أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer

Projects are not goals in themselves. Projects are how goals are achieved.

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

Fooled by Randomness - You do not become a “better” coin flipper over time. No skill to learn activities are almost all what we do in life.

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

“When planning, remember the Latin word experiri, the origin of the English words experiment and experience. Whenever possible, planning should maximize experience, both frozen and unfrozen.”
#HowBigThingsGetDone
@BentFlyvbjerg

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

“Age reflects time, and time enables experience.”

#HowBigThingsGetDone
@BentFlyvbjerg

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

Once you make the shift to planning as active, iterative process of trying, learning, & trying again, all sorts of ways to “play” with ideas, will suggest themselves. Try, learn, again. Whatever the project or the technology, it’s the most effective path to a plan that delivers.

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

Lack of technology isn’t the real barrier to adopting the maximum virtual product approach; the barrier is thinking of planning as a static, abstract, bureaucratic exercise.

#How_Big_Things_Get_Done
@BentFlyvbjerg

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

It’s hard to overstate the contrast between the planning of Bilbao & that of Sydney Opera House. The former is perfect illustration of “Think slow, act fast”; that is, of how to do projects. The latter is a painful example of “Think fast, act slow” that is, how not to do projects

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

The man whose vision created the soaring structure of Sydney Opera House was not present at the ceremonies, his name was not mentioned. Utzon never returned to Australia. Died in 2008, never having beheld his completed masterpiece with his own eyes. It’s a tragedy fit for opera

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

“When the Sydney opera house was finally opened by Queen Elizabeth II in October 1973, it was acoustically unsuited for opera and internally flawed in many other ways thanks to the shambolic process of its creation”

#How_Big_Things_Get_Done
@BentFlyvbjerg

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

@BentFlyvbjerg Yes, indeed

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

“In 2007, the Sydney Opera House was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, alongside the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China, a first for a building whose architect was still alive.”
#How_Big_Things_Get_Done
@BentFlyvbjerg

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

“Repetitio est mater studiorum”—“Repetition is the mother of learning.” التكرار بعلم الشطار

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

“The construction of the Sydney Opera House was an outright fiasco. Setbacks piled up. Costs exploded. Scheduled to take five years to build, it took fourteen. The final bill was 1,400% over the estimate, one of the largest cost overruns for a building in history.”

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

“The opera house became a proud national symbol and an international treasure. “It stands by itself as one of the indisputable masterpieces of human creativity,” declared an expert evaluation report commissioned by UNESCO.”

#How_Big_Things_Get_Done
@BentFlyvbjerg

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

“The Sydney Opera House is a collage of graceful white curves that call to mind billowing sails, clouds, or bird wings. Defying mass and scale, the building elevates you.”
#How_Big_Things_Get_Done
@BentFlyvbjerg

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

“The project needs a clear, explicit goal. That cannot be settled casually; it’s what the whole project is about, and it must be treated accordingly.”

Excerpt from
#How_Big_Things_Get_Done
@BentFlyvbjerg

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

“How should that conversation go in order to give the project a sound foundation? It should start with Frank Gehry’s question: Why are you doing this project?”

Excerpt from
#How_Big_Things_Get_Done
@BentFlyvbjerg

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

“Thinking from right to left is demanding because it’s not natural. What’s natural is WYSIATI—What You See Is All There Is

Excerpt from
#How_Big_Things_Get_Done
⁦⁦@BentFlyvbjerg⁩

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

“but no one, it seemed, had been brave or clever enough to take a stand and win an argument with their obstinate leader.”

Excerpt from
#How_Big_Things_Get_Done
⁦@BentFlyvbjerg⁩

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

“Asking “Why?” can work only where people feel free to speak their minds and the decision makers really listen.”

Excerpt from
#How_Big_Things_Get_Done
@BentFlyvbjerg

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

Join me in my Space! https://t.co/dycUV3IGGz

[أحمد حجير Ahmad Hajeer @ahajeer]

Medicine is noisy. Faced with the same patient, different doctors make different judgments about whether patients have skin cancer, breast cancer, heart disease, tuberculosis, pneumonia, depression, and a host of other conditions. #noise