Review

( My reviews are aimed at helping you decide whether you should read something, rather than assuming your meaning of “good” or “bad” is anything like mine. ) The Internet, and more traditional bookshelves, are full of advice on when to start something, how to start something, and how to beat procrastination or self-limiting beliefs or imposter syndrome or whatever the author thinks is stopping you from reaching your full potential. But there’s much less content on when you should quit, on why you should consider not spending time on a project at the expense of other projects, and how to sensibly work through those decisions. With that opportunity cost being one of the few concepts I’ve kept from my O’level economics, I was particularly interested in Seth Godin’s The Dip - with its subtitle of “The extraordinary benefits of knowing when to quit ( and when to stick ).” ...

( My reviews are strictly aimed at helping you decide whether you should read something, rather than assuming your meaning of “good” or “bad” is anything like mine. ) As per my last 'weeknotes' I finished reading Rory Sutherland’s “Alchemy” recently. The overall point of the work, for me, is that economics and marketing ( in general, so with exceptions ) have failed to understand human nature and desire, and therefore their models are incorrect. These points are well made, well illustrated, well supported; I do like Sutherland’s use of “psycho-logical” to describe the approach he advocates for. The only place where it gets a bit wobbly in places is where he argues that free markets are good for most effectively indicating what people want - which is fair - but those neo-liberal capitalists have ruined it by being more profitable. But extrapolating the benefits of certain strategies within a market regardless of their overall effect is a conversation for another time. ...

Thanks to Phil Huggins for putting me onto this episode of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. Dan discusses his background in miniature wargaming and then talks to one of the architects of a popular Second World War themed video game about the genre, its development, growth and challenges. Do listen if you: Just want to listen to someone with a great podcast/radio voice. I’ve not listened to Dan Carlin before, but within 30 seconds I knew he was a professional. ( I’m reminded of meeting Dave Lewis a few years ago at BSides London ) If you want to learn more about the new WW2 video game Hell Let Loose that I mentioned a little while ago. It’s an interesting idea, especially that players are attacted to such a constrained environment compared to the popular Battle Royale format Right now I can’t justify the time the game appears to demand, and don’t have the computer power - if you can’t either this is a really good insight. The highlights for me: Kriegsspiel being described as the Germans’ secret weapon in the 19th century; echos of Matt Caffrey's theories Carlin made a good point on modern gaming taking the arguing out of miniatures, it being much better to let the computer figure it out Maximillian Rea, the lead developer of Hell Let Loose, made a great point on modern computing finally being good enough to have massed players, and a more realistic size for the battlefield. As fun as that format this, this isn’t CoD's Nuketown It’s the briefest of mentions, but what you can discern from the naming schemes of militaries involved in WW2. Rea’s point that the infliction of pain isn’t the appeal for the majority of players, it’s more about strategy and tactics and out-playing an opponent. Unfortunately this interview ended just as they were getting into expanding this idea… imagine a game where your battle could be won through logistics

Last week Did my fantasy football draft for the year. I have less time than I’d like for following the NFL, so I find fantasy football a good way to stay in touch with the league as a whole James Bore’s open office on Thursday morning was interesting and useful. If you want to keep an eye on future meetings the best way is to follow James on LinkedIn I attended a meeting about a thing that is bad. That’ll go public this week. What do you call an APT that’s more A, more P, and more T than all the other APTs? Took part in a regular informal meeting that’s kind of a podcast, but with only hosts and no listeners I got over-excited at a potential customer, but I’m less worried about leaning into that these days. As I said at that “podcast with no audience”, if you want 20 ideas I can give you 20, if you want 3, I’ll also give you 20. It’s probably inadvisable commercially, but also “standard issue” consultancy appears to be devoid of any enthusiasm or joy, so my attitude is a market differentiator too Attended a hybrid ( online and remote ) meeting of the Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group. It went reasonably well, but I think the benefits and the issues around hybrid meetings are still being explored; and the participants’ enthusiasm and familiarity with each other made a huge difference. I was reminded once again of all the benefits of the format, especially the remote side :- being able to chat afterwards with two contacts, who had to be several hundred and several thousand miles away on the day. Thanks to Andrew Hadley for this picture he took on the day at the location; but due to some of the kit being used our remote impression wasn’t far off this level of clarity: The Normans besiege Winchester and London after the Battle of Hastings This week Probably stop doing weeknotes with a “this week” header, they’re increasingly optimistic On that, this article by Oliver Burkeman is worth your time. I particularly liked: ...

Last week Continued thinking on the American War of Independence mashup, this rapid summary on YouTube was thought provoking Acknowledged that maybe hexagons are sometimes the bestagons, as per this video More discussions on running or helping to run exercises Attended a seminar by the UK Fight Club on deception in warfare, which is an interest of mine. It was well done, and while mainly for a military audience they don’t exclude civilian interest at all Attended James Bore’s open office; if you’re in Cyber Security or related industries it’s worth considering on Thursday mornings UK time Watched Dr Sara Ulrich presenting on negotiation and business wargames ; I really liked the emphasis on knowing yourself, what I would call “situation substitution” in negotiations, and her enthusiasm for business wargaming Saw the result of bringing together two separate geek groups I’ve been part of for a while, which was interesting Started learning Python again, and thanks to my partner I’m being a bit more organised this time Particularly enjoyed watching military experts analyse TV and movie scenes relevant to their speciality, which I find a really interesting way to learn Pushed lots of tasks back to the next week while making difficult purchasing decisions. Intellectually it’s interesting to see how much information we have now on what choices are available, but still how difficult it is to make those choices Played Townscaper. Contrary to some discussion online, I’d argue that it is a game. It is very enjoyable and wholesome A screenshot from one of my creations This week Still 90% done with a new layout for my company website, but still with what feels like 90% of the work left to do Still fighting software, mainly rdiff-backup I expect Actually read a book, again And yes, I still nedd to update that Inky game, make it a little easier: Lost Key A lot of tidying of my physical space, which is always good because the results are so clear, but always dull because it takes so long

Last week Continued thinking on a “mashup” game ( maybe manual, online, or megagame ) about the American War of Independence… but that has expanded to include a magic system Bought a copy of the Dune board game, I’m more interested in the mechanics than the lore. If you’re interested in the lore check out Nerd Cookies on YouTube. Discussion with a customer on running a megagame, I’ve some ideas already I attended an online meeting of the Foster community. They’ve some very interesting ideas around tokens, there was a great Q and A, and I’m really interested to see where this goes. I do, however, think failure is as likely as success - which considering the nature of the community, I ought to write up… My work laptop seems to handle video calls badly while doing something simultaneously, for example running OBS to obscure the background. It was useful to work through Smart Choices to determine the best way to fix the issue rather than just buy a more expensive problem. I’m not quite there yet though. This was further evidence of the “law of repulsion”, soon after wondering if I want to spend my working life fighting technology I received a great call out of the blue I played and enjoyed Monopoly Deal, it has an interesting mechanic, which led to a few game ideas; but similarly, some intriguing gaps in the simple rules when edge cases occur. Monopoly Bid is less good, but still an interesting game that’s quick to pick up and play. I watched a couple of good videos on the Vietnam War on YouTube, both intriguing and horrifying Read this short article on being an “Uncertainty Killer”, which explains what I want to achieve with my business, and why my approach needs refining This week While realising how useful weeknotes are in seeing what I’ve achieved, also looking at the unchanged set of plans brings home how over-ambitious I am Still 90% done with a new layout for my company website, but still with what feels like 90% of the work left to do. Keep fighting software, mainly rdiff-backup I expect. Those work opportunities are still “hovering”, this is the best and worst aspect of freelancing. Condense the scribbled set of “to do” lists next to me into one list, preferably by doing some of the things on it Actually read a book, again Update that Inky game, make it a little easier: Lost Key

My further attempts at “working out loud”. I realised this should be called “weeknote”, learnt from Matt Ballantine’s latest post; I appear to be three years behind the trend. Last week 90% done with a new layout for my company website, but still with what feels like 90% of the work left to do. Looked for a new office chair, but I appear to be the wrong shape with the wrong height table Apparently random things starting to fail due to age, my Xbox360 and my lower back being the most notable this week Looked again for a new keyboard, my requirements don’t feel that unusual but I can’t find anything that matches; I’ll blog about that at some point A few nice chats with new contacts and new customers; I appear to have been carrying out “relationship marketing” by accident over the last few years I’m still amazed, thinking about a couple of communities I belong to, on how such smart people can under-estimate or downplay their own abilities I’m still surprised, even after so long, on what smart and useful friends I have if I just make the time to ask them something Ostensibly to relax, I played some Rocket League and Spellbreak for free on Nvidia’s GeForceNow service. Doing so is partly just a break, but it’s always interesting to see how well or how badly ad-hoc teams work together, I’d love to see some statistics. Similarly, I wonder how well teams co-operate in Hell Let Loose under more organised conditions. Contined playtesting of an online game set in the Vietnam War, interesting to see how far the game has diverted from the direction I expected already This week Keep fighting software, mainly rdiff-backup I expect. Those work opportunities are still “hovering”, this is the best and worst aspect of freelancing. Condense the scribbled set of “to do” lists next to me into one list, preferably by doing some of the things on it Actually read a book, again Update that Inky game, make it a little easier: Lost Key

Looking forward and back, 9th August 2021 I’m very wary of journals and journalling, but “work out loud” keeps being recommended more and more, and I’ve seen friends and contacts manage to navigate the line between self-promotion and bluster successfully. Last week Kept fighting software, won as often as I lost this week I think. Contined playtesting of an online game set in the Vietnam War, had to change my initial plans immediately. Continued discussions of what a general course on strategy would look like with some contacts. Continued thinking around bots, either written in code or “card based”. These would be for my own games, or as an unauthorised addition to other’s games. But this looks like a deep area that should be a sole area of study, and I’m not sure its financially viable. Discussions of applicability of traditional Business Continuity Management and Disaster Recovery principles to a modern organisation based on cloud services. Had that weird freelancer thing when opportunities look bleak, and then three people contact you in the same morning ( and therefore laughed at the Law of Attraction once again ). Moved and resized some logical volumes and re-learnt just how easy that can be. Learnt the difference between microboredom and existential boredom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEQTrW9NP68 Watched Alita Battle Angel, which was underwhelming, but I was temporarily intrigued by how the sport of Motorball would work - for example, how to stop it just being a fight but on a track, what strategies teams would use, how to balance teams but allow variation, and so on… I’ve an initial idea together. Watched Ted Lasso, still too dangerous to watch while eating. Finally finished a little “game” in Inky: Lost Key This week Keep fighting software, mainly rdiff-backup I expect. More chats with the consultancy umbrella. Other work opportunities are “hovering”. Try to take off more items from my “to do” lists than I add - that didn’t go so well last week. Read a book, again

Looking forward and back, 2nd August 2021 I’m very wary of journals and journalling, but “work out loud” keeps being recommended more and more, and I’ve seen friends and contacts manage to navigate the line between self-promotion and bluster successfully. Last week Fought backup software - rdiff-backup - ongoing Fixed, mostly, Manjaro blanking a screen by default Continuing playtesting of an online game set in the Vietnam War, I particularly like the double-blind play Being an “external security brain” for a customer Put in some technical restrictions to stop me playing “just one more game” until too early in the morning Mashed my sleep schedule because of how Linux handles fonts Fought Linux and poor IO handling… still fighting Started discussing red team thinking with a new-ish contact, I have my usual doubts that organisations are interested in this kind of service without it being bundled with many others, if at all Continued thinking around bots, either written in code or “card based”, for either my own games, or as an unauthorised addition to other’s games. But this looks like a deep area that should be a sole area of study, and I’m not sure its financially viable I learned that YouTube advertising is in-stream now Spent far too long trying to make some old hardware useful Finished all of Ape Out… at the “softer” level. If you’ve played it, you’ll know how important that last level is Tried the Long Journey Home, an interesting idea but really dissauded by the training mode before I even started the game Replaced some hard disks on a server like some kind of 20th Century IT version of the Sealed Knot This week Keep fighting rdiff-backup More chats with the consultancy umbrella Catch up with some old friends online Try to take off more items from my “to do” lists than I add Read a book, again

Looking forward and back, 26th July 2021 I’m very wary of journals and journalling, but “work out loud” keeps being recommended more and more, and I’ve seen friends and contacts manage to navigate the line between self-promotion and bluster successfully. Last week Tried to figure out the antonym of terrorism Thought about a “kind insurgency” organisation and how it would work Made inroads into an umbrella consulting organisation Had a great conversation with a CISO about their career plans, and where the cyber security industry is going Caught up with an old friend who’s a CISO now, and the difficulty of finding the right position, even when you’re in demand Helped umpire an influence modelling wargame, impressive in terms of Control and attendee engagement Attended DSTL’s “Supercharging Science” event, which confirmed a few opinions, and led to useful conversations Attended the CardStock meetup, thought provoking and useful Been rather impressed at the creativity in the Masters of the Universe release Caught up on a lot of newsletters, closed a few tabs This week Act as an “external security brain” for a customer Various dull technical projects Slightly more interesting technical projects, looking at automating some things More chats with the consultancy umbrella Catching up with others… I’ve taken a step back recently and, as naff as it sounds, realised just how many really smart people I know…