December naturally is the countdown to the 24th. At least in a Christian-culture dominated world you will usually find 24 tiny doors - each to open daily, all containing beautiful content. So this month, most of the linked articles and inspirations are part of these beautifully crafted advent calendars.
This is just to say a big Thank you! to all you content creators out there for the inspiring, mind-blowing, funny articles, videos, tweets, streams and posts.
Usually, your last inspiration is your most intense one and you can take strength, drive and motivation from it for some time. My last (and very intense) inspiration stems from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Whether you are into composing and making music or not - you should take some time to watch professor Jono Buchanan recording and composing scores and songs on stage in real time. You will be amazed how far the crafting of music has come nowadays - in so many ways. It‘s a lot about Logic Pro X - a music composing software. But you will learn a lot on arrangements, recording, creating atmosphere and weight and crafting beautiful sounds. Here are the videos:
- Logic Pro X Masterclass Part 1 (YouTube)
- Logic Pro X Masterclass Part 2 (YouTube)
- Film Scoring Logic Pro X Masterclass (YouTube)
It will probably take you a whole evening to watch these 4,5 hours - but I can assure you, it‘s worth it.
A look around
- Is your organization thriving for efficiency? Do as much as you can within a given timebox? Here is a great article on planning tetris and why high utilisation is a really bad, bad, bad idea.
- Many people share their notes in the web - which is nowadays called to keeping a mind garden so that others can participate. There is a lot of inspiring knowledge out there, so have your fun exploring these beautiful gardens.
Software Development
- With github Copilot for Visual Studio Code you can get your or any code explained by your IDE.
- Here is a great overview on tools you can use for remote collaboration.
- I've been a PHP advocate and developer for quite some time, so it's interesting to hear about the New Life of PHP, that takes a look into PHP's future (thanks @helloanselm).
Tools
- Wow! Take a look at this beautiful tool to generate dependency graphs by Felix Rink an Stefan Koehler.
Product ownership
- Scale your audience, build your brands! Here are the experiences on how to find and build a growing group of followers by @brandonthezhang.
- Sam Higham gives you strategies for your products strategy.
- Marc Thiele needs to reflect on his business. With his events like the famous beyond tellerand he has inspired thousands of people, but the pandemic is taking its toll. It is saddening to hear and read his thoughts and we all have to support the people that are really suffering by the COVID situation. I hope that he finds a way through his struggle and that we are able to enjoy many more of his conferences in the future.
- Shreyas Doshi posts a lot of insightful and inspiring content on twitter (he just started a superfollower campaign). So here is his take on OKRs and strategy. (via @michaelgotein)
Leadership
- If you want to understand your real priorities (and how you are seen by others), simply analyze your calendar.
- To your self-leadership: Here are 5 great tips on habits you should build up in a remote working environment.
- Nathan Baugh is a sports psychologist and he tells you 20 life lessons learned from sports - which fits perfectly to set up your goals and challenges for 2022.
Whatever you do: Stay curious & humble. I wish you all a great start into the new year!