Take responsibility for what you do with your tools

While reading Scott Berkun’s defence of PowerPoint, a phrase came to mind “A bad workman will always blame his tools”.

I’ve sat through so many bad presentations where the first thing the speaker does is to apologise for the “Death By PowerPoint”, and the converse, which doesn’t happen that often, is a good presentation where the speaker uses the tool as an aid to draw your attention, like it was designed to do.

I agree with Scott, YOU need to take responsibility for the work you deliver, you should never blame a tool for your shortcomings.

How about laws we actually need?

In the last 2 weeks things have gone really crazy with the arrest of a journalist for dubious reasons, and the government trying to fast track a law which would enable them to hide the corruption prevalent in their ranks, instead of just fixing the real problem.  I have my views on these things, but this is not what the post is about.

We are in our strike season again, a bit later than usual after everyone behaved so nicely during the World Cup, and since yesterday there has been reports all over about violence and intimidation by the strikers.  This is totally uncalled for! Continue reading How about laws we actually need?

Captain in the Cauldron – My review

Captain in the Caildron book coverJohn Smit‘s autobiography is an awesome read.  I managed to finish it in a few days, purely because I couldn’t put it down, unlike a few other books I’ve read recently.

The book gives a lot of insight into what happens behind the scenes in the Springbok camp, especially around the preparation for the 2007 World Cup campaign.

A number of rumours incorrectly spread by the media were also dispelled in the book, and I have even more respect for our current Springbok captain after reading his book.

I’ve been following Smit’s career since he burst onto the international scene, and have realised long ago that most of his work is done behind the scenes, out of the public eye, even on the field :-). This book was a confirmation of that realisation.

I can really recommend the book, well worth the buy.  I hope I get the rest of the chapters for free when they are written