Claudio Lassala's Blog

We’re done with 2023. Here’s my annual review, keeping the looser format from last year.

Book Reading

I’ve read even more books during the year.

But it’s not about the number of books; it’s about “always be reading”.

I’ve retaken the Read to Lead challenge, joined by 2 Improvers this time, and it was great. I enjoyed reviewing the lessons learned and how I applied them, as well as trying out some of the lessons I hadn’t applied before (for example, “read a banned book”).

Some books I’ve read again include Start with Why, The Obstacle is the Way, and How to Live.

Some of my favorite books read for the first time include Fahrenheit 451, On the Shortness of Life, and On Writing Well.

A separate post with my favorite books will come soon.

My reading system leveraging Obsidian has been working well, and I keep making small refinements as I find different ways to make it better.

Life at Improving

In my annual review last year I said I had been going back in the office for most team meetings. In 2023 I started going in pretty much every day (except when I have a specific need to work remotely, such as a service guy coming by).

I enjoy playing pool or ping pong when I’m taking breaks, as well as having conversations that wouldn’t happen if we were all working remotely. The immense whiteboards also draw me in.

I have been arranging my office at Improving as closely as I can to my home office, including a standing desk, a lift for my laptop, and an acoustic guitar within arm’s reach.

Riding

I finally got to ride at the track in Denton, as part of a race weekend with TMGP. First time riding mini-bikes on a track with elevation changes!

I did more sprint races (racing my Grom for the first time), and plan on keeping doing so as a way to maximize my riding time on race weekends.

Our Beyond the Track endurance team raced as many races we managed to do, and we always have a great time.

And our main endurance race bike always looks great (thanks to Michael J.!!)

Looking forward to the new season.

Music

I’ve put out two new music videos.

First of Many: This is one of the songs I had recorded all of the instrumental pieces in 2020, but only got to writing lyrics and doing vocals in late 2022. Wrapped it up early in the year and put it out.

Paranoid: Quick collaboration covering this tune with my brother. This one is very special for us.

I’ve been working on some acoustic songs and may put some of them out this year.
I’m also hoping to write lyrics and record vocals to another song I recorded in 2020.

I’m also working through Duolingo’s Music course. Even though I wrote so many songs, I don’t write or read music. I could painfully, slowly read some notes of the treble clef on the staff, but not more than that. Learning and practicing it a little bit every day is fun, and hopefully, in a few years, I’ll be able to benefit from music theory when writing my own music.

This Blog

Several posts in the year were related to books I read, my approach to reading, etc. These are my favorite posts in that area:

• Read one book or many at a time
• Remembering what I read
• Meeting interesting people
• Thoughts On Books – A Complaint Free World

Some other of my favorite posts:

• Optimize code for reading not debugging
• BDD – What if we do NOT focus on System Behavior
• Test First vs Test Last
• On Curiosity
• May I ask a question
• The Principles of Principals
• User Stories are for Everybody

Looking at some stats:

• The average number of words per post intrigued me: the 2nd highest ever (at 633 words per post), and the highest since 2011
• The most viewed post was one from the previous year, Improving my Reading System and Leveraging Obsidian, closely followed by a post from 2017, Test Style AAA or GWT?
• Many of the most viewed posts in the year were originally posted in 2017

I don’t post content looking for views, but I’m interested in knowing what topics resonate with my readers.

Speaking

I’ve had a good time giving talks through our Improving Talks series, and also as Lunch and Learns to some of our clients.

My favorite talk was a brand new one, “BDD, but not the way you heard it before”.

I look forward to giving more talks. Reach out if you’d like me to deliver one of my talks to your company or user group. I’m more than happy to deliver any of the talks on the list or about anything you see me post to my blog.

The coolest things I’ve learned

I’m slowly learning how to do some basic jobs on my bikes. For context, not too long ago, I didn’t do even oil changes.

In 2023, I did two upgrades to my Kayo 150 that I wouldn’t come even close to attempting in prior years: I replaced the rear shock and the front fork springs.

Seeing the bike as it is on the right side of this picture would cause me a panic attack the previous year:

With the guidance I received from our Beyond the Track community (huge shout out to Michael J.), I was able to perform the tasks all by myself.

There was an important mind shift: instead of keeping my “I don’t do mechanic stuff” inner monologue, and worse, telling others “I suck at mechanic stuff”, I started telling others and myself “I’m learning how to do some jobs”.