Ever wonder what’s keeping Nick inspired outside of meetings and code?
Nick DiLisi, eMoney’s Head of Technology, occasionally shares what he’s reading, watching, and listening to – along with a few takeaways worth checking out.
See his latest picks below, and feel free to reach out to him via email or Microsoft Teams if something sparks your interest or you want to compare notes!
I haven’t listened to many podcasts lately, but I have been watching and reading a lot of AI content and its impact on software development, companies, and everything in the financial services sector.
This month’s Nick’s News focuses on one of the biggest shifts our industry has seen in decades: the transition from using AI as a productivity tool to building organizations that are truly AI-native. The articles and videos below explore the foundations that make that possible—from understanding the research that is shaping today’s models, to the emergence of agentic AI, to the organizational, engineering, and data strategies required to successfully deploy it at scale. A consistent theme across these resources is that competitive advantage will belong to organizations that rethink how work gets done, how teams are structured, and how data is managed—not simply those that adopt the latest AI model.
Equally important, these resources reinforce that success with AI requires balancing innovation with discipline. Strong engineering practices, high-quality data, modern operating models, and a relentless focus on security are becoming even more critical in an AI-driven world. Whether it’s Microsoft’s record-breaking security patch release, McKinsey’s perspective on AI operating models, AWS’s guidance on agentic organizations, or Anthropic’s approach to AI-native engineering teams, the message is clear: AI doesn’t replace the fundamentals—it raises the bar. I encourage everyone to explore the resources that resonate most with your role and think about how we can continue evolving our products, our teams, and our ways of working to deliver even greater value to our customers.
Worth a watch:
Worth a read:
The HumanX 2026 conference was held in San Francisco in April and featured some incredible conversations around AI, leadership, and the future of work. One thing became impossible to ignore: AI is no longer a future capability companies are experimenting with — it’s actively reshaping how organizations operate, compete, and create value right now.
What stood out most wasn’t just the technology itself, but the shift in mindset. Conversations have moved beyond “What could AI do?” to “What are we doing with AI today?” The companies making real progress aren’t just incorporating AI onto existing processes — they’re redesigning workflows, collaboration, and even organizational structures around it.
Walking away from HumanX, one thing feels clear: the era of experimentation is giving way to the era of execution — and the gap between organizations that adapt and those that hesitate is widening.
A few standout sessions and articles worth checking out (in no particular order):
Also worth a read:
I haven’t shared one of these in a while, but it felt like a good time to bring it back.
There’s a lot happening in AI right now, and I’ve been sharing a few of these videos with my team and thought they were worth passing along more broadly. Each one offers a perspective on how software (and how we build it) is evolving.
One I thought was a really good listen: “How to Build an Agent-Native Product” with Dan Shipper from Every. If you’re not already following Every, it’s well worth it: https://every.to
Fun fact: Years ago, we worked with Dan on his first company, Firefly, which powered co-browsing in the eMoney application at the time. He was running it out of his college apartment while at University of Pennsylvania before eventually selling it to Pegasystems.
Here’s a preview of my picks for this month. Videos for each are embeded below.
With Q1 behind us, I am reminded that time waits for nobody. Back in January I was talking about how fast Q1 goes, and here we are! I don’t think you can go a day without some major AI news. I started a Coursera course (and have my eye on two other ones) around general AI knowledge and how to apply AI to your work and your business. We are in beta with what we have called Insights (AKA…. automated planning) with over 800 advisors. Some might say that is not AI, but I feel it is the simplest form of AI. There are some good articles about advisors and their use of AI. The T3 Conference in March even had Joel Bruckenstein talking about AI.
Videos
Podcasts
Articles
As January came and went, it makes me realize that time doesn’t wait for anyone. This year is eMoney’s 25th anniversary (20 years in the case of Guardian LBS). It is definitely a big year coming off a very successful 2024. With everyone in the middle of performance reviews and goal setting for 2025, I am committed to doing a Nick’s News every other month through 2025.
Hopefully, everyone was able to attend the Town Hall in January, and I would love to see new faces at the CLT office hours.
Videos
Podcasts
Articles
You might be reading this in August, because I didn’t finish it until late July. It’s hard to believe that July is ending, and August is fast approaching. I never understood my grandmother when she would say time moves faster as you get older.
For Tech and Product, we have our onsite from Aug 20-22. It will be great to see people in person over the course of 3 days with the mini summit, hackathon, learning opportunities and afternoon picnic. Our keynote speaker is Marty Cagan from SVPG. If you haven’t heard of him, he has some of the best (or the best) 3 books out on product development titled Inspired, Empowered, and Transformed. You can also check out an interview with him here or just search for him.
Videos
Podcasts
Articles/Social Media
One of the most interesting podcasts that I listened to recently was Tech On Deck from Fidelity featuring Mike Wilens. Some people might already know that Mike was the chairman of the board for eMoney, but I learned so much more about him in the interview. Check out the podcast here.
I also started to listen to and read a couple of good books. First, I read “Big Bet Leadership” by John Rossman. John worked at Amazon in the early days and has written some other great books about how the company works. The other book I read is about Edward Deming from the IT Revolution called “Deming’s Journey of Profound Knowledge.” There is a new podcast (or new to me) that featured both of these books called CFO Bookshelf, which has a lot of great and timely interviews. Check it out here.
Videos
Podcasts
Articles
2024 kicks off right where 2023 ended with a lot going on. I’m about halfway through the Elon Musk book, and I didn’t get as far as I hoped I would over the holiday break. One of my goals for 2024 is to have fewer meetings that could have been an email. It has become easier to click a button to get a person on Teams or set up a Zoom meeting in the remote world we live in, but if that meeting could just be an email, then why not? We are still focusing a lot on artificial intelligence (AI) and how it can help us directly with our business in all ways, not just from a product standpoint but from how it can effectively support all of us with our day-to-day work.
It will be great to see all the technology leaders and managers at our in-person days in January as we plan for an even better 2024.
Videos
Podcasts
Articles
This is the last Nick’s News for 2023, and I must say I have become an AI junkie as of late. With the OpenAI Developer Conference, Github Conference, AWS Re-Invent (happening after Thanksgiving) and Microsoft Ignite, AI can’t be ignored anymore. Companies are pouring a lot of money and energy into this technology, and, as Andrew Ng has said, “AI is the new electricity.”
A great talk from Andrew is listed below, but there are many others on YouTube as well.
I’m looking forward to reading Walter Issacson’s book about Elon Musk. I have watched many interviews with Musk and Isaacson about his time with Musk while writing the book. He’s a fascinating person is all I can say. While many might say Musk is crazy, Issacson references the Steve Jobs quote, “Here’s to the crazy ones…because they are the ones that change the world.”
Reminder: If for any reason you can’t access a link that I provided, please send me an email and I will generate a PDF of the content for you.
Videos
Podcasts
What I Read
As we enter Q4, we reflect on our accomplishments in 2023 and start to look ahead at what 2024 will look like, which will include self-assessments and meetings with managers. Technology will partner with Product to start planning for 2024 in early November, and our virtual All Hands meeting will be held on Dec 13. We will share the survey results after the 23.1 hybrid planning session, which I think was worth it to have the opportunity to get together once a year.
I want to continue to encourage people to self-study and look at the various cloud and AI/ML training resources we all have at our disposal.
We also have people attending the AWS Re-Invent conference in person. I’m hoping people can present their takeaways from the event, or you can sign up to attend virtually and get access to online sessions.
Reminder: If for any reason you can’t access a link that I provided, please send me an email and I will generate a PDF of the content for you.
Videos
Podcasts
I’m also listening to the book “Industrial DevOps” when I have time in the morning at the gym.
Articles
I also started reading the book “Data is Everybody’s Business.”
With the summer starting to wind down, I realize that sometimes doing this on a month-to-month schedule is difficult, or I don’t have enough (in my mind enough) to share. So this is the July/August version of Nick’s News.
I want to thank everyone for their participation in the hybrid PI planning session we held last week. It was great to see so many old and new faces in person. In the many conversations I had, it was interesting to hear people say it was the first time they placed names with faces because people are in meetings without cameras. I think it is important for everyone to have their cameras on as often as possible. If the meeting was in person, then people would be able to see everyone in the meeting–it should be a similar experience online as well. So….please turn your cameras on as much as possible in meetings, especially in one-on-one meetings with your managers.
For people looking to learn more about the cloud, AWS has many great free resources to use. Check out AWS Skill Builder for more on the training.
If you want to check out all the products in the cloud space, take a look at Cloud Native Landscape.
Reminder: If you can’t access a link that I provided, just send me an email request. Sometimes links are behind a paid wall, but I can generate a PDF of the content and send it over to you.
Videos
Podcasts
What I Read
As I write this on May 19, the Technology team has a 77% participation rate in the engagement survey. That is a 1% increase from last year, and I’m hoping we can get to 80% participation. Thank you to all those who have taken the time to complete the survey, and we will review the results.
As I mentioned in April, I started the second book by Lisa Bodell called “Why Simple Wins.” I haven’t had as much time as I hoped, but I really love her thoughts and how she writes. I hope to finish it this month. I also spent some time thinking about the difference between a plan and a strategy as you will see from the watch list.
Videos
Podcasts
What I Read
As the end of April approaches, we welcome in Q2. I seem to watch more videos on the internet than I actually watch TV anymore. How many people have dropped their normal cable TV and went to something else? I’m curious what people are doing. I think YouTube TV might be worth it and save me some money.
I finished Lisa Bodell’s book called “Kill the Company,” which I highly recommend. I also started listening/reading her sequel called “Why Simple Wins.”
Videos
Podcasts
What I Read
It’s hard to believe that today marks the end of Q1. Time doesn’t wait for anyone. We are starting to plan the next Technology All Hands for Q2, and we hope to send the Save the Date out shortly. We have a lot to share with everyone! Thank you to all those who have been working closely with Melissa Sumner and her team on the roadmap for the Board.
I’ve been listening to a good book that Tom Sullivan recommended called “Kill the Company,” which challenges why we think about things and how change is important in everything we do. I highly recommend it for everyone! I also finished the book I started from Amy Edmonson called “Fearless Organization,” and I’m looking forward to her next book called “Teaming.”
Videos
Podcasts
What I Read
A lot has been going on since the start of 2023, so I’ve been a little behind with attempting to do this on a monthly basis. I realized that I listen to many podcast and audiobooks at the 1.2x or 1.3x speed, and when I tried it back at normal speed, it didn’t sound right to me. It’s strange how I’ve adjusted to the faster speed and it now sounds normal to me.
Videos
Podcasts
What I Read
With the end-of-year events and meetings happening, it made sense to do one more column for the year.
I’d like to thank all who attended the Product/Technology All Hands meeting on Nov. 15. Hopefully the content was well received. AWS re:Invent was also held at the end of November.
I’ve been preaching a lot about a book called “The Energy Bus,” and I believe that anyone can do anything if they put their mind to it and work hard. It’s all about positive energy, and I get it’s a fable.
Great Quote – “Great Companies have a very small list of golden rituals”
I finished reading/listening to the book “Safer, Sooner, Happier” by Jonathan Smart, and it is an EXCELLENT book. It’s not about Agile, the noun, but about Agility, the verb, and goes into good old common sense. I also started a new book called ”The Fearless Organization.”
Videos
Podcasts
Articles/Social Media
Well…this Nick’s News was supposed to be in October, so you’re getting it a few days late. I didn’t want to miss a month, and I’ll probably take a break over the holiday season and start back up in 2023.
It looks like the new Amazon Kindle Scribd could be the device that has me stop reading physical books and take up digital. I will do a review once I get my device when it ships.
Ventura, iOS 16.1, iPadOS 16.1, TVOS 16.1 and WatchOS 9.1 were all updated….It’s becoming a day of updating devices with Apple lately.
Did anyone know that there is a National Chess Day? Well, it’s Oct. 9.
Videos
Podcasts
Articles & Social Media
I finished listening to “Build” by Tony Faddell this month. I also enjoyed the Apple event that was held on Sept. 7. What to buy: a new phone or new AirPod Pros? That is the question. Dynamic Island looks cool, but so does the Ultra Watch. I don’t know the next time I’m climbing Mt. Everest or diving for treasure in search of the Titanic.
Additionally, I started listening to the book “The Messy Middle” by Scott Belsky. You can find more about Scott and his book here. Also, videos from the ReCode Conference are now available on YouTube. I listed my top 3 favorite sessions below, and I saved a few others for next month. I have mentioned Bob Iger’s session to many people because he commented on Disney getting into the streaming business. He made comments about 5 years and $500 million, and they looked at Twitter at that time.
Videos
Podcasts
Articles/Social Media
I just listened to the audio book version of “After Steve,” which had great stories about Apple and the aftermath of the passing of Steve Jobs. It is interesting to hear the struggles and issues that a company like Apple has with over $200 billion of cash reserves: what products to focus on, whether or not that product will be a big business, etc. One interesting story was about Apple Watch. Jony Ives and Apple first tried to make it in the fashion industry with the watch, but they later pivoted and moved to the fitness industry where the watch took off. It was the same product, but they focused on a different consumer need.
Also, I started the book “Build” by Tony Fadell who worked at Apple and started Nest. It was really interesting to hear similarities between Apple and eMoney.
The iPhone celebrated its fifteenth anniversary in July. It is hard to imagine life without the iPhone. I was talking with my kids about how the TMobile Sidekick was cool before the iPhone. If you don’t know or remember…check out this video.
WWDC 2022 was also held in July…with new hardware based on M2 processors.
If I posted a link to anything like an article and you don’t have access, let me know and I will generate a PDF and send it to you if you want to read it. Sometimes I don’t realize what content is part of a subscription and what is free.
Videos
Podcasts
Articles/Books
I just listened to the audio book version of “Loved,” which is the next series of books from Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG). The book was written by Martina Lauchengco, the product marketing partner at Microsoft who oversaw Excel and the Microsoft Office products. It contains some great stories about product marketing for various products. She also led product marketing for Netscape.
I have also gotten into Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast. I wasn’t aware of Jay until he presented at last year’s Summit, but I see to see him everywhere now.
With the weather getting nicer now that it’s summer, I have been walking more and listening to a lot of podcasts. I’m open to recommendations if you also listen to podcasts! I’m always in the market for listening to something new and different.
Videos
Podcasts
What I Read
This month, I listened to a great podcast episode from Melissa Perri with Nir Eyal – highlighted below in yellow – that includes relevant information and advice that I know people would pay for.
I’ve also been trying to familiarize myself with the Python world — the web development with Python class from Harvard University CS50P can be found here.
Videos
Podcasts
Articles
Time seems to be flying and not stopping for anything – Q1 is already complete! Recently, I finished the audiobook The Build Trap by Melissa Perri. I listened to the podcast and read the book when it first came out. I enjoyed listening to the book at the gym, which is also why I listened to content more than I read this month. I listened to the Mik+One podcast featuring Darrell Fernandes, who I met at Fidelity when he worked there. It was cool to hear from someone I have met before.
For those who have access to O’Reilly SafariBooksOnline, the following new items are worth a look. I didn’t read the entire book for Fluent Python, but the 2.0 early access is available.
Videos
Podcasts
Articles
My thoughts and prayers are with those in Ukraine and those who have family members and friends who have been impacted by the devastation. While we might not have teams currently in Ukraine and Poland, the friendships and relationships we built with past team members will last a lifetime.
This month CLT met for an “offsite” – which ironically was held onsite at our Radnor office. We had a great meeting where we discussed our 2022 plans and how they align with our vision for the future of eMoney.
March also brings the “Ides” and Pi Day.
Videos
Podcasts
Articles
First, I want to thank everyone who attended and asked questions at the Q1 Technology & Product All Hands meeting. As we continue to plan for Q1, close out PI 22.1 and start PI 22.2, it’s not lost on me how much we have going on right now. We’re also wrapping up 2021 performance review, setting goals for this year, and finalizing compensation calibration with PX. So when do we find time to absorb new content or spend time with our family and friends? It’s difficult at times, but I learn so much from reading, watching and listening to the content I shared below. I’ve also provided some of my takeaways.
Videos
Podcasts
Articles
Happy New Year! 2022 is about focusing on the right priorities, because when everything is a priority then nothing is a priority.
I’m not sure if anyone still uses a BlackBerry, but the product finally reached end-of-life. I thought we would beat them with the SOAP APIs, but I guess I was wrong…that’s a joke!
Videos
Audio Book
Articles/Books
As we approach the end of the year, I want to take a moment to wish you all a happy holiday season.
This month, I listened to Powerful, an audio book about Netflix and culture. Wow! I think it’s the best book I’ve listened to all year. It’s short and to the point. I’ve taken some PTO as we wrap up the year, so I’ve been passing the time by going to the gym and listening to more podcasts. I’ve also been watching some of the keynotes and sessions from AWS re-Invent, which was held after Thanksgiving. Some of the articles that I shared below might be behind a Firewall or part of the News+ Apple subscription, so let me know if you’re interested and I can share it with you.
Videos
Podcasts
Articles
I can’t believe October is almost over, well more than half way over that is. With just a few weeks remaining in 2021, there is a lot going on. I have shared some of the videos, podcasts, and articles below with a few individuals over the last month, but check them all out by continuing to read on. As we get closer to the holiday season, remember to take time for yourselves and use PTO for vacation or a mental break from the grind of work.
Wow…where did September go? I would like to start by thanking those who attended the Product & Technology All Hands meeting on Sept. 15. The recording can be found here (passcode: K6sw0.kA). It definitely was a long meeting, but we wanted to make sure that we communicated what has been going on because there has been a lot of work. Also, thanks for the questions asked before and during the meeting. We want to better understand the responses in the Employee Engagement Survey, so please participate in the various opportunities available like the CLT Office Hours and the Employee Engagement Survey Focus Groups. We also encourage you to speak with your manager about the survey and ways that we can improve. If the manager meetings aren’t being set up, send me a Teams message and I’m happy to help further encourage that these conversations happen.
If you haven’t watched the eMoney session with Michael Liersch from Wells Fargo, you MUST watch here. Michael does a great job of connecting the dots on the why of what we do.
This month we celebrated the July 4th holiday and now we’re in the heat of the summer. Much of my focus has been on understanding what truly makes a data strategy and our enterprise work with EY on re-platforming and architecture as we support multiple products and the eMoney next 20. As I’ve said before, the eMoney next 20 must be different than our first 20.
We’re planning our next quarterly All Hands meeting with Product on Sept. 15. We plan to cover AWS but we are still finalizing the topic. PX will join the meeting to provide an overview of the employee engagement survey results specific to Technology. If you have topic ideas, please send me an email. I also shared a link below to the recording from the last Product All Hands – they had a great guest speaker, Josh Seiden.
We’ll be introducing CLT Office Hours soon, and I encourage anyone who wants to meet with me to schedule some time during my set hours. More details to come!
Summer is finally here, and so are all the major company conferences tailored toward developers. Microsoft Build 2021 was held in May, and Apple’s WWDC was earlier this month. I’m excited to get back to normal, even if it is a “new normal.” As you can see with the list below, I’ve been able to listen to podcasts while working out at the gym again.
A lot happening this month! We held our quarterly Technology All Hands on May 4…AKA Star Wars Day. Also, the Product and Technology teams kicked off the next PI increment (PI 21.3). This marks the first time we have had all of our ARTs planning for the Q3 increment. Since the last Nick’s News, Apple held an event announcing the new iPad Pro, iMac, AppleTV 4K and air tags. While this is all great news, it’s really about Apple and the M1 chipset. I watched it in two sittings, but there is an 11 minute recap below.
There has been a lot going on since the last Nick’s News. First, there are a few birthdays to celebrate. Happy Birthday to AWS S3 – the service that started it all. There is a link to a brief article below about it. Additionally, Apple’s OSX is 20 years old this month. I also saw a post from Tony Fadell who previously worked for Apple that the iPod – aka the P68 Dulcimer project – was created in 2001.
Recently while I was watching American Idol (yes, I watch American Idol), Lionel Richie made a comment to a contestant who was nervous about performing. He said, “You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.” We have to be honest about what we want and take risks rather than make excuses to stay inside our comfort zone. We all need to challenge ourselves. As mentioned during Town Hall, everyone should have a career development goal as part of this year’s goals. eMoney’s next 20 will be different from the first 20 years, and we can apply new skills to what’s ahead.
As the weather is starting to turn for the better, here are some of the podcasts, videos, and articles I’ve read since my last column. With goal-setting underway, I’ve been listening to some good podcasts about OKRs. I didn’t set out with a theme for ‘Nick’s News,’ but it has definitely evolved to focus on two themes: “never stop learning,” and “life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
What have I learned the last two weeks? 1. How to replace a treadmill drive belt motor, and 2. PNC Bank sends physical checks to pay bills even when you do online banking with them. That is what I was told by one vendor when a payment wasn’t received because they still cut checks and send through the mail.
Welcome 2021! I hope everyone got some time to relax and take a break with their families over the holidays. I personally tried to disconnect from work, but I still managed to read, listen, and watch some things.
One favorite of mine is the book titled “The Energy Bus”. The technology team can access it as part of the SafariBooksOnline subscription, and the rest of the company can find it on the eMoney Overdrive website. It’s a CLT Favorite ? If you want to listen to it, there are some links below on YouTube.
Another great book on the Overdrive website is titled “Measure What Matters” by John Doerr. Why is this important? It covers OKRS, which we’ll introduce to employees at Town Hall on Jan. 13. and discuss throughout the year.
Hope everyone is staying safe and doing well. I am going to try something new with keeping track and sharing with all of your articles, videos, and podcast that I listen to during the week. Would love feedback if any of this is valuable and suggestions are definitely welcome. I will try to keep the writeup brief.
Videos
Ted Ideas worth spreading has a video series called “The way we work”…video of Matt Mullenweg who started Automattic and founder of WordPress.
A good video from Patty McCord who was the Chief Talent Officer for 14 years at Netflix and created the Netflix Culture Deck.
2 really good webinars from O’Reilly that you should try to catch. They shared the following links that hopefully you can watch the recording and I shared the power point decks. Both presentations by Sam Newman who wrote several O’Reilly books that he talks about in the presentations.
Podcasts
My favorite app to use for podcast is overcast.fm. I listen to a lot of different podcast and will go thru the ones I listen to over the next couple weeks along with episodes I liked.
Articles
Did you know there is a new version of the Netflix Culture deck posted on Netflix Jobs?
Speaking of the Netflix Culture deck, I placed the original deck up in Confluence. This never gets old.
A Gartner report on DevOps Culture Begins with Visibility and Responsibility
Blogs
Matt Mullenweg has a great blog that I follow called “unlucky in cards” and can be found here: https://ma.tt/ .
As I write this on a Sunday evening waiting for Homeland to start and thinking what the week ahead has in store, I wanted to share some of the things this past week that I watched, listen to, or read….
Videos
This week Atlassian Summit was 100% virtual and managed to watch a couple sessions since they had been recorded. They are starting to appear on YouTube with past ones from 2019 and I will post them as they become available.
Podcasts
I shared this one with the leadership team during the week. I recommend the book (Project to Product) as well if you haven’t read it already. All author royalties will be donated to the P2P scholarship and not-for-profit organizations supporting diversity, women, and minorities in technology.
Articles
Difference between remote work and distributed work – https://blog.dropbox.com/topics/work-culture/the-crucial-difference-between-remote-work-and-distributed-work
This article goes along with the Project to Product podcast – Covid 19 triggered the turning point.
Blogs
Here are 2 new blogs that I follow. One on Security and One on Scale
Keeping it simple. What I watched, listened to, and read. I think simple is better here. This will be longer combining some of last week into this week. Please send me an email or a team message if this is of any value or not. I’m looking for feedback of any type and don’t want to waste my time if others are not finding it useful but have found in the past when people have shared this stuff to me it has been useful for me.
Videos
Seems to be a lot of talk around Mob programming lately or videos I would say. This was from 2019 and maybe people have seen it but it was new for me and said it was posted April 20th, 2020.
Podcasts
Here are 2 good ones from a pretty good AWS podcast – AWS Morning Brief
From the SAFe Business Agility Podcast 2 more good ones. I liked the remote PI planning because we will be doing Q3 planning remotely.
Articles
Particular software (creators of NServiceBus) has free for a limited time their “Advanced Distributed System Design” course. This is something I started (it’s a long training and not close to finishing it) and people should jump on this if they have the time. I would say it is worth it. Maybe pick some of the chapters that make seem interesting.
The chapter on “Organizational Transition to SOA” was a good chapter.
This was a good article that Megan Murray shared with leadership around Subscription Businesses proving their resilience right now from the people at Zuora.. They also have a really good weekly update they send weekly called “subscribed weekly”.
They also have a much more detailed Covid 19 report on subscriptions.
This was a nice clean and concise list of the different conferences coming up.
I apologize for not getting this out sooner but last week it was difficult to put together the list at the end of the week due to the storms in our area and my power was out for most of Thursday till late afternoon on Friday.
I have received some really good feedback from people. Keep the feedback coming. I will also share some things that have been shared with me from others.
My morning has been filled with more watching of videos than listening to Podcast so the listen to section is sparse this time around. I also learned that while this week started with Star Wars day (May the 4th be with you), May 5th is not only Cinco De Mayo but National Hoagie day.
Videos
Podcasts
Articles, Books and More
I would love to hear about what hobbies or new activities you’re doing to fill your time. I’ve been looking at Sim Racing now for awhile and was amazed to see an iRacing series with pro race car drivers on TV. Some of the rigs they have setup to race in their homes are amazing and serious money. Anyone doing serious Sim Racing? Anyone play with or look at AWS Deep Racer? Deep Racer is a cool project that AWS has used to teach people about AI/ML. I’m going to look more closely at it. This past week AWS held their AWS Summit 2020 virtually, and there are a lot of great videos from it.
Videos
Podcasts
Articles
Hopefully, everyone enjoyed the long weekend with the Memorial Day holiday and did something interesting and different as many states start to go from red to yellow and maybe even some to green from lockdown. As one might figure out by now, I am a huge fanboy of the IT Revolution materials and everything Gene Kim and Mik Kersten have published. This write-up is longer than normal because I missed a week with the storm and power outage for 4 days that I had.
Videos
Podcasts
What I read…and then had to watch
As I sit here writing this, I can’t believe June is over and it’s already July. On behalf of the entire Technology leadership team, I’d like to thank everyone for attending the All Hands meeting on June 16. Your feedback will help us improve the content, and we hope you’re getting answers to some of your questions. In celebration of our 20th anniversary, we will have a Town Hall on July 15. Hopefully everyone took some time off and enjoyed the holiday weekend!
I’ll also try to focus on the available resources via AWS, SafariBooksOnline, and Pluralsight that we should be using to learn more about the cloud and applications in the cloud.
I’m not watching much on TV since Billions is on a break, and I finished Ozark season 3 🙂
Videos
Cloud – This is what I am doing, others should do the same and pick a learning path that is appropriate for their roles. Information can be found on the AWS website.
Other things I watched
Podcasts
Note: The links I reference for podcasts are through Overcast.
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It’s late Friday afternoon as I write this. The Planning ART spent the first three days of the week in our first ever PI Planning event. I would like to thank everyone who participated, and your feedback in the retro will help us improve the next round when we add the rest of the ARTs.
Personally, I haven’t found anything to catch my attention and binge watch, so if there is something on par with Game of Thrones, Sons of Anarchy, or Ozark….send me a MS teams message and let me know.
In other news, I started to assemble a home garage gym this weekend. I learned that ¾ inch sheets of 8×4 feet plywood are also sold as 23/32 inch sheets. Actual vs. nominal. Sounded like a legal disclaimer when I figured that out. I’ll post some pictures in the next writing of the completed project.
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As the summer starts to wind down, I hope everyone has gotten some much-needed time off. Every day starts to feel like Tuesday to me. I skipped a week with my column, but I personally have been taking Friday off to enjoy long weekends in August.
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I watched several YouTube videos about different topics ranging from Architecture in Agile and SAFe, OKR videos to AWS Data Lakes.
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In case you haven’t heard (which means you must not be an Apple fan), Apple released iOS14, iPadOS 14, Apple TV, Airpods , Airpod Pros, and WatchOS 7. There are also new iPad and Apple watches. It feels like Christmas in September for an Apple fan like me.
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I watched a few YouTube videos on several different topics from DevOps to innovation.
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I haven’t spent too much time listening to podcasts lately. I heard that downloads are down because people who frequently listen to podcasts aren’t commuting anymore. Here are two good ones that I listened to recently:
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I must say changing up my morning routine has led to me listening to more podcasts and watching fewer videos. I tend to listen to podcasts in the morning, and I like to read in the evenings.
The challenge before us all is how to keep pace with technology trends and changes. How can you keep your skills relevant? I read an article recently about the most in-demand skills. One thing is for sure – Cloud, Data (data science and data engineering), and AI/ML are three important skills that all companies will need moving forward.
Change is definitely hard.
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I read more than usual over the past two weeks, but here are a few that are top of mind.
I recently discovered Andrew Shafer, or, as some people refer to him, the father of DevOps. You call follow him on Twitter at @littleidea. Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from him:
“The mindset is more important than the skillset and more important than the toolset.”
“New technology can only do so much if people in your organization do not understand how to take advantage of it.”
I also enjoyed his talk titled “There is No Talent Shortage.”
I got a last-minute free ticket to Gene Kim’s IT Revolution event – DevOps Enterprise Summit 2020, so a lot of the videos I watched recently are not available yet. The link below should work. They are available on a limited basis, and you must sign up for a free account to view them. I will try to post one or two to stay in the free tier per month.
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I didn’t include it in the list here, but Queen’s Gambit on Netflix was great. If you haven’t watched it yet, I’m not sure what you’re waiting for. If you happen to have Apple TV, I also recommend Long Way Up with Ewen McGregor. He and his friend ride over 15,000 miles on electric motorcycles and electric trucks from the most southern tip of South America back to LA.
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This list includes a few oldies but goodies from Martin Fowler.
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