Sami Paju 31/05/2025 Sami Paju 31/05/2025

My 2013 pocket camera is better than your latest and greatest phone camera

My 2013 pocket camera is better than your latest and greatest phone camera.

I was at the Big Local Electronics Store here in Finland. Whenever I go there I have a habit of walking through their outlet section. In case there are bargains to be found. There usually aren’t. This is probably the only purchase I’ve made there. I’m not sure. It was ten years ago that I laid my eyes on it.

“But Sami, the title of this article refers to a 2013 camera!” That’s because it was released in 2013. I bought mine in 2015 for 419 euros. Not a bad price considering that your 1 000+ EUR/USD iPhone or Android device doesn’t stand a chance when it comes to the quality of still images.

Video? We don’t talk about video. I don’t think it even does video (It does, but I had to check, because I’ve never used it for that. The program dial might just as well be stuck at aperture priority, and I probably wouldn’t notice.).

Specs we can talk about. It has a battery and even after a decade there’s still some life left to it. I wouldn’t count it to last for more than 200 images though. It has a lens, and a damn good one. It’s so good that I have had hard time believing the sharpness of the images, after taking a break from shooting with this camera. The maximum aperture is only f2.8, though, and there is no image stabilisation, so it’s not well suited for low-light situations. But neither is your phone.

Can you already tell what camera I am talking about? If you know your stuff, f2.8 probably gave it away.

Here’s another hint: the lens is 28mm full-frame equivalent, giving a field of view that is most likely the same as in the main camera of your phone. And since I used the word “equivalent” you will have recognised that it has a crop sensor. APS-C in fact. And all the 16 megapixels in it are glorious!

The camera even has a macro mode for pretty decent closeups.

This little thing has traveled with me all around Finland. I have dropped it. I have given it to my daughter to play with when she was 4 years old. And it still works! There is dust on the sensor, though. But the images are worth the hassle of doing a bit of cleaning up on Lightroom if need be.

It has been with me in Cologne, Iceland, Washington, New York, Tallinn, Edinburgh, Prague, Barcelona, Madeira, Canary Islands… It almost got eaten by a cow in a petting zoo. A horse farted on it.

What I absolutely love about this camera is that it’s truly pocketable. The amount of photos I take drops drastically during winter. It’s cold, dark and wet. But this I can carry whenever I feel like it, and taking a glove off to snap a quick photo is much less of a hassle than working with a big camera in freezing conditions.

I turn on the camera, use my forefinger to adjust aperture (or shutter speed if don’t shoot with aperture priority, which I usually do), lock the exposure with my thumb on the AEL button, focus (single point at the center of the frame), recompose, and press the shutter all the way down. It’s fast, easy, intuitive, and getting the exposure just right becomes a breeze.

Being able to operate the camera and access all the important settings with just one hand is not only good for winter. When the other hand is free, you can hold an umbrella and take photos in the rain without you or the camera getting wet. Or you can drive a car and take photos at the same time. Not that I’d recommend you do that.

Another advantage of its size and discreetness is that people don’t seem to really notice, or care, when I take photos with it. It makes me feel stealthier too. This camera is ideal for street photography.

It’s the camera I’ve owned for the longest time. Namely because its successors, while having better specs on paper, have gone downhill when it comes to ergonomics. There simply hasn’t been a compelling enough reason to upgrade.

Until now perhaps. Ricoh just announced the GR IV. To my delight they seem to have finally realised the error of their ways, and the design of the new GR is closer to the one I have, instead of GR II and III that have come in between.

I don’t think I am going to buy one, though. I am perfectly happy with the battered old GR that I have. The last few months have proven it still has what it takes to produce outstanding images. But if Ricoh will release a GR IVx with a 40mm-ish lens… Now we’re talking.

I <3 Ricoh GR

Sami Paju 25/04/2025 Sami Paju 25/04/2025

Leica D-Lux 8 Mini Review

Why Leica D-Lux 8 is the perfect first camera for those who want to learn photography.

I bought the Leica D-Lux 8 with my own money. I had it for about three weeks before I sold it, and I took around 350 photos with it. It’s the camera I wish I had when I was starting to take photography a bit more seriously around 15 years ago. It’s a bit pricey, but if that’s not an issue, I think it’s the best camera currently out there for someone who wants to get into photography and develop their skill. Hear me out.

When you are taking the first steps into learning photography, you should not be bogged down by the gear you use. You also want good exposure controls so that you can more easily experiment with different shutter speeds and apertures, to get a feel for how they affect the outcome, and how to use them in creative ways.

Many compact cameras have so small sensors that changing aperture doesn’t really do all that much for the depth of field in an image. And the cheap point-and-shoot cameras rarely give you easy ways to change exposure settings in the first place.

Most digital SLR cameras (the ones with interchangeable lenses) on the other hand are bulky to use. In many situations having one can also make you self-conscious. Especially when walking around in cities and taking pictures of people. You can reduce this bulk by pairing one of the smaller dSLR bodies with a small prime lens, but then you lose access to zoom. If you are not yet sure which focal length(s) you like shooting with, then you end up having to buy multiple lenses. Not to mention losing shots if you have the wrong lens equipped for the situation.

Artists love their tools. Tools can inspire, and using them can make you feel special. Big cameras can make you feel ”serious” and they have many “powerful” features, but if you rarely leave the house with one, then you are not improving your photography skills. You want a camera that inspires you to go out shooting, and one that you can easily throw into a bag (or in the case of Leica D-Lux 8, even a big pocket) when going out.

Leica D-Lux 8 ticks all these boxes, and a few more, better than any other camera I’ve ever tried (and I’ve shot with Leica, Ricoh, Sony, Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Panasonic and Fujifilm). It’s the perfect camera for learning photography because:

The size makes it easy to take anywhere.
The build quality, design and tactile feel of every button and dial inspires you to go shooting, and they make the camera a pleasure to use.
The shutter is really quiet, increasing the stealthiness and discreetness of the camera.
It has a very versatile zoom range, covering 24-75 mm in full frame terms. Unless you’re specifically into shooting fast action or animals that are far out there, this will carry you through 95% of all situations.
It has good enough macro mode to take some impressive close-up images too. Especially when using wider focal lengths that have the closest minimum focusing distance.
The sensor size and maximum aperture of the lens give you some control over the depth-of-field in an image. Though it’s not a match to cameras with faster lenses and bigger sensors.
The physical controls for aperture and shutter speed help you learn to use those adjustments in creative ways.
The physical aspect ratio selector helps you learn to compose for 3:2, 16:9, 1:1 and 4:3 - all of which have their uses and can be used in creative ways to produce a better image. It’s also worth noting that this is not a digital crop, and should be used to get most out of the surface area of the image sensor.
The user interface is fantastic. D-Lux 8 has less features than most other cameras, but that’s a good thing, because you don’t want to get overwhelmed by a whole bunch of stuff that you don’t really need. It’s easy to make sense of the Leica. It gets out of the way when shooting, so you can focus more on the images, and less on fiddling with the camera.
It’s very easy to switch to video mode and for a casual video shooter, who wants to record a clip or two every now and then, it works very well. D-Lux 8 even has image stabilisation!

No camera is perfect, and this one also has its shortcomings, but there are not many:

It can only take 2 pictures per second in burst mode with full image quality.
Shifting focus point with the d-pad could be faster, as it moves in too small increments. There should also be an option to have the center button of the d-pad to re-center the focus point.
Tracking and continuous autofocus are not as fast and reliable as with my Fujifilm cameras (and as far as I know, Fuji is not exactly the top dog in these areas either).

So if the Leica D-Lux 8 is so good, why did I end up selling it so soon? Well, I bought it with the intention of using it, instead of my Fujifilm X-T4 and big zoom lens, for our road trip this summer. However, the image quality just isn’t quite there when compared to my other cameras. Particularly the corner softness in both ends of the zoom range, even with small apertures, bothered me. I also found the rendering of the out of focus areas to be rather busy and messy in too many cases to my liking. So the D-Lux 8 did not replace my X-T4.

When it comes to an ”everyday carry” type of camera, I also have a Fujifilm X100VI. The D-Lux 8 is not quite pocketable for me, so if I’d want to take it with me when going out, I would need a small shoulder bag. Which means that I could just as easily take the X100VI with me. And it is a much more capable camera, also a joy to use, and the 35mm lens on the X100VI happens to be my favourite focal length.

However, if you are starting on the hobby and looking for a camera that can help you become a better photographer, I would not hesitate to recommend the Leica D-Lux 8. Even if you eventually decide to upgrade to a bigger dSLR and start acquiring different lenses for it, there’s easily a case to be made for keeping the D-Lux 8 on the side as a secondary camera.

Or maybe you have a bigger camera setup already, but want something that’s easy to take with you wherever you go. And for some reason other options such as Fuji’s X100 series or a Ricoh GR do not entice you, then this might be just what you’re looking for.

Hopefully you found this mini review helpful. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I do my best to get back to you.

Here are a few more images I managed to take with the D-Lux 8:

Sami Paju 01/04/2025 Sami Paju 01/04/2025

Cropping Wide

Add to the versatility of a 24-35mm focal length by cropping your images using a widescreen aspect ratio.

For the longest time I thought of myself as the ”50mm” guy. It became my favourite focal length around 2012 or 2013, when I got the Olympus OM-D E-M5 and a 50mm equivalent f1.4 Panasonic Leica lens. Maybe part of the magic was just how good that lens was. To this day it remains the lens I have taken most photos with, even though I sold it in 2017 alongside most of my micro four thirds gear.

*Leica DG Summilux 25mm f1.4 lens on a micro four thirds camera. Cropped to 3:2 aspect ratio.*

As years passed I started to feel more comfortable with a wider focal length. Many of the photos I have taken with a 50mm lens now seem a bit too tight and crammed. I started wanting to see more of the context and the subject in its environment. I suspect a part of this shift in preferences has been due to owning a Fujifilm X100F that has a fixed 35mm equivalent f2 lens. I adored using that camera and took a whole bunch of photos with it.

*Fujifilm X100F. Cropped to 16:9 aspect ratio.*

What has taken me by surprise, however, is that during the past couple of years I have really started to gravitate towards photos that are shot with a 24-35mm focal length and cropped wide. And by wide I mean at least 16:9 but often even wider aspect ratios that you might see in movies. Namely 2.35:1 and 2.20:1.

*Fujifilm X100VI. Cropped to 2.35:1 aspect ratio.*

I really like that cinematic look and feel a wide aspect ratio brings. A couple years ago I bought a second-hand (or probably at least a third-hand, if not fourth-hand) Leica Q, which was originally released in 2015. The images that it creates blew my mind: 28mm f1.7 in a full frame sensor and cropped wide have an amazing feel to them.

Images shot with a 35mm focal length often also work well when cropped wide, but I don’t get the same feeling from photos shot at longer focal lengths. It’s also fairly usual that these wider focal lengths contain too much information or things that are less interesting in 3:2 framing. Cropping wide solves that AND creates a cinematic feel. Like the photo is a still from a movie.

Now obviously this does not work with all photos. There needs to be at least some distance between the camera and the subject. But I think the possibility to crop wide adds to the versatility of the 24-35mm focal length.

*Leica Q. Cropped to 2.35:1 aspect ratio.*

I was recently in Finnish Lapland with just a Ricoh GR with me. This is a camera that was released in 2013. It has a 16mpix APS-C sensor and fixed 28mm equivalent f2.8 lens. And holy damn did I love the photos that came out of it. But only after cropping them wide.

*Ricoh GR. Cropped to 2.20:1 aspect ratio.*

*Ricoh GR. Cropped to 1.85:1 aspect ratio.*

Every now and then I stumble upon an article or a video that talks about photographic style, and how one should go about discovering it. I have never before felt a pull towards a particular style or a particular way of shooting, so I have had a hard time with that advise. But perhaps now, for the first time in 20 years of being an amateur photographer, I am feeling that pull, and more importantly feel like I want to explore taking wide cinematic photos further. Or I might be just imagining things. There’s always a chance that this is just a fleeting interest. It remains to be seen.

Sami Paju 31/12/2024 Sami Paju 31/12/2024

Playing Board Games in 2024

My personal best and most-played board games of 2024.

I started keeping track of the games I’ve played in 2020 spring. In 2021 and 2022 I managed just short of 200 plays but in 2023 and 2024 the number has dropped to around 150. I am not entirely sure why that has happened, except for either me or my friends being ill, leading to canceled game nights. I have also played a lot less solo games, which can at least partly be explained by getting a PS5 after summer in 2023.

It was surprising to see how many games in 2024 have hit the table only once: my 153 plays included 83 different titles. In 2023 that number was even higher.

Since starting to keep records, I have now played 302 unique games. This includes only live plays. There are maybe a dozen more games that I’ve played only on Board Game Arena.

I do not like to rank games based on the number of plays, because it favors quick filler games. On the other hand, I also do not like to rank them based solely on cumulative playtime, because it favors games like Twilight Imperium, which we played once the entire year, but due to its length ranks #4 in game time. So consider this list of “best and most-played games of 2024” to be a somewhat subjective mixture of both.

Dune: War for Arrakis

3 plays - 10h 55m

I love the Dune IP. I’ve read the books multiple times and this lets me relive the events of the second half of the first book like no other Dune game.

Dune Imperium

3 plays - 7h 40m

I think this year solidified Dune Imperium as one of my all-time favorite games. It’s so interesting and tense every time I get to play it. I think I have also finally found my preferred way of playing it, which includes a customised intrigue deck and a partially included Immortality expansion with the Ix expansion.

I did get to play Dune Imperium: Uprising once. It was also great and I want to play it again, but right now I am leaning towards my setup of the original game due to Uprising being more swingy, whereas the original game seems more methodical.

Inventions

3 plays - 9h 15m

The new big Vital Lacerda game of 2024. At first I was a bit skeptical about this. It has the mechanism of building on top of what other players do that I enjoyed in CO2: Second Chance. But unlike other Lacerda games, the integration of theme to mechanisms is not as clear since the game takes place at a much more abstracted level than e.g. Lisboa, The Gallerist, or On Mars. Considering also how heavy the game is, and how much analysis paralysis it can lead to, the odds were not looking good for Inventions.

However, the gameplay is all about chasing combos and getting to what you want in a roundabout way. This gives ample opportunities to clever moves and it is really satisfying to do a huge turn with multiple linked actions.

Despite liking the game a lot, I am hesitant about keeping it. A normal Lacerda game is hard to get on the table and this seems even worse in that regard. So it might be that I end up giving up on Inventions just so that e.g. Lisboa has more chances to get played.

Horseless Carriage

3 plays - 8h 50m

I love the brain-burning part of this game where everyone builds up their car manufacturing plant in quiet agony. Only to realise two rounds later the horror of their mistakes. That puzzle is just so satisfying and interesting. So far no tile-laying game has manged to feel as awful in a good way as this. And then there’s the really interesting market mechanism, where you really need to pay attention to what other players are doing.

If I had to “run” the game and manage its fiddly components, I might be a bit colder on it, but since it’s a friend who owns a copy I can just enjoy playing this gem :)

Zhanguo: The First Empire

3 plays - 7h 20m

A surprisingly good euro game that feels classic but has way better and more interesting player interaction than most other euros where you compete for victory points. The card play can get really tense, your plans can get foiled by someone playing a card you didn’t expect, and timing your actions needs to be considered at all times.

I really hope this will get more playtime in 2025.

Arcs

3 plays - 6h 45m

Perhaps the most hyped game of 2024? And for a good reason, being from Cole Wehrle and Leder Games.

The more I play board games, the less I seem to enjoy games that are about direct conflict, unless they are 1v1 or 2v2. Arcs is a rare exception in this regard (alongside Kemet). I also don’t particularly like trick-taking games. Yet the way Arcs combines cardplay to everything else going on is spectacular. This is a game that rewards repeated plays and there is so much room to improve.

And I have not yet even tried the Blighted Reach campaign expansion. So there’s that to look forward to in 2025.

River of Gold

6 plays - 6h 10m

This was a completely unexpected surprise hit. A euro game that plays in about an hour or less, is quick to teach and has a lot of player interaction. No wonder then that it has gotten the most plays of any game this year.

Harmonies

2 plays - 55m

I have to mention this game despite it having so few plays, but the reason is that I only got it after Christmas. However, it has already proven to be a perfect fit for me and my wife, and I have high hopes that our 7yo daughter will pick this one up too, as the rules are not that complicated and she already loves playing Calico with us.

Let’s Go! To Japan

5 plays - 3h 35m

A great lazy Sunday afternoon game about planning your trip to Japan in the first phase of the game, and then executing that trip on the second phase. There could be more player interaction, but perhaps that would take away from the cozy experience that this game offers.

Capital Lux 2: Generations

3 plays - 1h 40m

A friend bought this gem of a filler game that has proven to be great end-of-night entertainment after bigger games. There is plenty of variability but the core gameplay is a great combination of hand management, pushing your luck and trying to read your opponents. Definitely worth looking into if you have missed out on this.

Endeavor: Deep Sea

3 plays - 4h 10m

The last game I want to mention on this list. Such a thematic departure from its predecessor, which makes the game more palatable, but also results in much more interesting mechanisms around ocean exploration, scientific research and conservation efforts. Overall a great midweight euro game that is quick to teach and plays in less than 90 minutes.

Sami Paju 11/09/2024 Sami Paju 11/09/2024

Meeting is a problem word

You don't have meetings outside work or other professional contexts. Or at least I hope you don't.

Instead, you meet a friend for coffee or lunch. Or you meet your mates to play football (or in my case, board games). You don't say you're having a meeting when visiting your parents.

You meet someone in order to do something, even if that something is just catching up and enjoying the company of the other person.

Yet in work contexts we overemphasise the meeting and pay little attention to the doing. Many meetings are such hodgepodges of topics that there is no room left for any kind of clarity on what was supposed to get done in the meeting.

So instead of just calling in a meeting, think first what you want to get done, and why you need to meet with other people in order to do that. Then bring that clarity to the meeting invitation: "we will meet in order to (insert reason here)" / "we will meet so that we can (purpose)."

Be brutally honest about the reason, and whether or not that reason is actually good enough to ask for other people's time. Time that they could spend on other tasks and activities instead.

In the words of Frank Herbert: "Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree."

If the real reason is that "we will meet so that we can satisfy the organisational requirement of having regular meetings," or "we will meet in order to have meetings because that is what we have done for the past 15 years," it might be time to try something different. There are other ways to communicate and collaborate.

Sami Paju 23/12/2023 Sami Paju 23/12/2023

What if… EU had its own cryptocurrency?

It should be tied to the value of EUR. Let's call it cEUR.

Not for everyday transactions, in the ways we use EUR right now, but specifically for EU funding.

Blockchain makes currency non-fungible. That means you can trace when each cEUR changes ownership. In normal currency, a 20 EUR bill is interchangeable with any other 20 EUR bill. In blockchain, each cEUR is unique.

Let's imagine EU funding was done in cEUR. From central bank to member states to different agencies and institutions. And when that funding is used to pay salaries or purchase goods and services, it would be converted to our everyday normal EUR: cEUR would return to the central bank, and the matching amount of EUR would be paid to the recipient.

The increased traceability allowed by cEUR would make it more difficult for corrupt officials to pocket the money, or use it in unintended ways. It might also increase efficiency, as increase in transparency and traceability usually mean less (manual) control structures are needed.

Ps. I like pondering different "what if" scenarios from time to time. Maybe I will make it a habit to post these online. And hopefully people will tell me why I am wrong or what important aspect I didn't consider, so that I will end up smarter ;)

This particular one was inspired by the recent EU-Hungary events. I would be surprised if at least some of that 10b EUR funding didn't end up in the pocket of Orban and his cronies.

Sami Paju 06/12/2023 Sami Paju 06/12/2023

3 ways to give the gift of a better world

Over the years I've tried to find ways to do something good with the financial means I have as a middle class person living in Finland. Considering that we're in the season of gift-giving, I thought to share some of these ideas. Perhaps writing this will also have a positive impact on its own.

Start compensating your CO2 footprint

My go-to choice is GoClimate, as you can set up a monthly subscription, their organisation is very lean, and their CO2 footprint calculator is dead simple with less than 10 questions. Considering our family of three that lives in an apartment building in Finland, drives a PHEV car and travels little, I pay GoClimate 20 € a month.

Set up a monthly donation to Kiva.org

Kiva is an organisation that provides micro-loans to entrepreneurs, educators, farmers, refugees etc. around the world.

These loans have very good repayment rates. Meaning that the money you donate monthly ends up growing as time goes by. This leads to compounding positive impact over the long term, as you accumulate more and more capital with which to support different people and projects.

I am donating $10 a month and lent altogether $350, of which $127 have been repaid. That money has then been put back to use to provide more loans. I have supported family-run coffee farms in South America and initiatives that provide education to women in Africa, for example.

Support an artist or creator in Patreon

Patreon is a modern way to become a patron of arts. You don't need to be a renaissance banker to make a difference. When there are hundreds or thousands of people who contribute few bucks a month to an artist, it can enable them to focus full-time on pursuing their gift and create something meaningful. In niche music genres such as metal, a band that goes touring often ends up losing money, or barely covering their expenses, so every bit helps!

Pick someone who you think does important work that resonates with you and start supporting them. For example, take a loot at what the independent musician Ren is doing: how his songs have touched the soul of so many people and shone a light on mental illness.

As for creators, do you have a hobby? Are there people in YouTube or elsewhere doing something that helps you with it? Or makes you enjoy the hobby even more? How about supporting them with a recurring or one-off donation as a means of expressing thanks? I love board games and am ever thankful to Shut Up & Sit Down for bringing the hobby into life in a way that I never thought possible, which is why I happily donate $10 a month to help them keep the lights on and put food on the table.

Here are my ideas and suggestions for a different kind of Christmas gift. What are yours? What would you add to the list?

Sami Paju 18/02/2023 Sami Paju 18/02/2023

Playing Board Games in 2022

Overall, 2022 was comparable to 2021. I played almost the same number of games (196) as the previous year (193), but there were more unique titles (101 vs. 88). This made it more difficult to pick out clear winners, which is why I have also been procrastinating writing this post.

2022 was the year I got into Board Game Arena. A couple friends and I tried quite a few games there, playing asynchronously. The ones that saw most plays were Barrage, Beyond the Sun, Carnegie, Gaia Project and Great Western Trail.

When it comes to playing games live, I track both the number of plays and the time it takes to finish a game, excluding setup and teach.

When looking at the number of plays, these are the games that stand out most:

When including also the time spent playing a game, a few more titles get added to the list:

Merv

Nemesis: Lockdown

Renature

Coffee Traders

You may think this is my "top 10 of 2022," but that would be incorrect. While I enjoyed Nemesis and Merv for a while, I eventually sold both. As I said last year, the games that got the most plays weren't necessarily the most memorable gaming experiences of the year.

Looking back, the following games stand out as personal highlights:

Pax Renaissance (2nd edition). Ok, this also was my most played game of the year, and has actually become my most played game ever. Which is quite something, because it’s also a game I refuse to teach to anyone. It’s a beast to learn, but when you start playing, it’s surprisingly smooth and quick. And it’s one of the most fascinating games that I know.

Carnegie. This one actually came out in 2022. The first time I played it, I didn’t particularly like it. But then I tried it again, discovered it has one of the best solo modes I’ve ever seen, and I’ve also played it a bunch online. Definitely my top pick when it comes to games that were published last year and I got to play (Yes, I’ve tried Ark Nova. It was ok.).

Grand Austria Hotel. I was hesitant to purchase this game, as on the surface it seemed a bit too dry for my tastes. I decided to try it out first from the library and discovered that the theme and mechanisms work together surprisingly well. It is also a great two-player game. It is tight, has a lot of variability, and isn't overlong.
Anachrony. I was late to jump on this bandwagon, although I had looked into the game multiple times before. What finally got me to get the Essential Edition (+ minis) was this fantastic how-to-play video, which made me understand the theme and how all the mechanisms fit together. While the game doesn't do anything particularly new, what it does, it does extremely well. I also like the way the game handles time travel. Plus, it plays surprisingly smoothly - at least, without expansions. After hearing so much praise, I also bought Fractures of Time and was disappointed. It added complexity and depth but also killed the flow of the base game. The expansion will not stay, but the base game will definitely get more plays in the future.

Age of Steam. A classic. I didn't particularly enjoy my first game, but when we tried a different map, I started to really like it. This game is very tight; a single mistake can cost you the victory. However, the rules are not overly complicated and there is lots of player interaction and table talk. It is a heavy and lengthy game, and the theme and aesthetics may not be for everyone, but it is a whole lot of fun!

What were your most memorable gaming experiences of 2022? And what are you looking forward to in 2023?

At the time of writing this, I have finally gotten my copy of Stationfall, which I expected already in 2022, and Dune: Imperium is also waiting to get on the table with the new Immortality expansion. I have managed to play Horseless Carriage once and will definitely want more. Dungeon Degenerates has also seen quite a few solo plays in January.

Then there are the kickstarters that are supposed to arrive this year: Fractal, Beast, Shikoku 1889 (my first 18xx!), and a few others… We’ve also gotten Twilight Imperium 4 on the table with another game scheduled for April. This year is looking good!

Sami Paju 14/10/2022 Sami Paju 14/10/2022

When Bloodborne Met Stable Diffusion

Ingredient 1: I've been playing Bloodborne again for the past few weeks. Of all the From Software games (although I haven't played Demon’s Souls and Elden Ring yet) it's probably my favourite. I think it has the most interesting story, a great combat system and it just oozes style and design.

Ingredient 2: I learnt about DreamStudio and Lexica also a few weeks ago. DreamStudio provides access to an AI system that generates images from text. Lexica is a search engine for those images with their corresponding prompts.

Ingredient 3: I have Soul Arts on my shelf. A book that was kickstarted and is full of beautiful art, (re)imagining different aspects of various From Software games.

Now let's see what will happen when those three things are combined, with some visual styling added into the mix!

A gothic lakeside town, sunset, reflection, bloodborne by from software, studio ghibli, horror, highly detailed, volumetric lighting, octane render, 4k

The first experiment above turned out way better than expected. Having browsed Lexica before, I had some idea about what instructions to give in addition to the actual subject matter that I wanted to see.

Gothic haunted village with fanged beast stalking streets in moonlight, volumetric lighting, oil painting, exquisite detail, 4k, bloodborne by from software, studio ghibli, horror

I generated three images and this I felt captured best what I intended, though not quite there, so let’s adjust the prompt a little a bit…

Gothic city street where a fanged beast is stalking in moonlight, volumetric lighting, concept art, painterly, exquisite detail, 4k, bloodborne by from software, horror

I am still missing the kind of fanged beast I’d like to see. In addition, two out of three of the generated images contained rather distracting visual artifacts, such as a street lamp hanging on empty air. Oh well. Now let’s see if we can do something a bit more intimate…

A blacksmith forging a weapon in an outdoor smithy on a hill, autumn, smoke, fire, volumetric lighting, highly detailed, sinister atmosphere, muted colors, in style of Leonardo Da Vinci

Here you can see many of the visual artifacts and oddities that seem quite characteristic to these AI-generated images, and were present also in some of the other images I generated: the person in the middle has face and limbs missing, the buildings in the background are just weird and wrong, and something horrible is going on with the right arm of the character on the right.

From what I’ve seen browsing Lexica, landscapes and cityscapes seem to generate best results.

Deep within the sepulcher traipses a caustic creature filled with bitter anguish, concept art, horror, bloodborne by from software, octane render, 4k, highly detailed, volumetric lighting

The first part of the prompt in the above image is almost word-by-word from one of the image descriptions in Soul Arts. The result is nothing like the image in the book, but I find it absolutely mind-blowing that an AI can create such results from a few esoteric words of text. It’s not only that the images would depict what is written, but it is the overall style in them that I find truly astonishing. All the examples above, and even the images that “went wrong” by having too many mistakes in them, are stylistically very consistent. For example, there’s no mixing of anime style cartoon characters and painterly landscapes.

This makes me wonder what skilled artists could do, when a tool like this will allow them to quickly explore different concepts, pick up the stuff they find interesting and inspiring, and then proceed to create their own work.

If you want your mind to be truly blown, go and see what has been created by using ‘Studio Ghibli’ or ’Dark Tower’ as one of the prompts. Some of the results are absolutely gorgeus and, if created by human, could only be called imaginative.

Have a lovely weekend! ;-)

Sami Paju 10/08/2022 Sami Paju 10/08/2022

In Search of a Sustainable Pace

The Manifesto for Agile Software Development was published in 2001. It consists of four values and twelve principles. One of the principles states that “Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.” Not for the duration of a project, a sprint, a workweek or a client assignment, but as long as we are part of the working life. Yet how often do we consider the crunch time and long days at the end of a project, or a particularly busy time of the year, just part of the work? Or just the way things are around here?

What if we would treat that crunch time not as a feature but as a bug? As a sign that something is wrong in the way we plan and execute work. Because as long as it is treated as a feature of the work, there is no reason to do anything about it.

In the book Effortless, Greg McKeown retells the story of a race to the South Pole: In 1911 two teams attempted to be the first ones to reach it. One was lead by Captain Robert Falcon Scott from Great Britain, and the other by Roald Amundsen from Norway. Scott’s approach was to take advantage of the good weather days and drive his team to exhaustion, and move hardly at all on bad weather days, cursing the weather and complaining in his journal. Amundsen, on the other hand, insisted on progressing 15 miles towards the destination every single day, no matter what. Some days were more difficult than others, but even when the weather was good, his team stopped after having reached their daily goal. Even when it would have been easy to push further. Even when reaching the South Pole would have required just a few extra miles for the day.

Insisting on steady pace and plenty of rest also saw Amundsen’s team return home safely, “without particular effort,” whereas Scott’s team ended up so exhausted and demoralized that they all froze to death on the way back.

When the training regime of Olympic-level athletes was studied, the researchers found that of all the training hours, 88.7 % were light intensity and only 4.8 % were high intensity. The takeaway is to exert only so much effort that you are capable of recovering from it for the next day. Being intentional about slow but steady progress ensures that the going will be smooth, and as demonstrated by Amundsen and his team, in the long run smooth is also fast.

The same principle is evident in lean production, where a common starting point is to control and reduce demand variability. This creates conditions for smooth, high-performing processes with little wasted effort, energy and resources.

Now the question is, what would you need to change in your own work to create conditions for making smooth and steady progress? McKeown suggests that we should define not just a lower bound for our daily work (e.g. the to-do list for the day), but also the upper bound (sticking to that list and making it easy enough that we can succeed in finishing it off). And when we have reached that upper bound, we should take cue from Amundsen and do something to rest, recover and reflect. Rinse and repeat. Day after day.

In my mind this approach also shifts the focus away from pursuing efficiency. In knowledge work there is always more work to be done than can be done. As said by Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, “efficiency leads to us feeling busier and busier about less important things.” Efficiency is a never-ending quest. Getting more done faster will not exhaust the amount of work there is to be done. New demands, tasks, projects and ideas will fill that void. Eventually the pursuit of efficiency becomes a trap that will leave you exhausted and demoralised. There is always more you could have done. The first step in escaping the trap is to recognise that it exists.

I for one aim to experiment setting upper and lower bounds during the next 2-3 months. This means looking at different demands, seeing how they could be managed to avoid crunch time (i.e. controlling demand variability to the extent that is possible), and planning my workdays so that they can be recovered from.

I wish you all a wonderful, sustainable and smooth autumn!

Sami Paju 10/06/2022 Sami Paju 10/06/2022

A Look Beyond Agile Methods and Frameworks

“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is easy to get lost in the rabbit hole that is Agile. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of different frameworks and methodologies. What started as a declaration by software development consultants to deal with toxic work environments has since spread to other work domains and sprouted a movement towards organisational agility. It is not enough anymore for delivery teams or projects to be agile, but entire organisations are also pushing towards better adaptability and responsiveness to change. And there are frameworks for that too. With an army of consultants purveying them.

I did not learn about Agile the usual way, which is to be involved in software development. I did work in large-scale IT implementation projects for a few years, but those were anything but agile. My journey started by first studying innovation and entrepreneurship. I was trying to understand experimentation-driven development, where instead of making a plan from beginning to end, you focus on step-by-step learning and let the plan emerge as you make progress and gather empirical evidence.

As I was contrasting this seemingly more chaotic way to get things done to the project experience I had, I came upon a revelation: fundamentally, what we are talking about when we compare a planning-driven approach to a more agile and iterative, experimentation-driven one, is strategy for dealing with complexity and uncertainty.

In a traditional plan & control approach we assume that uncertainties can be resolved when making the plan. We know what we don’t know. Therefore we can make a plan for creating that missing knowledge AND (crucially!) we can predict what impact that missing knowledge will have on the rest of the plan or the project outcome. Same goes for risk management, where the assumption is that project risks can be identified at the outset and contingency plans can be created for dealing with them.

If we look beyond the agile methods and frameworks, what we are really talking about is epistemology. What can be known? How is knowledge created? What will its impact be? The real big difference that Agile brought, first to software development and then elsewhere, was not the tools, the methods, or even the culture, but the shift in thinking, mindset and the way we see the world.

Agile starts with the assumption that the (project) outcome and the way to get to that outcome are uncertain. And it’s not the “known unknowns” kind of uncertainty that is expected in a plan & control approach, but that nastier unforeseeable uncertainty, or unknown unknowns. It’s not only that we don’t know what we don’t know, but by definition we cannot know until after the fact. And this may be hard to grasp, as it was for the manager who made it to the Real Life Dilbert Moments by saying "What I need is a list of specific unknown problems we will encounter."

Everything will be affected by how you view the world: organisational strategy and structures, team practices, processes, tools, behaviours, culture... The approach you take will come down to seeing the world as inherently predictable and subject to careful planning, or as complex, unpredictable, continuously emerging and unfolding.

This is why so many organisations are having trouble adopting agile tools and methods. They try to operate them with a mindset that is firmly rooted in classical Newtonian / Cartesian deterministic worldview. I would suggest a better approach is to practice becoming more sensitive to uncertainty. Plan what can be planned and controlled, and use a different set of tools for what can’t.

Other sources and references:

Pich, M. T., Loch, C. H., & De Meyer, A. (2002). On Uncertainty, Ambiguity, and Complexity in Project Management. Management Science, Vol. 48, No. 8, 1008-1023.

Louth, Jonathon (2011). From Newton To Newtonianism: Reductionism And The Development Of The Social Sciences. Emergence: Complexity & Organization, Vol. 13, No. 4, 63-83.

Sami Paju 11/01/2022 Sami Paju 11/01/2022

How Collaboration Agreements Lead to Better Meetings

Whether online or in-person, it is not uncommon for meeting participants to be doing anything but focusing on the topic at hand. And I get it. It is often worthwhile to take a hard look on the purpose and process of the meeting itself.

However, there's another side to the story that has nothing to do with us feeling like we'd rather be doing something else. It's just that we get easily distracted. We get a notification banner about a new email, glance at the text, and suddenly our thoughts are being carried away from the discussion and into our inboxes. All of it happens mostly on autopilot. We don't even think about it. Nowhere in that chain of events do we make a conscious decision about shifting our attention elsewhere.

One way to avoid these quirks of human nature and to have better, more focused meetings with artful participation and without coercion, is to take a little time and create a collaboration agreement for the meeting.

Simply put, ask people to discuss in pairs "what behavioural rules or principles should we all agree to, so that our time together will be productive and well spent?" A few minutes later, you can ask people to share what they discussed with the rest of the group.

I've run this exercise dozens of times in the beginning of workshops and important meetings, and every time people bring up the same things:

Focus on the topic at hand.
Close unneeded programs.
Put the phone on silent and out of sight.
Listen to what others have to say.
Don't be afraid to ask questions and clarifications.
Manage your own well-being (i.e. if you need to take a break, you can do it respectfully and the others can also recognise your need for a break with empathy.)

When someone proposes how we should act in the meeting, ask the rest of the group how they feel about the proposal. You can do this, for example, by calling a Roman vote where everyone puts their fist in toward the group (or the camera) and shows either:

Thumb up, indicating agreement with the proposal
Thumb sideways, indicating consent or agreement to move forward
Thumb down, indicating disagreement or concerns with moving forward

You can even do a quick Forms poll in Teams meetings to gauge initial reactions to the proposal. If there are no thumbs down, the proposal gets recorded into the collaboration agreement. Otherwise those concerns need to be addressed. Ask, for example, "what would need to change for the proposal to work for you?" After further discussion and refinement you can call in another vote to check for consensus.

The beauty of this method is that it is not the person leading the meeting who dictates to others how they should behave. Instead, everyone agrees together. This is what it means to create consensus. By starting a meeting in this manner, people also learn immediately that they have a voice in the shared meeting process.

It takes about 10-15 minutes to run this activity, so it's not beneficial for very short meetings. Unless those meetings are recurring. In that case you can do the collaboration agreement once, spending a little more time on it. Then at the beginning of every future meeting, you show the collaboration agreement as a reminder of what has been agreed together, and ask if anyone wants to propose changes or new items to be added.

Happy 2022! May your meetings be energizing and productive!

Sami Paju 01/01/2022 Sami Paju 01/01/2022

Playing Board Games in 2021

I've always enjoyed board games, but it wasn't until 2017 that I really got into the hobby. It has since become probably the most important social activity that I have. A container for having good time with friends.

When the pandemic hit in spring 2020, I started keeping track of the games I played. This was mostly to remind myself that even though we were not playing face-to-face as often as before, we were still enjoying games together, thanks to Tabletopia and Tabletop Simulator. And even though in-person gaming has since returned, I never stopped tracking my plays of different games.

All in all I got to play 193 games in 2021, consisting of 88 unique titles. Meaning individual plays of a game, with the exception of some family games where a single play is so short that it makes more sense to track sessions instead. Only 16 of these plays were online.

The above figures do not include board games I play as mobile apps. I usually have at least one asynchronous game of Through the Ages and Yellow & Yangtze ongoing any given time. I've also played quite a few games of Root this way, and some games of Scythe and Terraforming Mars. The latter two I wouldn't mind playing even more, but unfortunately the matchmaking for asynchronous gameplay works so poorly that it could be considered broken.

When it comes to my most played games of 2021, I keep track of the time spent playing a game, and not just how many times it hits the table. Based on this, the games I've played the most in 2021 are:

Twilight Imperium 4th Edition (2 plays, 15h 55m)
Dune Imperium (6 plays, 12h 50m)
Stroganov (5 plays, 10h 15m)
Excavation Earth (4 plays, 9h 50m)
Lost Ruins of Arnak (7 plays, 9h 10m)
Kanban EV (4 plays, 9h 5m)

I thought I’d finally be done with *Twilight Imperium 4* after this summer when we had to look for one edge case after another in the rulebook, making the game grind to a halt a little too often. But no. There is just nothing else like it.

Dune Imperium and Lost Ruins of Arnak are the clear "winners" of 2021 as far as I'm concerned. I've played both games solo and with other people, and I am looking forward to playing both more in 2022 with the upcoming expansions.

Stroganov is a game that is not even out yet here in Finland, but I took a liking to it and played it quite a bit on Tabletopia last spring, when its Kickstarter campaign was running.

Half of my plays of Excavation Earth are solo. I think there is something counterintuitive with how it plays, which makes it hard for new players to grasp. I almost put it for sale at one point, but eventually decided against it. It's a fascinating game and plays differently from anything else I have.

Soloing *Excavation Earth.* Such a gorgeous looking game!

For some reason it is really difficult for me to grasp how to be efficient in Kanban EV. It is also a beast to set up on the table. I ended up selling my copy, but have played it online since, and wouldn't mind playing more of it. It's not my favourite Vital Lacerda game (that honor goes to Lisboa), and The Gallerist has found its way on my table more times this year too.

Looking purely at how many times a game has been played, the following titles stand out in addition to the ones already mentioned:

High Society (8 plays, 4h 20m)
Babylonia (7 plays, 3h 45m)
The Gallerist (5 plays, 7h 45m)
Pax Viking (5 plays, 7h 30m)
The King Is Dead 2nd Edition (5 plays, 1h 55m)

I’ve played almost all Vital Lacerda games and owned most of them. Only *The Gallerist* (above) and *Lisboa* remain on my shelf.

High Society is probably the most fun I've ever had with a board game. Pretty much all the plays this year took place within a week with my relatives. They just wanted to keep playing it and nothing else.

Babylonia is a fantastic game that replaced Samurai on my shelf. It also received a lot of plays during the summer with my relatives.

Pax Viking was enjoyable but after 5 plays I felt I had enough of it and sold my copy.

Restricting the data to a calendar year means that some games are at a disadvantage. Due to this it's worth also mentioning Fort and Yedo Deluxe, which have gotten a lot of plays, and would have made the list had I extended the time frame by a couple of months. Gaia Project has also received a lot of attention from me, but mainly as a solo game.

Lastly, the games that get played often are not necessarily the most memorable gaming experiences of the year. Some of the highlights of 2021 have been Pax Renaissance 2nd Edition, which I played 3 games in a row with a friend. We just wanted to keep at it game after game. Iki proved to be an absolute delight that I got to experience in November for the first time. Calico, which I bought on a Black Friday sale, has become a surprise hit that our 4-year-old also likes to pretend-play alongside us.

The new edition of *Pax Renaissance* looks absolutely stunning!

When it comes to 2022, I am looking forward to the expansions to Dune Imperium and Lost Ruins of Arnak, as well as some new releases and Kickstarter deliveries including Carnegie, Nemesis Lockdown, The Transcontinental, and Stationfall. I also hope to get at least a semi-regular group together for playing Oath, which I got on the table only once in 2021.

And maybe when we move to a new apartment in March, we can finally fit a big enough dining table for playing Coffee Traders...

Have a great 2022! ;-)

Sami Paju 26/12/2021 Sami Paju 26/12/2021

Thoughts on Winter Frost

It was late last night that I finally got my second collection of images ready. I felt so tired towards the end that it was hard to focus on the text on my computer screen. But damned if I didn’t finish it on this sitting, as I had expected to have it out there already a month go…

As I was already behind schedule, I opted to go with OpenSea again. Although I am very curious about e.g. Algorand, which seems to combine NFTs with eco-friendly activities such as planting trees. I wouldn’t mind donating my proceeds from NFT sales towards mitigating climate change. And speaking of mitigation, you might want to take a look at GoClimate (formerly GoClimateNeutral), which has a very simple emissions calculator and offers a way to offset your personal CO2 footprint via monthly payments.

My first collection of images was very much a ‘Greatest Hits’ type of thing. This time I wanted to tell a story. It was meant as a 5x5 (5 images, 5 copies of each available for sale), but in the end I added a sixth image as a sort of an epilogue.

When it comes to the overall mood, I have been listening to a lot of Swallow the Sun, Atlas, and Kauan while curating and editing these images. Let’s just take a moment to appreciate what a year 2021 has been at least for metal fans! When tours got canceled, many artists put their energy into writing and recording music. And it shows. Soen, Seven Spires, Leprous, and Cradle of Filth have been killing it!

Hope you enjoy the collection and as I am still very much tipping my toes into NFTs, all good advise is appreciated!