{"id":4040,"date":"2018-03-31T21:05:32","date_gmt":"2018-03-31T21:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/?p=4040"},"modified":"2018-03-31T21:05:32","modified_gmt":"2018-03-31T21:05:32","slug":"weeknote-11-twenty-times-their-own-height","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2018\/03\/31\/weeknote-11-twenty-times-their-own-height\/","title":{"rendered":"Weeknote #11 \u2014 Twenty times their own height"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='e-content'>A five-day week goes by in a flash; a four-day one is supersonic. Another week where the urgent and tactical has tended to trump the important and strategic. There have been similar themes for the past few weeks; more than ever I\u2019m conscious of repeating myself here and will try and avoid it.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Four weeks into a five week phase of our programme and I can feel the sense of the team being tired and flagging a little. A big push to get it over the line next week and we can then focus on the issues that have come up as well as the bigger aspects of the programme.<\/li>\n<li>We coined the phrase \u2018the ball of string\u2019 for where we look to move one piece of technology and find it is attached to everything else. Getting this right is the crux of what we need to do and where I need to be pushing to spend most of my time.<\/li>\n<li>Wrote an internal blog post to explain the complexities of where stuff lives once someone has switched over to the cloud. Good to have something written down that we can point to when questions start coming in. Conscious that the need to have the blog post is interesting in itself and that the system goes against the grain of \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/en.m.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Don%27t_Make_Me_Think\" title=\"Wikipedia: Don\u2019t Make Me Think\">don\u2019t make me think<\/a>\u2019.<\/li>\n<li>When rolling out software to tens of thousands of people, problems become statistics. When it\u2019s a very small number, every problem is significant and every bad experience is highly visible.<\/li>\n<li>Had some interesting new problems turn up such as \u2018why can\u2019t I send one email to 1,336 people?\u2019 and learning the limitations of the system. Software as a service means that we all have to play by the rules set by the vendor; this may hurt in the short term but will be simpler in the long term. Great to hear about users exploring the tools and thinking about how they can utilise new features that they never had before. I like all of these problems more than the \u201cyou broke my computer and I can\u2019t work\u201d one.<\/li>\n<li>Still battling with having tons of strategic materials at my fingertips and so little time to be strategic. When most of your long-term thinking happens in meetings with vendors or on the weekend, you\u2019re doing something wrong.<\/li>\n<li>Trying to put a document in landscape format in order to fit more info into a table and finding it was <em>already in<\/em> landscape is the documentation equivalent of cycling uphill and being disappointed to find you\u2019re already in first gear.<\/li>\n<li>School governance meetings went well and were productive; I felt as though I did a good job of chairing the FGB meeting this week and the team asked lots of great questions. All wrapped up in good time. <\/li>\n<li>Life with the cats remains challenging even after four years. Greeted by \u2018the meow of doom\u2019 in the evening as one of them brought a live mouse in, took it halfway up the stairs and then lost interest. I have never seen a <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/luU5gsCgyog\" title=\"YouTube: How high can a mouse jump?\">mouse jump in the air<\/a> before and we all let out a collective \u201caaargh!\u201d when it did. Friday saw Mrs D have to clean up the remains of a wood pigeon that seemed to have exploded in our kitchen while we were out. I\u2019m more resolved than ever that these will be the last pets we own.<\/li>\n<li>My 10-year old has taken to making us cups of tea, and he\u2019s pretty great at it. I was given a random cup of tea and a biscuit while I was on a conference call at home on Monday. This is a <em>fantastic<\/em> development.<\/li>\n<li>Kids football has felt like a bit of a slog this season. Our U9s lost again on Sunday although they had some great chances and managed a goal. It was a first for us with one of our players getting a mild electric shock mid-game, from a fence as he retrieved a ball.<\/li>\n<li>We had a lovely time with our South African visitors today. After four weeks of living in London it was great to be able to offer them lunch and a walk in the countryside. Seeing the place you are so used to through other people\u2019s fresh eyes is brilliant.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Next week \u2014 a family birthday, an unusually-timed <a href=\"http:\/\/albumclub.info\" title=\"Album Club\">Album Club<\/a>, another four-day week and the end of a significant phase of our programme.<\/div>\n<p><span hidden class=\"__iawmlf-post-loop-links\" data-iawmlf-links=\"[{&quot;id&quot;:5413,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/en.m.wikipedia.org\\\/wiki\\\/Don%27t_Make_Me_Think&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20250816085634\\\/https:\\\/\\\/en.m.wikipedia.org\\\/wiki\\\/Don%27t_Make_Me_Think&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-05 04:11:41&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-05 04:11:41&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:5414,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/youtu.be\\\/luU5gsCgyog&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/watch?v=luU5gsCgyog\\u0026feature=youtu.be&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:2721,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/albumclub.info&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260111165058\\\/https:\\\/\\\/albumclub.info\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-04 05:08:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-07 16:25:58&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-11 11:27:41&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-14 14:24:08&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-18 04:07:05&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-21 13:38:36&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-25 20:29:23&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-01 15:56:19&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-04 18:03:46&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-08 17:49:51&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-12 00:02:08&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-15 00:53:18&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-18 00:53:55&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-21 20:29:48&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-25 04:15:41&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-29 09:56:32&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-02 03:29:44&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-05 04:17:47&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-08 04:51:50&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-11 23:01:12&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-15 23:09:00&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-19 14:17:31&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-23 06:46:52&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-26 18:14:40&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-29 21:11:40&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-04 09:48:55&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-07 18:41:27&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-11 08:00:10&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-15 19:23:14&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-19 18:13:35&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-22 18:30:20&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-25 22:16:52&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-29 00:00:56&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-01 18:46:56&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-04 20:01:41&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-07 23:46:57&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-11 19:03:17&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-06-11 19:03:17&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]\"><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<a href=\"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2018\/03\/31\/weeknote-11-twenty-times-their-own-height\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permalink to Weeknote #11 \u2014 Twenty times their own height\"><div class='e-content p-summary'>A five-day week goes by in a flash; a four-day one is supersonic. Another week where the urgent and tactical has tended to trump the important and strategic. There have been similar themes for the past few weeks; more than ever I\u2019m conscious of repeating myself here and will try and avoid it. Four weeks [&hellip;]<\/div>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-weeknotes","7":"h-entry","9":"hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4049,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2018\/04\/07\/weeknote-12-turning-a-corner\/","url_meta":{"origin":4040,"position":0},"title":"Weeknote #12 \u2014 Turning a corner","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"7 April 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A week of two halves, with a boat load more positivity, energy and optimism at the end compared to the start. Once again I had a vivid demonstration of the value in business travel and the benefits of being colocated around the right people for a period of time. One\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Weeknotes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Weeknotes","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/weeknotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4262,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2018\/07\/02\/weeknote-24-high-track-temperatures\/","url_meta":{"origin":4040,"position":1},"title":"Weeknote #24 \u2014 High track temperatures","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"2 July 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Scorching. All week my weather app has been showing the kind of unwavering forecast that you normally only see when you are looking ahead to a holiday somewhere near the equator. Mrs D was away for most of the week on a Year 6 residential trip, which meant I had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Weeknotes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Weeknotes","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/weeknotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Hard to believe I was freezing here after work just a few weeks ago.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/C7E3AAD5-E3B5-45DB-BCF0-04592F791AEC.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/C7E3AAD5-E3B5-45DB-BCF0-04592F791AEC.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/C7E3AAD5-E3B5-45DB-BCF0-04592F791AEC.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/C7E3AAD5-E3B5-45DB-BCF0-04592F791AEC.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/C7E3AAD5-E3B5-45DB-BCF0-04592F791AEC.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/C7E3AAD5-E3B5-45DB-BCF0-04592F791AEC.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7687,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2021\/08\/23\/weeknotes-130-clitheroe-and-malham\/","url_meta":{"origin":4040,"position":2},"title":"Weeknotes #130 \u2014 Clitheroe and Malham","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"23 August 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The second four-day week this month as I took Friday off. It felt like a productive four days, and I don\u2019t have too many loose ends to come back to when I return. This was a week in which I: Had my mid-year review with my line manager. A really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Weeknotes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Weeknotes","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/weeknotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/DraggedImage-16-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/DraggedImage-16-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/DraggedImage-16-scaled.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/DraggedImage-16-scaled.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/DraggedImage-16-scaled.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/DraggedImage-16-scaled.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11000,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2024\/07\/15\/weeknotes-281-crumpled\/","url_meta":{"origin":4040,"position":3},"title":"Weeknotes #281 \u2014 Crumpled","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"15 July 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Our local second hand bookshop always has the most splendid window display of topical books, coordinated this time with the British Grand Prix. Another difficult week. I\u2019m feeling a little crumpled by the weight of work at the moment, something that hasn\u2019t happened in years. July was always going to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Weeknotes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Weeknotes","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/weeknotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A collection of second-hand Formula One and other motor racing books in the window of a second-hand bookshop.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Image-14-07-2024-16-56.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Image-14-07-2024-16-56.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Image-14-07-2024-16-56.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Image-14-07-2024-16-56.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Image-14-07-2024-16-56.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Image-14-07-2024-16-56.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4883,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2018\/11\/05\/weeknotes-4142-determined\/","url_meta":{"origin":4040,"position":4},"title":"Weeknotes #41\u201342 \u2014 Determined","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"5 November 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Work has been hard over the past couple of weeks. I\u2019ve been trying to figure out how to get each member of the team to focus on planning their piece of the programme, with enough detail considered in their plans for us to get confident that we can deliver by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Weeknotes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Weeknotes","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/weeknotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6971,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2021\/02\/28\/weeknotes-105-giant-octopus\/","url_meta":{"origin":4040,"position":5},"title":"Weeknotes #105 \u2014 Giant octopus","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"28 February 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"A big week, with half of Tuesday taken up with me finally presenting my \u2018new ways of working\u2019 proposal to the rest of the IT management team. Getting to this point had been like wrestling with a giant octopus; now I\u2019ve finally got it out into the world and built\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Weeknotes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Weeknotes","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/weeknotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/DraggedImage-4-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/DraggedImage-4-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/DraggedImage-4-scaled.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/DraggedImage-4-scaled.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/DraggedImage-4-scaled.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/DraggedImage-4-scaled.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4041,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4040\/revisions\/4041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}