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I am a maker at my core. I make as my work and as my art. Over the years I've made websites, services, and apps. I've made stickers, clothing, and luggage. I've made friendships and partnerships. I've made adventures and memories. I

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How do planning, research, and design work with teams working in an agile sprint-based process? What is the right balance of upfront planning and design vs figuring it out along the way?

Thinking In Analogies

When pursuing a new creative project or overcoming a problem, thinking in analogies can be a beneficial strategy. Analogies enable parallel thinking, enabling the transfer of experience and expertise from one domain into another.

Bringing Proven Ideas to Life

We're bombarded with information day in and day out. But how much impact could we have by just bringing existing helpful information to life using practical means instead of consuming yet another new idea?

What's the next most important step you can take?

Exploring the power of identifying the next most valuable step you can take for each of your projects.

Taking Control Of Your Time And Attention

Options for becoming more intentional with your time, energy, and attention.

How many hours do you really have for work in your workday?

Exploring the time it takes to be human during your workday and resetting your expectations for productivity.

Taking Breaks During Your Workday to Recharge

Why taking small breaks during your workday might be the secret to feeling more recharged and doing better work.

Onward.ly - Making Self-Reflection A Habit

Learn about my work with Onward.ly to create a tool to help people learn and practice the habit of self-awareness and self-efficacy.

Workit - Accererating Each Other's Growth

Learn about my work with Workit to help every person accelerate their growth and realize their potential.

Do you have external commitments?

Exploring the power of external commitments for accountability.

Could you be sharing more in public?

Exploring the power of sharing in public to share your wisdom and impact with the people around you.

Tools For Humanity - Tools For A Life Well Lived

Learn about my work with Tools For Humanity to create a world where everyone has the tools for living a life well lived.

Meet Adam Zolyak

Hey there! I'm Adam. Welcome. Welcome to my personal website where you can learn more about me, my projects, and my ideas. Mission My current mission is to help every person have the inner tools and resources they need to live an authentic fulfilling lives and support other

Making Hard Work More Approachable

The power of breaking down batches to make hard work more approachable.

How to Struggle Well

Options for changing unhelpful struggle into a helpful challenge and the joy of flow.

Are your holding space and time for yourself?

Exploring the power of holding space and time for yourself and your growth and potential.

Do you share your resources with others?

Exploring the power of sharing your resources with the people around you.

Are you making it easy to scale your impact?

Exploring the power of scaling your impact by documenting your resources and sharing them with the people around you.

A User Manual for Serendipity

Understanding how serendipity really works in the real world.

How To Find What Fulfills You

Understanding fulfillment and options for having more fulfillment in your life and work.

How to Find Your Authentic Vision For Work and Life

Options for finding your authentic vision for work and life for a life you love living.

How Tools Created Modern Humans

A brief history of how tools enabled our current version of humanity.

Why I'm Building Tools for Humanity

Learn why I'm making Tools for Humanity to support other people's wellness (and hopefully my own too).

If you're not sure what to do next, just do something. Anything.

Exploring how biasing to action and learning by doing can help you overcome getting stuck and find a path foward.

When's your next sabbatical?

Exploring the power of taking sabbaticals from your life and work.

Appreciation Booth

Demo of my hackathon to create an Appreciation Photobooth at work to make it easier to appreciate co-workers. 2nd place overall winner.

Do you have ready options?

Exploring the power of ready options.

Automating Toil with GitHub Actions

Learn about how GitHub Actions can help save you time and automate toil so you can focus on more meaningful work.

Let's Waffle! Bot

Demo of my hackathon project to help developers get onboarding more quickly and effectively with Waffle.io.

Guide: finding more time for focus + meaningful work

A guide with ideas and tips for finding more time for focus and meaningful work.

Where's The (ele)Vator?

Demo of my hackathon to recommend which elevator to select at work.

TinkurParkAssist

A project to help you park your car irresponsibly close to the garage door, with only inches to spare.

3D Print Pegboard Tool Holders

Check out TinkurLab's custom-designed 3D printed pegboard tool holders.

Every Idea Needs a ???

Demo of my hackathon to create an interactive LED display that allows people to add and remove words to a public wall art installation. 1st place overall winner.

Chatbot Pull Request Bumper

Demo of my hackathon to create a Pull Request bumper for Hubot that shows open GitHub Pull Requests that were mentioned in a team’s chat flow.

Chatbot Pull Request Watcher / Notifier

Demo of my hackathon to create a Jenkins Build Watcher for Hubot that watches an active build in Jenkins and provides updates when the build completes.

Chatbot Out of Office

Demo of my hackathon to create an Out of Office for Hubot that lets people know when you’re out of the office or busy.

TinkurWash - A Talking Dishwasher

Learn about TinkurWash, a talking dishwasher.

The Future of Hardware, Software, and The Physical World - Takeaways from O'Reilly Solid 2014

My observations and takeaways from attending the O'Reilly Solid Conference in 2014.

Better Ski Maps - Tinkurlab: SlopeStyle

Tinkurlab is going spatial! We’re adding maps and spatial data to our visualization techniques. Keep reading for the first foray into mapping…ski slopes! ——– You’ve heard it all before. “This run would totally be a green out west.” “This resort isn’t as hard as my home mountain.

My Love Affair With Post-It Notes

My love letter to Post-It notes with seven reasons I still love using Post-It notes instead of fancy tools and technology.

"Yes We Kanban!" and Agile Swag

A collection of sticks and tee shirts based on agile, scrum, kanban, devops, chatops, and lean practices.

Das Bot (v2.0) - Now with more beer!

How quickly time goes by.  It seems like we only just completed Das Bot v1.0, but with Oktoberfest 2012 quickly approaching we started one of the biggest projects we’ve completed to date – Das Bot 2.0.  Instrumented beer on a grand scale! The final setup, ready for the

Four Frames Photubooth

www.FourFramesBooth.com I love photographs. Their ability to capture a single candid moment of life. The play of light – black, white, shades of grey. Reminders of the people, places, and things that make life special. Ever since my friend Jim introduced me to photography as a teenager, I’ve

BBQ Lab (v1.3) - Dashboard

While BBQ Lab captures all sorts of good data – its equally important to make that data into useful information that can easily be used.  While BBQ Lab has always used Google Charts for visual graphs and trending, BBQ Lab v1.3 included quite a few new visualizations including the new

Das Bot (v0.1) - Instrumented Beer

Oktoberfest is a big thing – BFD – in our household. We love beer, we love sausage, and we love hanging out with our friends. So what better way to celebrate those things then an annual Oktobesfest party. Our first “Fest” was held one week before my wife and I got married

BBQ Lab - Instrumented BBQ

My wife – Val – and I love food.  We love to cook it, eat it, and share it with others.  And one of my favorite foods is BBQ.  So a few years ago, we purchased a small smoker to try our hand at making some BBQ.  So first, let’s talk