Geek Wisdom

On Saturday Dec 3rd, 2022, I was asked to be a keynote speaker at a local chess tournament for ages 14 and under , and I was very honored and excited for this opportunity. They then further honored me with this trophy at the end and I am again humbled. Below is a written version of my speech " Chess, Leadership and the Imagination" The first thing I want to do today, is test if everyone's hands and arms are working. If you like to play chess, can I please see you raise you hand up high, and please keep it in the air [Pause] Okay, second question, if you think chess is an EASY game to play, please keep your hand up high, if you think CHESS is HARD please put your hand down Okay.. [Pause] Last question - Think back to the very first time you played chess, maybe it was last week, last month, or 3 years ago, try to remember that first game, maybe it's that first person showing you the rules, the way the difference pieces moved, the first 'real' game you played?  -

Disclaimer: This post deals with pseudo-legal matters, and while I have attempted to keep it within more of a philosophical realm, I am not a lawyer, and all statements below are my own personal opinion and should not be taken as legal facts or precedence. This is not legal advice merely opinion, if you are seeking legal advice - please seek a qualified lawyer in your area. The statements below only represent myself and are unrelated to any organization, association, or workplace to which I am involved or otherwise employed. Oh Politics !  it is not something I enjoy hearing or talking about, and as I general rule I try to stay at least at arms length about it. This is not to say I do not believe in voting - I do, it is simply to say that many matters I find discussed do not seem to have much personal relevance in my daily life. It becomes different though, when you feel like you know the people involved. Far removed from knowing Prime Ministers, or similar heads of state, it is eas

Ever wait in a line for your morning coffee? - or to get on the popular ride at an amusement park? or simple be stuck in traffic ? If you're like most people you probably can begin to feel frustrated just at thinking about the idea, let alone when it really occurs. People hate lines, people hate waiting. In software development we have a similar 'wait pattern', the ' hurry up and wait phenomenon ' If you have every been involved in a programming project with other team members and a project manager, it may goes something like this. a) You are 'suddenly' thrust into a new software development project, somehow all of the requirements gathering is already done, and everyone is waiting on you to do your part. (You are the bottleneck somehow holding everyone up) b) The project manager follows up with you each day to find out 'are you done yet?', how much do you have left?, when do you think it will be ready? ..sometimes it feels like this follow-up is hou