blog.zgraggen.name  All-day insanity or I have a blog too!

This is the title of a book which I recently finished. This book focuses on managing risk in a software project. Different then other risk management book, which focus on identifying single risks. This book focuses more on the overall project risk and its impact on the schedule.

It also explains EVR (Earned value running), risk models and simulation techniques. I also enjoyed a new view on the Denver International Airport Case.

Here are some of my favorite quotes of this book:

• - “Risk management is something that most of us practice all the time-everywhere except the office.“
• - “In the absence of explicitly declared uncertainty, achieving anything but the most optimistic imaginable result is a failure.“

The following two are both quotes from Paul Rook, mentioned in the book:

• - “Risk management decriminalizes risks!“
• - “We aren’t really bad at estimating. What we are really bad at is enumerating all the assumptions that lie behind our estimations.“

I definitely recommend this book!

A while a go George Fairbanks asked me to write a quote for his book: “Just Enough Software Architecture: A Risk-Driven Approach”.
I already read a statement paper about the idea for the book and reviewed a chapter of the book. I really liked the concept he had and was glad that he asked me. Which I believe is important when you write a quote. I wouldn’t want to write a recommendation for something I can’t support.

George then sent me the draft of the book. Since, I knew I had to write a quote I made notes about what I liked and what I could include in the quote. I hoped this would make it easier to write the recommendation. But when I started with the writing I had so many comments at the beginning that I didn’t know where to start. I then looked at many other quotes for technical book to get an idea what to write. But I was honestly disappointed most quotes are not book specific and could just be copy pasted to most tech book. so I decided to write something more specific which should help the reader in the buy decision.
Here is the end result:

“In many companies risk management is only a list of how projects could fail. Instead, this book shows you how to drive your architecture design based on risks. The book gives you a risk driven approach, and discusses good architectural practices, models, styles and techniques to create the architecture.”

You can see other quotes for this book here. Compared to some other quotes my quote doesn’t sound as exiciting as others. I know, that this would be the time to make a strong statement and maybe even exaggerate a little as this is common in the US culture. But, I also feel that I have to be true to myself. Another thing which I realized is that my recommendation is rather short compared to others and therefore doesn’t include much content. Maybe, reading some other book quotes gave me the wrong impression of the length. These might have been some of the reason, why my quote didn’t make it on the cover. Even though it would have been nice to make it on the cover, I am aware that the decision who will get on there is purely from a sales perspective. I am still grateful for this opportunity. I certainly learned a few things for my next book quote. If I ever get an opportunity again

The book has been published and can be purchased on Amazon.

I really enjoyed the book and would definitely recommend it to all software engineers who have to deal with project risk and design.

Please feel free to tell me what you think of my quote. I’m open for input!

That is the title of the book I just read.
It is a compilation of stories based on Tucker Max life. This book showed me, in a funny way, that there are people out there who live their lives different. It is fair to say, that Max is an asshole and often behaves rude and condescending to pretty much everyone who doesn’t admire him. He is very narcissistic and likes to be the center of attention. This will even get worse when he is drunk.
Average people treat other people like they want to get treated by others. Not so Tucker Max…

I thought most stories are funny and I had a hard time to put this book down. Additionally, I also thought it was interesting to see how you can be an asshole and get away with it.

Here is his description on the back of his book:
My name is Tucker Max, and I am an asshole. I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers, sleep with more women than is safe or reasonable, and just generally act like a raging dickhead. But, I do contribute to humanity in one very important way: I share my adventures with the world.

I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell

People were glad to have me back in Switzerland… Which I conclude from the welcome gifts I received I especially liked the balloon with the 20min! But I shall not name him here in the blog

Two interesting things from my flight back to Switzerland:
In the Washington Dulles airport I saw a man in a wheelchair with a Challenged Athletes t-shirt on. I was curious about it, and asked him few question about the sport and how the training is going. As it turns out it was Oz Sanchez which is one of the top handcycle and also triathlon athletes. He won a gold and bronze medal at the Paralympics in Beijin (Peking) 2008.

The other interesting thing is the book I read on my journey: “The curious incident of the dog in the night-time” by Mark Haddon. It is an easy read from an unusual perspective. The book is written as if the main character Christopher Boone, who has the Asperger’s Syndrome, had written this book. He looks at the world with different eyes than we do which makes it a very interesting read. In fact it is so interesting that I finished the whole book in the flight home, ignoring G.I. Joe which was shown as part of the in flight entertainment program.

This is my oldest relict… I started this post about 8 months ago and I am convinced that it is worth mentioning.

After reading the post from Mirko I thought why not read something different from time to time.
Besides some students at the CMU recommended this book on the Google Group for new entering students
Even though I did not completely finish the book, I would recommend the book to anyone who wants to improve his time management. I did not apply all the things the book mentions but I definitely could improve some work habits, which saved a lot of time.

Thanks to Mirko for lending me the book! Meanwhile I posses my own copy of this book

Another leftover is the last book I read as preparation for America.

There are many useful tips in this book for traveling/studying/living abroad. I had to skip certain parts of the book because I did not address my concerns. I would recommend the book anyway to everyone who wants to go abroad for a longer time.

I read about this book on Robin’s blog. Inspired by his post I ordered the book.

The book mainly consists of four parts. It starts with a little autobiography of the author and how he learned to communicate in 25 languages. In the next part he explains the learning system he developed and adapted over time. The third part is a introduction to the grammar where he explains all the important stuff. Finally, he gives an overview of the most spoken languages around the world and compares them in difficulty and popularity.

In his book he mentions how bad and old fashioned the American school teaches languages. Then he starts explaining his new ideas of teaching languages. For me as a Swiss pupil not everything was new. I learned already a few of this techniques in school. Maybe not so sophisticated as he explains it in the book, but at least they try to improve the way to teach in Switzerland. Nevertheless I also read many new and smart ideas how to learn a new language with more motivation and effectiveness.

I am sure that I will read this book (or at least the part of the learning system) again before picking up a new language.

Sorry, for the German title ones more but this book is only available in German. It is written by Konrad Von Allem. And it describes his adventure the Gigathlon 2007. The first half of the book is a journal from the his preparation and training the second half is from the Gigathlon itself and the experiences he made including the reports from his supporters.

I will not go into de details here except for one thing: In the last half year of preparation Konrad swam 350km, cycled 8000km, biked 1200km, run 2000km, and made 800km by inline. This numbers are absolutely overwhelming.

As a short reminder for the not so sportive people who read my blog: The Gigathlon 2007 was a seven day competition with five disciplines (running, biking, cycling, swimming, inline skating) every day with the categories single, couple and team of five. Konrad Von Allem started as single wehreas I started in a team of five.

I recommend this book to every Gigathlet. Reading this book brings back nice memories and can help in the preparation for a future Gigathlon.

After reading the The Pursuit of Unhappiness I discovered that Paul Watzlawick has written a Guide to America?
Not before long I will go to this country myself so why not broaden my horizon a little.

The book itself is relatively old, it was first published in 1987 and in 2002 the sixth renewed edition was released. Even though I think it hasn’t lost its actuality. But to be absolutely sure I should judge this book after my stay in America.
Anyway, I would like to say a few things about this book:
First of all this book is not an all you need to know guide. It just shows certain differences between Europeans and Americans. For example that our first floor is the second floor and that Americans start finger counting with the forefinger. Moreover he also gives insight to the American way of life which might help my getting used to their habits more easily.

Although I can not give a final validation on the book I still would recommend it to people who plan to go to America.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the author recommends taking a prescription for the glasses with you. Because in the USA you can not get new glasses at the optician without a recipe from an oculist. Even though with an recipe from an European optician you will get glasses =)

My trainer, Rolf Stebler recommended me this book. After explaining that the author, Achim Achilles, can not stand “nordic walkers”, I knew I had to read it… His style of writing allows you to be with him in his situation. Often this situation will be familiar to you which makes the reading even more emotional. Sometimes I encountered myself sympathizing with the author.

This Book was fun to read and reminded me of many experiences I had and still have in my life as sportsman.
I definitely recommend this book to every runner or triathlete.