I admit it. I love it when the sky is falling. There is no more delicious a state of being than the imminent threat of disaster. During these times, I’ve done great work. I’ve taken teams from “We’re fucked” to “We made it”. Yeah, we had to cancel Christmas that one time and there was… more
“Can I work remote?” I cringe. It’s Ian and Ian is a senior engineer. He’s a rock. He gets it done. I never have to ask him twice and, after six years, Ian has every right to ask to work remote. But I’m still freaked because my first thought when anyone asks to work remote… more
With the completion of the Fez column, I have enough content to start stitching together a book based off my various management essays. Book publishing has never been a stated goal, but based on the response to many of the articles, there’s a good chance folks outside the webosphere might find my management musings of… more
I hate meetings. Everyone hates them because we’ve all been to so many that have sucked so badly that we now walk into a conference room, sit down… arms folded, and think, “Ok, how long until this one is going to suck?” And then it does. Time is wasted. Hot air is created. Silent frustrations… more
My all time favorite line from The West Wing is, “We’ve got a thing.” There are variations of this favorite line which all revolve around the same word. “Is this going to be a thing?”, “Have you heard about the thing?”, “So, here’s the thing.” I immediately applied a generous helping of Thingdom to my… more
An excerpt from the last three weeks of every significant software project I’ve shipped: scurry scurry scurry scurry BUG! LOOKS BAD SCURRY SCURRY SCURRY OK NOT THAT BAD PROCEED scurry scurry scurry scurry BUG! LOOKS REAL BAD SCURRY SCURRY CONFIRMED IT’S BAD SCURRY SCURRY OK FIXED FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SOMEONE TEST THIS scurry… more
