The Mindset

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 […]

It’s time for yet another insight regarding reviews. You probably know this is one of my favorite topics, so this should come as no surprise.
In my previous posts on reviews, I described different types of reviews, or more accurately different motivations for reviews.
In Are Your Code Reviews Effective? I described reviews designed merely for […]

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 […]

When I was at school, there were many things I hated learning. History was one of them. It’s not that I found it boring. There were times that I’ve actually enjoyed reading this stuff. But memorizing dry facts and numbers just to be able to mechanically spill them out in some exam wasn’t my thing. […]

After writing about the importance of books and having a library, I think it’s time for my modest contribution. So I’ve decided to add a page dedicated to recommended books.
The Bookshelf doesn’t include any reviews. It is… well… a bookshelf — a list of books I think any software practitioner should read.
I will be trying not to clutter […]

A couple of days ago I came across this article about Google’s new headquarters. Judging from its del.icio.us popularity chances are you did as well.
Obviously, it is amazing (at least for an outsider browsing the picture). I’m sure that in reality it makes an even stronger impression. The vivid colors, the open spaces combined with […]

In a recent post, my friend Tom Harris writes about the process of learning at work. As you might know, this is one of my favorite topics.
Tom describes something similar to a decision tree to help you come up with a plan regarding how you want to treat the process of learning and the process […]

Have a look at this post by chrishmorris about improving your professional skills by systematically learning from your own experience (and the experience of others).

“To improve, they must not only learn more theory, they must also think about what they have done.”
The idea of keeping a reflective journal is a great idea. Mastering context sensitive […]

J. Timothy King has done it again! He took the words out of my mouth (well… keyboard).
I meant to tell you about some personal experience I had this week, but J. Timothy King has done a much better job in capturing the essence of a similar one. And he doesn’t even know me! ;)
So, without further […]

Warning: delicate issue ahead…
Kathy Sierra wrote a great article about Top Management Lies. Why is it great? First because it’s funny. Second, because most of us know deep inside that it is not fiction. Most of you know exactly what she talks about. The rest of you are extremely lucky (and this post is probably not […]