Opinion
I’m special – no you’re not!
People have an interesting tendency to believe that best practices do not apply to them. In this post I discuss the “I’m special so I should write my own web framework” case. Take for instance: Writing a CV. Best practice states that shorter is better, but oh so many people still want to have an eight-page... »
Using OSS in projects: beware of the passionate liars
The title may be a bit provocative, but I think it summarizes a lot of what I have learned about using OSS in the personal projects I have had. Do what is usually done – avoid unusual setups Open source software, whether it is an MVC framework (like Ruby on Rails, CakePHP or Codeigniter), backend software... »
A few thoughts on evaluating startup ideas
I’ve spent a reasonably amount of time looking at the various blogs writing about how to evaluate entrepreneurial ideas. Market size, first mover advantage and the idea of a hot or trendy business model are often mentioned as key factors, but I would argue that their impact is not quite as straightforward as some... »
My favorite Xperia software & tweaks (with screenshots)
From the “this-might-help-some-random-stranger” department, here is a quick catalog of some of the applications I use on my Xperia (Windows Mobile) phone. With screenshots! All of these are free except Syncplicity and Pocket Informant. Update: Check out Opera Mini 5 as well – the beta is free, and is a ton better than Opera Mini 4... »
How projects fail
I think the most amazing thing about spectacular project failures is that they happen one day at a time. How do you get 170 million USD over budget? One day at a time. Given the size of many of the largest failures (hundreds of staff members), there have had to be a number of people... »
What is wrong with “subjective”?
Here is pet peeve of mine: why is calling something “subjective” an acceptable way of not answering a question? In particular, with technical people, “subjective” seems to mean “not worth answering, because there is no correct answer”. “Avoid asking questions that are subjective, argumentative, or require extended discussion. This is not a discussion board, this... »
Pre-planning: do it, and do it right
All people consistently short-change the future in order to get present gains (or some people, sometimes – doesn’t matter). I don’t mean the kind of monetary things, where you will eat one candy today rather than a bag tomorrow – I mean in terms of time. What you don’t do in the beginning will... »
Expertise and learning goals
Given that I have spent some time studying expertise from an academic perspective, I figure it would be good to summarize some of the things we know about experts and the process of developing expertise. Keep in mind that academic studies will rarely give you the simple answer – there is none. But what... »
Different ways of looking at a project
The terms “business owner mentality” and “employee mentality”, or, as I prefer, “project owner mentality” and “project worker mentality” are commonly used to describe the difference between effective workers and effective managers. These two mentalities come up in almost any human endeavor of appreciable complexity, and I think it is worth recognizing the difference... »
Four easy-to-dismiss facts about leading
Why is leadership so hard? In my view, the basics of leadership are very easy to summarize, yet the practical implications of these basic facts are unbelievably complex. All of these are essentially tautologies – or at least they are blindingly obvious. But despite this, these facts are the reasons why leadership is difficult. These... »