This week has been simple as there are only two items on my list:
I’m not into agile methodologies, I just follow the rules of the project I work for and that’s all. But at certain times it pays off to get the details right to avoid reinventing the wheel, so I’ve been doing my homework this week. The amount of interesting topics covered here (systems thinking, queuing theory, lean thinking) is impressive. It’s informative yet well written – which I had not expected when starting reading.
The book I’ve read this week, however, is brilliant. Dr Emma Byrne did a great job of covering the nasty topic of swear-words, which for some reason some adults consider “bad” even when talking to other adults while others forbid their chidren using them, regardless of their own use of that “bad language”. This is a hard problem because it’s tied to emotions and therefore few people can discuss it without also getting emotional.
While of course accepting social norms of the world around me, I will never agree that certain words are “bad”. Language is a communication tool and swear words are a part of it. They are also good at expressing emotions. Our intentions when using that language can be good or bad (or neutral), but the language itself is just a tool.
This book makes a number of very good points and is definitely worth reading. I’d recommend it to everybody, esp. parents of young children (so they don’t restrict their children’s language use too much and understand how important it is), women (to see that the world is changing and their situation is getting better) and those who second the idea of “preserving the traditional social order” (with men being strong and making money and women being innocent and gentle).