key areas that I think we in the Web/Software/IT industry can greatly help, namely: extolling the art of the possible, in a way which is exciting, while forming some stepping stones to help them develop in the direction of their interests.
I think there also a need for greater support for parents, especially those who may have had little or no prior computing experience, and who would like to be better prepared to encourage and support their children in starting coding. In relation to this I have started an initiative called [Code.Parents()](http://codeparents.org/), where further details and guidance can be found.
## Confidence
Finishing right back where we started: Confidence is a foundational facilitator for learning, at all ages.
Be cautious using language like ‘simple’ or ‘just’. If someone (of any age) is struggling with something - you suggesting it's 'easy', probably isn't going to help their self-esteem.
Be positive.
Encourage the pupils to be positive and encouraging towards each other, and also with themselves. If needed, set expectations and boundaries that need to be met to be able to participate in the the club.
If someone is struggling with self-confidence, actively look for something, anything to praise them about. Maybe break the task into even smaller elements, or maybe change to a different activity altogether.
Go from where they are, to where you want them to be.
Use praise and encouragement to engender appreciation and confidence.
Your experience, passion and enthusiasm are just the sparks needed to ignite the tinder of their imagination.
I’d love to hear about, and to learn from, your experiences.
I’m also very happy to try to help if I can: [@bseymour](https://twitter.com/bseymour)
- Live Fully Now
'Now' is both immeasurably small, and utterly all there is
Now.
Now is precariously balanced between the impermeable weight of the past and the incalculable potential of the future. Looking to surf that sweet spot between reminiscing and learning from the past, planning and growing into the future, while embracing, enjoying and deliberating in the present.
# 'Now' is both immeasurably small, and utterly all there is.
"Oh the places you'll go" by Dr. Seuss probably makes itself into my top 5 books. If you haven't read it, it's probably worth stopping reading here, and going and ordering a copy. One section describes "The Waiting Place"
> Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come,
> or a plane to go or the mail to come,
> or the rain to go or the phone to ring,
> or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No
> or waiting for their hair to grow.
>
> Everyone is just waiting.
>
> Waiting for the fish to bite
> or waiting for wind to fly a kite
> or waiting around for Friday night
>
> or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
> or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
> or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
> or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
>
> Everyone is just waiting.
If now is all you have, then just waiting for this time to expire, is perhaps not the best use for it.
Not for the first time, I'll share Alan Watts succinct thoughts on the subject:
## "This is the real secret of life - to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play"#
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HdqVF7-8wng?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Be guarded against living for somewhere you aren't. While it is tremendously useful to look ahead and plan, there is no use planning for the future, if when it arrives, you aren't there to live it, because you are once again looking forward to another new future.
# You can't live at all, unless you can live fully now.
- Home Photography Workflow
Curation is an act of love
As [discussed yesterday](/2016/11/17/Curation), I consider the capture, curation, sharing and archiving of the photos and videos of our family's precious memories to be extremely important. Also, over the last decade I have worked extensively with the rich media workflows and processes for large enterprises and global retailers. Hence, it's perhaps unsurprising that we've ended up establishing a fairly comprehensive home photography workflow.
The challenges to be considered:
- a family of happy snappers, taking photos on a multitude of devices: (iPhone (x2), iPod touch, iPad Mini, old HTC Android phone, Panasonic point-and-shoot camera, Canon digital SLR)
- photos to be viewed and curated on a multitude of devices: (Macbook Pro, Macbook Air, Windows desktop machines, and iPhone (while traveling))
- Some images (say at a kid's party) will need sharing outside of the family (i.e. with the other families)
- Near-networking for medium-term photo and video archives, and all curated photos, as the MBP and the MBA have rather limited storage space.
- Long term backup/archiving for pretty much everything.
The main stages of the image asset workflow are:
1. Capture
2. Collate
3. Organise
4. Curate / Enhance
5. Share
6. Archive
### Capture
This pretty much takes care of itself.
The 'best' camera is the one you have with you.
### Collate
I love the simplicity provided by Dropbox. Any of our mobile devices which support the native client are configured to 'auto-upload' any new images and videos when their on wifi. Other devices like our SLR are connected to one of the laptops by USB, and the windows/mac Dropbox app imports any new assets.
In both cases the new asset end up in the 'Camera Uploads' directory in our Dropbox account.
### Organise
The camera uploads directory can quickly end up containing a large number of files, so there is a manual step where I move images into a directory called 'bigbucket', which then has sub-directories for a given month, or a specific event. These event-based directories can then be dropbox-shared with other families as needed. This also means we can use 'selective sync' to manage the amount of storage taken up on the laptops, otherwise the machines with smaller HDDs, quickly run into problems.
### Curate / Enhance
Having previously used OSX Photos app, Google's Picasa and Adobe's Lightroom, each with their own catalogue and ways of organising them and being able to share and synchronise them, I've learned the hard way that long-term **the simplest and safest way to maintain an order or structure to my photo collections is to use the file systems directory structure** (potentially further enhanced with image meta-data).
I am currently using Adobe Lightroom for my main weekly/monthly curation process - I love the interface and the workflows it supports and encourages. When I have completed a collection, I have an export configuration saved with my presets, and just have to select which directory for the assets to be exported to which is:
'Photos-Curated' then with subfolders organised by year, and then either by 'month', 'event' or 'adventure'.
### Share
Social sharing of snapshots or more broadly interesting events is of course via [Twitter](https://twitter.com/bseymour) and Facebook.
Those more volumous albums are shared on Flickr and Google Photos. The majority of the [Flickr Albums](https://www.flickr.com/photos/boseymour) ('Sets') are private, only being visible to a small group of friends and family. There are currently around 48,000 photos shared in that manner, with around 3000 shared publicly. As mentioned in an [earlier post](2016/11/11/Photo365---Flickr-API), Flickr also provides some solid APIs.
I also copy to Google Photos, though with the changes to that platform over the last 9 months, it is developing in a direction which is counter to my requirements, so I may cease using it soon. I would prefer to maintain two online collections, and so need to consider a replacement for Google Photos, or may develop my own.
Exposure - is great for story-telling/photo-blogging. But currently lacks a mobile workflow, and some broader photo management functions.
I've also just started trialling [500px](https://500px.com/bseymour).
### Archive
I maintain local backups on a synology NAS, and a smaller USB external HDD - the latter makes it easier for my wife or I to quickly access the larger files (especially video) without having to wait for the network-sync's to complete.
The external HDD is also mounted on my MBP, and so can be included as a directory for my remote backup sync. For my long-term, offsite back-up I use Crashplan - having previously used Mozy and Carbonite, I switched to Crashplan about 5 years ago, and have been very muvh satisfied with their service throughout that time. (I wrote about that switch [back in 2011](/2011/08/24/limits-of-unlimited-offsite-backup/))
On a monthly basis, once the archive has successfully backed-up locally and to Crashplan, I delete that months archive directory from the dropbox 'bigbucket' in order to free-up the storage on my local machines.
## Pre-digital legacy
Beyond the curation of your digital legacy, I also think it is important to consider the curation of your pre-digital legacy. If you haven't already done so, it's perhaps time to blow the dust off some of your family's most precious pre-digital memories, and to transform them into a form where they will degrade no more, and where you can turn back the hands of time and rejuvenate them.
While you can of course purchase the equipment (I'm happy to make recommendations) and to invest the time (it's an incredibly rewarding, and often emotional experience) there are also some companies providing fantastic digitisation and restoration services who can undertake this work on your behalf. Here I'm going to mention **[Save Your Past Ltd.](http://www.saveyourpast.co.uk/)** as it's the small business, lovingly set-up and run by my wife and her team.
- What motivates us
Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose
Performance, Reward and motivation. Studies show that:
- As long as a task uses only mechanical skill, structured financial rewards work as expected i.e. higher rewards lead to greater performance
- However, once a task calls for even rudimentary cognitive skills, larger incentives lead to poorer performance
Money is only a partial motivator at work. If you don't pay enough people are not motivated. But the best use of money is to pay just enough to stop the lack thereof from being a blocker.
**3 factors lead to better performance:**<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong> Autonomy – Mastery – Purpose</strong></span>
Autonomy: Old style management is great if you want compliance, but if you want engagement self-direction is better.
Mastery: people just like getting better at things, and most people happily spend their spare time pursuing such activities through their hobbies.
Purpose: when the profit motive gets disconnected from the purpose motive poor behaviours emerge, and quality of service drops.
<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Organisations and people who flourish – have great purpose.</strong></span>
These are notes after watching an amazing talk by RSA Animate. See the video here: <a title="Drive: what motivates us" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=related" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=related</a>
