Christopher McKinney

Coming soon from 37signals: Basecamp Next - (37signals)

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:59:00 -0600

Coming soon from 37signals: Basecamp Next - (37signals)

"No" is the New "Yes": Four Practices to Reprioritize Your Life

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:55:50 -0600

"No" is the New "Yes": Four Practices to Reprioritize Your Life:

Good article this week from the HBR Blog:

I was sitting with the CEO and senior team of a well-respected organization. One at a time, they told me they spend their long days either in back-to-back meetings, responding to email, or putting out fires. They also readily acknowledged this way of working wasn’t serving them well — personally or professionally.

It’s a conundrum they couldn’t seem to solve. It’s also a theme on which I hear variations every day. Think of it as a madness loop — a vicious cycle. We react to what’s in front of us, whether it truly matters or not. More than ever, we’re prisoners of the urgent.

Prioritizing requires reflection, reflection takes time, and many of the executives I meet are so busy racing just to keep up they don’t believe they have time to stop and think about much of anything.

Click through for the entire article.

The Rise of the New Groupthink

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:02:37 -0600

The Rise of the New Groupthink:

New York Times - SOLITUDE is out of fashion. Our companies, our schools and our culture are in thrall to an idea I call the New Groupthink, which holds that creativity and achievement come from an oddly gregarious place. Most of us now work in teams, in offices without walls, for managers who prize people skills above all. Lone geniuses are out. Collaboration is in.

But there’s a problem with this view. Research strongly suggests that people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption. And the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverted, according to studies by the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist. They’re extroverted enough to exchange and advance ideas, but see themselves as independent and individualistic. They’re not joiners by nature.

Click through to read the rest of the article.

How To Talk To Your Boss And Fix Your Job

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:38:22 -0600

How To Talk To Your Boss And Fix Your Job:

It’s all too easy to spend long stretches simmering at your desk instead of having a straight-ahead talk with your boss. Click through for a few strategies to help you start the conversation.

From Fast Company Magazine.

The Way I Work: Jason Fried of 37Signals

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:11:30 -0600

The Way I Work: Jason Fried of 37Signals:

For some reason I like diary-type articles discussing what different people so on a day-to-day basis. Inc. Magazine has done a series of these.

Click through the link to read the work-day diary article re Jason Fried, creator of 37Signals - a web development company that runs a cloud project management system I am fond of.

The 10 best gadgets and tech at CES 2012

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:06:04 -0600

The 10 best gadgets and tech at CES 2012:

At one end of the scale, CES is about big, high-end product announcements - the world’s biggest TV, the smallest pico projector, hi-fi speakers that cost more than your car.

At the other end it’s about companies you’ve never (or barely) heard of trying to catch the tired eye of a wandering blogger with head-mounted displays, portable scanners and USB penknives.

Filter out the noise with these picks of the best gadgets and tech of CES 2012.

Hat tip: @miunger

Tip for Getting More Organized: Don't

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:02:56 -0600

Tip for Getting More Organized: Don't:

How much time do you spend each day getting better organized? Cut it in half.

When it comes to investing time, thought and effort into productively organizing oneself, less is more. In fact, not only is less more, research suggests it may be faster, better and cheaper.

Click Through to Read the Harvard Business Review Article.

There's No Such Thing As Writer's Block

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 15:30:22 -0600

Tech writer Andy Ihnatko has an excellent post up this week on writer’s block. Or, more accurately, on the fact that it doesn’t really exist.

No magic solutions or quick tricks here. Andy is just calling BS on the phenomenon. And I think he is right.

If you put “writer’s block” into your browser’s search bar get back a save distance from your screen. It’s liable to explode. Everything from 10,000 word essays on the condition to kits you can purchase to overcome it. Funny, there seems to be no writer’s block when it comes to writing about writer’s block.

As a lawyer, I spend a good deal of time writing… or at least trying to write. And yes, sometimes the words don’t come easily. But this isn’t a block. This is usually an indication that I would rather be doing something else. Funny how we never seem to get blocked when we are doing something we want to be doing. I’ve never been blocked when playing with my kids or while golfing, etc. Guess I’ve just been lucky.

The fact of the matter is that writing is hard. Professional writing (as opposed to fiction) has its own set of challenges. If you just sit down and try to write from scratch professional writing can be pretty near impossible sometimes. Writing a good book, brief, or article (as opposed to this one) takes research and ususally a fair amount of outlining.

I’ve seen young lawyers sit down to write a brief by opening up a blank word processor screen and typing “Introduction” and then trying to write the thing. This is a very bad idea.

Here is my work-flow for writing a legal brief, motion, etc. First I start by reviewing the raw materials I have to work with. You may find that you need additional legal research to gather or evidentiary documents to review. Get all of your materials together, preferably on your desk. You want to minimize distractions and having to go off in search of that certain document or transcript is a big one. Turn off your email and, if you have one, tell your assistant to protect you from the outside world for a while. This is a very important step because, remember, writer’s block isn’t real - it’s just your brain looking for something better to do.

Next I start to mindmap out my outline. I never used to mindmap and frankly can’t recommend it unless you have either (1) a giant whiteboard in your office or (2) an iPad with a good MindMapping software application on it. I now have and use both all the time. The great thing about mindmapping software is that with a touch of a button, I can convert my visual mindmap to an outline in OmniOutliner (or any other outlining app that support OPML formatting).

Having a good outline is really essential for quality professional writing. If you think you are one of those amazing people that can do great work without an good outline you are probably wrong. A good outline is also your most potent weapon against writer’s block. In a very real way it has reduced your large writing project to a fill-in-the-blanks exercise. Believe me, it is much easier to write when you are not concerning yourself with the overall structure of the final product at the same time you are trying to write text.

The outline also combats writer’s block by allowing you to jump from section to section in your final product without getting that feeling that you are being completely incoherent. Having a little trouble writing the section you are working on? Stop immediately and jump to a different section. Never waste time staring at the wall and wishing for the words to simply fall into your head. They won’t. Instead, jump to another section that seems easier at the moment and work on that for a while. Come back to the section giving you trouble later. Usually the hard parts are not so hard after you have written everything else.

So, in a nutshell here are my tips:

Start your project as early as possible.

Do your research and don’t try to write cold.

Mindmap and outline your project.

Eliminate or minimize distractions.

Draft your document in a fill-in-the-blank manner.

Never stay on an area you are having trouble with very long.

Good luck and happy writing.

Four Destructive Myths Most Companies Still Live By - Harvard Business Review

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 08:45:41 -0500

Four Destructive Myths Most Companies Still Live By - Harvard Business Review:

Myth #1: Multitasking is critical in a world of infinite demand.

Myth #2: A little bit of anxiety helps us perform better.

Myth #3: Creativity is genetically inherited, and it’s impossible to teach. And my personal favorite …

Myth #4: The best way to get more work done is to work longer hours.

Hard to believe this cartoon is many, many years old.

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:42:52 -0500

Hard to believe this cartoon is many, many years old.

Jason Snell of MacWorld demonstrates Siri on the new iPhone 4s.

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 17:07:52 -0500

Jason Snell of MacWorld demonstrates Siri on the new iPhone 4s.

Steve Jobs’ Approach to Building a Business - Build a...

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:54:34 -0500

Steve Jobs’ Approach to Building a Business - Build a Great Team. The total is greater than the sum of its parts.

Here’s to the crazy ones. “Stay hungry. Stay...

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 12:35:31 -0500

Here’s to the crazy ones.

“Stay hungry. Stay Foolish.” — Steve Jobs

Jason Friedman of 37Signals - Don’t hire...

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 08:14:49 -0500

Jason Friedman of 37Signals - Don’t hire workaholics…they make bad decisions. Flextime is more “normal” than normal working hours.

"Passion is required. There are two kinds of successful entrepreneurs. There are those that really..."

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:32:42 -0500

“Passion is required. There are two kinds of successful entrepreneurs. There are those that really have to “follow their passion” and will not be happy in a business that is not centered around that passion. Then there are those that are passionate about building a great business but the subject matter of the business need not be a personal passion. Either of these models can succeed. All others will likely fail.”

- CJM

Reading "The NYT misses the point about law schools"

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:12:45 -0500

Reading "The NYT misses the point about law schools"

Microsoft Office Goes Cloud

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:42:52 -0500

Microsoft has rolled out its new cloud product: Office 365. Office 365 purports to be thecompany’s familiar Microsoft Office collaboration and productivity tools delivered through the cloud.

It includes Web-based email, shared documents, shared calendars, instant messaging, video conferencing and Web meetings, and websites. Customers can pick and choose which apps they want and pay a monthly subscription from $2 to $27 per month.

The product is aimed primarily at individuals and small business and features pay-as-you-go monthly subscriptions rather than large.

Will it surpass GoogleDocs in adoption? Will it have as many security holes as normal windows-based software? Time will tell.

Cloud Computing Lawyer: Dropbox Drops Ball - Bigtime

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:18:00 -0500

DropBox Drops All Security

DropBox - the darling of many cloud lawyers - admitted this week that it accidentally left all of its customers’ data open and completely insecure for approximately 4 hours. Here is what Dropbox has to say about the event:

Yesterday we made a code update at 1:54pm Pacific time that introduced a bug affecting our authentication mechanism. We discovered this at 5:41pm and a fix was live at 5:46pm. A very small number of users (much less than 1 percent) logged in during that period, some of whom could have logged into an account without the correct password. As a precaution, we ended all logged in sessions.

We’re conducting a thorough investigation of related activity to understand whether any accounts were improperly accessed. If we identify any specific instances of unusual activity, we’ll immediately notify the account owner. If you’re concerned about any activity that has occurred in your account, you can contact us at support@dropbox.com.

This should never have happened. We are scrutinizing our controls and we will be implementing additional safeguards to prevent this from happening again.

This is the third recent security issue for DropBox in recent months. Last month a complaint was filed against the company with the Federal Trade Commission, alleging that DropBox does not follow industry best practices because some of its employees have direct access to encryption keys and can, therefore, have direct access to client data.

In April, DropBox changed its terms of service to indicate several circumstances in which the company retains the right to access your data and turn it over to third parties. Here is the exact language from the Terms of Service:

Compliance with Laws and Law Enforcement Requests; Protection of Dropbox’s Rights. We may disclose to parties outside Dropbox files stored in your Dropbox and information about you that we collect when we have a good faith belief that disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) comply with a law, regulation or compulsory legal request; (b) protect the safety of any person from death or serious bodily injury; (c) prevent fraud or abuse of Dropbox or its users; or (d) to protect Dropbox’s property rights. If we provide your Dropbox files to a law enforcement agency as set forth above, we will remove Dropbox’s encryption from the files before providing them to law enforcement. However, Dropbox will not be able to decrypt any files that you encrypted prior to storing them on Dropbox.

So should a lawyer use DropBox to store client data?

Short answer: Probably not. Attorneys have an extremely high duty to keep the data of their clients as confidential as possible. True, no system is perfectly secure - your office could be burglarized and your computers stolen (although I assume you keep your data files encrypted on your office server). And with the ever-increasing need to have client data available to iPads and laptop computers, use of the internet “cloud” to transport data is surely inevitable.

I myself use cloud-based extranet software to collaborate with clients about confidential matters every day. I have done the research and set up a system that is as secure as I can reasonably make it given the constraints of current technology and my clients’ technical abilities to utilize same. I try to refrain from using plain vanilla (and horribly insecure) email for confidential communications and for the most part use cloud storage for pleadings and discovery documents, which are already matters of public record or by their nature designed to be provided to opposing counsel.

But DropBox has unfortunately proven to me that it is not to be trusted with sensitive client data. I actually do use DropBox for personal file sharing - photos, videos of the kids and such. That is MY business and if lack of security exposes my video of the memorial day Bar-B-Q to the world then that is one thing. Client data is another matter though and DropBox just doesn’t seem to have its act together sufficiently to allow me to use it to share or store such sensitive data.

My personal recommendation is that if you currently use DropBox to store client data -stop. Or at the very least, encrypt your data on your end before sending to DropBox. This will be hard for some because DropBox syncs data extremely well and is a very convenient tool. This is especially true if you make heavy use of a smart phone or a tablet computer like the iPad to access data. But as attorneys, security of client data must trump our personal convenience. It really is just that simple.

"Joining a Facebook group about creative productivity is like buying a chair about jogging."

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 21:54:56 -0500

““Joining a Facebook group about creative productivity is like buying a chair about jogging.””

- Merlin Mann, 2009

New Apple iOS 5 Features for the Trial Lawyer

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 22:14:00 -0500

Apple’s WWDC conference is this week and yesterday, Steve Jobs and the gang held their opening keynote presentation. Among other things, the company introduced iOS 5 for iPad and iPhone devices. New features such as Twitter integration, camera improvements and the task list (yes…thats right…an actual task list on a smart phone…go figure) are getting quite a lot of coverage around the web. Today, Apple put up an excellent summary page, outlining most of iOS 5’s new features.

For me in my law practice, here are my top 3 additions/improvements:

Notification Center

Jiminy Christmas, this is a welcome improvement to the OS. Apples current notifications act like idiot lights on your car. They always pop up and interrupt you when you don’t want them to and then can’t be found when you want to take a look at them. Borrowing a page from Google’s Android system, Notification Center creates a nice centralized pull-down menu where you can find all of your pending notifications.

Safari Improvements

The Safari web browser in iOS has always felt underpowered and just not fully baked. iOS 5 finally brings tabbed browsing to the app. Switching between pages in the current iOS is clunky and often requires a page reload. This welcome addition will make Safari much more useful and efficient - especially if you make heavy use of web applications. Safari will also be getting Reader/Reading List, which will allow the user to strip all the ads from a given web page and save a clean copy to memory (backed up to the iCloud) to read later on or offline. (Currently I use third-party app Instapaper to serve this function so we will have to see if Apple’s implementation is more elegant or useful.)

Airplay Mirroring

Airplay Mirroring is the final piece of the puzzle needed to convert the iPad from a nice reader and fun toy into a serious presentation engine. Using Airplay, you can broadcast a mirror image of whatever is on your iPad to any HDTV by through Apple’s $99 Apple TV. Apple TV is roughly the size of a hockey puck so it can easily go with you to meetings, mediations and trials. Apps will be able to access Airplay through the API, so look for presentation programs like Keynote and TrialPad to make use of it.