Breakfast with the Bernsteins

Once again I’m way behind the amount of writing I had intended for the last few weeks.

Not that I haven’t lots of things to write about… what I haven’t got is too much time and/or energy…

For instance, a couple of weeks (months!) ago I had breakfast with Mark Bernstein and his lovely wife while they were in a short trip to Chicago.

I didn’t want to talk or ask too many questions about Tinderbox… as I didn’t want to bother him too much. I suppose that people with cult followers can use some time with easy conversations away from potential life altering issues for mere mortals such as: What’s your take towards working with just one vs. various tinderbox files?

Still, of course, we briefly discussed one or two issues regarding his baby…

I had asked Mark to bring a copy of ‘The Tinderbox Way‘. He forgot to bring it with him… In any case, I was only too happy to pay him for it and happily it arrived just a couple of days later.

A bit over a year ago, as I was on a short visit to Chicago I attended a Tinderbox weekend. That’s where I first got my hands on what at the time was a draft of ‘The Tinderbox Way’. I wrote about it in one of the first posts in this blog.

At the time I went over almost the whole draft on my flight back to Spain. It made me want to start experimenting with Tinderbox right away.

Now, if you haven’t yet ordered your copy of ‘The Tinderbox Way’ I don’t know what you are waiting for!

While the book gives a lot of clues on ways of using Tinderbox and also over the various rationales that its creator follows that make Tinderbox behave in certain ways, etc. –I even got some insights on a couple of chronic open issues I had been having and that I had refrained from asking at the list maintained by Lee Phillips as I thought those were way too lame…–, what I really enjoyed is what it shows about Mark himself.

His way of looking at things, his way of bringing up statements about issues he sees or has identified, as well as his ways to tackle them. The way it is written, makes it very easy to read and follow.

All in all, it is a great companion in our journey of experimenting with Tinderbox. I liked the draft… I love the finished book.

Best, TFS