Tim Dobson
Thinker, Blogger, Hacker, Hiker.
This One Time I Screwed up (or Sorry I Was a Dick)
29 March 2015
I don't think there's enough analysis and sharing of non-technical mistakes for others to learn from (see a dramatic hiking trip postmortem). It must have been a year or so ago now, I was sponsoring and exhibiting at a conference. Also exhibiting were a company I'll call FooCorp from an industry that I have a strong distaste […]
Describing the monsters under my bed.
10 March 2015
I want to describe one of the monsters under my bed – one of the things that keeps me awake at night. I don't believe describing the monster will make it disappear, but I hope it may help you understand how I'm feeling about something I've barely mentioned. In 2007, I wrote this article about […]
Tim's Core Values (v0.00001) – Request For Comments
29 November 2014
I'm trying to find my personal core values. Can you help? It takes effort to find out what those values are, and I suspect this document is about version v0.00001. Probably equal to "a vague prototype" that may change considerably. Take a read and let me know what you think. The ultimate goal is: happiness, […]
Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
12 October 2014
This is a post from my My 20-day Zappos + Buffer Values Challenge "Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded" oooh. Another one about hacking… Let's tackle this set of values in reverse order. In Paul Graham's essay "What you can't say", he asks Who thinks they're not open-minded? Our hypothetical prim miss from the suburbs thinks […]
My thoughts on Scotland
17 September 2014
I support self determination of the people of Scotland. I think it's great that we can have an open and democratic conversation about it, in a civilised and peaceful manner. I'm delighted by the level of engagement and thoughts people have on it, north and south of the border If Scotland does become independence, I'm […]
Do More With Less
7 August 2014
This is a post from my My 20-day Zappos + Buffer Values Challenge "Do More With Less" Well, I'm an
Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
6 August 2014
This is a post from my My 20-day Zappos + Buffer Values Challenge "Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication" This is a tough one to blog about, because anecdotes, by definition – no matter what the nature of the relationship, is always going to be very personal – between me and them. It's kind of […]
Make Time to Reflect
4 August 2014
This is a post from my My 20-day Zappos + Buffer Values Challenge "Make Time to Reflect" My favourite way to reflect is solo hiking. The fewer people the better. Some people have told me that going deep inside their head, and being just with themselves is scary. I respect and understand that, but I find […]
Pursue Growth and Learning
3 August 2014
This is a post from my My 20-day Zappos + Buffer Values Challenge "Pursue Growth and Learning" I love that this value can apply to personal growth and development and business growth and development. (Whilst it might not always be appropriate value for, say, a community enterprise that really doesn't want to grow significantly, if growth […]
Be Humble
2 August 2014
This is a post from my My 20-day Zappos + Buffer Values Challenge "Be Humble" This is really hard. Like, really hard. It's particularly hard to explain in a blog post how good you are at being humble! Err, yes. Ummm. Right. Some people might point to candid blog posts like these and suggest they're evidence […]
Embrace and Drive Change
1 August 2014
This is a post from my My 20-day Zappos + Buffer Values Challenge "Embrace and Drive Change" When it's change you want – change you asked for, it's easy to talk about embracing and driving change, but that's only part of it. It's different when it's unexpected change. Suddenly you have to do things differently (when […]
Listen First, Then Listen More
31 July 2014
This is a post from my My 20-day Zappos + Buffer Values Challenge "Listen First, Then Listen More" Everyday we hear things, TV, people talking to us, but how much do we listen? Sometimes, it's quite easy to talk – if someone tells you about their recent holiday, sometimes it's tempting to talk to them about your recent […]