At the SOFTWARE CRAFTSMANSHIP MATTERS recently, Bruce Eckel gave a terrific talk on "What Makes a Good Development Process".
The discussion is very down-to-earth, very simple to follow, and rings true to my 20 years of professional software development. It's definitely worth spending 50 minutes of your day watching!
Ustream video
Presentation slides
Combining Mailbox with Sanebox
I've become a huge fan of SaneBox. It's really made my email more efficient.
And I've heard for months about how wonderful Mailbox is as a GMail client for iPhones. When it was released today for Android I immediately downloaded.
A little underwhelming at first, but I think it's growing on me. I was concerned with how it would work with SaneBox until I found this article, which describes how to adjust your SaneBox labels to work with Mailbox. Brilliant!
And I've heard for months about how wonderful Mailbox is as a GMail client for iPhones. When it was released today for Android I immediately downloaded.
A little underwhelming at first, but I think it's growing on me. I was concerned with how it would work with SaneBox until I found this article, which describes how to adjust your SaneBox labels to work with Mailbox. Brilliant!
The Power of the Story
I hear it all the time in the entrepreneurial circles I run in: the most successful are those who can relate to others through storytelling.
Sometimes I think that the gift of storytelling is a natural talent, and if I don't have it then, well, I don't have it. But this is just a Brick Wall I've constructed for myself, isn't it? And I'm learning to bust through those reading Just Blow It Up. But even when I've busted through the wall, there's still skill development to be done.
This article showed up in my Zite app today, and it's got fantastic advice for enhancing your storytelling. The emphasis is on writing, but the same concepts apply to spoken stories as well. You know, like your elevator pitch, your business presentation, or anything else you need to use the spoken word in order to "sell" yourself.
My most important takeaway? Item #3: Cut. I often find myself saying "to make a long story short" or "sorry that was so verbose". Well, guess what Craig: by that point the story is gone anyway. I need to make the long story shorter to begin with, not apologize for the long story! So my focus over the next week will be performing the cut. Fewer, more impactful words!
Hope this help!
Sometimes I think that the gift of storytelling is a natural talent, and if I don't have it then, well, I don't have it. But this is just a Brick Wall I've constructed for myself, isn't it? And I'm learning to bust through those reading Just Blow It Up. But even when I've busted through the wall, there's still skill development to be done.
This article showed up in my Zite app today, and it's got fantastic advice for enhancing your storytelling. The emphasis is on writing, but the same concepts apply to spoken stories as well. You know, like your elevator pitch, your business presentation, or anything else you need to use the spoken word in order to "sell" yourself.
My most important takeaway? Item #3: Cut. I often find myself saying "to make a long story short" or "sorry that was so verbose". Well, guess what Craig: by that point the story is gone anyway. I need to make the long story shorter to begin with, not apologize for the long story! So my focus over the next week will be performing the cut. Fewer, more impactful words!
Hope this help!
Another Wonderful List
While browsing the Zite app on my phone today, I ran across the article 23 Priceless Habits That Will Make You Your Greatest Self. I was quite skeptical about what I'd find inside but opened the article anyway. And I was pleasantly surprised at what I found (otherwise, I probably wouldn't be blogging about it!).
One thing I'm going to do is to turn this list into a new set of self-talk. It's good to refresh your inner dialog on a regular basis, and lists such as this one give you the opportunity to discover new material.
For example, habit #5 (which really hits home with me as I inch closer and closer to the big five-oh):
Use the comments to let me know which ones are your favorites, and how you might turn those into positive self-talk.
One thing I'm going to do is to turn this list into a new set of self-talk. It's good to refresh your inner dialog on a regular basis, and lists such as this one give you the opportunity to discover new material.
For example, habit #5 (which really hits home with me as I inch closer and closer to the big five-oh):
5. Look ahead when you walk, hold your head high and observe the world around you. Do not let life pass you by because next thing you know you’re going to be reading a blog (or watching on some sort of holographic projection) on things to remember in your fifties.Could be expressed with the self-talk statement:
I always look ahead and hold my head when I walk. I'm observant of what's going on around me, and I make sure life doesn't pass me by unnoticed.By far, my favorite is #7, "Always practice good manners". Chivalry is not dead, gentlemen. And ladies, I'm happy for you to hold a door for me as long as you let me get the next one!
Use the comments to let me know which ones are your favorites, and how you might turn those into positive self-talk.
Random Tech Tip
I've never known how to keyboard my way to a different tab in Chrome. While writing this post I stumbled upon the CTRL-PageUp (or "pig up" as Homer Simpson would call it) and CTRL-PageDown keys. This will scroll you through your open tabs. My life is much better now that I don't have to reach for that mouse to switch tabs!
To Improve It, Track It
Found this article yesterday (so this counts as yesterday's post!):
How to Make Every Minute of Your Day Matter
The author describes how to use some method of tracking to
a) not fool yourself (one of my mentors says that the 11th commandment is "thou shalt not fool thyself)
b) improve upon that activity
Darren Hardy's book, The Compound Effect, is an excellent resource of you want to expand on the ideas.
Sorry for the short post. There will be a longer one this evening.
Go forth and make it a great day!
Smiles Everyone, Smiles!
The phrase comes from one of my all-time favorite sports talk guys, Steve Czaban. The Czabe often says it after Redskins losses (I tried to find a clip, but couldn't). I often post it to Twitter, Foursquare or Facebook on those random occurrences when I need to remind myself to smile.
I posted it this morning with my morning check-in at the train station, and determined that today I would make a concerted effort to smile at everyone with whom I came into contact. Trust me, this is a tough thing for me: I'm often asked "What are you so mad about?" even if I'm in a perfectly fine mood.
Apparently, I wear the face of a sour-puss. To everyone who has to deal with me on a daily basis, I apologize! I am working on those facial muscles, I promise. You all have permission to tell me "Smiles everyone, smiles".
Rufus
This morning I witnessed a wonderful reminder of the power of a smile. I normally take the 5:50 VRE train from Manassas to Crystal City, normally sit on the same car. This car is "serviced" by the same conductor just about every day.
Rufus is a young guy who always has a smile on his face, even though he's probably been up and at work for several hours by this point. In addition to a smile, he's always got a friendly word for the passengers, and has developed a great relationship with all of the regular riders.
Apparently Rufus has recently had a son. This morning, the passengers in our car had a surprise for Rufus (unfortunately I wasn't in on it...see above where I said "normally" take this train). A banner was rolled out and hung from the upper-level seats: "It's a Boy", and a lot of the passengers had presents for Rufus. Rufus was totally taken aback and extremely grateful for the outpouring of love that was shared with him.
It was a terrific experience to be a peripheral part of. And it reminded me that having the attitude that Rufus carries will positively impact those with which you come into contact. And that positive impact will act as a seed that will sometime come to fruition in unexpected ways.
Why?
Today's impactful article, Create the "Why Habit" To Change Your Behavior, discusses the habit of drilling down from your actions to the real reason you're performing them. I'd recommend reading it and coming back for my self-exposition.
So, why smile at everyone I see today?
Here's what I came up with:
1) It makes me feel better. But why?
2) Because I might make someone else smile. But why is that the reason (beyond just being a friendly person and "we're living in a society")?
3) Because if I make them smile they might like me better. Why do I care that they like me better?
4) Because I have a need to be liked and accepted. And, why?
5) Because I have a serious fear of failure....oh, well there you have it. Now I have something to work on!
Writing Daily...Keeping Committments
Long ago I blogged about writing daily, and committed to do so. That lasted about four days, and then some squirrel must have come along and I followed it down the squirrel hole. So, I'm here to try again.
Happiness
Is there anything more important in our lives than being happy with who we are? In my opinion, this is fundamental to everything else we do. There's no way we can be successful, or lead a successful life, without being happy with ourselves (dare I say loving ourselves?).
And happiness is an attitude. And let's be honest, brutally honest: we control our attitudes. We may not have control over much in our lives, but how we look at our lives and how we react to what happens to us, that we most definitely do control.
I stumbled on this article when reading through my Zite app today, and found it to be a great "checklist" of not-to-do's. I hope you find it helpful.
Software Development
I work in the Information Systems group for State Department's Office of U.S. Foreign Assistance Resources. On a yearly basis the entire office gets together for a three-day learning and planning session. New team members get to learn about how the office works and what it does, and we set about improving our implementation plans and processes.
Listening to today's session I was struck by one major theme: the people doing the actual work of the office (performing the mission of "ensur[ing] the strategic and effective allocation, management, and use of foreign assistance resources" have really hectic, process, data, and bureaucratic-filled jobs.
They use the software products from the Information Systems group to collect data and plan and inform their decisions. If that software product is at all annoying to them, their lives are just that much more hectic and harried.
So, the thought: the people who use your software are NOT paid to use your software; that's not their job. Their job is to do whatever it is they get paid to do.
As software developers, development leads, and yes, project management folks, we need to constantly remember that as we make the little decisions about how much care we put into the code we write. About how flippant we are with the "little annoyances" we allow to surface to the user.
Until Tomorrow
That's all for today. I promise to be back tomorrow, even if I have to take a shotgun to the squirrels!
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