Red Squirrel's Nuts

Programming as a Foreign Language

In both high school and college, I took several French courses. But I’ve never been to France. I’ve never been immersed into a French-speaking context, and therefore, I never achieved fluency in French. Decades later, I can still pick out French words, I can still understand phrases and sentences, and express a few ideas, but for the most part, my knowledge of the French language faded very quickly, and almost entirely when I stopped studying.

A few years after college, I started learning another language. This language was for computers, and it’s called Java. I read Java for Dummies, which I found at Barnes and Noble. I got to the point where I could make the compiler happy, and I could make widgets appear on the screen. But due to the purely independent nature of my studying, I was never immersed in the Java-speaking context. I never got over the hump and achieved fluency.

A year later, I started learning another programming language. It’s called Perl. I was working at “dot-com” startup as a HTML and content editor, and was handed The Camel Book by the company’s CEO when he effectivey told me to learn Perl or lose my job. I got to the point where I could print stuff onto the screen and execute programs. And then the CEO and CTO gave me fake CGI projects to work on in my spare time. When I quickly cranked those scripts out, they started giving me bugs to fix in the main product. I had no clue what to do next, so I asked the CTO for help. The CTO gave me a quick lesson on debugging, but I was still at a loss for how to fix bugs in our product code.

I had learned French and Java, but I’d never been immersed in them. I had now learned Perl, and the opportunity to immerse myself into a Perl-speaking context was available to me. I asked if I could move my desk to where the programmers worked. The people I’d been sitting near were talkative, energetic, and the space was bright. The developers kept their workspace dark, and they were intimidating to me. But I couldn’t think of any other way forward than to immerse myself into their land of Perl.

A few months later, I was fixing bugs. A few months after that, I was at another company writing more complex scripts. All along the way I was surrounded by people who were fluent in Perl. A year later, I was fluent in Perl. Two years later I was fluent in Java and Ruby.

Just as with spoken languages, achieving fluency in a programming language requires immersion. Once fluency is achieved, similar languages become much more accessible. Learning a new language in a non-immersive environment will give you concepts, syntax, rules, and trivia, but you will not achieve fluency, which in programming languages gives you the power to craft original solutions to arbitrary problems.

Non-immsersive learning is great, but it’s only a stepping stone to fluency. Codecademy and Treehouse are great examples of non-immersive learning environments for JavaScript. Code Academy and Dev Bootcamp are great examples of immersive environments that lead people to fluency in Rails. That said, both of these immersive programs are too short a time to achieve fluency for people who are completely new to programming.

Remarkably, though, I’ve seen graduates of both programs creating immersive environments for themselves in Chicago. I’ve seen small groups of Code Academy students join up to continue coding together on a regular/continual basis. I’ve seen people literally eat/breathe Ruby on Tuesdays, when you can participate in Code & Coffee (at Starbucks, free wifi) from 7am-9am, then Geekfest (free lunch, open to public) from 12pm-1pm, then Chicago Ruby (free dinner, open to public) in the evening. I’ve seen people diligently stay immersed over the course of months and then transition into various apprenticeship programs around the city, which eventually lead to full-time employment opportunities.

A great example of this transition is Jean Bahnik. Jean is a marketing executive turned Trunk Club apprentice, who also happens to be fluent in French.

A Mentoring Story

In the Spring of 2002, I was enthralled by the software development community that had grown up around the ideas in Kent Beck’s book eXtreme Programming Explained. This was my first exposure to a software development “process”, so I sought out the local XP community to learn more. I quickly found ChAD, the Chicago Agile Devleopers group and started attending regularly. After one of my first meetings, I introduced myself to the group’s leader (with a shaky hand and untold waves of anxiety). His name was Wyatt Sutherland. I offered to help Wyatt with the group, which mostly meant moving chairs and lugging 12-packs of Coke to meetings. A month or two later, I told Wyatt that I wanted to “apprentice” under him. Neither of us really knew what that meant, and I can’t even remember his response. But I do remember that we started meeting for lunch or breakfast periodically after that.

Later that year, I saw an opportunity to convince my employer that we should try an XP pilot project. I told Wyatt about my plan, but admitted that I was in over my head. He reassured me that I could pull it off. This helped focus our breakfast conversations for a while, which was a thrill since this was the closest we ever came to working together. Eventually I pitched the pilot project and it was given the green light. The experience I gained through that project was a result of the confidence Wyatt helped create in me. That experience propelled me into ThoughtWorks a year later, which was my “big break” as a software developer.

A decade later, when I look back on that time with Wyatt, though, the aspects of our relationship that have stuck with me aren’t about software or technology. I saw in Wyatt more than a software developer or community leader. He is a man with a full life. Wyatt is a father of four, a husband, a musician, and a technologist. One of the highlights of my relationship with him was bringing my wife to a string quartet he was playing in. Wyatt is a world-class cellist. Listening to him play that night was inspiring. I arrived with an assumption that Wyatt was a software developer with a cello hobby. I left the concert with a vision for a full and integrated life for myself.

Thanks Wyatt for your encouragement, your example, and for your time.

This was posted as part of the Mentoring Story exercise from the apprentice.us mailing list.

apprentice us

Over the past few years I’ve realized that I want to be an active participant in the coming revolution in education. My journey toward this realization has been unexpected and surprising. Over the past 16 years, I’ve worked in group homes of disenfranchised youth, counseled children and families in crisis, mentored high school students, raised my children, wrote a book for apprentices, created a successful apprenticeship program, and helped lead a remarkable community of mentors. Over the past year I’ve been connecting with many kindred spirits such as Dale Stephens and Elizabeth Stark, and through them I can catch glimpses of the revolution ahead.

If I make any contribution to this revolution it will be through my passion for, and my experience with, modern apprenticeships. I am launching what will become a community of apprenticeship program facilitators, mentors, and apprentices at apprentice.us.com. This site will be a place for apprentices to tell their stories, mentors to gain exposure, people to gain insight into how to develop their own self-directed apprenticeships, and learning how to develop formalized apprenticeship programs.

Based on my decade of experience with my own self-constructed apprenticeship in software development, and my observation of dozens of other apprenticeships, I firmly agree with Sir Ken Robinson that, “You cannot predict the outcome of human development, all you can do is create the conditions under which they will begin to flourish.” That eloquently sums up my philosophy on apprenticeship: 90% of apprenticeship is putting someone in the right context, and then getting out of their way. Seriously, stand aside. This is the point where teaching instincts need to be deferred in order to let the learning process proceed naturally in the fertile soil created by strong communities, thoughtful mentoring, cheap or free tools, and open information.

My initial mission for apprentice.us.com is to deliver a message to any person, organization, or company who finds it difficult to hire qualified candidates: There are amazing people who will exceed your expectations if you can adapt your hiring practices to accept less qualified candidates. The simplest first step toward this required adaptation is for people, organizations, and companies to get involved in mentoring outside of their usual social network. Through mentoring and apprenticeship, we have the power to transform the workplace, higher education, and ultimately, our society. My goal for the coming revolution in education is to see a society with a strong emphasis on learning emerge from our outdated emphases on diplomas, grades, and lecture halls.

If you’d like to learn more about this community of people with a passion for decentralized learning, visit apprentice.us.com.

Eating Million Dollar Cakes

I found The Lessons of Steve Jobs via my friend and fellow dedicated father, Todd Webb. The post outlines four different men (Jeff Atwood, Brad Wardell, Eric Karjaluoto, and Jason Kottkey) who since the passing of Steve Jobs, have decided to scale back their focus on startups and scale up their focus on their children. As a husband, father, startup enthusiast (Obtiva, Mad Mimi, Groupon, Code Academy, StyleSeek, Lease Maid), and former family therapist, I have some thoughts on this topic.

I’ll start with a little of my take on the late Steve Jobs. Although I enjoy iMacs, MacBook Pros, and iPhones, and what their existence has done for the tech and consumer ecosystems, I’m not a raving fan of Steve Jobs. I’ve heard too many stories about his leadership style to admire him as a person. I do appreciate some of his company’s products and his obviously high standards, and his Stanford commencement address, but I think several of our fundamental values are in conflict. Steve’s death served as an inflection point for 4 fathers named Jeff, Brad, Eric, and Jason. They are likely just the tip of the iceberg. But this post isn’t really about Steve Jobs, it’s more about startups and families.

On the surface, The Lessons of Steve Jobs is warm and fuzzy and good. Look deeper, though, and you’ll find a logical trap. A trap that the legacy of Steve Jobs could easily ensnare many well-intentioned people.

In the post, Jeff Atwood said, “Startup life is hard on families.” That’s true. And, “…success at the cost of my children is not success.” That’s true. Cool. But Jeff also said, “…running as fast as you can isn’t sustainable for parents of multiple small children.” I think this is where I have an issue. Running as fast as you can isn’t sustainable. Period. It is, by definition, not sustainable. Regardless of whether you’re single and 21, married and 30, or married with children and 40. It’s not sustainable for a parent, for a spouse, or for your personal health. I think Eric Karjaluoto said it well, when he called Jobs (or at least my perception of Jobs) “the John Henry of our time”.

The trap that I’m afraid people are going to walk into is when they assume that “startup life” means “running as fast as you can”. Perpetual sprinting is not the only way to live the “startup life”. I can tell you about 3 different husband/fathers who contributed significantly to successful startups without having to abandon their companies or their families.

Gary Levitt is the founder and CEO of Mad Mimi. Gary and Leah were married when they started growing Mad Mimi in 2006. Since then Mad Mimi has reached many $millions in annual revenue. Gary and Leah remain married, and have since had 3 children. They are still growing Mad Mimi today and have moved their growing family from Brooklyn to Jerusalem.

Kevin Taylor is the founder and (former) CEO of Obtiva. Kevin and Jenny were married with 2 children when he founded Obtiva in 2005. Since then, Obtiva grew to many $millions in annual revenue, and was acquired by Groupon in 2011. Kevin and Jenny are still married. Kevin is actively involved in his children’s lives. Kevin is now leading talent development at Groupon and, with Jenny, is growing EventWax.

Yours truly, Dave Hoover, is a partner and builder of Obtiva and Mad Mimi. Staci and I were married with a baby when I switched from being a family therapist to a programmer in 2000. I love rapid feedback and growth, so I’ve become increasingly involved with startups over the years. Staci and I have had 2 more children since 2000, and we are about to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. I’ve made time to coach soccer and football teams along the way. Today, I’m leading some engineering teams at Groupon. In my off-hours, I’m helping grow Mad Mimi, Code Academy, StyleSeek, and Lease Maid.

Leah, Jenny, and Staci are all remarkable women. They are huge contributors to all of these families’ successes. With their husbands, they are helping redefine what “startup life” means. It’s a challenging life, but rewarding. There are many other couples that have been invovled (directly or indirectly) with Obtiva over the years who fit a similar profile of people who contributed to successful startups, remained married, had babies, and raised children. I’m proud to say that in the 6 years of Obtiva’s existence (which ended with 50 people on our payroll), we had zero divorces. Zero.

It is absolutely possible to have your (startup) cake and eat it (with your family) too. Billion dollar cakes are astonishingly difficult to make, and are nearly impossible to survive eating. Yet, there are countless million dollar cakes for families to enjoy together if leaders are willing to embrace the constraints of family life.

I’m not questioning Jeff, Brad, Eric and Jason’s decisions to back off from the unsustainable startup lives they were living. I am urging all of us to strive to create a sustainable startup life and culture. It’s possible to do. It’s what we did at Obtiva and Mad Mimi. It’s how I’m living and working at Groupon. It’s what I’m trying to do more broadly in Chicago tech. And I hope that others can spread sustainability into other startup communities across the US and around the globe.

Ward and the Empty Cup

Writing a book for aspiring software developers means I end up having a lot of interactions with all kinds of newbies. Some are just unbelievably good, and I was just talking to one of these high potential newbs a couple weeks ago about what sounded like an epic, though embarrassing, experience.

This newb was at the 2011 Ruby on Ales conference in Bend, Orgeon, and being a Ward Cunningham fan, he asked me to make an introduction. (Ward wrote the foreword to my book, and lives in Oregon, so the newb figured I could make it happen.) This dedicated newb wanted to go on a sort of pilgrimage to meet the inventor of the wiki and the father of extreme programming in the hope that he could learn a few things.

So I made the introduction, and the newb and Ward ended up meeting at a pub. The newb got there a little late but Ward was waiting patiently. As he walked up to Ward, it struck him how perfectly Ward poured a glass of what turned out to be Ward’s favorite local beer. It seemed like a strange little ritual. Anyway, after the newb was a little ways into his PBR, the conversation turned to test-driven development, so the newb yanked out his laptop to show Ward a test framework he’d been developing, excitedly pointing out that he was using the framework itself to test-drive the framework!

The conversation eventually turned to wikis. The newb was a huge Julian Assange fan, and couldn’t resist interrupting Ward to start extolling the awesome power of WikiLeaks, and how he believed it was behind several of the recent revolutions in the Middle East. Ward’s into WikiLeaks too, so he listened patiently while the newb told him all about the other ways that technology could be used to force government transparency.

Finally, the newb asked Ward about design patterns. Ward told him a story of the days when he and Kent Beck were mining Smalltalk-80 for patterns at Tektronix. The newb listened for a bit, but once Ward mentioned Java, the noob jumped all over how the popular patterns in Java are totally unnecessary in Ruby. He ranted about the power of Ruby, which frees up developers to think about the problem domain, rather than focusing on the escape from the Java straightjacket.

When the newb’s rant was over, Ward asked the newb if he’d ever tried the local beer that Ward was drinking. Being from Boston, the noob hadn’t, so Ward graciously bought the next round. The bartender brought out new glasses and set the bottles beside them. Ward picked up the newb’s bottle and performed one of his signature perfect pours. But this time he kept pouring. And pouring. Until that excellent beer spilled over, and onto the bar. The newb stood up surprised, staring at Ward in shock. “Dude! Stop pouring! Can’t you see the glass is full and overflowing?”

And with those words, Ward gently handed the bottle back to the bartender, smiled at the newb and said, “If you meet me with a glass that is already full, how can you expect me to give you something to drink?”

[I made up this story for my Scottish Ruby Conference keynote. I’m riffing off of a story I used in my book. I was doing some end-of-year cleaning and figured I should write it down somewhere before I threw away my notes.]

Recapping an Epic 2011

A Tour

I pulled a Corey Haines, left Chicago for a month, and went on a journeyman tour. I incorporated my family into the journey. This is what happens when you bring an energetic nine-year-old to a pair programming session:

Here are some thoughts I put together along the way:

Africa

I was invited to give the opening talk at RubyFuza in Cape Town, South Africa. Eventually I wandered out of the hotel and up a hill:

A Keynote

I had the astonishing privilidge to give the opening keynote at the 2011 Scottish Ruby Conference.

New Vision

I bought a $2000 Groupon for LASIK. I had the procedure and went from near blindness to better than 20/20. It still amazes me daily.

A Summit

My wife and I climbed Mt. Rainier. As someone who grew up near Seattle and visits there often, it’s always been a dream of mine to climb that beautiful beast.

An Exit

Groupon acquired Obtiva. I worked at Obtiva since I left ThoughtWorks in 2006, and became a partner in 2007. I’ve since worked hard to port our apprenticeship program and geekfest into the Groupon culture. It’s been amazing to see the Obtiva team make an even bigger impact at Chicago’s hottest tech company.

New Adventures

Joining Groupon full-time has been intense(ly awesome). I’ve had a lot of fun flexing some new leadership muscles, but also really enjoying stretching Redis in some interesting directions. (Currently prepping a 48-node Redis cluster.)

I also joined the CodeAcademy team as lead mentor. Watching Neal, Mike, and Jeff hustle through their first quarter was inspiring. I feel lucky to be a part of this phenomenon.

A Death

I lost my paternal grandfather to a stroke this year. He was a blessing to me.

An Angel

I have had the good fortune to recieve equity in 3 different companies over the last 4 years without having to actually pay anything. Obtiva, Mad Mimi, and Code Academy. This year I finally ponied up and made a financial investment in a hot Chicago startup. (Will say more when I can.) I’m looking forward to more angel investing in the years ahead.

2012

I have no resolutions, goals, or plans for the coming year. I am preparing for nothing, so that I will be ready for anything.

Tidbits from the Apprenticeship Panel

Adam Goucher asked me to blog about my contributions to the apprenticeship panel at SCNA 2011. Here’s my brain dump of what I can remember:

The a-hole hat. One topic that came up was how important it was to be an a-hole and hold your apprentices’ feet to the proverbial fire. This question resonated with me because of my background. I was trained and educated as a child and family therapist, so my natural tendency is to encourage, comfort, and sometimes, coddle. There are times when these aren’t helpful to apprentices, and instead, they need honest, sometimes brutal, feedback. We’ve evolved the Obtiva/Groupon apprenticeship program to include explicit opportunities for mentors and leaders to wear the a-hole hat. They’re called milestones. Every 2 months (of the 6 month program) the apprentice demos their pet project, then we code review it, and they present for 5-15 minutes on something they’ve learned. Then, we have a retrospective on the 2 months, providing feedback to the leaders and the apprentice about how we can improve the next 2 months. Finally, we make a decision, one of 3 options: a) the apprentice is dismissed, b) the apprentice is hired, and c) the apprentice continues. At the final milestone, the options are limited to a & b. This structure helps me put on my a-hole hat.

Just do it. (Don’t propose it.) This was actually a point that Uncle Bob and Ken Auer made together. Some people asked about how to go about starting an apprenticeship program. Please, don’t propose an apprenticeship program. Don’t overthink it. Don’t spend tons of time on curriculum and detailed plans. Plans and proposals invite committees and require consensus. Instead, find an apprentice, or if an apprentice found you, accept them. Then just get started. This is how you do pretty much anything new. Just do the thing. Keep doing it until you determine it’s a bad idea, or if it works, then instead of a presenting a proposal, you’re presenting a success story. In terms of how to start the program, it’s incredibly context-dependent, so there’s no single answer. The only mandatory practices I can imagine an “apprenticeship program” should include is frequent feedback loops and retrospectives so that you can continually adapt and improve. The foundation of an apprenticeship program is caring like crazy about the apprentice’s progress.

A dedicated mentor. Our senior engineers volunteer to take on an apprentice. The apprentice joins their team, pairs with them and their teammates, and meets with their mentor weekly for progress updates. The apprentice does not shadow their mentor constantly, and instead, enters the normal flow of the teams’ development process. There may be a week where the mentor is travelling, where the check-in is the only face-time the apprentice gets. There may be weeks where the apprentice pair programs with their mentor all week. The apprentice/mentor check-in is the heart beat that keeps an apprenticeship on track.

Learning is more important than teaching. This didn’t come up at SCNA, but I can’t not mention it. An apprenticeship is about learning, not teaching. If an apprenticeship emphasizes teaching, apprentices will become passive. Passive apprentices won’t have the learning momentum to keep them ramping up to the next level beyond their apprenticeship program. Cultivate an attitude of curiosity. Model this behavior by exposing your own ignorance when you’re working with your apprentice. Show them how you learn. Show them that the learning never ends.

That’s all I can remember right now. (I’m tired.) If anyone from SCNA remembers anything noteworthy that I’ve forgotten, please comment. Also, feel free to post questions!

“Walden” by Henry David Thoreau

The following is a quote dump from Walden, a book that inspires me to step away, seek simplicity, and feel comfortable with solitude.

Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations to men; his labor would be depreciated in the market. He has no time to be any thing but a machine. How can he remember well his ignorance — which his growth requires — who has so often to use his knowledge? p. 4

The mass of men lead quiet lives of desperation. p. 6

But man’s capacities have never been measured; nor are we to judge of what he can do by any precedents, so little has been tried. p. 8

Most of the luxuries, and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hinderances to the elevation of mankind. p. 12

The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others? p. 17

I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. p. 21

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new. p. 23

In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high. p. 24

While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. p. 31

Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have. p. 32

Those conveniences which the student requires at Cambridge or elsewhere cost him or somebody else ten times as great a sacrifice of life as they would with proper management on both sides. Those things for which the most money is demanded are never the things which the student most wants. Tuition, for instance, is an important item in the term bill, while for the far more valuable education which he gets by associating with the most cultivated of his contemporaries no charge is made. p. 46

I have learned that the swiftest traveller is he that goes afoot. p. 48

The spending the best part of one’s life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it, reminds me of the Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the life of a poet. He should have gone up garret at once. “What!” exclaim a million Irishmen starting up from all the shanties in the land, “is not this railroad which we have built a good thing?” Yes, I answer, comparatively good, that is, you might have done worse; but I wish, as you are brothers of mine, that you could have spent your time better than digging in the dirt. p. 50

I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment. p. 51

For more than five years I maintained myself thus solely by the labor of my hands, and I found, that by working about six weeks in a year, I could meet all the expenses of living … for my greatest skill has been to want but little. p. 64

I would not have any one adopt my mode of living on any account; for, beside that before he has fairly learned it I may have found out another for myself, I desire that there may be as many different persons in the world as possible; but I would have each one be very careful to find out and pursue his own way, and not his father’s or his mother’s or his neighbor’s instead. The youth may build or plant or sail, only let him not be hindered from doing that which he tells me he would like to do. It is only by a mathematical point that we are wise, as the sailor or the fugitive slave keeps the pole-star in his eye; but that is sufficient guidance for all our life. We may not arrive at our port within a calculable period, but we would preserve the true course. p. 66

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. p. 85

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. p. 85

Be it life or death, we crave only reality. If we are really dying, let us hear the rattle in our throats and feel cold in our extremities; if we are alive, let us go about our business. p. 92

Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written. p. 96

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book. p. 102

It is time that villages were universities, and their elder inhabitants the fellows of universities, with leisure — if they are indeed so well off — to pursue liberal studies the rest of their lives. p. 103

Instead of singing like the birds, I silently smiled at my incessant good fortune. p. 106

Follow your genius closely enough, and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour. p. 106

Every path but your own is the path of fate. Keep on your own track, then. p. 112

It is surprising and memorable, as well as valuable experience, to be lost in the woods any time. p. 161

Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations. p. 162

The virtues of a superior man are like the wind; the virtues of a common man are like the grass; the grass, when the wind passes over it, bends. p. 163

Give me the poverty that enjoys true wealth. p. 185

I did not use tea, nor coffee, nor butter, nor milk, nor fresh meat, and so did not have to work to get them; again, as I did not work hard, I did not have to eat hard, and it cost me but a trifle for my food. p. 193

[Footnote] Our ignorance of our own financial lives is the greatest threat to our independence. p. 194

Rise free from care before the dawn and seek adventures. p. 195

A farmer, a hunter, a soldier, a reporter, even a philosopher, may be daunted; but nothing can deter a poet, for he is actuated by pure love. p. 251-2

We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us. p. 294

The universe is wider than our views of it. p. 299

It is easier to sail many thousand miles through cold and storm and cannibals, in a government ship with five hundred men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one’s being alone. p. 300-1

The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. p. 302

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to his own music which he hears, however measured or far away. p. 305

How to stop killing yourself by listening to speeches

Dr. Nic wrote a great post about how to stop killing people with your public speeches. As someone who tends to “wing” public speaking opportunities, it’s a post I needed to read. And I’m thankful to have a gathering like geekfest where geeks in Chicago can practice our talks. For as much as I appreciated Dr. Nic’s post, something bothered me while I read it, and I feel compelled to call it out.

The post assumes that the attendees at a speech are passive recipients.

If you’re listening to a speech and feel your life slipping away, don’t just sit there dying, get up! Don’t just sit there and be bored. Don’t just open your laptop and tune out. Go for a walk outside. Find a friend in the hallway. Hack on something that interests you.

Be an active learner, not a passive recipient!

100 Days into Groupon

100 days ago, Groupon bought Obtiva. I am happy to report that my favorite aspects of Obtiva are still alive and well. This is thanks to the hard work and support of both former Obtivians and awesome Grouponers.

My favorites aspects:

Not long after the acquisition, we carved out some space for what I referred to as an “engineering lounge”, but was soon renamed The Obtiva Memorial Library. We missed our bean bag chairs, our bookshelves, and a quiet room to relax, think, and possibly strum a guitar. The library isn’t completed yet, but the plans are drawn and the room has been set aside.

One of the first worries that people had when they were told about the acquisition was that Geekfest would have to stop. Not only has it happened more consistently than ever, attendance has often double or tripled our old numbers. It’s still a great place for both practicing talks and hearing from thought leaders. And, more than ever, it is open to the surrounding community. As always, lunch is free for all.

Our Apprenticeship Program was another key asset that we brought with us from Obtiva. We’ve maintained a nearly identical structure for the program initially in order to reduce the number of variables. Once we see it stabilize at Groupon, we’ll continue its adaptation. We brought in our first apprentice last month, and we’re actively seeking our next apprentices right now.

Software Craftsmanship North America is happening for the 3rd year in a row. The existence of this conference still boggles my mind. Kevin Taylor has led the charge this year. Groupon will have a big presence at the conference, and the speaker line-up should be the best yet.

Stay tuned!