Check these out

In my weekly reading of blogs I came across two things I’d like to share:

Jeff Moser has a great post on Wetware Refactorings.  Jeff doesn’t post often, but when he does it’s always a good read.  This post is on how to keep your brain stimulated and the concept of continuous learning.  I haven’t read the books that Jeff mentions, but two books I have read along the same vein are “Mozart’s Brain and the Fighter Pilot” (which was recommended by a coworker) and “How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci”.  The concept of all of these are to stimulate your brain using short exercises that you can do almost anywhere.  By doing this you can actually increase your ability to learn and improve your cognitive skills.  I highly recommend picking up one of the books Jeff mentions, or one of the two I’ve read.  If anything, the two books I read allowed me an interesting insight into how my mind works.

Jim Holmes has started a series of posts on Leadership.  I don’t have the amount of experience that Jim does when it comes to time in the industry, or in the military for that matter; however, I can say that I’ve worked my fair share of managers who couldn’t lead well.  I’ve also worked with several really good managers as well.  I found the first four installments of Jim’s Leadership 101 series to be very good and spot on.  (Jim has posted these since the start of the year and sadly I’m just now catching up with my reader backlog).