Itch That Time Again

Just past the seven-year anniversary of Hiccupps, and taking stock once more, I find that I averaged around a post a week over the last 12 months. 50 posts a year was my target when I started the blog back in 2011 and initially it was motivational: I'd find out if blogging could suit me, and me it, only by blogging, and I was prepared to put aside time to gather that data for a year.

You can judge whether I suit blogging (for your needs, at this time, naturally) but my judgement (for myself, over the years) is that writing this blog suits me. I've retained the loose goal of weekly postings not because there's anything intrinsically positive about that volume of material, nor because it guarantees anything about the content, but because it continues to stimulate me to find a time box to write in and writing regularly brings me better writing, deeper thinking, and happiness.

In these annual retrospective posts I've generally plucked out a few pieces that brought or bring me pleasure. This year is no exception, and here's a handful:

RIP Jerry Reminiscing about Jerry Weinberg, whose work has so significantly touched mine.
Exploring it! The cycle of skill refinement and reinforcement, inside and outside of testing. This is essentially zooming in on a couple of the Heuristics for Working I also blogged about, based on long-term reflection on how I and others get stuff done, lead, explore, and manage ourselves.
Tufte A series of posts which lists the quotes that stood out for me when I read five of Edward Tufte's books on the presentation of information.
Beginning Sketchnoting I spoke and wrote about how I've approached sketchnoting, and why.
Hard To Test Notes from SoftTest, Dublin, where I did my first keynote, When Support Calls, based on my Ministry of Testing ebook.

Here's to a happy new year.

Image: https://flic.kr/p/9H5Gri

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