Comments for Benjamin Hysell - Software, Projects, and People

Comment on Breaking Down the Game Film – Voting with Your Dollars by ben

ben — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:22:39 +0000

Owen,

You are welcome! I’m glad you took the time to click through and read my post.

I’m looking forward to your continued adventures through the App Store and future game development.

Keep up the great work!

-ben

Comment on Breaking Down the Game Film – Voting with Your Dollars by Owen Goss

Owen Goss — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:01:14 +0000

Hi Benjamin:
My blog picked up a pingback from your post. I just wanted to write and say thank you for buying Monkeys in Space! It’s really nice to hear that you enjoy reading my blog and that you enjoy it enough to buy my game. So, thanks for supporting an indie developer!
Owen

Comment on Linchpin by Business Development | Social Media Literacy | GTD and Productivity Workflow

Business Development | Social Media Literacy | GTD and Productivity Workflow — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:19:32 +0000

[...] Linchpin | Benjamin Hysell – Software, Projects, and People Seth asks, “What if we all were artists? What if our workplaces were full of artists?” [...]

Comment on Linchpin by Stephen Smith

Stephen Smith — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:08:17 +0000

Ben, my own educational experience would have been very “cog-like” if Ihad paid much attention to it. As a voracious reader I spent most of my class-time reading other books that I held in my lap, having already completed reading the text book.

I always did well on tests, but my grades “suffered” because I could not be troubled to do homework…

Comment on Linchpin by ben

ben — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:22:31 +0000

Everyone,

Thank you for taking time to read my review, it means a lot to me that everyone took the time to read my post and add your own thoughts.

Stephen, I agree, the section outlining the anecdotes really struck a chord with me.

Elad, I completely agree, we need to inspire others around us to be artists, and break them from the desire to follow a map.

One section of the book I didn’t focus on in my review that I found just as interesting was how our society is setup to crank out cogs to fit into the factory system. While reading Linchpin I couldn’t really relate to this section, and I believe that has a lot to do with the type of education I received in elementary and middle school. We were taught using the principals of Master Learning. From Wikipedia:

Mastery learning curricula generally consist of discrete topics which all students begin together. Students who do not satisfactorily complete a topic are given additional instruction until they succeed. Students who master the topic early engage in enrichment activities until the entire class can progress together.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastery_learning

What was interesting was by the time I reached high school Mastery Learning was completely phased out of the school system. One reason, as I understood it, is because it created students that couldn’t be measured very well with standardized tests. Hence, the system was creating students that wouldn’t be very good cogs when they reached the real world.

-ben

Comment on Linchpin by Elad Sherf

Elad Sherf — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:01:52 +0000

Thanks for putting this review up. I also find the artist part very compelling. I feel like the great call in this book is for managers and for individuals who can wake the Linchpin/artist in other people. The whole point is that it is so hard to do alone, and there are not better equipped people to help create linchpins/artists than managers. Read more about that here: http://tinyurl.com/yenn64n
It is time all of us stood up and called out: hey – we are geniuses. Hey we are artists! Thanks for doing that!
Elad

Comment on Linchpin by Stephen Smith

Stephen Smith — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:35:19 +0000

I really enjoyed your review, I found the most important part of the book to be the anecdotes about how everyone can be an artist, no matter what their field of endeavor. Thanks for sharing this.

Comment on Linchpin by Seth Godin

Seth Godin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:53:01 +0000

Thanks for this review. It’s generous and appreciated!

seth

Comment on Breaking Down the Game Film – Mission Statements by Jim Kring

Jim Kring — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:40:37 +0000

Thanks for the reminder — I have been meaning to read that latest article about the re-badging of Fog Creek.

Comment on Breaking Down the Game Film – Mission Statements by ben

ben — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:30:36 +0000

I love the FogBugz 7 mission statement, it shows a great understanding of the power these can bring to a project. If it doesn’t inspire your troops at least you can crack a smile while reading it.

I’m also impressed with his latest article where he goes through the process of re-badging his company and their mission statement: Figuring Out What Your Company is All About