Why Grace Matters (for Software Development)
Someone asked me why I named my developer training site “Graceful.Dev“, so I thought I’d write about that. The theme of “grace” has been an emergent one in my work for years. I think that grace is an...
View ArticleOn “owning” software
Once upon a time, I owned a beautiful big house in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee. I don’t anymore. Now I rent a modest little rancher in a suburb of St. Louis. But every month, I still send out a...
View ArticleProgrammer Discipline Avoidance
Over the past year I’ve received a crash-course in Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA). PDA is an expression of autism, but in some ways it differs radically from what people usually think of when...
View ArticleWhere is the programmer inspo?
Programming is widely regarded, at least among enthusiasts, as a creative act. Calling it a “craft” has gained widespread acceptance, and it’s not unusual to hear the term “art” thrown around (if...
View ArticleHow to cope with technology FOMO
Eight years ago Ray Bango wrote: …many web developers who have been able to hang their hat on a specific technology for “x” years are incredibly concerned by the rate of churn in the JavaScript (and...
View ArticleYou’re not selling a solution
I read this in a business book once: People don’t buy products, they buy a better version of themselves. I’m not sure what book I saw that in. It’s something Kathy Sierra talks about a lot. But...
View ArticleHow to Understand a New Codebase Quickly
In the course of my career, I’ve jumped in headfirst to dozens of projects. There was a period of time when people would hire me for 2 hour slots, and in that time I would have to learn enough about...
View ArticleAgents Aren’t Juniors, They Are Amnesiac Spies
The other day I told Augment: Use the Table Data Gateway pattern for this class It did as it was told, perfectly, the first time. This is not something I could tell a junior without a great deal more...
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I made a keychain
Jessitron has taken up making friendship bracelets lately. She has a lot of meetings and it’s something to do with her hands. She makes bracelets. Except sometimes they turn out too short. They turn...
View ArticleDeveloper Tooling is a Lousy Business
Back in 2017 Slava Akhmechet wrote a post-mortem on the RethinkDB project: If you do set out to build a developer tools company, tread carefully. The market is filled with good alternatives. User...
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