Explore Sean’s Essays:
Being present.
Consider the surgeon who is counseling a family in the pre-op. She is laser focused on the task at hand, and not concerned by anything else. Her ability to be fully immersed in the moment and focus only on the task at hand conveys leadership. Her presence instills confidence in...
The Front Row
My vision is pretty bad... (Go for lasik and still wear glasses bad.) I'm near sighted in one eye, far sighted in the other. I have an astigmatism in both eyes and my left eye is a lazy. As a kid I remember not being able to see power lines. I couldn't understand why there were...
The Others (thoughts on marketing and genocide)
Every genocide begins with marketing. Before a government can begin the extermination of a group of people, they have to get buy in from the masses. They have to convince soldiers that by pulling the trigger they are improving the world. Every genocide of the last century...
Your daily scrum. (Thoughts on reducing complexity and increasing productivity)
In Scrum, teams meet every day in the same place at the same time for 15 minutes. The scrum works because it happens every day, at the same time. For 15 minutes your team comes together to share progress and set priorities. No phones, computers, or distractions. You make...
Customers Vs. Users
Are you a user or a customer? When I go to a restaurant and order a meal I'm their customer. I'm trading my dollars for a service that they are happy to provide me. I'm also their user since I'm the one consuming the food. When I'm checking my Gmail, tweeting to friends, or...
Asking for Help
I hear it from teachers all the time, most students don't know how to ask for help. Self actualization of their needs is the most important skill students need to develop. Having the courage to raise your hand and say, "I don't get it" is something we should teach our students....
The upcoming architectural revolution
As I wander around the streets of New York I can't help but to stop and enjoy the intricacies of the pre war buildings. They're just beautiful. Craftsman labored to create stunning architectural details. They were artists. Modern buildings have their own sense of style and...
Building a fire
It was late January, the snow was over a foot deep. It was cold and windy. The sun was dropping and I had to build a fire to cook dinner and stay warm through the night. All I had on me was a flint and steel. No matches or lighters. Earlier that day I had collected enough wood...
Uber’s UX Fail.
Humans are lazy. We don’t like to wait, and we don’t like to repeat the same actions over and over. Last week I was taking an Uber home and wanted to get a fare estimate, and their UX pissed me off. I had to keep toggling back and forth to compare fares between the various...