I’ve been working behind the scenes for a few weeks to begin producing educational programming content, and today was the day that published my first YouTube video.
Check out the channel and tell me what you think of the first video (if you’re interested in learning about technology).
Special thanks to Ian Zainea for making the intro animation for my videos.
- Reading: The 12 Week Year _The 12 Week Year_ was an interesting book for me to read because the authors used to be clients when I worked as part of BrilliantFantastic. Having now read the book, I feel like I would have been able to do so much more for Brian and Mike (and our other clients) had I read the book then. The 12 Week Year is all about execution.
- How to Win Friends & Influence People might just be my favorite book, because it’s a book that I need to keep reading. I enjoy taking the initiative and leading my endeavors, ranging from school projects to mentoring to work projects. The issue that I’ve continually run into in situations where I would lead is that the people around me wouldn’t enjoy it, and nobody wants to be the guy leading the miserable project.
- My goal of reading one book a week didn’t make it that far without a few hiccups. Reading Good to Great took me a day longer than I was expecting and the book I had scheduled to follow that was a pretty big technical book. I was unable to finish reading all of Programming Elixir within the week that I allotted for it. Poor Planning of a Good Goal Normally, this would be the point where people would throw in the towel on a New Year’s resolution because they’ve already “failed”, but it shows me that I did a poor job of planning a reasonable goal.
- Good to Great is one of the business books that I’ve heard many people talk about and since Kendra had to read some of it in college, we happened to have a copy lying around. I haven’t read many business books, but I really enjoy talking to entrepreneurs and business people because their world is so different from my own. This puts me in the place of the constant student; there’s always something that I can learn from those in business.
- The School of Greatness is Lewis Howe’s study of numerous successful people who embody his definition of greatness. The investigation of the similarities and shared features of these people gives insight into some habits that are truly beneficial. I love this kind of book, being able to learn from the experiences of others is something that I can’t get enough of. Is this Recommended Reading? Yes. Being the first book of the week, I’m trying not to look at this book through rose colored glasses, but that being said I really enjoyed this book.
- Reading is a great way to learn. One of my goals is to constantly be learning and teaching. For me to achieve this goal I can’t be content to sit around and do the same thing every day. I need to be exposing myself to thoughts that are not necessarily my own and listening to others to glean insights from them. I’m going to read one book per week and post my notes from the book to keiththomps.
- At church, we’ve been talking about how our own stories matter. Each one of us has a story that is unique and telling that story is one of the greatest things that we can do. By telling our own stories, we give others the chance to learn from our past experiences or to wonder about something that they’ve never experienced. As a church, we’ve been digging into what makes a good story (literarily speaking).
- After a hectic few months of being married (since Oct 26), my wife and I finally sat down to write out our budget. I get a lot of comfort out of having a budget and feeling like I’m incontrol of my money. This was not my first time making a budget, but it made me think about how budgeting has really changed my life. It’s shown me what I apparently care about and allowed me to adjust accordingly.