The Mindset

Well, it has been three days since my Hiring Great Developers? post. During this time an interesting discussion took place both on this blog as well as on others. I usually try to respond to most of the comments posted here, but this time I’ve decided to step back and let the discussion roll. Now […]

Stop whatever it is you’re doing. There’s a new buzz in town.
In our ultra-dynamic industry, yesterday’s Holy Grail is today’s old news. A couple of days ago I wrote about Googlism as the new emerging religion, and what do you know, I’ve just discovered the signs of a new one, already creeping into blogs, articles, […]

A couple of weeks ago I heard a developmental psychologist say that children learn by emotional experience. When you’re trying to explain to a child that something is forbidden, for example, he may understand your words, but unless you can somehow reach him at an emotional level, chances are he will repeat the same behavior […]

Being on vacation for the past couple of week got me thinking. Well, frankly, it was that and a bunch of other things. Anyway, when I’m thinking… I’m writing. The result is a new blog called Decaf.
What is it about? Well, I’m not sure yet, but generally it is about our life and how […]

A couple of weeks ago, during a casual conversation, a colleague of mine said how much he hates the overuse of the word “Challenging”. He claimed that whenever there’s an unrealistic goal or settings (like an unrealistic deadline, too few resources, etc.) managers use the word “challenging” to describe the task. Doing a two-month task […]

Many companies face a motivation problem. Some of them are aware of the problem, which is, of course, a good start. But even these companies often tend to sweep the problem under the carpet. They don’t really ignore the problem. They just try to solve it using the easiest possible solution — a solution that never works. […]

Have you ever came out of a project kickoff meeting without a clue on how the product should look like and what it should do?
The project kickoff meeting is a good opportunity to present an overview of the project, give a high-level schedule and introduce the team. But sometimes the owner of the product forgets that most […]

The issue of professionalism keeps showing up. I believe there’s a good reason for that: we as an industry really have to put more focus on professionalism.
In his latest article, Michael Feathers raises an important issue on the matter of doing a job right. Even if the code is going to be thrown away […]

In yet another great article J. Timothy King describes the importance of passion at work, how it motivates people and make them do great things. The last section in this article is titled Don’t take it for granted:

“When we take passion for granted, we discourage the best motivator we have.”
No one should stay indifferent when […]