Bad, Better, Best in IT - ed weissman
Bad: Cubicle Better: Office Best: Whatever works best for you. Bad: Meetings without agendas. Better: Meetings with agendas. Best: Meetings whose need is so obvious to everyone that no...| ed weissman
(A true story.) Philip (President): Our factory is underutilized by 10%. Either we start building more of our backlog or we lay people off. I'd rather keep everyone busy, build inventory, and get...| ed weissman
Bad: Cubicle Better: Office Best: Whatever works best for you. Bad: Meetings without agendas. Better: Meetings with agendas. Best: Meetings whose need is so obvious to everyone that no...| ed weissman
I get a lot of emails these days from fellow hackers with [ distress | concern | depression ]. They're not looking for technical solutions or advice (which is good because I have neither), they're...| ed weissman
I worked at McDonald's in high school. It was high volume, fast paced, hard work, low pay, and there were 10 other kids ready to take your job if you didn't like it. I'm now a software developer....| ed weissman
10:48 Boss: Hey Ed, Sue in Detroit says that sometimes, the wrong Invoice Part Number is showing up on the Product History Screen. Can you help us figure this out. Ed: I'm busy with...| ed weissman
A local Sporting Goods retailer that had just acquired a Baseball competitor. Their ecommerce system had a clever database structure to make ordering easy from either the website or the call...| ed weissman
Sorry to say, none of these were made up... Me, 124 Monday lunches in a row: We need an adequate disaster recovery plan. Boss: We do. We back up every day. Me: What happens when we try...| ed weissman
A client presented me with an obvious and significant problem that required immediate attention. I worked on the problem and helped them solve it. Along the way, I discovered a whole bunch of...| ed weissman
In the past year or two, I have learned my greatest life lesson. As a lifelong high achiever, it was extremely counter-intuitive yet it was right in front of me all along. First, a little...| ed weissman
I don’t know about the rest of the world, but lots of us sure are in a bubble. There seems to be a real disconnect between what people want to build/invest in and what people in the real world...| ed weissman
“The path of the righteous programmer is beset on all sides by the inequities of the clueless and the tyranny of evil project managers. Blessed is he, who in the name of achievement and solid...| ed weissman
“And in my experience when enough people are saying that ‘you can’t do that’ there is an opportunity waiting for you that is proportional in pay-off to the number of people asserting that it can’t...| ed weissman
Condescending feedback says more about the speaker than the listener. It is almost invariably about their own insecurity. This is true is almost all fields of endeavor, not just programming. Just...| ed weissman
Not so Good: Build it and they will come. Good: Make something people want. Better: Make something people need. Even better: Make something people need and know that they need. If they...| ed weissman
There’s one huge factor at work, for many programmers. I’m tempted to call it the “wimp factor”, but that’s too negative, so I’ll just call it the “introvert factor”. I’m a perfect example… I was...| ed weissman
Whenever I read a post about the sprint to launch, I think 3 things: 1. Great determination, great work ethic, great job. 2. It doesn't have to be this way. 3. It shouldn't be this way. I feel...| ed weissman
“Six months later, things are still sounding great and not happening. What’s going on?” It could be that nothing unusual is going on. A six+ month buying cycle for anything over 4 figures is...| ed weissman
Teen years - flipped burgers & partied Age 21 - graduated college, flipped burgers, & partied Age 24 - touched my first computer Age 25 - wrote my first program Age 27 - touched my first...| ed weissman
“In fact, one thing I have noticed is that the people who I consider to be good software developers barely ever apply for jobs at all.” Good point. The best developers I ever hired were (a)...| ed weissman
“It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of...| ed weissman
I used to be awfully hasty in judging others, “She is really smart,” or “He is so stupid”. Then I learned alot from my first mentor. He taught that there often isn’t much difference between someone...| ed weissman
Advantages of working at home: 1. Equipment I pick. 2. Furniture I pick. 3. Temperature I pick. 4. Lighting I pick. 5. Music I pick (without headphones!). 6. Clothing I pick (shorts in...| ed weissman
1. basic form 2. form with multi-valued lines 3. form with data set (multi-valued parent/children) 4. form with grid 5. tabbed form 6. form with skins 7. batch (loop thru something) 8. batch...| ed weissman
1. There is no position. We’re just “feeling out” the marketplace. 2. There is no position. This was a headhunter building his database. 3. We were planning to promote from within, but HR made...| ed weissman
Here’s an idea: find “someone else” with a problem and work on that. This works especially well if the someone else is in business, very busy, and has some money. Chances are better that your...| ed weissman
I have found most networking (of any kind) to be an inefficient use of my time. At most events, I always had a little voice in my head saying things like, “Instead of being here, I could be...| ed weissman
I’ve been programming commercially for 32 years and in all that time, I have found very little correlation between age and ability to deliver quality software. I have worked with younger,...| ed weissman
I recently received an inquiry from a Hacker News newcomer on how to best participate in the community. I was ready to reply, "Just follow the guidelines and be yourself." Then I realized that it...| ed weissman
Maybe we’re lucky in Pittsburgh, but we have the best of both worlds at the main branch of the Carnegie Library. You can take a tour of where I work 2 or 3 days per week:...| ed weissman
