A while ago, my wife wrote a blog post about The Button—specifically, the electric push-button and how it transformed the way we interact with machines. Before the push-button, people had to manually operate machines using cranks, levers, and mechanisms. When buttons were introduced, they revolutionized convenience—but not without resistance. Some worried that push-button technology would make people lazy, eroding their…
Think success at work is about experience, resources, or raw talent? Think again. The biggest predictor of team success is psychological safety—the ability to speak up, admit mistakes, and share ideas without fear of embarrassment, punishment, or exclusion. Watch this Instagram reel on why psychological safety matters more than anything else for high-performing teams. Why Psychological Safety Matters Better Performance,…
When working in Revit, copied elements will inherit instance parameter values that should be unique—room numbers, tracking codes, asset IDs, or any other metadata that doesn’t logically carry over. Problem: Copying elements can introduce data inconsistencies if certain instance parameters retain values they shouldn’t. Solution: A Revit API Updater that automatically clears specific parameters whenever elements are copied. This tutorial…
Big data sounds great—more data should mean better decisions, right? But in BIM and construction, just like in business, volume doesn’t guarantee value. Nokia had endless market data saying consumers wouldn’t pay more for a phone. But they got blindsided by the smartphone revolution. Anthropologist Amy Chen warned them that people in low-income areas saw smartphones differently, but her insights—based…
When working in a Common Data Environment (CDE) hosted in the cloud, it’s easy to assume that data is automatically backed up. After all, the vendor running the platform has redundancies in place, right? The reality: While cloud-based CDE providers may have their own backup processes, these are not intended for end-user recovery. If something is accidentally deleted, overwritten, or…
Stepping into 2025, I’ve been reflecting on the content from last year here on digitalbbq. It’s been a year of exploration, learning, and sharing insights, but admittedly, I also hit the pause button for a bit. I decided to take time off for the “silly season” — a term I used to cringe at whenever I heard it. I had…
As architects, engineers, and construction professionals, we all know how critical it is to manage project requirements efficiently to ensure we develop comprehensive BIM Execution plans for our projects. Artificial intelligence, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), can now help streamline the traditionally manual and time-consuming process of analyzing these requirements. This post is part of my ongoing series on AI…
I’ve watched the engineering industry glorify speed over sense for years. We praise people who respond to emails at midnight. We celebrate those who jump from meeting to meeting without breaks. We reward constant availability over actual output. Let’s call this what it is. Broken. I recently came across an article on Nature.com that introduced me to slow productivity. This…
My wife and I recently embarked on our first big road trip together, which took us from north of Brisbane all the way down to Melbourne and back, with a lot of fun along the way. Over the course of our drive, we explored the Hunter Valley, Canberra, Lakes Entrance, Yarra Valley, and more, with both planned and unexpected experiences…
Recent articles claim people are less productive when working from home. From my experience, this is far from true. But it’s not just my observations. Stanford University found a 5% productivity increase during remote work, and the University of Sydney reported similar findings. Another benefit of working from home is that the average worker saves four hours weekly by not…