@aaroncooknyc.bsky.social
Creative Ops brain in a technical shell. Ex-touring guitarist turned VP of Technical Production & Design at LDJ. Here to connect with smart people doing big, weird, ambitious things.
Automation and vibe coding is absolutely going to revolutionize the way we approach operations. The process for developing the process is fundamentally changed. Meta-process is gonna be my new most used word
August 4, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Automation and vibe coding is absolutely going to revolutionize the way we approach operations. The process for developing the process is fundamentally changed. Meta-process is gonna be my new most used word
Evaluating n8n and Zapier for automation.. what are you all using and what do you like?
July 25, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Evaluating n8n and Zapier for automation.. what are you all using and what do you like?
Chaos begets chaos. Leadership in crisis is as much about staying calm and modeling what it means to stick to a process as it is about effective delegation. But it’s a win/win, a calm mind is going to make better decisions.
July 21, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Chaos begets chaos. Leadership in crisis is as much about staying calm and modeling what it means to stick to a process as it is about effective delegation. But it’s a win/win, a calm mind is going to make better decisions.
Delegation in crisis times is so hard, you never have enough info. I use a matrix approach: The highest performers get the most important tasks that have the least amount of info and the lowest performers get a lot of high info, low impact tasks to churn through.
July 16, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Delegation in crisis times is so hard, you never have enough info. I use a matrix approach: The highest performers get the most important tasks that have the least amount of info and the lowest performers get a lot of high info, low impact tasks to churn through.
Establishing the target audience seems to take a backseat to defining the target experience. But it’s the understanding of the audience that should drive the features of the experience
July 14, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Establishing the target audience seems to take a backseat to defining the target experience. But it’s the understanding of the audience that should drive the features of the experience
Bluey is the Hume, Aquinas, and Kant of our time
July 11, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Bluey is the Hume, Aquinas, and Kant of our time
Several good convos today that all ended up variations on the same theme: How to design experiences for different audiences in parallel. Giving your speakers and attendees good experiences, together and separate. Giving the managers under you and their reports good mentorship, one through the other
mentorship.ne
July 10, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Several good convos today that all ended up variations on the same theme: How to design experiences for different audiences in parallel. Giving your speakers and attendees good experiences, together and separate. Giving the managers under you and their reports good mentorship, one through the other
The most satisfying thing in management:
"If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."
"If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."
July 9, 2025 at 3:05 PM
The most satisfying thing in management:
"If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."
"If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."
Really investing time and effort into note outliners and PKMs. Looking especially for tools with great AI integration. So far, I’m really impressed with Tana, though they’re early days and still building the core of its functionality out. What else should u be looking at?
July 8, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Really investing time and effort into note outliners and PKMs. Looking especially for tools with great AI integration. So far, I’m really impressed with Tana, though they’re early days and still building the core of its functionality out. What else should u be looking at?
Thinking a lot about the “knowledge worker” industry and how it’s being split in two faster than anyone (seemed) to imagine.. there will be those that amplify their work through AI and those who will have to transition to supporting AI in doing their former jobs
July 7, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Thinking a lot about the “knowledge worker” industry and how it’s being split in two faster than anyone (seemed) to imagine.. there will be those that amplify their work through AI and those who will have to transition to supporting AI in doing their former jobs
There’s simply gotta be a better way to coordinate fireworks with the music. No real progress in my 30 years of watching displays :)
July 3, 2025 at 2:26 PM
There’s simply gotta be a better way to coordinate fireworks with the music. No real progress in my 30 years of watching displays :)
Thinking about the concept of limited willpower reserves, limited directed attention reserves, and “attention residue.” I’m wondering if there’s a better way to structure the content of a multi-day conference to make everything “stick” better in attendee’s minds..
July 2, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Thinking about the concept of limited willpower reserves, limited directed attention reserves, and “attention residue.” I’m wondering if there’s a better way to structure the content of a multi-day conference to make everything “stick” better in attendee’s minds..
As much as I love and support the concept, just don’t like F2F as a new tag for an event “feature.” It’s the baseline. Our industry is already so full of TLAs (three letter acronyms) I really don’t want to be describing events as “B2C F2F IRL VIP w/ F&B”
July 1, 2025 at 12:37 PM
As much as I love and support the concept, just don’t like F2F as a new tag for an event “feature.” It’s the baseline. Our industry is already so full of TLAs (three letter acronyms) I really don’t want to be describing events as “B2C F2F IRL VIP w/ F&B”
Reposted
Versions of reality
A sea slug sees far more colors than you do, and you probably see more than a profoundly color-blind person. Who's right? We each carry our own version of reality, our own story about what happened, what's around us and how things work. Our chosen reality serves two useful…
A sea slug sees far more colors than you do, and you probably see more than a profoundly color-blind person. Who's right? We each carry our own version of reality, our own story about what happened, what's around us and how things work. Our chosen reality serves two useful…
Versions of reality
A sea slug sees far more colors than you do, and you probably see more than a profoundly color-blind person. Who's right? We each carry our own version of reality, our own story about what happened, what's around us and how things work. Our chosen reality serves two useful purposes: First, it binds us to the others in our circle. If you seek to communicate, speaking Esperanto in Nashville isn't going to help very much--you do better assuming, as others do, that English is standard.
seths.blog
July 1, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Versions of reality
A sea slug sees far more colors than you do, and you probably see more than a profoundly color-blind person. Who's right? We each carry our own version of reality, our own story about what happened, what's around us and how things work. Our chosen reality serves two useful…
A sea slug sees far more colors than you do, and you probably see more than a profoundly color-blind person. Who's right? We each carry our own version of reality, our own story about what happened, what's around us and how things work. Our chosen reality serves two useful…
My first rule for process improvement is always assume you DON’T know the answer. Ask questions until the path forward is unquestionably obvious.
June 30, 2025 at 9:28 PM
My first rule for process improvement is always assume you DON’T know the answer. Ask questions until the path forward is unquestionably obvious.
Who wants to meet for coffee and talk ops?
June 30, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Who wants to meet for coffee and talk ops?
Finally exploring the world of PKMs to get all my thoughts and notes and ideas in order. It’s been a game changer in a short time, can’t wait to see the leaps I make over the next year and beyond!
June 29, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Finally exploring the world of PKMs to get all my thoughts and notes and ideas in order. It’s been a game changer in a short time, can’t wait to see the leaps I make over the next year and beyond!
PDCA, 8D, DMAIC, TQM… they all share a foundation. It’s just the way the phases are broken up that differ. Define the problem and the goal, understand the current condition, plan experiments that get you one step closer to the target, learn and iterate.
June 28, 2025 at 2:04 PM
PDCA, 8D, DMAIC, TQM… they all share a foundation. It’s just the way the phases are broken up that differ. Define the problem and the goal, understand the current condition, plan experiments that get you one step closer to the target, learn and iterate.
“Rounds” of revision feels antiquated and rigid. We need a new way to talk about the iterative progression of the creative process while protecting from endless approval cycles. A phased approach with iteration cycles within each phase is a great place to start.
June 27, 2025 at 1:15 PM
“Rounds” of revision feels antiquated and rigid. We need a new way to talk about the iterative progression of the creative process while protecting from endless approval cycles. A phased approach with iteration cycles within each phase is a great place to start.
Continually astounded at the power of simple goal framing in improving stuff. Writing down the Current Condition in an unbiased way and then writing down your Target Condition reveals the way from here to there and cuts out 90% of the universe of possibilities.
June 26, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Continually astounded at the power of simple goal framing in improving stuff. Writing down the Current Condition in an unbiased way and then writing down your Target Condition reveals the way from here to there and cuts out 90% of the universe of possibilities.
Can’t wait for experiential marketing to have it’s Old Spice Commercial moment. Experiment with the format and get weird. Visibility and memorability are the only things that matter!
June 25, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Can’t wait for experiential marketing to have it’s Old Spice Commercial moment. Experiment with the format and get weird. Visibility and memorability are the only things that matter!
Process improvement is the work I most want to do.
But getting buy in to actually do that work often takes even more effort.
Maybe the first process to improve is the one for getting buy in?
But getting buy in to actually do that work often takes even more effort.
Maybe the first process to improve is the one for getting buy in?
June 24, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Process improvement is the work I most want to do.
But getting buy in to actually do that work often takes even more effort.
Maybe the first process to improve is the one for getting buy in?
But getting buy in to actually do that work often takes even more effort.
Maybe the first process to improve is the one for getting buy in?
I know people don’t exactly lament the decline of virtual events, but let’s not forget they finally let people in who couldn’t manage the flight, time off, or stairs. Accessibility shouldn’t disappear just because in-person is back.
June 23, 2025 at 12:55 PM
I know people don’t exactly lament the decline of virtual events, but let’s not forget they finally let people in who couldn’t manage the flight, time off, or stairs. Accessibility shouldn’t disappear just because in-person is back.
The best process strategies I’ve used are diametrically opposed:
1. implement fast, learn fast, iterate fast
2. Study the current condition until the underlying roadblock is obvious, then solve for that.
Whoever first figures out how to combine these will have a superpowered advantage
1. implement fast, learn fast, iterate fast
2. Study the current condition until the underlying roadblock is obvious, then solve for that.
Whoever first figures out how to combine these will have a superpowered advantage
June 22, 2025 at 2:17 PM
The best process strategies I’ve used are diametrically opposed:
1. implement fast, learn fast, iterate fast
2. Study the current condition until the underlying roadblock is obvious, then solve for that.
Whoever first figures out how to combine these will have a superpowered advantage
1. implement fast, learn fast, iterate fast
2. Study the current condition until the underlying roadblock is obvious, then solve for that.
Whoever first figures out how to combine these will have a superpowered advantage
The higher the profile of your events’s attendees, the higher the quality of your coffee should be. VIPs can taste corner-cutting.
June 21, 2025 at 12:41 PM
The higher the profile of your events’s attendees, the higher the quality of your coffee should be. VIPs can taste corner-cutting.