May 20, 2021
It’s not easy, not when your job is on the line. Telling the truth, not watering it down, keeping it simple and clear. There are too many books written on this topic to mention. You can’t sell authenticity, you can only do it. The problem is that selling authenticity is easier than doing it. And that’s where we need to stop failing at it.
May 19, 2021
We all have “That” meeting. The one we dread. The one we dont’ want to attend. The one we already know what is going to be said, how people will respond, and how it will end. What if YOU could change that meeting? What if YOU could make it better? What if YOU knew what could be done to make it better? As an attendee of any meeting you always have two rights. Make it better. Stop attending. Number 2 isn’t about giving up, if you’ve tried Number 1 with nothing changing, then it’s time to find a way to
May 18, 2021
If someone doesn’t want to be lead, you won’t be able to lead them. If they don’t want your guidance, they won’t take it. No matter how much they might need it (whether it’s your opinion or there’s). What is one to do when this happens? Show up. Be consistent. Remind them you are here, remind them you can help them, remind them you can support them. Even after all this, they still might not want your help, they still might not see the value you are providing them to help them get better. What then? This is where you
May 17, 2021
Not the company merge, but the CODE merge. Minor CODE merges aren’t a problem, but the big ones, the ones we have drifted so far apart on for too long, that we have been afraid to merge back in because “it’s not going to be run anytime soon” – those merges, those are the ones that strike fear into a developer’s heart. The first question a developer will ask is – “how long”? And if the answer isn’t “not long”, minds start racing with impacts and outcomes as to what might happen and ways to mitigate what will invariably happen.
May 16, 2021
I live in software where buzzwords abound and I can barely stand them. But – “Bleeding Edge” – this one gets me all the time. What we want to write code that is bleeding off the edge of a knife? Did someone die for our software to compile? Are we attacking Orcs at dawn? When I ship this code do I make a blood sacrifice to the elders of my keyboard? Oh wait, is this a Klingon thing? It must be, because all I can think of when I hear Bleeding Edge are these Ten Coding Commandments.
