I’m once again writing with a product from the folks at iA — Writer Pro. I gave their first product, iA Writer, a good long try last year, but eventually gave up when I discovered I couldn’t adjust the text size to see additional text on my screen. It’s seems like a minor nit, but… More
Writing
Six Years of Rands
I enabled Google Analytics on October 21, 2006, roughly a year after I started using Shaun Inman’s real-time (yet infrequently updated) Mint software. Both packages are part of my daily routine to see what is going on with the site, but I’ve rarely used them for more than understanding the basics: How is this article… More
The Elegant Email
For me, the amount of email that arrives is inversely proportionate to my amount of free time. This means the less time I have to read mail, the more mail that arrives. Greater minds than mine have attempted to tackle this unfortunate time management situation, so I’m going to keep it simple. You and I… More
Managing Humans, 2nd Edition
I’m pleased to announce the 2nd edition of Managing Humans is now available. I’ve always wanted to write the preface to the 2nd Edition of a book. To me, a new preface implies that something has both timeliness to it, but continues to have more to say. It’s 2012, five years after the initial publication… More
Please Learn to Write
There’s been lots of buzz on the topic of whether or not you should learn to code. As an engineer, I don’t have unbiased thoughts on the matter. I tweeted Jeff Atwood’s piece because, well, I agree that it’s pretty silly to think that the world is going to be a better place if the… More
2011 in Review
Over a half a million unique visitors stumbled on Rands this year and as the year winds down, I wanted to take a look back at the year in articles. These are articles that turned out to be popular or just pieces I loved to write: Bored People Quit. From a traffic perspective, the clear… More
The End
When I’m presenting to a large audience, I have three internal states: “I’m screwed.” I have not yet begun the presentation, but I’m imminently starting. This phase sucks. Every possible screw-up I’ve ever performed or could perform is running through my mind and my gut instinct is a sensible “just fucking run for it”. This… More
A Hard Thing is Done by Figuring Out How to Start
The fifth version of Rands in Repose has been a long time coming, but it’s close. The design is done and the migration of content is mostly complete. The process of learning an entirely new publishing platform is underway and mostly painless. What remains is an ever-growing list of details supplied by the act of… More
Seven Precious Books
As I talked about in The Book Stalker, there are books I need on my desk, books I need in the room, and books I just need to know exist. The following seven books are the precious ones I referred to in that article and they each serve a specific purpose. It strikes me the… More
Being Geek
My favorite part of finishing a book is when the index shows up. I’m not sure who the magicians are who are responsible for building this index, but it’s an unexpected glimpse into a book that you thought you knew, but actually do not. This is a welcome perspective because at the end of a… More