Every Right Action Is Also a Mistake 2013.04.23 Throughout my career, I've had the opportunity on multiple occasions to manage large teams. …
Link: chadfowler.com
Don't Put All Your Eggs in Someone Else's Basket 2013.07.09 (Excerpt from The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development) While managing an application development group, I once asked one of my employees, “What do you want to do with your career? What ...
As a developer and sometimes system adminstrator, one of the scariest things I ever encounter is a server that’s been running for ages which has seen multiple upgrades of system and application software. Why? Because an old system inevitably grows warts. They start as one-time hacks d...
Starting today I’m going to post a free excerpt from The Passionate Programmer every week (time permitting) until I’ve posted them all. (Thanks to my generous publisher for allowing this!) If you have read it and wished you could share sections with friends and co-workers that don’t o...
Six years ago, I gave up a bad habit. Since 1999 I had been using RSS then Atom as my interesting-stuff changelog. I eventually amassed a subscription collection of hundreds of feeds with subjects ranging from the obvious (tech news and software development) to religion, philosophy, l...
As I mentioned last week, I’m releasing chapters of The Passionate Programmer every(ish) week until they’ve all been posted. This week’s chapter is one I actually re-read myself sometimes as a reminder. It’s about how to stay calm and focused in the face of stress. It’s one of the mos...
I am one of the original organizers of both RubyConf and RailsConf . Combined, I’ve organized or been on the program committee for around 25 conferences. I’ve read hundreds of proposals and seen hundreds of conference talks. Occasionally, a proposal or a talk stands out. Here’s one th...
(Excerpt from The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development) I started my career as a computer programmer because of video games. Since the days of loading games from tape on my Commodore 64, I’ve been hooked by their immersive, interactive experience...
The South Indian Monkey Trap 2013.07.09 (Excerpt from The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development) In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values , Robert Pirsig tells an enlightening story about how people in South India used ...
