When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. This beautiful Buddhist proverb is a true declaration of an open mind, a mind of a learner. Ever since I heard this proverb, I often wondered if it reflected more than what meets the eye. A few years ago, I discussed…
Joel Spolsky recently wrote about the “Duct Tape Programmer“: Duct tape programmers are pragmatic. Zawinski popularized Richard Gabriel’s precept of Worse is Better. A 50%-good solution that people actually have solves more problems and survives longer than a 99% solution that nobody has because it’s…
Not so long ago, an acquaintance who was seeking a software development job interviewed for a role at a “market leader” in the development, implementation and support of financial services software. During the interview, it was revealed that the position is concentrated around the implementation of an Enterprise…
“You see this goblet?” asks Achaan Chaa, the Thai meditation master. “For me this glass is already broken. I enjoy it; I drink out of it. It holds my water admirably, sometimes even reflecting the sun in beautiful patterns. If I should tap it, it has a…
A lot of programmers haven’t heard of _why. Well I certainly didn’t, up until a few months ago, when I started following some of his projects. _why was a prolific programmer, writer, and artist, best known for his work on Ruby. Intriguingly, _why’s online…
The first person to live to be 1,000 years old is certainly alive today … whether they realize it or not, barring accidents and suicide, most people now 40 years or younger can expect to live for centuries. Sounds overly optimistic? A Cambridge University geneticist, and many other researchers,…
What makes a programmer good at their craft? For years, organizations which hire programmers have reasoned with this question. Yet, the criteria for selection of a “good” programmer differs by the lot. As candidates, most programmers are put through tough technical interviews, grinding analytical tests, and twisted coding…
It’s a known assertion that software applications (desktop or distributed) are not truly platform agnostic. Even if a software application is developed as a cross-platform solution, it is very difficult to make it look and work identically across all platforms (operating systems). Hence, lately I’ve been…