Do you every feel like you just want to write something? Doesn’t matter if someone reads it or not, just to get some thoughts down on a paper or a computer? I usually write for three reasons. Things ends up here when I feel like I have done something smart and want to have it more easily available the next time I end up with the same issue. Things end up in OneNote or a PowerPoint whenever it is something I want to share at work. But the third setting I usually write is different, that’s when I don’t manage to sleep because I am either irritated or to excited about something. Writing usually calms me down, and sleep comes more easily afterwards.
For some reason I wish I wrote more. It feels calming when I do, like now, and it doesn’t have to be to calm myself down because of irritation or excitement. Most of the time however, stuff ends up in my personal OneNote, in the “Draft” section. But why? I’ve never been much of a perfectionist, but when it comes to writing and putting stuff here, for some reason it stops in a draft pahse unless I really take the time to do the write-up. I think that’s a shame, not because what I write is super interesting, but because I clearly have done some work when I look back at the drafts. Too often it feels like what I am writing is not “new” enough. It has nothing to do with the fact it is not good enough, but I notice I find myself thinking “someone has already written about this”. I do hope to put more out, I think all of us has our own perspectives on stuff we write even if it is not ground breaking. It doesn’t have to be, and that is fine. By putting it out there for everyone to read, and not kept in the dark, it might inspire or teach someone else something.
As with everything we get better when we write, so by writing this maybe the next piece I write becomes just a little better, or at least the bar for finishing it and publishing it gets lower. Writing is fun and at some point I hope to be able to tick of all these things:
Write a children’s fairy tale. I’ve already drafted one called “The Snail Princess” as my daughter loves snails, worms and spiders.
Write more “kåsseri”, I have no idea what this is in English, and google translate didn’t help me, but it’s basically a more humouristic type of short essay. Again, I have a draft for this called “Analogization”.
Create a bad guy for a thriller. Doesn’t have to end up as a book or anything. I just really want to see if I am able to create a character like Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes. Let’s be honest, a good bad guys is very often more interesting than the good guy!
Write more here. I think I to often think this space has to be work related. I think it’s because it started out as that, but that doens’t mean that’s all it can be.
Time to get even more average, and put out more average content, mostly for me and if someone else finds it interesting that is purely a bonus.
Ever used shapes or images in Power BI and wanted a more flexible way of moving things forward and backwards on your canvas? Yeah, me to!
Under “View” there is a pane called “Selection Pane” and when checked you will see all the different elements on our page, and you can arrange them as you like where the ones on top of the list will be in the front of the elements below on your page. So if you use a shape for a background as me below, just pull it all the way to the bottom, and hepp! It is correctly placed as a background, and not covering the important stuff.
Activate the “Selection Pane” to reorder visualsBefore: My shape is in front of a lot of my graphsAfter: My shape is correctly move to the background
2018, another year where I got a new job, a year where my list of projects I’d like to do some time kept growing and a year where Twitter surprised me as a great discussion platform. To everyone I’ve talked to, everyone creating content I have seen, read or listened to and everyone that has read or heard anything I’ve done: Thank you for a great year!
Bought about 3000 googly eyes in 2018 as well! They look great everywhere!
New Job… Again…
When I graduated doing technical stuff was the best part of my job, digging into data and writing code and to this day I enjoy this a lot. However at some point I realized that what’s intriguing to me about the data and analytics domain is that it needs both the technical side, and the more human side where culture, change and organization comes in. Every job change I have done from my first one I have mentioned this, but when I started looking back earlier this year I realize that this has probably been taken as a positive trait in a developer, and not that I was interested in moving more towards the less technical side. I believe there is a huge advantage coming from the technical side, but I was never able to get a project where I could work a lot more on the non-technical side, and even though I have tried sometimes it comes down to the fact that a technical resource don’t always have the mandate to go as deep into the business side as I’d like. And in the end I found out it was time to move on, and search for something a bit different than what I have done so far.
After a lot of thinking and a lot of interviews I ended my career as a consultant and started in a new job on the 1st of October as Head of BI & Analytics in Sector Alarm Group. A position I can shape a bit like I want and since we are a small team, for now, I can still do technical stuff when needed or if I feel like my hands are getting to clean and needs some real data shuffling. So far it has been all about finding the baseline for where we are, and where we need to go, but I have high dreams of what we can to in 2019, and also as we move further into the future!
Talks and Presentations
I’ve always enjoyed doing talks and presentations about topics I am interested in. 2018 started out with a presentation for the Microsoft Data Platform User Group here in Oslo, and several other presentation has followed that both internally and externally. #SQLSatOslo is always a joy to attend and speak on, and I have never spoken as much about data visualization as I have done in 2018, both at projects with clients and internally in my previous employer. I still believe data visualization is one of the best ways of making data more human, and I will continue to spread the importance of it in my new job, and at external events where I can.
Working With Graduates
In 2018 I’ve been able to work quite a lot with graduates, and this is one thing I’m going to miss by not working as a consultant in a relatively big company. Seeing how hungry graduates are to learn and jump into new things is extremely inspiring. And even though I sometimes feel like I am doing absolutely nothing because they do incredible work I hope I have been able to provide them with a good understanding for data as a domain and a good foundation for their continued career. I hope the best for every graduate I have been able to work with this year!
Special Shoutout
As most people that know me know I love data visualization and Twitter is my go to source for this, #dataviz. Where I earlier only where looking for cool visualizations this year I have noticed something else about this community. They have some really high quality discussions on this forum where you can’t write more than 280 characters in one tweet! I am astound that some of the best discussions and feedback loops comes in this forum. Other forums, such as LinkedIn, to often becomes a place where everyone agrees on everything and it is all about trying to praise the poster and what they have done. The data visualization community can one day salute a great visualization, and the next day have an intense discussion where no one agrees, but are still responding in a way that shows resepct and it feels like they truly want to help out, and push both the poster and the data visualization field forward!
Hello 2019
The biggest thing I know for 2019 is that we are expecting a new child in the start of February, and it is going to be great! Although I wonder how much we can have forgotten over the past 3,5 years about babies. At work it is time to stop talking about what we should do and start doing some actual work and deliver new, user friendly, great data products and platforms while building a business culture that is thirsty for data, and where data is an asset that everyone knows the importance of and uses every day in their work. High dreams? Hello! But we will start small both on the technical side and the business side to make sure they both can feed the other side with what they need.
Other than that I have hopes of crossing out more of the projects in my list of projects that I never get to do, I really wish the day had 27 hours because cutting sleep isn’t really an option. I’d like to do more custom data visualization and perhaps even mix it with 3D printing. I hope to write a lot more, both technical stuff here, but also more in the form of fiction. I’d like to learn how to play the guitar better, I bought a harmonica at an auction which I’d like to use more and I got a jaw harp for christmas I have to larn to play. And to top of the music part I am still working on turning datasets into music, not by using machine learning, but more as an art project. And the list goes on most likely long into 2020.
2018 has been a great year when I look back and here’s for 2019 to be ever better! And I hope you will be able to cross of some things on your list of things you’d like to do as well!
