Blog

January 23, 2021

Greg Thomas

How do I know if I’m a Developer?

If you have ever written a line of code, you are a developer – it’s that simple. It doesn’t matter if you sold it. It doesn’t matter if you packaged it. It doesn’t matter if you promote it on twitter. It doesn’t matter if showed it. All that matters is that you wrote that line of code, you ran it, and it did something. If it shows “Hello World” on your screen, then congratulations you are a Developer. With that being though, you are a very new Developer, but you are on your way to being a Developer if you

January 22, 2021

Greg Thomas

Starting Up in a Pandemic

One of the hardest parts about running a podcast is managing the backlog. I thought this was hard in software but when you are trying to record content in advance, so you can ship weekly and not skip a beat when something, like a Pandemic, happens it means content gets pushed out farther than we like. One of our best interviews of Season 2 of Remotely Prepared just shipped as our first episode of 2021. It’s with Erin Blaskie, Director of Marketing at Fellow, and if you’re looking for some tips on what it’s like to run a startup remotely,

January 21, 2021

Greg Thomas

Finding Pain Points

Every project has a set of pain points that aren’t a direct output of the project but are indirectly related to it. “We can’t find reference documents anywhere.” “People are always late for meetings.” “Meetings go on too long.” “Our architecture is a mess.” The list goes on and on and on. These are pain points to the delivery of the project. These are pain points that are not only slowing your team down, but are holding them back. These are pain points that threaten to hurt your team, weaken their resolve and kill their morale. These are the thousand

January 20, 2021

Greg Thomas

Works on my Machine

As a Developer, I have always hated saying these words, it always feels a bit like a copout – like I didn’t do my job, left something out, forgot a scenario, ignored something, etc, etc. I don’t mind the jokes that come with it (and they do come, in waves and torrents). When this happens my first thoughts are; Don’t say it. Ask for logs. Get a screenshot. Work the problem. It’s that last one that is so important that separates the issue from being lobbed over the fence for someone else to deal with or for picking it up

January 19, 2021

Greg Thomas

Repetitive Phrases

If they mean something, use them. If they are saying the same thing, over and over again and never getting anywhere and have become utterly meaningless. Let them go and find something new.