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Some Thoughts On The Coffee Industry, and a Book Recommendation

Carl Setzer1 Comment
Starbucks Logo

In the early 2000s (2004-2009, to be specific) I worked at Starbucks, first in Global Communications then on the Corporate Social Responsibility team. I loved my time there and is the one place I would return in a hearbeat.

We former Partners (as Starbucks employees are referred) have an alumni group, the Green Apron Network. It’s a great group of folks whose presence I greatly enjoy and am privileged to be part of. One of the great figures of Starbucks’ corporate history is a man by the name of Major Cohen. If there is anyone who knows coffee better, I am unaware of them. Recently retired, Major has written a book, “Coffee For Dummies“. Though I haven’t read it yet (I have a copy on its way), I know Major well enough to highly recommend it. A few of my friends have already read it, and recommend it. I’ll write more about the book once I have read it.

So, check it out! There’s a Kindle version, so you can start reading it right now. If you read it, leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Documenting Everything

Carl Setzer
code-as-documentation

Currently, I’m taking the second quarter in a two-quarter series on Systems Analysis. One of the lists my text presented is “7 Design Habits”. (side note: I appreciate the reference/nod to Steven Covey’s 7 Habits Of Highly Successful People). I like the list, so I wrote it out on a post-it and have it on the wall next to my desk.

  1. Understand the business
  2. Maximize graphical effectiveness
  3. Think like a user
  4. Use models and prototypes
  5. Focus on usability
  6. Invite feedback
  7. Document everything

I value each of these. While maximizing graphical effectiveness has been an area of interest for quite some time (it’s the roots of my interest in design), what really speaks to me right now is “document everything”.

I’ve lived by this mantra for years. I try to drop everything into Evernote*, for instance. Articles I’ve read, people I’ve met, things told to me. This collection of notes is but one element of documenting everything. Knowing where I got ideas is pretty important. But this notion means more. To me, it implies a certain thoughtfulness to the documentation. Sure, it’s great to have dozens of pages of random notes. But “documentation” is organized. Not just links to articles, or pages of feedback, but also analysis, explanations of the “why” within choices. Being able to reference, at some random point in the future, how we got to a certain decision can be crucial when evaluating a problem and determining a response. Also, in a more negative vein, it can show due diligence in a lawsuit.

So, yeah, my propensity for collecting information has saved me plenty of anguish over the years (“you never told me that!” “well, here’s the email I sent to you with your reply”). It’s also been helpful to friends and colleagues (“hey Carl, who was that guy from Facebook we met with last year”. Yeah, it’ll be in my notes). I appreciate the reinforcement that this is a best practice that’s valued at least by textbook writers.

*this link to Evernote is an affiliate link. If you subscribe to the service, I will get rewarded with a free year of the service. 

Spring Blossoms

Carl Setzer

another spring day
moving through the sunlight
breeze through the blossoms

Daffodils

Carl Setzer

the daffodil’s gaze

loving glance in the spring sun

a gentle breeze blows

Coding, Frustration and Euphoria

Carl Setzer
Developer-coding

Spent today finishing up my first assignments coded with PHP. It’s interesting to me how the expectations have evolved. I’m getting to the point that, even though I’ve never done anything in PHP, that I can look at existing code and decipher its intent, then adjust the code accordingly. I did need some of my instructor’s “hints”, but not much. It was pretty cool to be able to just read my text, open up the code, and tweak it to get the desired results. Again, this is the first chapter of the book, my first set of projects, so still pretty basic. But, I’m feeling more confident as a coder every day.

This is balanced with moments of complete bewilderment. Over the course of one project, I had several moments where I just wanted to scream at my screen. One moment, trying to get some if/elseif statements to work. After the better part of an hour, I finally deleted the whole thing and re-coded it…and it worked! I haven’t any idea what I did differently. That’s one of the things with code: a wrong letter case, dropping one character, one symbol, and the whole thing will not work.

Getting it to work is an amazing feeling. Balanced by the frustrations of the damn thing not working at all.

Look Closely

Carl Setzer

in the spring sunlight
if you look closely enough
you will find blessings

Spring In The Air

Carl Setzer

cooling breeze
under bright sunlight
cherry blossoms

Word of the Day Challenge: Habit, A Haiku

Carl Setzer

walking every day
my delightful new habit
feeling the sunlight

Today’s Word of the Day Challenge is to use the word “Habit”. As one of my key foci in 2021 has been daily walks, this seems a relevant post. This photo is from one my neighborhood parks from a walk this week.

Cherry Blossoms

Carl Setzer
Cherry Blossoms

cool air descending
the breeze moving gracefully
cherry blossoms dance

Winter Haikus

Carl Setzer

A friend of mine just forwarded me this comic featuring some clever haiku/senryu, and I wanted to share these with you. I find them delightful.

Unfortunately, the creator wasn’t cited in the email. Fortunately, a quick image search turned up “Cul De Sac, the blog of Richard Thompson“. Here’s the link to the original post, from 2010.