Month: August 2015

August 31, 2015

Greg Thomas

Nothing Takes 2 Minutes

Ask someone when they are going to have something done and their immediate answer is going to be “In a sec”, “In a few minutes”, etc, etc. Translation – “I am so good I will have all my work done within 2 minutes and you will bow before my glory”. Perhaps not quite, but you get the idea, we want to impress someone with how fast you can get something done while ignoring how long it will take for everyone on the team to get it done and get it done right. If you can get your fix up to the

August 28, 2015

Greg Thomas

What Dream are you Chasing?

It is very easy to become entranced in the magic and mysticism of a new venture – whether it be a new startup or project.  We tend to focus on the carrot – what can we get and be if we are successful – and the carrot is always something of the physical variety. Listen to anyone speak on the topic when the offer is in front of them and 9/10 times (based on my own experience) it goes something like this… If I put in x effort, I will yield y reward.  If that happens it will have been ssssssssooooooooooo worth

August 27, 2015

Greg Thomas

How to Build a Great Team

I had this concept a number of years ago when I was starting out as a Software Manager and had to build a team from scratch of all new people and spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of people I wanted to have on my team.  There were some people I hired at the time that ran counter to some conventional wisdom and for the most part it all worked out in the end. Instead of doing it as a blog post, I did another SlideShare presentation that let me lay out my thoughts a little more

August 25, 2015

Greg Thomas

An Argument for Self-Training

If you really do not want to become a great developer or team lead, avoid doing anything and everything on this list; Spend time learning and staying on top of new technologies. Join a local user group focussed around a specific platform for technology that allows you to network with your peers. Join groups on LinkedIn to stay abreast of industry trends. Setup Google Alerts to receive emails to your inbox focussed around certain technologies and trends. Watch videos upload to YouTube that walk you through the How-Tos many different ways. Read some (not all) of the blog content out there to get ideas

August 24, 2015

Greg Thomas

Quoting Qualifications

From the movie Apollo 13 I don’t care what anything was designed to do. I care about what it can do. – Gene Kranz Achieving certifications, degrees, diplomas, etc take a considerable amount of time and effort and you should be congratulated (and/or congratulate those ) that have undertaken such an endeavour to push yourself further than others. But you/we need to avoid falling into the trap where we quote our qualifications and use that as a shield to not answer the questions and fix the problem.  A few months ago I sent an inquiry to one of my daughter’s coaches

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