Continuous Digital & Project Myopia

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This seems a little back to the future… those of you who have been following the evolution of Continuous Digital will know the book grew out of the #NoProjects meme and my extended essay.

I think originally the book title was #NoProjects then was Correcting Project Myopia, then perhaps something else and finally settled down to Continuous Digital. The changing title reflected my own thinking, thinking that continued to evolve.

As that thinking has evolved the original #NoProjects material has felt more and more out of place in Continuous Digital. So I’ve split it out – Project Myopia is back as a stand alone eBook and you can buy it today.

More revisions of Continuous Digital will appear as I refactor the book. Once this settles down I’ll edit through Project Myopia. A little material may move between the two books but hopefully not much.

Now the critics of #NoProjects will love this because they complain that #NoProjects tells you what not to do, not what to do. In a way I agree with them but at the same time the first step to solving a problem is often to admit you have a problem. Project Myopia is a discussion of the problem, it is a critique. Continuous Digital is the solution and more than that.

Splitting the book in two actually helps demonstrate my whole thesis.

For a start it is difficult to know when a work in progress, iterating, self-published, early release book is done. My first books – Business Patterns and Changing Software Development – were with a traditional publisher. They were projects with a start and a finish. Continuous Digital isn’t like that, it grows, it evolves. That is possible because Continuous Digital is itself digital, Business Patterns and Changing Software Development had to stop because they were printed.

Second Continuous Digital is already a big book – much bigger than most LeanPub books – and since I advocate “lots of small” over “few big” it makes sense to have two smaller books rather than one large.

Third, and most significantly, this evolution is a perfect example of one of my key arguments: some types of “problem” are only understood in terms of the solution. Defining the solution is necessary to define the problem.

The solution and problem co-evolve.

In the beginning the thesis was very much based around the problems of the project model, and I still believe the project model has serious problems. In describing a solution – Continuous Digital – a different problem became clear: in a digital age businesses need to evolve with the technology.

Projects have end dates, hopefully your business, your job, doesn’t.

If you like you can buy both books together at a reduced price right now.

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