Good Manager: Understands that developers are on the critical path: nothing "is" until someone writes some code. Bad Manager: Thinks that developers are no different than business analysts, admins, or envelope stuffers, and treats them that way. Good Manager: Understands that formal process, while invaluable, is not infallible and must be augmented by the performance of excellent people. Bad…
Bad: Cubicle Better: Office Best: Whatever works best for you. Bad: Meetings without agendas. Better: Meetings with agendas. Best: Meetings whose need is so obvious to everyone that no agenda is needed. Bad: Specs, waterfall, Systems Development Life Cycle. Better: Prototyping, agile, scrum. Best: Developers with enough domain knowledge to just build it. Bad: No documentation. Better:…
I get a lot of emails these days from fellow hackers with [ distress | concern | depression ]. They're not looking for technical solutions or advice (which is good because I have neither), they're just not where they thought they'd be and are reaching out for *something*. I try to make a point to answer all of them because, frankly, they're my most important emails. To me, the ones and zeroes…
I worked at McDonald's in high school. It was high volume, fast paced, hard work, low pay, and there were 10 other kids ready to take your job if you didn't like it. I'm now a software developer. I've worked hard all my life, but I still think that McDonald's was the toughest and best job I've ever had. I learned lessons there that have helped me many times since. Just a few of those lessons: 1.…
(A true story.) Philip (President): Our factory is underutilized by 10%. Either we start building more of our backlog or we lay people off. I'd rather keep everyone busy, build inventory, and get ahead of the curve before the busy season. How can we do that? Lee (Operations Manager): Company policy restricts us from building more than 3 months of backlog. If you just change that to 4 months, we'll…
10:48 Boss: Hey Ed, Sue in Detroit says that sometimes, the wrong Invoice Part Number is showing up on the Product History Screen. Can you help us figure this out. Ed: I'm busy with something else at the moment. Put the ticket in my queue. Boss: This will only take 10 minutes. Ed: Are you sure about that? Boss: Yes. I'll just set up a web conference. Sue can show you right away, then you can look…
A local Sporting Goods retailer that had just acquired a Baseball competitor. Their ecommerce system had a clever database structure to make ordering easy from either the website or the call center. For any given Product, there could be hundreds of Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) based on Sport, Size, Color, Number, or other attribute. The database was easy to use but difficult to load. Jim was brought…
I recently received an inquiry from a Hacker News newcomer on how to best participate in the community. I was ready to reply, "Just follow the guidelines and be yourself." Then I realized that it was actually a very good question that deserved a much better answer. So here is my more detailed answer, based upon many years of hard knocks. First of all, follow the guidelines! This is a necessary,…
Sorry to say, none of these were made up... Me, 124 Monday lunches in a row: We need an adequate disaster recovery plan. Boss: We do. We back up every day. Me: What happens when we try to restore one of those backups? Boss: I don't know. Why? Me: Where's the test plan? Boss: Jerry will make sure Fred's program works. Me: Where's the "Expected Results" section on the test plan? Boss: What? Me: I…
A client presented me with an obvious and significant problem that required immediate attention. I worked on the problem and helped them solve it. Along the way, I discovered a whole bunch of things that merit further examination by software developers. The names and facts are changed and I will present the code as pseudo-code. I never compromise client confidences and the technology doesn’t…
In the past year or two, I have learned my greatest life lesson. As a lifelong high achiever, it was extremely counter-intuitive yet it was right in front of me all along. First, a little background… In the past couple of years: - My father died. - My aunt (and best friend) died. - My cousin (who was really like my brother) died. - My 19 year old cat died. - We had our first ever family reunion. -…
I don’t know about the rest of the world, but lots of us sure are in a bubble. There seems to be a real disconnect between what people want to build/invest in and what people in the real world actually need and want to pay for. Just as sample of what I’ve witnessed in the past few years: Ask HN: How do you like my file sharing app? Ask HN: How do you like my social app for niche ? Ask HN: How do…
“The path of the righteous programmer is beset on all sides by the inequities of the clueless and the tyranny of evil project managers. Blessed is he, who in the name of achievement and solid technology, shepherds the users through the valley of ineptitude, for he is truly his customer’s keeper and the finder of lost solutions. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious…
“And in my experience when enough people are saying that ‘you can’t do that’ there is an opportunity waiting for you that is proportional in pay-off to the number of people asserting that it can’t be done.” Great thought. Most of my most memorable successes were when others said that something couldn’t be done. First you think, “Why not?” Then you think, “What would it take?” Then you figure that…
Condescending feedback says more about the speaker than the listener. It is almost invariably about their own insecurity. This is true is almost all fields of endeavor, not just programming. Just a few examples of my own: Insecure bridge player: The queen of spades was a stupid play. What’s wrong with you? Excellent bridge player: The queen of spades would have been a great play against a 4/2…
Not so Good: Build it and they will come. Good: Make something people want. Better : Make something people need. Even better: Make something people need and know that they need. If they don’t already know, someone will have to help them know. That someone might be you and helping them will take sales and marketing, a significant consideration. Even better: Make something people need, know they…
There’s one huge factor at work, for many programmers. I’m tempted to call it the “wimp factor”, but that’s too negative, so I’ll just call it the “introvert factor”. I’m a perfect example… I was always small for my age and looked nerdy with my glasses and attraction to books, etc. I was always picked last for sports teams, drew little attention from girls, and was usually the first one to be…
Whenever I read a post about the sprint to launch, I think 3 things: 1. Great determination, great work ethic, great job. 2. It doesn't have to be this way. 3. It shouldn't be this way. I feel fortunate that my DNA is blessed with some sort of internal “governor”. I don’t know where it came from, but I’ve always had it. Here’s how it works: It stays out of the way when I am enthusiastic about…
“Six months later, things are still sounding great and not happening. What’s going on?” It could be that nothing unusual is going on. A six+ month buying cycle for anything over 4 figures is normal. Whenever selling to an enterprise, you should ask your contact: 1. Who is the champion? 2. Who is the decision maker? 3. What is the process for each tier? 4. What should we do the best ensure our…
Teen years - flipped burgers & partied Age 21 - graduated college, flipped burgers, & partied Age 24 - touched my first computer Age 25 - wrote my first program Age 27 - touched my first PC Age 31 - wrote my first low level code Age 32 - started my first business Age 39 - started my second business Age 41 - accessed the internet for the first time Age 44 - wrote my first browser-based app Age 51 -…
“In fact, one thing I have noticed is that the people who I consider to be good software developers barely ever apply for jobs at all.” Good point. The best developers I ever hired were (a) already working, (b) not looking, (c) referred, and (d) without a current resume. Therefore, the people who I consider to be good software developers probably don’t have a current resume. Therefore, the top 1%…
“It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.” For what it’s worth, I have written over 1 million lines of BASIC for over 100 customers, most of it still it production, and all of it doing important work producing goods, services, and jobs in so many…
I used to be awfully hasty in judging others, “She is really smart,” or “He is so stupid”. Then I learned alot from my first mentor. He taught that there often isn’t much difference between someone who appears smart and someone who doesn’t. Perhaps no one spent enough time with them. Maybe they have other challenges, like family, health, or circumstances. Maybe they’re just a fish out of water,…
Advantages of working at home: 1. Equipment I pick. 2. Furniture I pick. 3. Temperature I pick. 4. Lighting I pick. 5. Music I pick (without headphones!). 6. Clothing I pick (shorts in summer, sweatsuit in winter) 7. Food & drink I pick. (It's really good.) 8. Commute time = 1 minute per day. 9. No gas/car expense. 10. Almost no interruptions. 11. 6 people have my IP phone#. 12. 12 people have my…
1. basic form 2. form with multi-valued lines 3. form with data set (multi-valued parent/children) 4. form with grid 5. tabbed form 6. form with skins 7. batch (loop thru something) 8. batch update selected records in a table 9. batch dump table records --> .txt or .xml file 10. batch .txt or .xml file --> update table records 11. batch file --> create & populate database table 12. cut an email…
1. There is no position. We’re just “feeling out” the marketplace. 2. There is no position. This was a headhunter building his database. 3. We were planning to promote from within, but HR made us post the position anyway. We didn’t read or respond to any of the resumes. 4. We already had the perfect candidate, but HR made us post the position anyway. We didn’t read or respond to any of the…
Here’s an idea: find “someone else” with a problem and work on that. This works especially well if the someone else is in business, very busy, and has some money. Chances are better that your solution to their problem won’t have much competition: if it did, they would have already gone with it. I know this is the opposite of “scratch your own itch”, but I always found that advice overrated. I have…
I have found most networking (of any kind) to be an inefficient use of my time. At most events, I always had a little voice in my head saying things like, “Instead of being here, I could be building ,” or “What could possibly come out of this discussion?” I’m also frustrated because so many events don’t have my prospects, but “people who know people who know people who may know a potential…
I’ve been programming commercially for 32 years and in all that time, I have found very little correlation between age and ability to deliver quality software. I have worked with younger, inexperienced, and uneducated programmers who were willing to learn, with minds like sponges and who were a pleasure to work with. They often found or thought of things the rest of us overlooked. I have worked…
Maybe we’re lucky in Pittsburgh, but we have the best of both worlds at the main branch of the Carnegie Library. You can take a tour of where I work 2 or 3 days per week: http://www.clpgh.org/locations/main/tours/virtualtour/ It’s fantastic. It was built by Andrew Carnegie in 1895 and most of it is original. I get inspiration from the 20 foot ceilings and hand made ornamentation everywhere you…