For last week’s What I Learned, I was so late in getting it out that I didn’t even include my typical (attempt at a) witty opening and closing. Yet it was one of my most read one of this series! Despite this, why did I decide to open and close this week’s as I have since March?

The Power of Music – My friend Floyd Webb is a film producer and director, and his latest work is a short film about the African thumb piano. I had never heard of this instrument before, and was impressed by the amazing sounds such a device can make. Watch this film on Vimeo to see this instrument in action and how one doctor in Chicago is using it as part of holistic healing.

Hawkeyes Down – In the seemingly never-ending saga of cancellations due to the pandemic, The University of Iowa announced it is cutting its swimming and diving program after the 2020-21 season. Iowa’s program is unique as it has been in existence for over 100 years, is where the butterfly stroke was born, and has a state-of-the-art facility that is only a decade old. Where swimming doesn’t bring into a school the money like a football program does, and with cancellations of said football, swim is sadly part of the colleterial damage.

Keep Business Movin’ – Something that is continuing this year, albeit virtually, is Startup Wisconsin, a week of programs and sessions on business and technology, and not just for those involved in start-up businesses. The dates of the event in the Green Bay / Appleton area is November 18 thru 20. If you are interested in participating please fill out this form whether as a speaker, organizer or volunteer.

The Mind Wanders – I decided to add meditation back into the mix of my morning routine, as I haven’t done it in a while. Where I have used apps before, a while back I started subscribing to the Meditation Minis podcast. I decided to start with the oldest in my queue… which went back to December of last year. I guess my mindfulness deficit has been longer than I had thought.

Fox On The Rise – Something that has not been covered much at all lately is the development in southeast Wisconsin on the Foxconn Corporation campus. The company, known for making Apple’s iPhones, was planning to open a large monitor manufacturing facility in Mount Pleasant, not far from where riots have broken out this week in Kenosha. The development was slow and – surprise – politicized – and then we heard nothing most of this year. An article in Bloomberg this week talked about it in – surprise – the context of the presidential election.

So Where Do You See Yourself In 5 Years? – This article on interview questions and answers for anyone applying to be a Scrum Master was an interesting read. Even if you’re not looking for another job, familiarizing yourself with these will be helpful in your internal role, especially if your organization is not 100% agile.

Weird (Al) User Experience – I still get amazed, not to mention frustrated, when I have a hard time navigating a Web site. One item I see often, and implemented poorly often, is the accordion. No, not the instrument, but the ability where you can show a list of titles and by clicking on it or an accompanying icon, the page “expands” and shows content. Thus the analogy to the accordion, which expands while it is played. This article did a great deep-dive on the design style of accordions. Two takeaways I had from it is you must keep your accordion usage consistent within your site, and you should have a design guide for your site to show how they should be used.

No Can Do – When local beer tap rooms were forced to shut down in the spring, they started canning their tasty products and offered them in local stores and even in “beer drive-thru” events. Just when you think there’s a good thing going, there’s now a nationwide shortage of beer cans. I just hope people don’t rush out and buy up beer as they did toilet paper.

As school starts for my kids next week, for me, Summer is gone, though I hardly can say I wasted every day, and I hope you didn’t either.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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