Lessons of Failure
Humans + Software Development = Always Interesting

Archive for November 2009

Our last installment today is about the Great Ivory Tower of Standards and Architecture.  In case you missed the previous bunch:

Seven Habits of Highly Dysfunctional Enterprise Developers:

  1. Blame Everyone But Yourself

Read more on Habit 7: Principles Are More Important Than Results…

· ·

Nov/09

20

Habit 6: Reuse Is For Wimps

Today’s Habit is brought to you by the letter “R” and the number 1.

Seven Habits of Highly Dysfunctional Enterprise Developers:

  1. Blame Everyone But Yourself
  2. Confuse Motion With Action
  3. Use Complexity To Demonstrate Intelligence

Read more on Habit 6: Reuse Is For Wimps…

·

Nov/09

19

Habit 5: Fix It Later

We examine the power of procrastination in today’s post, and why you should never underestimate the impact on your future.  If you missed the early habits, they’re linked here:

Seven Habits of Highly Dysfunctional Enterprise Developers:

Read more on Habit 5: Fix It Later…

·

Lessons from Lord of the Rings, why you really did learn all you needed to know in Kindergarten and the value of opening your kimono.

Seven Habits of Highly Dysfunctional Enterprise Developers:

Read more on Habit 4: Never Share Information…

· ·

Smart people naturally create…chaos?  Today’s habit is about the value of parsimony in your work.  Previous habits linked here:

Seven Habits of Highly Dysfunctional Enterprise Developers:

  1. Blame Everyone But Yourself
  2. Confuse Motion With Action

Read more on Habit 3: Complexity Demonstrates Intelligence…

· ·

We explore the difference between work and heat in today’s habit.

Seven Habits of Highly Dysfunctional Enterprise Developers:

  1. Blame Everyone But Yourself
  2. Confuse Motion With Action
  3. Use Complexity To Demonstrate Intelligence

Read more on Habit 2: Confuse Motion With Action…

· ·

With apologies to Steven Covey and Jack Ganssle, who have their own lists on the topic, I bring you the

Seven Habits of Highly Dysfunctional Enterprise Developers:

  1. Blame Everyone But Yourself

Read more on Seven Habits of Highly Dysfunctional Enterprise Developers…

· ·

Nov/09

10

Simplicity is the goal

My first day of Physics class in high school, we were given English homework:  find the definition of the word Parsimony.  My teacher was trying to underscore a point about the study of physics–while it explained the most complex of phenomena, the underlying theories and equations usually boiled down to a certain level of simplicity.  And as a corollary, if you found yourself trying to add in all kinds of complexity to an explanation, chances are you were running down the wrong road.  Which is not to say physics wasn’t filled with contradictions, despite my teacher’s mighty attempt to make it all seem elegant and grand.  I struggled with Quantum Mechanics because it violated every rule of simplicity learned to date in science.  And String Theory too.  Even Occam’s Razor is still one of my favorite things to trot out when folks are getting too mired in their own story.

Read more on Simplicity is the goal…

· · ·

Nov/09

2

Developers Are Not Presidents

I (heart) open source.  Deeply.  There are at least a few dozen libraries that I couldn’t live without anymore.  Tons of indispensable products like MySQL, Apache, Tomcat are part of my standard toolkit.  But the community hubris that goes along with it…Fuggetabouddit.  A recent quote by Django guru Jacob Kaplan-Moss concerning the balance of complex projects, features, release schedules and project management (collectively referred to in the quote as “these issues”) got my hackles up (full read here if you like):

Read more on Developers Are Not Presidents…

· · · ·

Switch to our mobile site