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Hanlon’s Razor: How to Be Less Judgmental and Build Better Relationships

We, humans, crave a perfectly ordered world though the chances of something going as intended are fairly rare. When there's more than one human being involved in the equation, the predictability goes for a further toss.

What do we do when things do not turn out as intended? Instead of being curious and trying to learn from the situation, our mind assumes the worst possibility. Depending on how we see the event unfold, we derive an interpretation and create stories in our minds that conform to our beliefs.

As a species, we are also very unique in associating two completely disconnected stories and finding patterns in events that do not exist. Our tendency to interpret every event as it relates to us creates a distorted version of reality. It makes us assume negative intent when things do not work out even though the outcome may be completely unrelated to us.

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Want Better Collaboration at Work? You’d Better Tackle That Trust Problem First

The magic happens when good people come together for a common cause. Well, it does as long as there's a healthy dose of trust in place.

Improving or enhancing collaborative working is often one of the main reasons for choosing to implement online communication channels, such as Slack or Asana, but all too often, companies fail to get virtual teams and collaborative ways of working off the ground.

But why? There must be a reason why it is difficult to encourage virtual teams when you provide all the tools to facilitate it.

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How to Run a Positive Retrospective (And Avoid a Gripe Session)

It's hard to learn without a positive outlook.

A few times recently, I've been asked about retrospectives -- specifically how to keep them from becoming a gripe session. Here are a few things that I've found effective:

1. Start with the positive 

While we certainly want to talk about and address any issues, I like to talk about the positive things that have occurred during the last period before we delve into things we might want to change. I haven't yet been involved in a retrospective where the list of positive things wasn't long. This helps set the tone for the rest of the retrospective.

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We Really Need to Talk About Agile Contracts

If we really want to be Agile, we need to make sure our contracts are, too.

We all are aware that Agile software development has been in existence for about 18 years now, so it's clearly been enough time for organizations to adopt Agile processes for the complete development lifecycle.

But when it comes to writing contracts, I think most of us who have been working in software consulting companies will agree that there is still reluctance, and most of the time we either go back to waterfall language of writing or succumb to a mix of both the traditional and agile way.

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Are We More Likely to Trust Machines With Private Information Than Humans?

Recently, concern has been aired around just what kind of information devices such as Amazon’s Alexa is consuming as it sits quietly in our homes. While various people have voiced concern about such a possibility, recent research from Penn State suggests that consumers are pretty relaxed by it all.

The research finds that people are generally more willing to trust machines with private information than we are human beings.  The authors believe that the ‘machine heuristic’ imbues people with greater trust in technology than humans, as people are capable of dishonesty and fraud.

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True Servant Leadership Places Followers First (and the Results Are Staggering)

A true servant leader is (literally) worth his weight in gold.

The concept of 'servant leadership' is certainly not new, but it's perhaps also fair to say that it's a concept that many still struggle to adopt.

Why Is Servant Leadership Crucial in an Agile Organization?

If any evidence were needed, a recent study from the University of Exeter Business School aims to provide it. It shows that tailoring training and recruitment to help managers with empathy, integrity, and trustworthiness has a profound impact on the productivity of the company.

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Convert PFX Certificate to JKS, P12, CRT

I recently had to use a PFX certificate for client authentication, and for that reason, I had to convert it to a Java keystore (JKS). In this post, we will learn how to create both a truststore and a keystore, because based on your needs, you might need one or the other. 

The difference between truststore and keystore, if you are not aware is, according to the JSSE ref guide:

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Truster Vs. Trustless (Part 1): The Role of Trust in the Means of Exchange Operation

Trustless has become a rallying cry for Bitcoin evangelists, focusing public attention on the fact that Bitcoin enables P2P transactions without the participation of a trusted third party acting as an intermediary.

Bitcoin makes it possible to conduct money transfers without intermediaries — intermediaries who could, otherwise, gain control over funds in a transaction, censor transactions, or act as points of failure. Does this give grounds to assert that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are a form of money that does not require trust? Is it possible to completely eliminate trust from monetary relations, and is there even a need to? This article is devoted to the study of the role of trust in monetary transactions, including cryptocurrencies, and its main conclusion is that this role is hard to overestimate.

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Time to Bring a Revolution to Agriculture Through Blockchain

It wasn't too long ago when agriculture started reaping the benefits of technologies from precision farming, and now, there are many technologies available to help farmers maximize their profits. Now, farmers have many technology options available to get all the information needed for every phase of farming.  The world's population is constantly growing and many farmers are leaving their profession, especially in developing countries, and the burden is growing on the remaining farmers that feed the world.

With the emergence of Bitcoin, the world has seen new capabilities of technology in completing safe and secure transactions that are low cost and trustworthy. However, it is important to understand the underlying technology used for Bitcoin and how it is beneficial for the agriculture industry.  Until now, everyone has seen a central governing authority where single-party governs all transactions. Blockchain technology is shifting trust on a completely new level because there is no central authority that hack-prone, expensive, and/or time-consuming. On a blockchain, all nodes connected to the blockchain have their own copy, and before making a transaction, a consensus happens between nodes to allow the transaction. Technically, this is a distributed database, and if someone wants to hack the system, then it is extremely complex or, in simpler terms, chances are slim to none.

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Customers, Internal Delivery, and Trust

Your customers can't take your product more often than once or twice a year. Because the product doesn't need to leave the building, the teams don't release internally. Nor do the teams demo on a regular basis. The teams miss the feedback loops so critical for an Agile approach. Their Agile transformation falls apart.

Rethink Your Definition of Customer

What if we expanded our thinking of "customer"? What if we thought of all these people as customers: