A Brief History of My Teeth When it comes to teeth, I hit the genetic jackpot. I’m pretty sure that, instead of enamel, my teeth are coated in some sort of thin layer of stone. I’ve never had a cavity and my teeth in general seem impervious to the variety of maladies that afflict other…
Convene the High Council Today I’d like to talk about something that I’ve observed on some occasions throughout my career. It sort of builds on the concepts that I’ve touched on in previous writings “How to Keep your Best Programmers” and the Expert Beginner posts, including Bruce Webster’s “Dead Sea Effect.” The phenomenon is an…
“No plan survives contact with the enemy” –Helmuth von Moltke the Elder Bureaucracy 101 Let’s set the scene for a moment. You’re a workaday developer in a workman kind of shop. A “waterfall” shop. (For back story on why I put quotes around waterfall, see this post). There is a great show of force when…
Getting Incentives Wrong A while ago I was talking to a friend of mine, and he told me that developers in his shop get monetary bonuses for absorbing additional scope in a “waterfall” project. (I use quotes because I don’t think that “waterfall” is actually a thing — I think it’s just collective procrastination followed…
Do you remember being a kid, old enough to think somewhat deductively and logically, but not old enough really to understand how the world works? Do you remember putting together some kind of eloquent argument about why you should be able to sleep at a friend’s house or stay out later than normal, perfecting your…
