Podcasts about barry o

Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 1 Pandemic Survivors, Harems and the Pacific Northwest. Based on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels. To combat the deadly Duo Halo virus, the government will change the lives of Harrison Black and his friends out in the hills of Oregon. In return, Harrison finds a new purpose to his life in the midst of losing his family history. The House Guest. I glanced away again, relatively certain that Erica hadn't noticed my involuntary glance down at her cleavage but not overly worried. The grocery store parking lot was only half full, but we were waiting out front and I felt like we were in a bread line in Soviet Russia. The only good news was that it was a warm spring for Oregon State, and a clear day, so Erica and I weren't bundled up in jackets or anything. Of course, we were still getting used to the masks. "This feels ridiculous," Erica said, adjusting the bandana covering her lower face. She'd done her makeup as usual, with soft but smoky eyeshadow, and her thick dark hair was pulled back in a messy bun. Erica was a well-put-together lady, with the hips and bust of a woman who had aged perfectly into her thirties. I'd known her through our late twenties, and I wasn't ashamed to say I thought she'd only gotten hotter with time. Her black jeans clung to her hips and ass, and the black sweater she was wearing unzipped over a ripped band t-shirt accented the v of her cleavage that I'd been trying not to glance at. "At least it's not the middle of winter," I said. "Imagine this going on in January, in a snowstorm?" "We'll never need to see that," said the old man in front of us in line. He was wearing a hunting gaiter, but it was riding low on his upper lip. "This ain't the first virus, it won't be the last. Couple of weeks and the panic will die down. We'll have practically forgotten it by the fall, I bet." "Hopefully," Erica nodded. They'd announced the quarantine two weeks ago, and it had gone into effect last week. My roommate Leo and I had invited Erica, his sister, up from Portland; she was going to be cooped up in her apartment alone for the two-week shutdown and we had plenty of space on my old family property. Erica had made the drive the day before the statewide quarantine kicked in, having locked up the Tattoo Parlor she managed, and it had been a week of sun, hiking and ATV tours through the property, along with teaching her how to throw an axe and shoot some archery. Next week we were planning to show her the ropes on gun safety, and let her try out some of my grandfather's old hunting rifles. Erica was game for it all, and it felt like a mini vacation for all three of us. What Leo and I hadn't planned for was making meals for three instead of two, and so now a week in Erica and I were braving a trip into town trying to figure out exactly what we were and weren't supposed, or allowed, to do. Erica turned to say something to me, but her sentence was cut off by the heavy thrum and backfiring of a pair of ugly pickups rumbling into the parking lot of the grocery store on jacked-up wheels, halfway to 'monster truck.' They parked near the back, near my own truck, both vehicles with the stupid 'truck nuts' swinging from the hitches on the back and one of them with a big confederate flag sticker in the back window. "Jesus, I thought rednecks were supposed to come from the South," Erica muttered. "There are rednecks in every part of every country," I sighed. "Ask me about German rednecks sometime. Those people are weird." Five men unloaded from the two pickups, and I could see someone still sitting inside one of the cabs. I immediately took in everything I needed to know about the men; my brain couldn't shut off the instinct. Five military-aged males, three who looked like they could handle a bit of a fight. None of them were carrying firearms, no obvious sign of concealed weapons, but several had utility knives sheathed on their belts. Not that uncommon out here in the foothills of western Oregon. Three of them were wearing army surplus combat boots, one was wearing what looked like steel-toe construction boots, and one was wearing hiking boots. Their clothes were blue-collar casual. Rough, in other words. None of them were wearing any form of a mask. The debate was still out in the news; first, we were supposed to wear masks, then they said it wasn't going to be helpful, and now they were saying wearing masks might be the most important thing. Everyone seemed confused about the issue, but everyone in line outside the grocery store was wearing one of some sort or other. "Are they seriously going to just?" Erica muttered. The rednecks were heading straight for the entrance to the store, looking to bypass the ten or so folks in line ahead of us and another six behind us. I could see the panic in the eyes of the pimple-faced teen manning the door. He had no fucking clue what to do about it. "Ah, shit," I muttered, already stepping out of line. "Harrison," Erica cautioned me. "It's not worth it. What's the point?" "If not me, then who?" I asked her, then raised my fingers to my lips and blasted a whistle that echoed across the parking lot. Everyone turned and looked at me. All the folks in line, the rednecks as they were about to bull their way past the boy, and the beleaguered kid who I'd already watched bumble through explaining the line to annoyed people, let these alone belligerent assholes. "Hey," I yelled, but tried to keep my voice more friendly than commanding. "How about you guys show some respect to the folks out here and just grab a spot in line?" "How about you suck my nuts? We aren't sheeple, we know our rights," one of them yelled. "Yeah, this place can't deny us service, we've got rights," another shouted. "There's a difference between rights and being polite," I said. "Old folks are waiting to get their groceries, you boys can wait fifteen minutes." "You got a problem with us?" Another one shouted. "You know who the fuck we are?" "Harrison," Erica sighed. "I ain't got a goddamn clue who you are," I said. "And I don't care beyond the fact that you're acting like assholes." Two of them immediately started coming towards me down the line, the other three hesitating a moment before following. Fuck. I'd been hoping they were just some bully idiots, but the two in the lead were way angrier than they should have been. "Take a few steps back and don't get involved, E," I said quietly. "I'll be fine, but you can't get involved, Okay?" "Harry, what the actual fuck? There are five of them. This is a fucking parking lot. We should just call the cops!" she whispered back. "I'd listen to your fella," the old guy in the gaiter said. "We got one State Trooper somewhere in thirty square miles of here; would likely take too long to do any good." "You wanna say that to my face, you fucking fuck?" one of the men said. I'd taken a few more steps out of line, and he got up within a foot of me with his teeth bared and a fist raised threateningly. "I'm a god damned sovereign citizen, and I got every right to protect my dignity, honor and good name against fucks like you." "Yeah," I said, looking down at him as I breathed in deep and let my full size loom over him. The guy was probably 6'1 or so, but I was 6'6 in my stockings and had an extra couple inches over that from my own hiking boots. "I said you guys are acting like assholes, and otherwise I could give one single shit about who you think you are." "You motherfucker, I'm gonna," "Harrison?" One of the three guys in the back asked. He was one of the ones I'd identified as not being much of a fighter. "Harrison Black, right? You played Defensive End at Eisenhower." "Uh, yeah," I said. "That was a while ago though..." "Oh man, dude. It's me, Barry O'Callahan. I was a year behind you," the guy said. "Guys, this dude almost single-handedly ran our high school defense. Didn't you end up joining the military or something?" "Yeah, yeah," I said, squinting and looking at Barry. "Really? Barry O?" "Heh, yeah I filled out a bit since I was a junior," the man laughed, his gut jiggling with the effort. "And then I filled out a bit more. How are you doing, man? When did you get out of the service?" "Well, I'm doing fine, Barry. Been out going on seven years. But this is a bit awkward," I said. The interruption had been as confusing a moment for the two hotheads in their group as it had been for me. They were looking back and forth between us, trying to decide if they were still mad at me, or mad at Barry, or were just giving it up. "Oh, yeah. Uh, don't worry guys, Harrison is cool, Okay?" Barry said. "Dude, are you just in the area visiting or what?" "I've been up at the family place for the last few years since Pop died," I said. "Oh man, I'm sorry," Barry said. "But hey, can't believe we didn't run into each other until now. Who'd a thunk, huh? Here dude, you should come out to the clubhouse sometime. We'll grab some brews, catch a game or something." Barry pulled a crumpled matchbook out of his shirt pocket and handed it to me. The front had a WWII-style blonde pinup girl on a navy background with a white star behind her, invoking the flag. The Golden Beaver and an address was printed in tiny letters on the backside. It would have been a funnier innuendo if they weren't referencing the Oregon state flag. "Yeah, maybe," I said. "Come on, guys," Barry said, slapping his two hot head friends on the shoulders. "Let's get in line. Nice seeing you, Harrison." "Yeah, you too Barry," I said. And then shook my head as the five men headed back towards the end of the line. "What the fuck was that?" Erica asked me as I joined her back in line, and we moved up a couple spaces as the teen at the door let more people into the store. "Honestly, I thought I was about to spend the night in county lockup," I said. "Fuckin' Barry O." "He seemed like a fan of yours," Erica smirked. "Big high school football star, huh?" "I was a little above average at best," I said. "And I wasn't an idiot. Easy to look good when the rest of the team sucks." I looked down at the matchbook again and shook my head, showing it to Erica. She snorted and took it. "Is this real? Please tell me you aren't going to go join their little redneck club." "Not likely," I said. "It's a wannabe militia group. Bunch of swinging cocks with no sway." "What?" "Cause they're so small. It's a tiny penis joke." Erica smirked again and rolled her eyes. "You child. Can you do me a favor?" "What's that?" I asked. "Maybe, for the foreseeable future, you keep the whole Walking Tall routine to a minimum?" "I'm sorry, did you just make a Dwayne Johnson, early 2000s movie reference?" "Yeah, I did," Erica grinned. "What are you going to do about it?" "We need to get you to watch some better movies," I laughed. "Hey, son," the old man ahead of us said quietly. "Seriously, could you have taken those guys?" I glanced back at them at the end of the line, muttering to each other. "Probably, if I was right. If I got three of them, the other two wouldn't have done anything." "Heh. Would have liked to have seen that," the old man grinned. "Don't encourage him," Erica said. "He hasn't gotten into a fight on my watch yet, I don't want him to start now." "Yeah," I said. "But that's mostly because you're the one who usually starts throwing punches at the bar." "Hey, a guy gets handsy, I put him in his place," Erica shrugged. "No 'Walking Tall' shit, my ass," I snorted. "You two make a fine, rowdy couple," the old man said. "Oh, we're not a couple," Erica said. "Just friends," I said. "He's my brother's roommate," Erica clarified. "I'm just visiting." The old man raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "Alright. Well, maybe you two should consider toning down the flirting then. You're likely to attract bears with all the hormones you're putting out." "Erica, Erica! No, you cannot punch him," I said, holding her back. "Hey, Erica? Can we talk to you for a minute?" Erica looked up from her phone with a cocked eyebrow and a pensive smile. I immediately realized how weird and out of character our approach was. She was lounging on the couch in the living room, her sketchbook tossed to the side with a half-finished something scribbled out in frustration like she'd been trying to work but just couldn't get it right. I knew how she felt, having had the same frustrations ever since the quarantine had been announced. "Sure guys, what's up?" she asked. I let Leo sit down next to his sister on the couch as she sat up, and I took my usual chair. It had been my Father's up until he passed; I'd avoided it the first month after he died and I took over the family homestead. Then when my older sister Valerie and her family came to stay for that summer, she practically pushed me into it. 'It's just a chair,' became our catchphrase for the summer as we sorted through the belongings of our parents and grandparents. "I'm sorry," I said as I settled into the chair. "This is already coming off weird. Erica, it's nothing." "You're making it seem like it's something," Erica said. She turned to her twin. "What's going on?" Leo and Erica were both a couple of years older than me, but once you were into your early thirties that kind of stuff meant a lot less. Leo had the looks of a classic Italian paisan with thick dark hair, a hawk beak of a nose and bushy eyebrows. He was built thin and a little lanky, and was usually ready with an eager smile and word of encouragement for anyone he met. That's probably why we'd gotten along so well when we started rooming together; his positive attitude had been just what I needed coming out of the Army. Erica had a lot of the same features as her brother; the thick dark hair, the ready smile, the energetic sparkle in her eyes; but she also had a sensuality to her that I can't say I'd ever noticed in Leo. She was a little more patient, a little more sure of herself and willing to take charge of things. And that control went all the way to her fitness, as she hadn't let herself slide even through quarantine. Leo sighed. "No, it's nothing. Well, I mean I guess it's something, but it's not," "How about we just say it, instead of talking about talking about it?" I said. "Yeah," Erica nodded. "How about that?" "Well, uh, Harrison?" Leo looked at me, which I guess was fair considering this was my house at the end of the day. "Erica, we're almost a month into the quarantine now," I said. "I know that when we invited you down out of the city to stay with us, it was supposed to only be for a couple of weeks. 'Two weeks to flatten the curve' and all that shit. But things don't seem to be getting any better." "No, it's fine," Erica said, sitting up straighter in her seat and pulling away from her brother. "I know I've been imposing on you guys. It's fine, I can head back down to Portland and I'll just," "Jesus Christ, Erica," Leo said. "We're not kicking you out." "You're not?" she asked. I realized that she was clenching her fists in her lap so hard she was trembling slightly. "Not a shot, E," I said. "We just wanted to make sure that you knew we want you to stay as long as you want or need. We love having you here." For the first time in my life, I saw Erica's lower lip tremble. "Really?" she asked. Back in the city she was the manager of one of the most successful tattoo and piercing parlors in the state, herding artsy workers that acted like cats with constant access to catnip. Erica was firm but fair with her artists, managed a clientele that ran the gamut from rich and entitled assholes to meth'd out deadbeats, and kept her own skills sharp with constant discipline and practice. Every time we had hung out in the years before the quarantine, I'd always been struck by how forceful a personality she was; she could smack talk with the best of them, manhandle a drunk in a bar like an experienced bouncer, and laughed loud and full-bellied. Seeing her on the verge of tears was a shock, and I realized we probably should have had this talk two weeks ago. "Yes, of course we do," I said. "God, you're practically family, Erica. I don't think I could let you go back and stay in the city right now. We love you." The damn burst and as thick tears began to pour over her cheeks and streak her dark eyeliner she reached out and pulled Leo into a hug with one arm. She beckoned for me with the other and I crossed the space to wrap her up in a hug as well. "Thank you," she whispered quietly between us. "I know you guys wouldn't; but still. Everything going on out there, and the way the city is right now... I just didn't" "It's going to be fine," Leo said to his sister, squeezing her harder. "You'll see." She kissed him on the cheek, then turned and kissed me on the cheek as well. "Thank you." I gave her a bit of a squeeze in return. "We'll need to go get some more of your stuff, I guess. You only came down here with a duffle bag." She laughed. "God, yes," she said and tried to wipe her tears. "I can go up there. I could use some more underwear, ha-ha." "Too much information!" Leo said, releasing his sister. She sniffed hard to clear her nose and wiped her cheeks some more to clear her spilt makeup and tears. Erica had a sort of post-punk or light goth style, with thick eyeliner and soft but smoky eyeshadow. For someone in the tattoo business, she had relatively few piercings, just two in each earlobe and a single small, silver nose ring on one nostril. She made up for it with a pair of full sleeve tattoos on her arms and a collection of assorted smaller tattoos on her legs. "What, you don't want to hear about me sweating through my bras?" She laughed at her brother. "Come on, Leo, we're all adults here." I laughed at her teasing and she squeezed me to her with the one arm she still had around my shoulder. She turned and kissed me on the cheek again. "I can go down to the city by myself, you guys don't need to risk yourselves for me. All the news reports are saying this thing is extra dangerous for men." "No, we'll help," I said. "We don't know how long this thing will last, so we'll bring the pickup and you can bring your car. And if you get exposed, you'd bring it back here with you anyways, so we might as well try and do it as fast as possible. Three sets of hands will make things go easier." "Okay," she nodded, then with a last squeeze of my shoulders she eased away and stood up. "Okay. Well, damn, guys. This feels like a fucking weight lifted off my shoulders. I've felt like I've been overstaying my welcome, not that you guys did anything to make me think that. I just,” "It's fine," I said. "We understand." "I don't," Leo said. "You've been all up in my personal space since the dam womb. You never had a problem with it before now." "Come here, you twerp," Erica laughed, slapping her brother on the arm. "Alright, alright," I said. "Come on, children. Let's make a plan here. No time like the present, if we get everything ready we can head out tomorrow."   Leo and I had first become roommates when he sublet me a room as I came out of the military seven years ago and wanted to move back to the Portland area. Then, when my father passed and I needed to move back to the family property, Leo had been more than happy to come on up with me instead of trying to find someone new to take over my half of the house lease. The old ranch-style house I'd grown up in had plenty of room, and my mother had died a few years before Dad, so it worked out for both of us. Even before the quarantine was announced we'd both been working from the homestead; my freelance illustration and concept art gigs kept the bills and property tax under control and food on the table, and Leo had swapped to making artisanal furniture in his little shed workshop instead of the house framing and cabinetry he'd been trained in. The old barn made a decent new workshop for him after a couple of upgrades, and once I'd gotten a satellite installed for point-to-point internet service we were... Well, we hadn't exactly been living the technological dream, but we had what we needed. The drive down to Portland from the homestead outside Jewell took a bit over an hour and a half on a good day with moderate traffic. It only took us an hour, in the middle of the day. I drove my truck, the cover on over the bed, and Leo rode with Erica in her car. The highways were practically empty, and for a while the drive almost felt like just a beautiful day out; other than the thick sweater I was wearing, and the work gloves I'd duct taped to the cuffs. I also had a pair of bandanas hung around my neck, ski goggles sitting on the passenger seat, and the hood of my sweater pulled up. It was the middle of a hot spring and I was sweating my ass off in my own truck just in case of death by viral infection. Even in the last couple of weeks, all the messaging online from the Government about what to do for safety felt like it had been conflicting with itself constantly, and when Leo and Erica tried to do more research they couldn't even figure out which politician or government body to listen to, let alone find something useful and convincing. So we went all out. Driving through the suburbs was a bit of an experience. One neighborhood would be completely desolate, not a single person outside and everything locked up tight. The next would be full of people outside on the street, walking dogs and kids running around playing. Most of them had those medical masks on, but it looked like people were out on summer vacation or something. The neighborhood after that was mostly shut down like the first, but one of the houses easily had thirty vehicles parked around it and was hosting some sort of party going on in the front and back yard. Somehow, despite the world feeling so alien, I still found driving through the city even weirder. Getting into the urban center where Erica had a small apartment near the Tattoo Parlor was like we'd hit the end of the world. Even more than in the suburbs, the near complete lack of people was shocking. We could go entire city blocks without seeing another car, and then suddenly we'd come across a food delivery driver peddling down the middle of the city street on a bike. The only other motorized vehicles I saw were one dude on an electric scooter having the time of his life, and ambulances speeding down the streets with their lights running. They didn't even bother with the sirens. Crackle, crackle. "Hey, Harrison? You read me? Over." I picked up my handheld radio and pressed the button. "Yeah, I read you, Leo. Over." "So we need to take a detour. There's a bunch of stuff online about this Autonomous Zone thing. Protestors in the middle of the city. We're going to avoid it. Over." "Yeah, sounds good. I'll follow. Over and out." I shook my head. The protests had started about a week ago. Halfway across the country, a man had been shot by police; investigations were ongoing, but no one looked good in the situation. Not the cops, not the man, not even the bystanders who had filmed the whole thing instead of intervening. It was a shit show all around, and it had sparked protests that I could only assume were fueled by people feeling so trapped in their own lives. Portland, ever a liberal center of activism, had been a hotbed every night. Vigils and marches every afternoon and evening. Then the riots started at night. We drove down a couple of streets that looked like we'd left the United States behind and entered a foreign warzone. I'd seen streets in Kabul during my deployment that had looked similar; the only thing missing from the burned-out cars, graffiti and general detritus were bullet scars on the walls. Windows that weren't boarded over were smashed. Storefronts were burnt out, looted, or both. It took us an extra twenty minutes to drive all the way around the 'autonomous zone.' By the time we pulled up into the alley behind Erica's apartment building, I was feeling sick to my stomach. A pandemic. Riots. What was next, a natural disaster? I'd seen some of the world; not a lot, but enough. Some of the best and worst places. We were supposed to be better than this. Taking the back stairwell was part of the plan. We didn't want to draw any attention from people; for all that Portland was that liberal bed of activism I'd just been thinking about, it was also still an urban center plagued by theft, crime and people trying to take advantage of each other. With no one on the streets, I'd suggested that pulling up out front made us more of a target to people looking to cause trouble, or attracting the attention of overzealous police. I pulled my truck in next to Erica's car and hopped out. "Alright, make sure you lock up," I said. "Harri, please," Erica said, sliding down her own ski goggles over her eyes. We were all bundled up now, with multiple face coverings each. "I've lived in the city about eight times longer than you ever did. I know how to handle myself." "Yeah, I know," I said. "I'm just a little anxious." "It's fine, dude," Leo said. "Let's just get this done." Erica let us into the building, keying in through a back door, and up through the stairwell. We didn't see anyone on the way up, and she led us through the halls to her apartment. As she let us in, one of her neighbors opened their door and stuck their head out. "Erica? Dear, is that you?" It was a woman, maybe in her fifties. "Hey, Dianne," Erica said. "It's me. I'm just here to pick up some things, and I brought my brother and his roommate to help out." Dianne stepped fully out of her apartment. She was dressed comfortably and had her silvering blonde hair pulled back into a bun. Most notably, she wasn't wearing a mask or any other sort of personal protection. "It's so nice to see you, Erica!" she said. "It's been quiet up here the last few weeks. I have to say, I never thought I'd actually miss your early morning banging around, but I do." "Ah, Dianne," Erica said, holding up her hands. She was wearing rubber gloves, duct taped at the wrists to her sweater just like my work gloves were. "We really shouldn't get any closer than this." "Oh, dear, it's fine," Dianna said. "I've been cooped up in the apartment for a week now, the only person who comes over is Mr. Jones from 5C for coffee every few days. I'm sure you've been just as safe, living out of the city." "No, really Dianne," Erica said. "I don't mean to be rude, but we're only here to get some of my things and go. And I know Mr. Jones is probably lonely up there, but it's not safe for you two to get together for coffee. You should really just skype each other or something." "Oh, I already have to do that Zoomy thing to see my grandkids," Dianna scoffed. "But fine, fine. It's good to see you, dear. Try not to take things too seriously, it won't be good for your health." From inside Erica's apartment, I couldn't help but shake my head. "Dianne, maybe you need to take things more seriously," Erica said. "I'd hate if anything happened to you, but more importantly I'd hate for your grandkids to never get to see you again if you got sick." "Well, I guess..." Dianne trailed off. "Goodbye, Dianne. It was nice seeing you," Erica said in that tone of voice that was just shy of 'politely fuck off,' then followed Leo and me into her apartment and shut the door. "God, that woman," Erica said. She peeled down the pair of gaiters she was wearing over her face. The top layer was a winter covering Leo and I usually used in the middle of winter when we were snowmobiling, and the second was a much thinner one we used in the summer when A T Veeing. "We should be good in here, no one's come in since I left." I peeled down my bandanas and sighed. "I'm sure she's nice, but that lady needs a reality check." "I just hope she isn't someone else's reality check," Erica said. "Alright. I'm going to start in the bedroom. Leo, can you go through the living room and grab anything you think we might want in terms of DVDs and stuff? And Harrison, do you mind doing a check-over of the kitchen? I'm pretty sure I got rid of all the immediate perishables before I came down, but I might have missed some things that could've gone for a couple weeks." We split up and went to work. I cleaned out a few old condiments that Erica had missed and collected some canned and boxed food that would travel easily, along with some of the more specialty cooking equipment Erica had made of point of mentioning. I wasn't sure what an 'air fryer' did, but she made it sound like it was a gift from God, so I was willing to pack it up. "All done in the kitchen," I said, standing in the doorway to Erica's bedroom. She was rummaging in her closet. Her bed was covered in clothes and a couple of pieces of luggage, and everything looked like a mess. "Okay, hold on," she said, then she reappeared and dumped what looked like an entire department store's worth of bras out onto the bed. "Can you start packing this stuff up? Don't worry about folding or sorting it, I'll fix it all once we're back at your place. Then I can grab everything I need from the washroom and we'll be done." "Sure," I said, and we squeezed past each other so she could duck into the washroom. Once she was gone, I just chuckled and shook my head at the mess she'd already made. "I don't think this is all going to fit in these bags." I got to work, and soon three of the four pieces of luggage were stuffed full. That's when I made it to the pile of bras. I glanced out the door, and quickly picked up a fancy looking one and checked the tag. "Damn, Erica," I chuckled. It was obvious she was a busty girl, but 36E? I wouldn't have guessed. Then again, I wasn't exactly a bra aficionado. I wouldn't even know if I'd seen D's or E's or what, the sizing just sort of confused me enough that I couldn't care to look into it any further. I carefully began packing her daintier things into a bag, and below the bras was a pile of panties; and only a few of them seemed like they were designed for comfort and not show. There were strings, there was lace. I held a particular red number and shook my head again, trying to do my best not to imagine Erica wearing it and failing. I shoved it into the bag with the rest. "Incoming," Erica said, bustling back into the room with her arms full of canisters and bottles and all sorts of things from the bathroom. She dumped it all on top of the panties in the bag. "Usually I'd be a lot more organized with this," she sighed. "But I just feel... being in the city feels kinda gross right now." "Hmm, I feel it too," I said. I picked up the last handful of her underwear and put them on top of the cosmetics stuff. "Oh my God," Erica said, grabbing the bag from me. "I can't believe; God, this is embarrassing." She was grinning and her cheeks had heated up as she quickly zipped up the luggage and turned to me. "I didn't realize you'd work that fast." "Hey, I've seen ladies' underwear before," I laughed. "It's not a big deal." "Yeah, but you haven't seen my underwear," she chuckled along with me. "At least you saw the nice stuff. I left most of it here when I came down; wasn't exactly thinking about showing off the goods, ya know?" "Hey, anytime you want to show off, you just let me know," I laughed. "I tried not to pry, but some of them looked pretty hot." "Oh, my God," she said, face palming her embarrassment. Then her smile turned teasing. "Then again, we could always play you show me yours, I'll show you mine. I'm sure the girls would be happy for some more freedom around the house." She squished her upper arms together to pop out her chest a bit under her sweater. Now it was my turn to smirk and blush a little. I was just starting to try and figure out what to say when Leo came in from the front area of the apartment. "Think I'm about done up here," he said. "Anything else, sis?" Erica snickered and punched me in the arm. "That's probably it. I was just teasing Harrison about feeling' up my panties though." "Dude!" Leo said. "Oh, come on," I said. "You know I wouldn't." "Still..." Leo trailed off. "Whatever. Just leave my sister's granny panties alone." "You think I wear granny panties?" Erica said, then turned back to the bag and started unzipping it. "Well, let me just show you some of these..." "Nope, no, nada, nyet!" Leo said, covering his eyes with both hands and turning out of the room. "I do not need to know. Too much information for me!" Erica snorted and shook her head, re-zipping the bag. She winked at me and gave me another friendly punch on the arm. "Thanks again for helping with all of this, Harrison." "No problem at all, E," I assured her. "No, no," she said. "Seriously. Thank you. You guys didn't need to come out here; it feels sort of silly to say, but you're technically risking your lives for me right now." "Well, chivalry ain't dead yet, I guess," I said. "I guess not," she laughed. She leaned in and kissed my cheek. "It's nice. Just don't go making a habit of it, I don't need some White Knight savior act out of you or my brother." "Deal," I said. We got everything out into the front hallway of the apartment, and it ended up being more than we could hope to carry down in one trip. The end result was that we made the first trip down, started loading everything into the bed of the pickup, and while Leo and Erica went back up for another load I stayed down with the vehicles. The thing about inner cities, we'd all learned quickly when we originally moved in, was that you took a risk when you left things in your car. Well, if you had a car to begin with, but if you did and people could see in then it was likely your shit was going to get stolen. So there I was, sitting on the open back gate of my pickup with double bandanas over the bottom half of my face and ski goggles over the top, when two men rounded a corner further down the wide back alley and stopped. They looked at me and the cars. I looked at them. One of them was wearing a medical mask, while the other had a knit wool balaclava on with nothing but his eyes showing. I'd never really considered it before, what with us living out in the woods away from most people, but at that moment I realized how simple it must be to do crime when everyone was expected to wear masks. I watched them. They eyed up the vehicles. I stood up. They watched me do it. I slammed the gate of my truck shut. They watched me do it. I walked around to the passenger door of the truck cab, pulled out the hard case I had stowed under the seat, grabbed my Dad's old Colt 1911 and slid a magazine home. The men kept their eyes on me, not batting an eye even though I was now holding a loaded firearm. I leaned against the back of my truck and watched them right back. Eventually, Leo and Erica came back down and I didn't mention the men or the pistol, which I tucked onto the passenger seat of my truck while we were moving things around. I left the door open so that I could keep easy access. Erica and Leo went up for one last load, and I entered another long staring match with the two men. They hadn't moved and were about fifty yards away so I couldn't tell if they were talking to each other. I swear I must have been sweating bullets under my sweater and gloves and various masks. I don't know if my adrenaline had spiked like this since seeing combat while deployed. Not even the grocery store parking lot showdown a few weeks ago had been like this. Finally, Erica and Leo came down with the last load, we got everything stowed away, and got back into our vehicles. I took a moment to unload and re-stow my firearm, and as Erica and Leo pulled away in her car I watched as the two men came up the alley and entered Erica's apartment building through the door we had been using. Maybe they had just been waiting to use the door, playing it safe with us. Or maybe it was something else. I wouldn't ever know. It took three days for us to start feeling... safe wasn't the right word. 'Less apprehensive' is where I ended up landing. Coming back from the city had been as smooth as driving out, but once we were home we all had this feeling of being dirty. It felt silly even at the time, but we ended up hosing each other off outside with the garden hose before heading in to take some long, hot showers. Was that ineffective? Probably. Did it make us feel better? Maybe, a little. When none of us were showing any symptoms of getting sick by the third night back, we all decided to crash and start a new show together on Netflix that night after dinner. I ended up in the living room first and was starting to scroll through the menus to find something we might like when Erica came down the stairs in her own comfy clothes. She was wearing baggy, low-riding sweatpants and a black tank top that I very quickly realized was bouncing way more than usual with each of her steps down the stairs. Erica walked over to the TV sitting area and flopped down onto the couch across from me, absentmindedly reaching up and tying her hair back into a loose and messy bun. "What?" she asked me when she realized I was staring at her. "Nothing," I said. "You just... you look good. Like that." She rolled her eyes. "It's just makeup, Harrison." What she meant was she wasn't wearing any. For the first time ever, even including the month that she'd already been staying with us, I was seeing Erica without makeup on. It was sort of shocking, honestly; whatever magic she did in the mirror, with her kit, it was like she could change the very structure of her face. Usually, she had an almost angular predatory look, with sultry and smoky eyes and sharp cheekbones leading down to a perfect set of clean and bright red lips. Now she looked brighter, more girl-next-door. Sure there were imperfections; soft lines under her eyes, little freckles and blemishes that got hidden by foundation, but her eyes were brighter, and her smile was wholesome. "Just don't feel like you need to be anything but comfortable, E," I assured her. "I like this look on you." She sighed and gave me a smirk. "Alright, charmer. What are we watching?" I tossed her the remote and let her start scanning through the list of new shows. Besides her lack of makeup and apparent lack of a bra, she was still her usual self. Both of her arm sleeves were bared by the tank top; her left arm was a colorful splash of a dozen of her favorite Pokémon from the original 150, all water-themed. Her right was Star Wars themed and focused on a pinup Femme Boba Fett on her outer upper arm, along with a couple sexy lady Stormtroopers, a Princess Leia in the requisite golden slave bikini, and Padme in the ripped-up white arena fight outfit. Not to mention the Yoda on her inner forearm and chili Chewbacca just below her armpit on her bicep. Her tank top also showed off the two heart tattoos on either side of her clavicle, and the half-mandala tattoo that sat on the back of her neck at the hairline. Erica's legs, while currently covered by her sweats, were a more eclectic collection of random and unplanned tattoos dating back from her start in the industry; some were done by her own hand, others by fellow apprentices, and a few even by the apprentices she'd eventually trained over the years. "Heads up!" Leo said, bounding down the stairs in his own sweats and a hoodie, vaulting over the back of the sofa and landing heavily next to his twin sister. "Jesus Christ," Erica said, ducking away to narrowly avoid getting kicked in the back of the head. She turned and hit Leo in the shoulder. "Watch it, you monkey!" "Takes one to know one," Leo laughed, swiping away her hands as she tried to hit him again. Soon the two were involved in a swearing match as Erica was leaning over Leo, trying to tweak his ears and drop a wad of spit down on his face, while he tried to both ward off her hands and push her away at the same time. Their easy sibling rivalry and goofing off usually wasn't this physical, but it still had me laughing and wondering all the same. I'd never had that with my sister; she was about seven years older than me, so we hadn't ever had that sort of a relationship. To be honest, I was also a little interested in the sibling scrap because Erica's tits looked fucking great jostling and bouncing around in her tank top, and a part of me hoped a boob would pop out in the chaos. Unfortunately, I couldn't be so lucky and the duel ended with both of them panting, sitting next to each other, with no boob appearance. "What are we watching?" Leo asked. "I dunno, we hadn't picked yet," I said. "Let's watch this," Erica said, seemingly at random, and selected some sort of a baking show. "Aw man," Leo said. "These competition shows are always so scripted." "They make me hungry," I said. "Maybe I should start baking more." "Yes," Erica said. "Now we're watching every season just so you can get more good ideas like that, Harri." The show was easy to follow and clearly designed like every other Food Porn-style "reality" competition. Other than the deliciously described food, the only thing actually keeping my attention was the host. "She's hot," Erica said during one of the transition scenes, right after the host had finished showing the TV audience the differences between a mousse and whipped cream. It had involved a lot of whisking very fast. "Not my type, but I can see it," Leo said. "She's got too much of a Fifties Housewife vibe going on." "That's just because she's so proper British," Erica said. "Look at her, she's gorgeous. And fucking stacked under those pretty dresses. What do you think, Harri?" "I'm with you, I think she's definitely hot," I agreed. "And I really dig the accent." "I bet she's a fucking freak in bed, too," Erica said. "No way!" Leo argued with his sister. "Look at her. She's all syrup and sweetness. I bet she's dry as a desert down there, and you couldn't fit anything in due to the stick up her ass." "Nuh-uh," Erica shook her head. "I'd put money on her having a filthy mouth off-screen. Just swears like a fucking sailor. And,  Hmm, I bet she probably says she's straight, but has plenty of experience with girls from her Prep School days." "Sure," I laughed along. "Makes perfect sense. Anything else?" "I bet she's got a cum fetish," Erica said. "Look at her eyes when she's talking about glazing. She's practically creaming her conservative little dress. And she definitely likes a cheeky finger up the bum to really set her off." All of us were laughing now, and the conversation faded as we struggled to get control of our giggles. By the time the first episode was over, we were hooked despite the silly concept, and let it play. We got four episodes in before Erica called it quits. "That's enough for me tonight, boys," she said, yawning and stretching her arms wide. Her right arm rubbed roughly against Leo's face on purpose, just to bug him as he pulled away. "I'm off to bed. Good night!" She bounced up off the couch and made for the stairs, her hips swiveling in her low-waisted sweats. They'd ridden lower, and she was showing a bit of a whale tail with her lace thong panties peeking over the waistline. "Dude," Leo said, snapping my vision from his sister as she walked up the stairs. "Uh," I hummed, and slowly raised both arms in an awkward shrug. "What do you want me to do?" "Just... don't make it a thing," he sighed, then flopped over onto his side. "She's my sister. You wanna watch Deadpool?" Visitors The rumble, sputter and hum of the approaching ATV broke my concentration as it cut through the quiet warbling of my shitty Bluetooth speaker long before Leo pulled around the trail bend. The thick foliage up here in the foothills, far at the back end of my family property, created a weird dampening effect so I hadn't heard him until he was almost on top of me. The rumble cut through the thick greenery now and was followed by the crunching of the tires biting into th

A volunteer group has come together in Ballybunion to help save the ringed plover, a wader whose numbers have declined. The species is classed as a bird of conservation concern. Jerry spoke to Dr Barry O’Donoghue of the National Parks and Wildlife Service and Seán Culhane who are members of the group.

Donald Trump has put the issue of physically transported goods front and centre of global politics. It matters a lot in Ireland as one of the world's most open trading economies.An astonishing €165 billion of worth of goods flows through Dublin Port every year . But how will it and the economy handle an all-out trade war as we struggle to grow our infrastructure and get things built? All to discuss with Barry O'Connell, Chief Executive of Dublin Port.

As the cardinals enter the conclave to choose a successor to Pope Francis, CLAIRE GIANGRAVE of the Religion News Service profiles the front-runners.Why did the Coalition perform so poorly among multicultural voters, even though many communities are highly religious, socially conservative and committed to a small business ethic that aligns well with Liberal Party values? The Liberals' most successful leader with ethnic voters, former NSW Premier BARRY O'FARRELL, who notched a stunning victory winning 65 percent of the vote in 2011, has some lessons for his party.Back in Rome, ABC Religion specialist NOEL DEBIEN discusses the factors that will influence the cardinals as they choose a new pope. 

Why did the Coalition perform so poorly among multicultural voters, even though many communities are highly religious, socially conservative and committed to a small business ethic that aligns well with Liberal Party values? The Liberals' most successful leader with ethnic voters, former NSW Premier BARRY O'FARRELL, who notched a stunning victory winning 65 percent of the vote in 2011, has some lessons for his party.

We're excited to share a special episode of FinTech's DEI Discussions recorded live at Pay360 2025. Join Nadia as she speaks with an incredible panel of experts discussing the pressing challenges and opportunities in the payments and FinTech space.This episode features insights from Darren Wood, Senior Solutions Consultant at ACI Worldwide, Emily Baum, Volunteer - Workstream Lead at Project Nemo, Angela Yore, CEO & Founder at SkyParlour, Raf De Kimpe, CEO of FinTech Week London, Daniel Saliba, Founder & CEO at Lighthouse Compliance, and Barry O'Sullivan, Director of Banking & Payments at OpenPayd.FinTech's DEI Discussions is powered by Harrington Starr, global leaders in Financial Technology Recruitment. For more episodes or recruitment advice, please visit our website www.harringtonstarr.com

(07:40) Brought to you by Swimm.io.⁠⁠⁠⁠Start modernizing your mainframe faster with Swimm.Understand the what, why, and how of your mainframe code.Use AI to uncover critical code insights for seamless migration, refactoring, or system replacement.What if everything you've been taught about software architecture is fundamentally at odds with how the real world works?Dive into my conversation with Barry O'Reilly, a veteran architect and former Chief Architect at Microsoft, as we explore a radical rethinking of software architecture that embraces uncertainty and complexity. Discover how to design systems that survive in an ever-changing world.Key topics discussed:The Architect's Paradox: Why rigid logic fails when applied to human systems and business complexity.The Failures of Traditional Architecture: Why requirements engineering and rigid models often fall short.Residuality Theory: A revolutionary approach focused on how systems collapse and adapt over time.Correctness vs. Criticality: Designing architectures that survive off-spec scenarios rather than aiming for perfection.Philosophy in Architecture: Unpacking hidden “default” philosophies that shape how we build software–and why they need to change.Essential Mindset for Architects: Humility, pessimism, and embracing uncertainty as tools for success.  Whether you're a developer, architect, or business stakeholder, this episode will challenge your assumptions and inspire new ways of thinking about software architecture.Timestamps:(02:00) Career Turning Points(10:02) The Architect's Paradox(15:54) Barry's Definition of Architecture(20:24) The Challenges of Time and Change(24:09) The Danger of Software Abstractions(29:41) Understanding Our Architecture Philosophy(37:05) Residue as the Unit of Software Architecture(46:31) Practical Way of Applying Residuality(49:03) The Goal of Architecture is Criticality(52:17) Bridging the Gap Between Architecture and Stakeholders(55:09) 3 Tech Lead Wisdom_____Barry O'Reilly's BioBarry is a veteran Architect who has held Chief Architect positions at Microsoft among others. He has also been a startup CTO, the Worldwide Lead for the Solutions Architecture Community at Microsoft, and founder of the Swedish Azure User Group. He is also a PhD candidate in software design and complexity science.Barry is a regular speaker at international conferences and events, where he shares his insights and expertise. He is the Founder of Black Tulip Technology and the creator of Residuality Theory, which seeks to redefine architecture as the management of complexity.Follow Barry:LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/barry-o-reilly-b924657/

For this episode, Robert Folkesson invited Barry O'Reilly, the author of the books ‘Residues: Time, Change, and Uncertainty in Software Architecture' and ‘The Architect's Paradox - Uncertainty and the Philosophy of Software Architecture', to talk about why architecture fails and why it sometimes succeeds, the role of software architects, how philosophy connects to architecture, how humans haven't changed much in 2000 years, the acceleration of complexity in society in general, and what role AI will play in architecture – among other topics. We really enjoyed having this conversation and hope you will find it interesting too! Links The Architect's Paradox: https://leanpub.com/architectsparadox Residues: Time, Change, and Uncertainty in Software Architecture: https://leanpub.com/residuality .

Send us a textNavigating today's complex manufacturing landscape demands unprecedented supply chain resilience. This eye-opening conversation with Barry O'Dowd (Kuehne+Nagel) and Kamal Aluwalia (Resilinc) reveals why robust supply chains matter more than ever—particularly for semiconductor capital equipment.The semiconductor industry operates at extraordinary precision, with equipment working at scales as small as five nanometers—roughly 1/18,000th the width of a human hair. This precision makes these multi-million dollar tools exceptionally vulnerable during transport, requiring meticulous handling across tens of thousands of miles between manufacturing and installation. With leading-edge fabs costing up to $20 billion, equipment failures or delays can trigger catastrophic financial consequences.Our experts explain how companies are reimagining resilience through sophisticated data analysis, multi-tier visibility, and proactive risk management. Barry shares how Kuehne+Nagel's risk mitigator tool brings together all supply chain stakeholders to identify vulnerabilities and implement mitigation strategies—expertise developed during their flawless delivery of over 2 billion COVID vaccines. Meanwhile, Kamal describes how Resolink helps organizations leverage AI to anticipate disruptions across 40 different risk categories, from natural disasters to financial instability.The conversation offers practical advice for strengthening your own supply chain: understand your end-to-end process, engage with experienced partners, and adopt a first-principles approach to reimagining resilience with current technology. As global uncertainties continue mounting—from geopolitical tensions to extreme weather events—supply chain resilience isn't merely about risk avoidance; it's becoming a strategic competitive advantage.Kuehne+NagelTrust Semicon Logistics by Kuehne+Nagel to navigate even the most demanding supply chain challenges.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showBecome a sustaining member! Like what you hear? Follow us on LinkedIn and TwitterInterested in reaching a qualified audience of microelectronics industry decision-makers? Invest in host-read advertisements, and promote your company in upcoming episodes. Contact Françoise von Trapp to learn more. Interested in becoming a sponsor of the 3D InCites Podcast? Check out our 2024 Media Kit. Learn more about the 3D InCites Community and how you can become more involved.

Send us a textThe 3D InCites Member Spotlight episode features exclusive conversations with industry leaders at IMAPS Device Packaging Conference 2025, exploring the cutting-edge of semiconductor packaging innovation and domestic manufacturing expansion.• Rex Anderson of Micross details their RESHAPE program funding and Integra acquisition, establishing them as North America's largest domestic OSAT• Calvin Cheung of ASE explains how advanced packaging enables AI infrastructure while reducing power consumption by 40-60% through vertical power delivery. He also describes silicon photonics emerging as a game-changer for data transmission, using light instead of electrons for faster, more energy-efficient signal integrity• Keith Felton of Siemens discusses digital twin technology allowing early predictive analysis during package prototyping to prevent costly downstream engineer change orders - or ECOs.• Vahid Akhavan highlights PulseForge's photonic debonding technology partnerships for clean, high-yield wafer release• Bernd Krafthoefer and Florian Lechner, ERS Electonic representatives,  share insights on their new European competence center and sub-micron photonic debonding capabilities for 300mm wafers.Join us next week as we explore supply chain resilience in the semiconductor capital equipment sector with Barry O'Dowd from Kuehne+Nagel and special guest Kamal Aluwalia, CEO of Resilinc. Learn more about member benefits at 3DInCites.com/memberships.IMAPS Device Packaging ConferenceInterconnects for Tomorrow's Applications Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showBecome a sustaining member! Like what you hear? Follow us on LinkedIn and TwitterInterested in reaching a qualified audience of microelectronics industry decision-makers? Invest in host-read advertisements, and promote your company in upcoming episodes. Contact Françoise von Trapp to learn more. Interested in becoming a sponsor of the 3D InCites Podcast? Check out our 2024 Media Kit. Learn more about the 3D InCites Community and how you can become more involved.

This interview was recorded at GOTO Copenhagen 2024.https://gotocph.comIan Cooper - A Polyglot Coding Architect at Just EatJames Lewis - Software Architect & Director at ThoughtworksKris Jenkins - Developer Advocate, Software Developer, Podcast Host, Conference Speaker & GeekRESOURCESIanhttps://bsky.app/profile/icooper.bsky.socialhttps://hachyderm.io/@ICooperhttps://twitter.com/ICooperhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-cooper-2b059bhttps://github.com/iancooperhttps://ian-cooper.writeas.comJameshttps://bsky.app/profile/boicy.bovon.orghttps://twitter.com/boicyhttps://linkedin.com/in/james-lewis-microserviceshttps://github.com/boicyhttps://www.bovon.orgKrishttps://twitter.com/krisajenkinshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkinshttps://github.com/krisajenkinshttp://blog.jenkster.comRECOMMENDED BOOKSBarry O'Reilly • UnlearnJez Humble, Joanne Molesky & Barry O'Reilly • Lean EnterpriseSarah Wells • Enabling Microservice SuccessSam Newman • Monolith to MicroservicesSam Newman • Building MicroservicesSimon Brown • Software Architecture for Developers Vol. 2Ronnie Mitra & Irakli Nadareishvili • Microservices: Up and RunningBlueskyTwitterInstagramLinkedInFacebookCHANNEL MEMBERSHIP BONUSJoin this channel to get early access to videos & other perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs_tLP3AiwYKwdUHpltJPuA/joinLooking for a unique learning experience?Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket: gotopia.techSUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL - new videos posted daily!

This interview was recorded for GOTO Unscripted.https://gotopia.techRead the full transcription of this interview hereDaniel Terhorst-North - Originator of Behavior Driven Development (BDD) & Principal at Dan North & AssociatesJulian Wood - Serverless Developer Advocate at AWSRESOURCESDanielhttps://bsky.app/profile/tastapod.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/tastapodhttps://github.com/tastapodhttps://mastodon.social/@tastapodhttp://dannorth.net/blogJulianhttps://bsky.app/profile/julianwood.comhttps://twitter.com/julian_woodhttp://www.wooditwork.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/julianrwoodhttps://s12d.com/gotoDESCRIPTIONDaniel Terhorst-North and Julian Wood share decades of experience to offer a nuanced view of programming, governance, and product delivery. By framing programming as a socio-technical activity, they emphasize the critical role of collaboration, feedback, and sustainable practices.The conversation challenges traditional governance models, advocating for hypothesis-driven product management and continuous feedback mechanisms. Through humorous anecdotes and hard-won wisdom, Terhorst-North inspires people to look beyond technical expertise to the broader ecosystem of teams, culture, and organizational alignment. [...]RECOMMENDED BOOKSJez Humble & David Farley • Continuous DeliveryNicole Forsgren, Jez Humble & Gene Kim • AccelerateKim, Humble, Debois, Willis & Forsgren • The DevOps HandbookJez Humble, Joanne Molesky & Barry O'Reilly • Lean EnterpriseHeidi Helfand • Dynamic ReteamingHeidi Helfand • How to Change Your TeamsCarl Larson & Frank M J LaFasto • TeamworkGene Kim & Steve Spear • Wiring the Winning OrganizationMatthew Skelton & Manuel Pais • Team TopologiesBlueskyTwitterInstagramLinkedInFacebookCHANNEL MEMBERSHIP BONUSJoin this channel to get early access to videos & other perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs_tLP3AiwYKwdUHpltJPuA/joinLooking for a unique learning experience?Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket: gotopia.techSUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL - new videos posted daily!

Fredrik talks to Barry O'Reilly about software architecture. Barry has spent a lot of time and energy connecting software architecture to actual code and development work, and finding good ways of actually training new generations of software architects. Architecture is a level above programming, it is a different skill, and it needs to be properly taught so that more people can think and make active decisions about it. Oh, and architecture happens at a group level. You can't really do it alone. Barry's quest led him to complexity science, a PhD to actually prove his ideas hold up, and two books. The idea that you have to understand what goes on in the code in order to do good architecture is more controversial than one might think. Thank you Cloudnet for sponsoring our VPS! Comments, questions or tips? We a re @kodsnack, @tobiashieta, @oferlundand @bjoreman on Twitter, have a page on Facebook and can be emailed at info@kodsnack.se if you want to write longer. We read everything we receive. If you enjoy Kodsnack we would love a review in iTunes! You can also support the podcast by buying us a coffee (or two!) through Ko-fi. Links Barry Black tulip Complexity science IDE Antifragile Nassim Taleb Nassim guesting Econtalk talking about antifragility while the book was in progress Barry's papers: No More Snake Oil: Architecting Agility through Antifragility (2019) An introduction to residuality theory: Software design heuristics for complex systems (2020) The Machine in the Ghost: Autonomy, Hyperconnectivity, and Residual Causality (2021) The Philosophy of Residuality Theory (2021) Residuality Theory, random simulation, and attractor networks(2022) Residuality and Representation: Toward a Coherent Philosophy of Software Architecture (2023) Domain driven design Europe Leanpub Residues - Barry's first book Barry's NDC talks - on process and on philosophy Support us on Ko-fi Our agile release train engineer stickers The architect's paradox - Barry's second book Accelerate Øredev Kodsnack 346 - Tomer Gabel about the golden age of tomfoolery Dataföreningen Dataföreningen kompetens Titles How we design and think about structure Climbed the greasy pole Keep close to the code Remove themselves from the code as a status symbol I would see a lot of grey There's a generation missing A level of thinking above programming When you look up from your IDE We had to rescue architecture When they say “architect” Headed for that ivory tower A self-titling profession Comfortable in uncertainty Multiple books, and a PhD How does this thing break Everything will always break Patching those cracks Do you have any proof of this? The key to good software architecture is pessimism The mincing of academic criticism Typing furiously Hope for the future He's from the real world!

Fredrik talks to Barry O’Reilly about software architecture. Barry has spent a lot of time and energy connecting software architecture to actual code and development work, and finding good ways of actually training new generations of software architects. Architecture is a level above programming, it is a different skill, and it needs to be properly taught so that more people can think and make active decisions about it. Oh, and architecture happens at a group level. You can’t really do it alone. Barry’s quest led him to complexity science, a PhD to actually prove his ideas hold up, and two books. The idea that you have to understand what goes on in the code in order to do good architecture is more controversial than one might think. Thank you Cloudnet for sponsoring our VPS! Comments, questions or tips? We a re @kodsnack, @tobiashieta, @oferlund and @bjoreman on Twitter, have a page on Facebook and can be emailed at info@kodsnack.se if you want to write longer. We read everything we receive. If you enjoy Kodsnack we would love a review in iTunes! You can also support the podcast by buying us a coffee (or two!) through Ko-fi. Links Barry Black tulip Complexity science IDE Antifragile Nassim Taleb Nassim guesting Econtalk talking about antifragility while the book was in progress Barry’s papers: No More Snake Oil: Architecting Agility through Antifragility (2019) An introduction to residuality theory: Software design heuristics for complex systems (2020) The Machine in the Ghost: Autonomy, Hyperconnectivity, and Residual Causality (2021) The Philosophy of Residuality Theory (2021) Residuality Theory, random simulation, and attractor networks (2022) Residuality and Representation: Toward a Coherent Philosophy of Software Architecture (2023) Domain driven design Europe Leanpub Residues - Barry’s first book Barry’s NDC talks - on process and on philosophy Support us on Ko-fi Our agile release train engineer stickers The architect’s paradox - Barry’s second book Accelerate Øredev Kodsnack 346 - Tomer Gabel about the golden age of tomfoolery Dataföreningen Dataföreningen kompetens Titles How we design and think about structure Climbed the greasy pole Keep close to the code Remove themselves from the code as a status symbol I would see a lot of grey There’s a generation missing A level of thinking above programming When you look up from your IDE We had to rescue architecture When they say “architect” Headed for that ivory tower A self-titling profession Comfortable in uncertainty Multiple books, and a PhD How does this thing break Everything will always break Patching those cracks Do you have any proof of this? The key to good software architecture is pessimism The mincing of academic criticism Typing furiously Hope for the future He’s from the real world!

Given the many Cranford residents who claim some Irish heritage, it might be surprising to learn that there's never been a St. Patrick's Day parade in town. That changes on March 16 when the community's first such parade will kickoff at 1 pm at the Community Center and winds it way down Walnut and North Union avenues. Two of the people behind the march are Mayor Terrance Curran and Barry O'Donovan. Barry is the former owner of Kilkenny House. I interviewed Barry in 2014.A number of businesses and individuals are sponsoring the festivities. Cougar Headquarters is selling merchandise to help deck you out.I speak with Barry and Terry on this week's Cranford Radio podcast.

Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade in which we talk to the two key players behind Publicis Group's purchase of independent Media agency Atomic 212. If you've been thinking about upgrading to an Unmade membership, this is the perfect time. Your membership includes:* A complimentary ticket to all of Unmade's events, including Compass Auckland (February 18), HumAIn (May 6), REmade (September 23), Unlock (October), and the Compass Australia series (throughout November);* Member-only content and our paywalled archives; * Your own copy of Media Unmade.Capabilities and conflict: Why Publicis bought Atomic 212Last week's news that Australia's biggest media agency Atomic 212 had been sold was not a huge surprise. The agency had been rumoured to be considering offers for some time.What was a little more surprising though was the buyer. Despite rumours that consultancy Accenture was in the frame, holding company Publicis Group emerged as the winner.It ran counter to the trend of holdcos in retreat and consolidating their number of agency brands.In today's audio-led conversation, Atomic 212 chairman Barry O'Brien and Publicis Group's ANZ CEO Michael Rebelo discuss with Tim Burrowes the rationale for the deal.O'Brien acknowledges the ups and downs of the agency's journey, including when Atomic's client, retail chain Dick Smith went into administration, leaving its agency potentially owing media companies millions of dollars.“When we first kicked off, Dick Smith went belly up and left $400-odd million of debt right around Australia.“As a young agency, we were left with a considerable amount of that. That was a pretty dark time.”The agency also faced a reputation crisis when Mumbrella revealed that former boss Jason Dooris had been cheating in award entries. Dooris eventually left the business. O'Brien says, dryly, “It was not a highlight.”Meanwhile, Rebelo explains the rationale for the acquisition at a time when many groups are trimming their rosters. Capabilities and client conflict are two of the factors. When he built a three year plan for his group in 2023, “acquisition of a media agency like Atomic was literally one of our top strategic priorities,” reveals Rebelo.“What we were looking at with Atomic was how can we supercharge what we've already got? What we like to curate and cultivate in the group are specialized weapons in terms of the agencies in how they can help our clients solve their marketing problems. And Atomic represented an independent agency with really sophisticated capabilities.”Rebelo, insists that unlike previous acquisition Match, which is these days folded in to Spark Foundry, Atomic will remain as its own brand. “Conflict and managing conflict is still a big part of the market and the industry. So we are fortunate to have those independent brands that can manage different agencies across the verticals. Having another media brand to take on and help us manage that is certainly a benefit to this.”Time to leave you to your Monday. Today's podcast was edited by Abe's Audio.We'll be back with more soon.Toodlepip…Tim BurrowesPublisher - Unmadetim@unmade.media This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unmade.media/subscribe

Should call this Barry-O's Triple Game Challenge! Welcome friends and weirdo's! It's new game...week for me it seems as everything is coming at once! The class of 2025 is starting off strong with Evil Dead, Avatar, and D&D! Let's discuss that and also look back on some questionable game decisions from our other industry friends. Epic unboxing coming on Saturday at noon CST on Youtube so definitely don't miss the giveaways live! https://discord.gg/BcBEt2fszM youtube.com/@donspinballpodcast patreon.com/donspinballpodcast

Barry O'Neill (Loreto) chats to LKOR on CRKC about the Leinster Schools Junior Camogie Final 17.01.2025

West Tigers Interim Chair Barry O'Farrell on Summer Breakfast with Joel Caine and Michael Carayannis talking getting the club back on track, Benji Marshall, Lachlan Galvin and more Broncos and Maroons legend Corey Parker joins SEN in 2025. Breakfast with Coz and Heals starts Monday on SENQ! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Barry O'Neill (Loreto KK) chats to LKOR about the Leinster Schools A Camogie Final on CRKC 10.01.2025

Next year Leaving Cert students will be able to use artificial intelligence tools when preparing research projects. To discuss the pros and cons Jack McGinn, Uachtarán of the Irish Second-Level Students Union and Barry O'Sullivan, Professor at the School of Computer Science / IT UCC & Director of the SFI Centre for Research Training in AI.

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We all have a tone obsession, but when is it healthy, and when is it not? I asked Barry O'Neal of Xact Tone Solutions to have a discussion on the "tone suck" of certain pedals, and it quickly morphed into a philosophical discussion on the potential pitfalls in the pursuit of tone.Follow me on Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/askzac/To Support the Channel:Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZacTip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZacVenmo @AskZac Or check out my store for merch  - https://my-store-be0243.creator-spring.com/#askzac #xacttonesolutionsSupport the show

Barry O'Sullivan's career has taken him all over the world, but his current role, back home in the heart of the Liberties in Dublin has given him the opportunity to transform one of the country's most iconic products. As a custodian of the Guinness brand, he is tasked with future proofing a company that has been in existence since 1759.

Barry O'Mahony, founder of Veritas Wealth Management, shares his journey from cold-calling in South Africa to becoming one of the country's top financial planners. In this interview, Barry opens up about the significance of Veritas, which means "truth" in Latin, and how his approach to lifestyle financial planning has transformed the lives of his clients. Winning Financial Planner of the Year was a game-changer, not just for his public image but in reinforcing trust with his existing clients. Barry also touches on the complex challenges facing financial planners today, including navigating uncertain markets and helping clients through major life transitions. 

Join us as we sit down with Barry O'Reilly, a renowned entrepreneur, author, and business advisor, to discuss the future of innovation, the power of unlearning, and the art of building a successful venture studio. We'll delve into the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship, the importance of embracing failure, and the role of technology in shaping the future of business. Key Takeaways: The Venture Studio Model: Learn how Barry's venture studio, Nobody Studios, is revolutionizing the startup landscape by creating 100 companies in five years. Embracing Challenges: Understand why seeking out challenges can fuel entrepreneurial growth. The Role of Failure: Learn how to view failure as a stepping stone to success. The Future of Innovation: Explore the concept of "active irrationality" and how it drives groundbreaking ideas. About Barry O'Reilly: Barry O'Reilly is a business advisor, entrepreneur, and author who has pioneered the intersection of business model innovation, product development, organizational design, and culture transformation. He is the co-founder of Nobody Studios, a crowd-infused, high-velocity venture studio with the mission to create 100 compelling companies over the next 5 years.    Additional Resources: https://barryoreilly.com/  https://nobodystudios.com/  Want to get in contact? Email us at podcast@digitalirish.com

Jerry spoke to Barry O’Kelly the journalist who spent six months investigating and filming protests against accommodation for asylum seekers and other migrants. The programme, RTÉ Investigates: Inside the Protests, is broadcast tonight (September 18th) at 9.35 and is also available on the RTÉ player

Henry and Matt start the new show with banter while grabbing a drink and recording on location at Opinion Brewing company amongst a row of pinball machines.  We talk about our day spent at SS Billiards for American Pinball's launch tour of Barry O's BBQ challenge and the social benefit of pinball leagues.

A new pilot project will aim to restore 30% of Clare's church grounds at ten sites across the county to nature by the end of the decade. Broadford, Clarecastle, Kilmaley, Moy, Inagh-Kilnamona, Mullagh, Kilrush, Killimer, Cooraclare and Miltown Malbay are the parishes that have been chosen by the local authority for the programme. The project will aim to establish new habitats on church grounds, through the development of initiatives such as pollinator friendly fruit trees, wildflower meadows and barn owl boxes. Clare County Council Biodiversity Officer Barry O'Loughlin says there's a superb community effort involved.

Episode 109: Kings of Leon Rack Rig Build (with Barry O'Neal of ‪XAct Tone Solutions) Welcome to the Chairmen of the Boards Podcast! The ultimate pedalboard podcast with the foremost rig builders in the world: Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio), Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio), and Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects/The Rig Doctor). We've teamed up to democratize great tone and provide you with our best tricks, tips, resources and hacks so you can build the pedalboard of your dreams! //SPONSORS// The Guitar Sanctuary - https://theguitarsanctuary.com Neural DSP - https://neuraldsp.com (use discount code "chairmen" for 30% off) Mono - https://monocreators.com (use discount code "chairmen" for 10% off) Best-Tronics - https://btpa.com (use code "dachairs" for 10% off) //GUEST// Barry O'Neal (Xact Tone Solutions) YT - ‪@xacttone‬ IG - https://instagram.com/xacttone WEB - https://xacttone.com //HOSTS// Grant Klassen (Goodwood Audio) YT - ‪@GoodwoodAudio‬ IG - https://instagram.com/goodwoodaudio Brian Omilion (Omilion Audio) YT - ‪@omilionaudio‬ IG - https://instagram.com/omilionaudio Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects) YT - ‪@VertexEffectsInc‬ IG - https://instagram.com/vertexeffects //YOUTUBE// Watch COTB Podcast live: https://bit.ly/3VhbNea

Former Kerry footballer Barry O'Shea joins Paul Shaughnessy to talk about his experience of playing Sigerson Cup football with Padraic Joyce and Jim McGuinness. Subscribe for more content! The Maroon & White Pod – brought to you by Citylink. For bookings, timetables, updates and any other information, head to citylink.ie.

This is part two of the Pinfest show where Matt got to play the brand new Spooky games Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Looney Tunes! Also at Pinfest were Barry O's BBQ Challenge and the new Multimorphic game, Princess Bride. Plus the new segment "Matt's 10 Second Reviews"covers a whole lot of games in a very short amount of time. And don't miss the thrilling conclusion to 'Who Wants to be a PinBillionaire?' Does Don win the coveted Gottlieb game??? Contact Us! --> pod@bashpinball.com Listen @ www.BashPinball.com Instagram, Twitch, Youtube: @bashpinball Theme Song: Venus by Wren and Au Lune

The key to successful architecture isn't the beautiful design with the perfect abstractions; it is more about knowing what can go wrong and where the fragile areas are. In this episode, Barry O'Reilly (Founder at Black Tulip Technology) shares his experience as an architect with Kristof Van Tomme and points out how residuality theory can help us better understand our industry.  They discuss topics like the three problems with software architecture, how residuality theory deals with these struggles, and how business strategy is a similar area. In their discussion, they also touch upon the field of LLMs.   References and further resources: An Introduction to Residuality Theory - Barry O'Reilly (YouTube video) @technologytulip Residues: Time, Change, and Uncertainty in Software Architecture by Barry O'Reilly The technical and social contracts of APIs - Discussion with Marsh Gardiner (API Resilience podcast episode) AI The Docs event by Pronovix  The Open Interface Web: Declaring Interfaces For An Open & Accessible World (Pronovix blog) Cause, Effect, and the Structure of the Social World by Megan T. Stevenson Safe Haven: Investing for Financial Storms by Mark Spitznagel

On this week’s DL Debate, Brendan Devenney reflects on Donegal’s Ulster success with John Gildea, Barry O’Hagan and Cahair O’Kane of the Irish News. The DL Debate in association with Sara's Kitchen at Sister Sara's Letterkenny: The post DL Debate – Donegal Ulster Champions appeared first on Highland Radio - Latest Donegal News and Sport.

Six years later, how has antifragility thinking changed? Carl and Richard talk to Barry O'Reilly about his ongoing work on building highly reliable software. Since Barry's last appearance six years ago, he's returned to school and is writing a PhD thesis on antifragility. Studying complexity theory, Barry approaches software architecture with a minimalist view - you only add architecture when you see the application needs it. This leads to ideas around residuality - and a progressive way to build software that yields amazing results!

Six years later, how has antifragility thinking changed? Carl and Richard talk to Barry O'Reilly about his ongoing work on building highly reliable software. Since Barry's last appearance six years ago, he's returned to school and is writing a PhD thesis on antifragility. Studying complexity theory, Barry approaches software architecture with a minimalist view - you only add architecture when you see the application needs it. This leads to ideas around residuality - and a progressive way to build software that yields amazing results!

The boys are once again dipping into the world of high-class assassins and Gun-Fu, this time with John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum. Starring, of course, yer good boi Keanu Reeves. Jokes this week are thick on the ground, with topics including: Book Time with Barry O, the Good Good Book, visiting the VR gun range (and associated nausea), some extremely angry hot dogs, and Tim Robinson goes to church.

The start of another new month means it's time to join Jonathan Joosten from Pinball Magazine and Martin Ayub from Pinball News for their look back at all the exciting news from the pinball world throughout March in their Pinball Industry News PINcast. There are two new games to discuss this month – one already launched and one about to be revealed – plus a radical update to another new title. American Pinball released their latest title with a tribute to legendary pinball designer, Barry Oursler, in their Barry O's Barbecue Challenge game. A dozen models were shipped to locations across the US for public play the day following the reveal, after which it became the star of American Pinball's stand at the Texas Pinball Festival. Just as this month's PINcast was being recorded, Pinball Brothers confirmed that their third game title would be based on the hugely-popular Swedish band ABBA. A full reveal is coming shortly, while there will be a launch party to mark exactly 50 years to the day since the group was launched onto the global stage by winning the Eurovision Song Contest. There's also much more news from Pinball Brothers with some personnel changes at the very top of the company. While not announcing their next game just yet, Dutch Pinball celebrate a milestone by launching a new offshoot called Dutch Pinball Exclusive (DPX) to produce short-run titles of 500 or fewer units. It hasn't been officially confirmed, but the likely first DPX title is discussed along with potential timescales for production. Last month there was news of a record-breaking auction price for a Jersey Jack Pinball Elton John Collector's Edition machine, but this month that record was itself smashed. Get all the details. Turner Pinball returned to the Texas Pinball Festival with a very different look to their Ninja Eclipse game, taking onboard much of the feedback from their appearance at Pinball Expo last October. Find out what's new and how the game plays as part of the extensive TPF 2024 show coverage. All this and much, much more is packed into this latest edition of the Pinball Industry News PINcast. Ensure you haven't missed out on any of the excitement by streaming or downloading the podcast the pinball industry listens to. Grab the latest edition of the Pinball Magazine and Pinball News PINcast from your favourite podcast supplier or get it direct from Spotify on the link above, and don't forget to subscribe to the PINcast to guarantee you get the freshest episode each month just as soon as it is published. There's so much more of excitement coming up in the pinball world, so join Jonathan and Martin each month to make sure you don't miss any of it.

American Pinball has released their newest game, Barry O's BBQ Challenge and we have Bowden and Fix here to talk about this latest creation.

It's been released! Hear my thought's about American Pinball's new Barry O's BBQ Challenge! Here is my take on shots and layout, theme, playability AND who I think this game is for. The Tank follow up is here and I can't wait to play it...again? donspinballpodcast@gmail.com follow on facebook! Become a member on patreon! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donspinballpodcast/support

This interview was recorded at GOTO Aarhus for GOTO Unscripted.gotopia.techRead the full transcription of this interview hereJez Humble - SRE at Google Cloud & Lecturer at UC BerkeleyHolly Cummins - Senior Principal Software Engineer on the Red Hat Quarkus TeamRESOURCESdora.devJezcontinuousdelivery.comgithub.com/jezhumblelinkedin.com/in/jez-humble@jezhumblesre.google/resourcesHollyhollycummins.comhollycummins.com/type/blog@holly_cumminshachyderm.io/@holly_cumminsgithub.com/holly-cumminslinkedin.com/in/holly-k-cumminsDESCRIPTIONHolly Cummins and Jez Humble explore the delicate balance of communication in the tech industry. They dissect two contrasting trends – the need for increased communication and the burden of communication overhead. Jez highlights the importance of effectively managing limited communication bandwidth, emphasizing the need to focus on the right things and automate processes when possible. They delve into the significance of good platforms and touch on the persistence of the perennial issue of code formatting standards.Despite the challenges, they remain optimistic about the potential for positive change and acknowledge the progress made through continuous integration.RECOMMENDED BOOKSNicole Forsgren, Jez Humble & Gene Kim • AccelerateKim, Humble, Debois, Willis & Forsgren • The DevOps HandbookJez Humble & David Farley • Continuous DeliveryJez Humble, Joanne Molesky & Barry O'Reilly • Lean EnterpriseHolly Cummins & Timothy Ward • Enterprise OSGi in ActionLiz Rice • Container SecurityLiz Rice • Kubernetes SecurityBrendan Burns, Joe Beda & Kelsey Hightower • Kubernetes: Up and RunningTwitterInstagramLinkedInFacebookLooking for a unique learning experience?Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket: gotopia.techSUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL - new videos posted almost daily

This week we throw back to Episode 3 of The Thinking Leader to Bryce's conversation with Barry O'Reilly. In this episode, Bryce talks to Barry O'Reilly about the need for leaders to “unlearn” things that are no longer valid or no longer serve them and explains how major corporations have used his unlearning process to achieve greater success. Barry is a business advisor, entrepreneur, and author of the book Unlearn: Let Go of Past Success to Achieve Extraordinary Results. He is also the co-author of the international bestseller: Lean Enterprise: How High Performance Organizations Innovate at Scale. Barry is a speaker, writer, and contributor to The Economist, Strategy+Business, and the MIT Sloan Management Review. He also is a member of the faculty at Singularity Universitythe founder of ExecCamp, the entrepreneurial experience for executives. His mission is to help purposeful, technology-led businesses innovate at scale. In this episode: What is Unlearning? The difference between a decision-making process and a decision-making practice Why so many digital transformations fail How to be a more agile, resilient leader What to do if you're not the one in charge of an organization that needs to unlearn Mentioned in this episode: Read Barry's blog See what Barry has to say on Twitter Subscribe to Barry's podcast Join Barry's newsletter Sign up to the Red Team Thinking Community - Use the coupon code THINKINGLEADER for a free 30-day trial: https://community.redteamthinking.com/checkout/general-membership Want to find out if you're a Red Team Thinker? Click here to take a free assessment and get your personalized report: https://www.redteamthinking.com/rttassessment Visit our website: https://redteamthinking.com Watch this episode on YouTube: www.red-team.tv Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/redteamthinking/ Connect with Bryce: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brycehoffman/ Connect with Marcus: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusdimbleby/ Bestselling business author Bryce Hoffman and agility expert Marcus Dimbleby talk about decision making, strategy, resilience and leadership with some of the world's best CEOs, cognitive scientists, writers, and thinkers in this weekly podcast. Each episode offers new ideas and insights you can use to become a better leader and a better thinker – because bad leaders react, good leaders plan, and great leaders think!

There's a learning curve to running any successful business. But once you begin to rely on past achievements or get stuck in outdated thinking and practices that no longer work, you need to take a step back―and unlearn. This innovative and actionable framework from executive coach Barry O'Reilly shows you how to break the cycle of behaviors that were effective in the past but are no longer relevant in the current business climate, and now limit or may even stand in the way of your success.Barry O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of ExecCamp, an entrepreneurial experience for executives, and the management consultancy Antennae. A business advisor, entrepreneur, and sought-after speaker, O'Reilly has pioneered the intersection of business model innovation, product development, organizational design, and culture transformation. He works with the world's leading innovators, from disruptive startups to Fortune 500 companies. He is a frequent writer and contributor to The Economist, Strategy+Business, and MIT Sloan Management Review, as well as a coauthor of the international bestseller Lean Enterprise: How High Performance Organizations Innovate at Scale―included in the Eric Ries Lean series and a Harvard Business Review “must-read” for would-be CEOs and business leaders. He is also an executive advisor and faculty member at Singularity University.

Barry O'Reilly is the author of the best-seller “Unlearn: Let Go of Past Success to Achieve Extraordinary Results”. He also co-authored best-seller “Lean Enterprise” — part of the Eric Ries series. Barry is also Co-Founder and Chief Incubation Officer at venture studio, Nobody Studios, and faculty at Singularity University. Barry brings insights from his career at the intersection of business model innovation, product development, organizational design, and culture transformation. He describes how we can learn but not make progress and how some discomfort enables breakthroughs. He explains what questions can help you identify where you get in your own way, and what small iterative changes can do for you.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   [02:22] Barry was interested in business but a new university tech course takes him by surprise.   [04:49] Barry moves to San Francisco to work for CitySearch.com which almost merges with Elon Musk's first venture, Zip2.   [05:39] The power of technology in business becomes clear to Barry.   [06:28] When Barry finishes his degree his pre-signed job with an economic downturn.   [08:24] Barry moves to Edinburgh and starts building games for Sony, Sega, and Disney.   [09:20] Barry and team find out they have no idea how to scale when the business takes off.   [10:12] A 6-month sabbatical after 3 years working is Barry's preferred working rhythm.   [11:44] Australia offers Barry an interesting opportunity in e-learning and ‘game' businesses.   [13:02] On to London, Barry joins pioneers in the agile movement and shares the genesis story.   [14:34] Working at ThoughtWorks is a mad experience and a huge accelerator for Barry.   [15:11] The company was contrarian. It had no-rules, but a strong culture, setting the bar for how people showed up.   [16:12] Barry was inspired by Ricardo Semler, the young CEO of a Brazilian manufacturing company.   [18:17] Why have people report to you if they know what they're doing?   [19:29] ThoughtWorks was 30% female engineers—publishing this data openly which supported diversity.   [21:16] Barry co-authors Lean Enterprise his first book.   [24:03] Barry's ‘unlearning' Aha! And Eureka moments in a Sichuan restaurant in San Francisco.   [25:40] Diagnosing limiting beliefs, ‘Unlearn' as a system of experimentation.   [27:00] Asking the questions to find out where you're stuck, what you're afraid of doing.   [28:04] Barry offers piercing diagnostic questions--what 3-4 ideas do these questions raise for you?   [28:42] Barry's personal example of using the Unlearn method.   [29:18] Figuring out what the outcome is you actually want.   [30:42] After defining the goal, experimentation starts with small uncomfortable shifts in behavior.   [33:48] Leaning into discomfort is one way to find breakthroughs.   [35:01] A senior bank executive used unlearning to stop making any decisions!   [38:10] Barry trains with BJ Fogg an innovators of behavior design, author of Tiny Habits.   [39:24] Defining your vision and future is key to finding focus and moving forward.   [43:22] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: You don't just have one shot, you actually have many. If something didn't go how you would like, that wasn't IT. It was just a moment. Take the lessons from it—look for some hard lessons rather than to other folks as to why it didn't work. Then dust yourself down and prepare for the next opportunity because it WILL arrive.     RESOURCES   Barry O'Reilly on LinkedIn Barry O'Reilly on X @barryoreilly BarryOReilly.com   Barry's books: Unlearn: Let Go of Past Success to Achieve Extraordinary Results Lean Enterprise: How High-Performance Organizations Innovate at Scale.     QUOTES (edited)   “Every single person that walked through that door was bright, talented, and capable. Culture has a huge impact on the way people feel comfortable and how it can also cause an adverse reaction.”   “I strive not to have anyone to report to me. I want them to own their work. I want people to be engaged and focused on their work. I'll be there to provide feedback, guidance, mentorship, whatever it is. That's my responsibility.”   “If you don't make diversity visible people will not know it's a place that they can be. They need to see people like them in leadership roles.”   “A lot of Unlearn is a system of experimentation. You are diagnosing limiting behaviors or beliefs and reframing them as outcomes that you want, and then experimenting to drive those outcomes.”   “The trick is doing uncomfortable things but making them smaller.”   “You never learn stuff, if you don't create the space for it to happen.”   “What can hinder us from creating an exciting future for ourselves, each one of us is the habits of the past.”  

Welcome to our final, Wrap-Up episode of Season 7! In this episode, we reflect on all the fascinating conversations we've had in season 7. We have spoken to a range of consultants, experts, trainers and advisors who help others transition to circular economy practices. We express our gratitude for the diverse and inspiring guests who have shared their insights and experiences in this field, and pull out our favourite themes from the whole season. One central theme that emerged throughout the season is the idea that circularity cannot exist in isolation and requires systemic change. We discuss the complexity of circularity, it can be both transformational and prone to misdirection.  Embracing complexity and understanding context within the system is crucial. Another prominent theme is the evolution of the circular economy over the past few decades. Guests on the show have witnessed changes in how people engage with and access circular economy concepts. This shift is a turning point in history, with various aspects of life and systems undergoing transformation, offering both challenges and opportunities for those leading the change! Tune in to hear more about our Season 7 “Pioneering Sustainable Solutions for a Circular Future” impressions!  

On this week's episode of Inside Outside Innovation, we sit down with Barry O'Reilly, author of Unlearn and Lean Enterprise and co-founder of the new Venture Studio, Nobody Studios. Barry and I talk about the ins and outs of a new model of creating and investing in startups called Venture Studios, and we discuss the power of collaborative innovation. Let's get started.Inside Outside Innovation is a podcast to help new innovators navigate what's next. Each week we'll give you a front row seat into what it takes to learn, grow, and thrive, in today's world of accelerating change and uncertainty. Join us, as we explore, engage, and experiment with the best and the brightest, innovators, entrepreneurs, and pioneering businesses. It's time to get started.Interview Transcript with Barry O'Reilly, Author of Unlearn and Lean Enterprise & Co-founder of the Venture Studio, Nobody Studios Brian Ardinger: Welcome to another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. I'm your host Brian Ardinger, and as always, we have another amazing guest. You may have heard of Barry O'Reilly. He has been part of the Inside Outside Innovation community for a while. He's the author of Unlearn and Lean Enterprise. And co-founder of Nobody Studios, which we're going to have him talk a little bit more about that. Welcome, Barry. Barry O'Reilly: Thanks very much for having me. Yeah, it's great to be here. Brian Ardinger: It's great to have you back. You've followed Inside Outside the community. You've been a huge proponent of what we've done, and quite frankly, a huge mentor to me to understand this whole world of innovation and how do we get through it.I'm excited to talk about your new venture, which is Nobody's Studios. You've spent a lot of time as an author, as a consultant, working with big companies. Helping really develop the whole lean startup movement. And now you've decided to jump into the investment space and create a a studio where you're gonna hopefully incubate some amazing new startups in the world.Barry O'Reilly: Yeah. Well, first of all, one thing I want to congratulate you on is your new book. Literally it sits outside in my reading area. There are people that walk past it and see it all the time and pick it up. So, I just want to congratulate you on getting that done, and I really enjoyed reading through it. So, congratulations to yourself on that and highly recommend folks check it out.So in terms of Startup Studio, the real inspiration for me was, as you said, I've had the chance to work with some phenomenal people over the last number of years. Helping them either identify products that they wanted to build in enterprises or work with scaling startups that were sort of building their business and taking them as far as they could.And I was enjoying a lot of the sort of advisory side, but I've been sort of doing a lot of that now for, you know, close to a decade. And I was just getting itchy fingers, if you will. You know, I was like helping all these people, like I do a little bit of an angel investing. I, you know, would take sweat equity or be an advisor for these startups.Help enterprises build products, but I miss a daily grind of sort of being like right in there, building day in, day out. So, I knew I was just sort of looking for the right opportunity for me to bring a lot of my skills to bear and rather than put time in for money, put energy in for equity in these businesses and build something that would fire outlast me if you will.You know, started to share that with a few people and one of my good friends, Lee Dee, who was actually under advisory board of AgileCraft with me, which we sold to Atlassian and has now become JiraAlign. He introduced me to a guy called Mark McNally. And Mark was based down in Orange County. He was sort of interested or starting this idea of a company called Nobody Studios.And instantly I was just attracted to the name. Anything that's sort of contrarian and odd. I was like, why did you call this thing Nobody? And you know, part of the mission was we were going to build these companies. We really need to try and like put our egos at the door, if you will, and like be humble, challenge ourselves, work together to build these great businesses.And really the studio, it in itself is a sort of mix of all the best parts that I believe of the startup ecosystem that I can help with. We're not a VC. We do raise our own capital, but we raise our own capital so we can incubate our companies and ideas that we believe in. But we're not just an incubator.We have the capital to keep building, and we're not an accelerator where we just sort of put people through a program and give them the Y Combinator stamp and, and they go out the door. So, it's actually bringing all of these components together. We raise our own capital. We have our own ideas that we incubate these companies.We find founders and teams to help us bring these companies to life. And then the goal is to create really a repeatable, scalable business model and a fundable company where we've incubated something to the point that it's the high-quality business, it's maybe found product market fit, and they're ready to sort of go and get external capital.And that for us is sort of us doing our job well. But what we're actually optimizing from a business model point of view is to try a aim for early to mid-size exits. So, for those businesses to be actually, purchased, merged into, acquired, maybe even an early I P O, who knows? But that's necessarily our business model.So, by incubating and building these companies, we're actually looking to exit them for early to mid-stage exits. And that's how we will essentially generate more capital to go back into the studio to build more businesses. Brian Ardinger: So, let's talk a little bit more about the tactics around this. So nobody's studios you're looking to, I think, incubate a hundred companies over the next five years. That takes a lot of people, a lot of founders, a lot of great ideas. How do you tactically go about starting the studios. Barry O'Reilly: To be honest, and we share that with people. Half of the people run away from us, and half of the people run towards us when they hear that. For me, like that's actually the good sign of a big harry audacious goal, if you will.It's the calling card for some people. It helps sort of people who aren't thinking like that choose a a different option. With having a big audacious goal like that, you know, it forces you to start recalculating how you build businesses. So, when people hear a hundred companies in five years, they instantly think, oh, that's 20 companies a year.Like, how are you going to do that amount? But actually, it's a sort of exponential scale that we work on. So, on a first year, which was sort of 2021, our goal was actually to create three companies and learn and build both the systems to create companies as well as the actual businesses themselves. And then last year our goal was to try and create five companies, which was almost, if you will, like a 50% increase in company creation.And, if you sort of start to work those numbers out over the next five years, we basically go from three to five to 11 to 17 to 32, to 43, and then suddenly you're at a hundred, right? So, it's us also building the infrastructure capabilities and the systems to support and source a lot of these founders.At the same time, the studio is growing in maturity and understanding and people, if you will, as we go along. So, it's very much think big, start small, which many people probably have heard me say many times and then scale over time. And that's literally how we've got on. Currently we are into our second year. We actually have 11 companies that are in development. Four are already in market and it's working. So, it's very exciting to be sort of just like learning by doing. There's lots of mistakes we're making along the way. But the great part about it is when lessons are learned, they're compounded across the entire portfolio.Say we make a mistake about how to kick off founders on company two. If we correct it on company three, then every company benefits from that afterwards. And that's been one of the probably most unique aspects of this, is the speed at which we learn when we make corrections. We're actually able to propagate that across a huge number of companies. So, it's been very exciting. Still lots to do, but we're up and running. Brian Ardinger: So, this idea of a venture studio, there's other folks that are doing it. I've seen other folks trying to maybe pair with corporates where they work with a corporation and help incubate ideas and companies that come out of that corporation and that. Then, obviously you have the traditional kind of Techstars accelerator model, that kind of stuff. How does this actually work? So, do you have a stable of either ideas or a stable of founders and you put them together or how's it come together? Barry O'Reilly: Yeah, so there's three ways that businesses, if you will, are sort of come into the studio. First, we have our own set of ideas. Surprise, surprise, there's no shortage of ideas for businesses. But we do have an internal process where we review a lot of the ideas. We do some initial customer discovery, and the ones that we have conviction on, we start to essentially make a first small investment in.And a lot of the reasons that would make us sort of green light, if you will, one of these ideas is not only seeing that there's an opportunity in the market, but we have a potential founding team in place. And we've discovered, cuz we are co-founders of these businesses. And remember, we're not just on the sidelines cheering like I'm a co-founder, not only of Nobody's Studios, but every single company that we create. Like I'm in there in those companies, day in, day out. The next way is actually we do mini acquisitions. We think eventually we'll do like 30% of our own, probably 30% that we do these mini acquisitions. These are like typically, I'll give you an example of one of our companies is Thought Format. It's a serverless, no code platform.And these were two brothers based in London who had been sort of working their day jobs and building this product in their evenings and weekends. And I actually met them at a conference in London probably about four years ago, and they just instantly struck me as two guys who were really like figuring it out.I was impressed that they would, you know, still work a day job and then work other evenings on weekends on bringing this thing to life. So when we started the studio, I instantly called them and said, look, how about we basically give you the opportunity to go full-time and work on this product? And interestingly, one of our other businesses, Ovations, which is an on-demand speaker platform, is built on top of Thought Format.So, we instantly started to get this platform that we can accelerate our product development, but also accelerate the value of these companies by collaborating together. And then finally, we think one option will be that we will do some corporate collaborations, but the, the way we sort of think of it is more of a, a made to acquisition type model.So, what we do is we tend to have very open dialogue with a lot of these corporates who have to make acquisitions actually for their business to survive. But the price of startups are so expensive now based on the valuations that they raise at. Most founders are pricing them out of their most likely exit, which is an acquisition from day one. Right? They might be a Series A company and they take 10 million at a 50 million valuation and they have to sell that company at half a billion dollars. But so investors will get the money that they're expecting back. So, you know, no enterprise in their right mind is going to pay half a billion dollars for a Series A stage company.Yeah, exactly right. So, so what we've discovered is actually if we have these very open dialogues with a lot of businesses to say, well, you probably need a data analytics solution for your business. So, you probably need, some sort of AI automation, a service for your business. We have what we describe as sort of a open conversation with them, and if we think it's a business that we believe in, and they could potentially be an either an early investor or a acquirer of that business, we may go build it. Right. And for us, if we incubate, because most of our companies we incubate for just under a quarter million dollars, and if we incubate it for that and sell it for 20 million, we'll do that all day and twice on Sundays. Brian, and so that's sort of a very different approach for how the open market is operating, if you will. Again, I think that's going to be a big competitive advantage for us. Brian Ardinger: Do you see those corporate environments where the startups have access to an early test customer, for example, is that a, a benefit or are you seeing it more as a acquisition and or test run. Barry O'Reilly: Yeah, well this is the fun thing about test customers, right? So, we have this notion of building blocks in our studio where Thought Form is a great example. It's a building block for another one of our company's Ovations because it sits on top of it. So Thought Form's first ever customer, if you will, was another company in our portfolio. One company was like, oh, we'll build on your platform, and we'll be able to give you fast feedback on your platform, how it performs, what works, what doesn't in a relatively sort of safer environment.So, what's really powerful for us is that we're building all these businesses that create capabilities that we need internally in our own business, and then we can build our more customer facing, B2C type products, if you will, on top of those services. So, we're getting this sort of virtuous loop straight out the gate.First set of early customers to testament that are also part of your portfolio, so, it's collaborative, if you will. Because they're both getting benefits from working with one another. That's sort of been another like little bit of a secret sauce for us, if you will. Where we've been able to accelerate the development of a lot of these companies.Or another company we're building is one called Web Delics, which is basically the WebMD of psychedelics to help people understand plant-based medicine and therapies. And straight away, that's a, if you will, a content business. And we've built another one, Parent Tipity, which is a parent creator community. Now, there's a lot of behaviors and aspects of these businesses that are similar, both in terms of how they're producing content and become information sources. So, when we build those capabilities for one of our businesses, we can essentially share them across all the businesses that are content focused. We just get these massive sort of uplift inefficiency about how quickly we can build. How cheaply we can build. Like some of these companies were launching for under $50,000. Right? Which is, that's as much as you pay for a pitch Deck in San Francisco. It's pretty fun. Brian Ardinger: How big is the team then? I'm as assuming that you add folks onto the particular startups as they grow and, and kind of expand. Barry O'Reilly: Yeah, so we have people that work at the studio level, so folks like myself as a chief incubation officer. I'm working across the portfolio. And then we have teams that, people that work within the individual new companies or NewCos as we tend to call them, or portfolio companies. So, at, at the moment we're probably in the region of about a hundred folks, I would say, either both in the companies that we're building or in the studio itself.And the studio really comprises of everything from. A typical executive team is, Mark McNally. He's our Chief Nobody, as we call him. I look after incubation. We've a marketer, we've a C F O, Head of Operations. And then like just staff that help. Don't work across the companies. Product leaders. Technology leaders and so forth.And then within each of the companies, it can sort of vary as you mentioned, but we always look for sort of a triad to start. So, a tech lead, a product lead and design lead. And then there's a lot of marketing, business operations, team support, project management to sort of get them moving. And then engineers. So that's pretty much how the teams have formed and pretty fun making progress. Brian Ardinger: It's a great model and, and I'm excited to see where, where it goes. One of the interesting things about the model too is how you went about and how you're going about raising capital and, and making it accessible to not your traditional just, angel investors or accredited VC firms out there. So can you talk a little bit about Nobody's Studios and your partnership with Republic and how you're going about raising capital for the studio. Barry O'Reilly: Yeah, so one of the core tenants of the studio is that we're global first and we're also crowd enabled. Or is what we call crowd infused. One of the questions about like, why would we create a hundred companies in five years?Like we can't hire enough people to create those companies, that it's just impossible. So, one of the things that we flipped our mind around is, well how can we actually bring more people into the Nobody community to be part of our world? Initially when we were starting to build our companies, we were thinking we're going to need a lot of people to help us ideate, to help us, do customer research, to test, as you were asking earlier.And then we started thinking also about like ownership, if you will. So many people are locked out of the venture ecosystem and have probably wondered why it might look like, imagine I could own a piece of Google before it became Google. Or how do I even get involved in owning a piece of a startup?And as you said, for a long time, that right, if you will, has only been given to very high net worth individuals or people that were in certain circles that would even have access to these type of deals. So, we wanted to try and shift that a bit and give access to all. As well as create this huge community of owners and studio and actually contributors to the studio.So, while we've raised a lot of our own capital through traditional means of angel funding, and we've done really well, we've raised close to 4 million, if you will, through private markets. But then we want to bring more people to that system. So, we became one of the first venture studios ever to offer equity crowdfunding to the world, which means anyone. You don't have to be an accredited investor, just any person on the street. You'll be a bus driver, a nurse, whatever you are. You're able to invest and own a piece of Nobody's Studios and become a venture investor. And we're really, really proud of that because we've sort of opened up and given access to all where anybody who's interested in early-stage business startups or our technology and the impact it's going to have on their future, they can actually own a piece of the studio, just like the same shares that I own.By going to Republic and making an investment from a couple hundred dollars right up to a couple of thousands and being Nobody. So, it's really special. We've had, you know, hundreds of of people already join. And what's special about that is that now these people are owners, but they can also contribute to the companies we're making. Give us feedback, bring their ideas, and that gives us more, if you will, human capital as well as financial capital to build all these businesses, we're going after. Brian Ardinger: I like the concept quite a bit. The fact that this democratization of innovation, everything from technology to access to markets to the pandemic, have all kind of converged in such a way that you can build anything from anywhere now. And why not open up that from a capital perspective as well, is an interesting take on the whole process and hopefully, yeah, like you said, it will provide a competitive advantage for you as well to actually access talent that may not have been able to access in the past because of different barriers or or ways of working.Barry O'Reilly: Absolutely. Right, and you know when, now you know when you're a Nobody shareholder. You got an idea, where do you think you're going to bring it? Right. And that's great. That's an advantage to us, as you mentioned. This is really special for us. You know, like to have so many people who want to ideate with us, build with us, challenge us, give us feedback on our ideas before they go to market.And this is really going to be something quite special, I think, where people can sort of live within a realm that they've never maybe had the opportunity to and maybe have always wanted to. And technology is going to have such a huge impact on our future, so why not own a piece of that future or own a piece of the companies that are going to shape it? And giving people that access is something that we're, we're really proud of and we're excited to see, what more we can do. For More InformationBrian Ardinger: Well, I'm looking forward to my t-shirt and being, being a Nobody myself. If people want to find out more about, Nobody's studios or the fundraise through Republic, what's the best way to that?Barry O'Reilly: Yeah. So if you're curious to learn more about what we're doing and make an investment, please go to Republic.com/nobodystudios where Nobody Crowd on pretty much every social media platform and NobodyStudios.com if you want to dig in and see what's on our website. Thank you very much for inviting me to share a little bit of our story.I'm delighted you've become a Nobody. Your t-shirt is in the posts, where you're going to be seeing a Nobody Studios Venture investor photo on your Twitter feed, I'm sure soon. So, yeah, thank you for joining us, on this mission. I'm sure it's going to be the adventure of a lifetime. Brian Ardinger: Well, Barry, it's always a pleasure to spend time with you, so thank you for coming on Inside Outside Innovation and looking forward to having further conversations as the world unfolds. Barry O'Reilly: Thank you very much.Brian Ardinger: That's it for another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. If you want to learn more about our team, our content, our services, check out InsideOutside.io or follow us on Twitter @theIOpodcast or @Ardinger. Until next time, go out and innovate.FREE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER & TOOLSGet the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events. SUBSCRIBE HEREYou can also search every Inside Outside Innovation Podcast by Topic and Company.  For more innovations resources, check out IO's Innovation Article Database, Innovation Tools Database, Innovation Book Database, and Innovation Video Database.   

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), along with six academics working in the area of artificial intelligence and data privacy, wrote an open letter to Irelands Minster for Justice Helen McEntee last month, noting that the use of Facial Recognition Technology raises serious and challenging issues about individual privacy and data rights. Full letter here: https://www.iccl.ie/2022/iccl-highlights-concerns-over-proposed-garda-use-of-facial-recognition-technology/

Barry O'Reilly shares his strategies on how to unlearn the mindsets and behaviors that hold us back. — YOU'LL LEARN — 1) The key to breakthrough improvement 2) How to identify what you need to unlearn 3) How to overcome the fear of change Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep779 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT BARRY — Barry O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of ExecCamp, an entrepreneurial experience for executives, and the management consultancy Antennae. A business advisor, entrepreneur, and sought-after speaker, O'Reilly has pioneered the intersection of business model innovation, product development, organizational design, and culture transformation. He works with the world's leading innovators, from disruptive startups to Fortune 500 companies. He is a frequent writer and contributor to The Economist, Strategy+Business, and MIT Sloan Management Review, as well as a coauthor of the international bestseller Lean Enterprise: How High Performance Organizations Innovate at Scale―included in the Eric Ries Lean series and a Harvard Business Review “must-read” for would-be CEOs and business leaders. He is also an executive advisor and faculty member at Singularity University. • Book: Lean Enterprise: How High Performance Organizations Innovate at Scale • Book: Unlearn: Let Go of Past Success to Achieve Extraordinary Results • Studio: NobodyStudios.com • Website: BarryOReilly.com — RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • Book: Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace by Ricardo Semier— THANK YOU SPONSORS! — • Gusto.com. Make doing payroll easy and get three free months at Gusto.com/awesomeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.