Blog

January 29, 2016

Greg Thomas

Keeping the Team Together

It’s hard work keeping a team together, everyone has a different set of work ethics and commitment that drive their unique approach. Sometimes they jive and sometimes they don’t. The worst thing you can do to someone on your team mid-project is to write them off – “not good enough, not worthy of our team, we’ll drop you shortly” because it sends that signal loud and clear and from there – What would you do?  How would you react to being that person written off?  Why bother if they are going to drop you?  Perhaps your deliverables didn’t line up the

January 28, 2016

Greg Thomas

The Time Between the Failures

I can look at a sketch and go – I can draw that. I can sit down to draw it and it does not come out how I envisioned it. I can look at another sketch and go – I can draw THAT. I can sit down again to draw it and it STILL does not come out how I envisioned it. And then I can walk away for a week not wanting to try again because I really focused for a whole 60 minutes and it didn’t work. We’re not afraid of the failure while we are doing it

January 27, 2016

Greg Thomas

The Evolution of Developer Conferences

The yearly conference is a welcome addition to any developer’s planned events for the year. It’s an opportunity to meet with colleagues around the world, meet new friends, perhaps meet with customers and of course, to relax and learn some new tricks of the trade. Boiled down to two words: Collaboration and Learning. This was 5 years ago, now there is a third component to Developer Conferences – “Exclusivity”. Aaah yes, now some (not all) conferences are managed based on how exclusive they are, how many people can sign up within X minutes, how many limited seats will be filled and by

January 26, 2016

Greg Thomas

Why no homework?

Disclaimer: I am not a teacher by trade. There is a trend in some schools to not give children homework – “It takes too long”, “I can’t observe what they are doing”, “How do I know their parents aren’t doing it for them?”, etc, etc. All potentially valid reasons for not sending homework home with children.  However, when this happens, I believe the children are being robbed of a few lessons they would not otherwise get a chance to practice. Organization  – I have all this work to do this week, I better plan out when to do what. Responsibility

January 25, 2016

Greg Thomas

In a World… of Constant Relaunches

Remember when you were a kid, starting to collect to comic books at issue #373 of your favourite Superhero? What went through your mind?  What was the first thing? That before issue #374 and beyond you would try to collect as many back issues as possible to understand everything about your favourite character, every back story and side romance, every change in powers and team make-up all so you could have the complete picture. Everyone loves a new project, it’s fresh and pure and has no history behind it – we are baggage free, the team is new and we