# The Unconference 3 > Slack is annoying, wine is nice, the product community rules. > Last updated: 2023-11-24 ## The Unconference 3 Feel depleted today, a likely consequence of travelling to Manchester and back in one day to run an unconference. Worth it though. What happened this week then? - Lined up some handover docs with someone on another team - Met with [Tom](https://www.leaningforward.com) to talk through refreshing a product resource - Started pooling ideas for topics to discuss during an ‘away 3 days’ - Noodled on why this 60%-in-the-office thing is going to impact individuals more than the team - Joined some team ceremonies - Caught up with Matt on [Acts Not Facts](https://www.actsnotfacts.com) - Chatted to the epic lead on our [Show/hide password](https://github.com/alphagov/govuk-frontend/issues/4063) component - Spent too much time on Slack - Caught up with our lead frontend developer on migration plans and strategy stuff - Ported half the new strategy proposal into a deck - Costed up the WCAG 2.2 work, so that we can estimate benefits generated for government - Shared stories of the impact we’ve made with comms - Prepared a deck for show & tell next week, and thought about how to make it more inclusive - Ran the [third Product for the People unconference](https://productforthepeople.xyz/product-for-the-people-be-here-now-c12db5435c73) - Had a couple of one-to-ones - Wrote the programme weeknote - Cleared my task list of tasks that had been languishing for a while ## Tracking work Did 22 things this week, which is close to the average. A couple of unplanned things diverted my attention away from important stuff. Achieved over half of my weekly goals, and progressed one more. Two goals I didn’t make a start on but ones isn’t urgent, it’s fine. The other can be done next week. Only achieved 40% of my monthly goals, progressed around 25%, leaving 35% not achieved. Some of those weren’t important goals to achieve though, they were nice-to-haves at the start of the month. I definitely added more goals to my list as the month went on. So probably I just need to define stretch goals versus core goals? It was a busy month with lots of travelling around the country, a couple days’ holiday, and lots of face-to-face. So it’s no wonder I’m shattered and didn’t get as much done as I’d expected. Good food has kept me going the last 2 weeks. Good food and good humour. ## Ugh, Slack It’s far too easy to get distracted by all those unread messages. But some of those unread messages are important to read; others less so. There are benefits to using instant messaging tools, and it’s good to be able to see messages in team channels not private ones, but some times you just want to know which messages are safe for you to skip. Maybe I need to try harder with highlighting how best to communicate asynchronously. Maybe the team is too big for one product manager. Either way, I found myself spending non-valuable time on Slack this week, so on Wednesday I just didn’t open it except a couple of times throughout the day. Might just put Slack use on a schedule. 30 mins in the morning, some time in the afternoon too. Leave it off the rest of the day. ## Wine Anyway, let me break up the long slog of work chat with some wine chat. In early July we went to Croatia on holiday and I got to try some of the local wines. _Proper_ local: the variety is specific to a little island. [Pošip](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Po%C5%A1ip) grows near Smokvica, on the island of Korčula, and it’s lovely. It’s earthy, fruity, with the hint of almond and plenty of minerals. Light, not too much alcohol. Perfect when cold. It’s like a Verdicchio, maybe. But better because it’s got a [unique story](https://croatia.hr/en-gb/food-and-drink/posip). Dalmatian Dog from [Merga Victa](https://mergavicta.com) is nice. The younger, lower alcohol wines are better (in my opinion). And yes, that does mean I didn’t go [all year without drinking](/2023/01/31/not-sober-just-not-drinking/). ## Product for the People Unconference #3 in Manchester A lovely day with lots of faces, some I knew from cross-gov Slack and calls, others I met for the first time. Really energising day. But community things always are. I ran a session on prototyping which I’ll write up fully on Sunday, but thank you to everyone who came down. Me, Jukesie and Debbie will run events next year too, but we’ll set up a mailing list so that you don’t have to worry about not catching a post on social media. If you’d like us to run one if your area and you can host ~60 people in 2 rooms, let us know, we’d love to bring it to ya. ## Running I did nothing this week. Bad. On reflection, the idea of going out in the rain and cold 6 days a week is not inspiring me. I don’t need to repeat the marathon training programme though, my next race is a hilly half-marathon. So I’m going to switch training programme and just do 4 or 5 days a week, with some long runs on the weekend. Might try some Scarpas for all the mud. ## Saltburn Saw this on a whim last Saturday as I had time to kill before going out with [Kelv](https://www.chao-xian.co.uk). It’s a rich person’s view of what a working class person might do, but it’s a fun watch. Very Shakespearean. I watched _Othello_ the next day as a result (and forgot just how racist it is). ## Bookmarks The first link in the list below is a must-read, like _The Thick of It_ for anyone doing digital in a big organisation. There’s a bunch of OpenAI guff from last weekend at the bottom too. - [I Accidentally Saved Half A Million Dollars](https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/i-accidentally-saved-half-a-million-dollars/), 10 mins - [Rishi Sunak unveils tax cuts. Liz Truss’ allies see the irony](https://www.politico.eu/article/liz-truss-tax-cutting-ghost-continues-to-haunt-rishi-sunak/), 3 mins - [Weeknote 11](https://oliverhannan.medium.com/weeknote-11-699dfa7578d1?source=rss-656f12d3ccac------2), 2 mins - [No feature](https://ia.net/topics/no-feature), 9 mins - [A third one-off never-to-be-etc Acts Not Facts weeknote](https://interconnected.org/home/2023/11/21/weeknote), 3 mins - [Weeknote 19th November – Keeping Going, Somehow](https://www.leaningforward.com/blog/2023/11/weeknote-19th-november-keeping-going-somehow/), 7 mins - [Can AI improve UK public sector productivity?](https://on.ft.com/3G7kyRF), 1 mins - [Week notes: 13-19 November 2023](https://neilojwilliams.net/week-notes-13-19-november-2023/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=week-notes-13-19-november-2023), 6 mins - [nothing time is for deep work](https://jarche.com/2023/11/nothing-time-is-for-deep-work/), 3 mins - [Exploring GPTs: ChatGPT in a trench coat?](https://simonwillison.net/2023/Nov/15/gpts/), 22 mins - [Beyond the service manual: leadership without governance](https://mechanicalsurvival.com/blog/you-can-lead-without-governing/), 6 mins - [How to talk to an elderly relative about Altman, OpenAI and Microsoft](https://on.ft.com/3ugwE8k), 1 mins - [OpenAI’s Misalignment and Microsoft’s Gain](https://stratechery.com/2023/openais-misalignment-and-microsofts-gain/), 16 mins - [Who Controls OpenAI?](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-11-20/who-controls-openai?srnd=opinion), 18 mins - [OpenAI taps former Twitch chief Emmett Shear to succeed Sam Altman](https://on.ft.com/3sGD0gV), 1 mins - [Microsoft hires former OpenAI chief Sam Altman](https://on.ft.com/47Au1gF), 1 mins - [What do we know about non-profit boards?](https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/836220923/0/marginalrevolution~What-do-we-know-about-nonprofit-boards.html), 1 mins - [OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO](https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/18/23967199/breaking-openai-board-in-discussions-with-sam-altman-to-return-as-ceo), 3 mins - [Pivot to AI: Replacing Sam Altman with a very small shell script](https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2023/11/18/pivot-to-ai-replacing-sam-altman-with-a-very-small-shell-script/), 5 mins - [OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Says His Company Is Now Building GPT-5](https://singularityhub.com/2023/11/15/openai-ceo-sam-altman-says-his-company-is-now-building-gpt-5/), 6 mins 24 November 2023 · [Weeknotes](/tag/weeknotes) Related posts: [The Unconference](/2018/10/21/the-unconference/), [The Surprise Entry](/2020/08/07/the-surprise-entry/), [The Unity](/2018/08/25/the-unity/) 0 replies, 0 reposts, 1 likes