January 2012
1 post
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...
December 2011
1 post
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...
November 2011
5 posts
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...
"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...
How to stop killing yourself by listening to...
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...
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...
Autodidactic Programmers Q&A
My friend Dale introduced me to an aspiring self-taught programmer. This eager learner had a few questions for me, so I figured I’d blog my response.
What types of projects are best for someone with little experience?
Little projects. Public-facing projects. Projects that scratch your own itch.
My first project was prescribed to me by some very experienced guys who wanted to see how...
October 2011
1 post
Pops
My grandfather lived for the past 88 years. He was born into a wealthy family in Evanston. He married my grandmother after he served in the navy in World War II. He had one daughter, and then four sons. His daughter died when she was a baby. All of his sons are still alive, and have given their parents 12 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren (and still counting). We called him Pops. When Pops...
September 2011
1 post
Toward a More Integrated Life
At SCNA in 2009, Ken Auer talked to us about his desire to live an integrated life. Our modern life, according to Ken, tends toward compartmentalization rather than integration. Children go learn in a school, while parents go work in an office. Prayer is saved for churches. Adult learning is saved for continuing education. Family is for after hours. Business is for business hours. Exercise is for...
August 2011
2 posts
Chicago needs Code Academy
Earlier this year, I blogged about Chicago’s Ruby Developer Crisis. As far as I can tell, not much has changed. In fact, with Braintree’s funding and the acqusition of Obtiva by Groupon, the demand for Ruby developers has likely grown even stronger. So, what are we, the Chicago Ruby community, going to do about it? Like I said back in January, we’re going to grow these people.
...
1 tag
An experiment in self-organized learning
[Edit: I tweaked the “How do we reward desired behavior” section to have the awards be iPull credit, rather than cash.]
I’m interested in exploring ways to expand and decentralize educational opportunities for as many people as possible. With the sale of Obtiva to Groupon and Mad Mimi’s steady growth, it’s now easier for me to ponder ventures that are less...
June 2011
1 post
Five Years
I’ve been following the Self-Reliance #trust30 stream and have been mostly disappointed so far by the daily “exercises”. I guess I’m a simple guy because the only two that have resonated with me were very clear, simple calls to action. The first one was What would you write if you only had 15 minutes to live? Today’s has two simple questions.
What would you say to...
May 2011
3 posts
I choose growth. I choose injustice.
If you heard my story, you might think I’m an idiot. Your strong sense of justice would pull you against the direction I’ve chosen.
I could have righteously destroyed. I could have walked away and sought out something new, leaving this wreckage behind me.
But I saw the wreckage. Though it grieves me, I won’t run from it. I will grow something out of it.
Growing is what I...
For a purpose, But also
In my last post, I quoted Eric Liddell:
I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.
This quote has stuck with me for decades, I guess it’s because I resonate with Liddell’s faith, and I also became a fast runner back in my college days. Nowadays, though, it resonates with me in a completely different and more profound way.
...
Dave Hoover's Journeyman Tour
Updated on May 17, 2011.
I’m “pinching-myself-excited” about my journeyman tour. I’ve posted the latest version of the itinerary below, with links to the relevant/planned places and people. I’m looking for suggestions about most of these destinations, since almost all of them are new to me. One of the things I’m most excited about is that I’ll have my...
March 2011
1 post
Answering some questions about my faith
When I was in Cleveland and Cape Town on my journeyman tour, one of the talks I gave was Abe, Ayn, Jerry, Chris … and me. One of the attendees emailed me last month with some tough follow-up questions relating to my Christian faith. We’ve had some epic emails back and forth since then and I figured I’d adapt some of my replies into a blog post.
The “Jerry” in my...
February 2011
2 posts
Abraham Maslow agrees with John Resig
I was reading The Maslow Business Reader on the train this morning, just an hour after retweeting in agreement with John Resig’s preference for Github commits over resumes.
What I read on pages 11 and 12 from Maslow was remarkably similar.
I have spoken about dilettantes, for instance (as contrasted with workers and doers), and indicated my contempt for them. I have mentioned how often...
"Peak" by Chip Conley
The following is a quote dump from Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow, which I read at exactly the right time in my life:
“Work is about daily meaning as well as daily bread; for recognition as well as cash; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday-through-Friday sort of dying….We have a right to ask of work that it include meaning, recognition,...
January 2011
3 posts
"Failed States" by Noam Chomsky
I’m trying to become more aware of what’s going on in the world. Wikileaks inspired me to dig into all sorts of different news sources. Eventually someone recommended I read Noam Chomsky, and since I had bought Failed States earlier in 2010, I grabbed it and dove in.
Ouch. It was as if someone had taped my eyelids open and was forcing me to watch as my ignorance of US foreign policy...
The Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship
Dan North says that programming is not a craft. Liz Keogh doesn’t view it that way either. Dan’s post is extensive, and I don’t have time right now to respond to the numerous important points he brings up. So, like Liz, I’ll focus on their take on the Software Craftsmanship Manifesto. I have a ton of respect for both of these people, and while Dan’s post requires some...
Chicago's Ruby Developer Crisis
Trying to hire Ruby developers in Chicago is hard right now. Really hard. Like, I think every single one of them is happily engaged in their work. This is great for Chicago Ruby developers. This is frustrating for people trying to ramp-up their teams with local Ruby talent. How did we get here? How do we get out of this problem?
We got here because there are so many successful Ruby-friendly...
December 2010
3 posts
Our Deepest Fear
I’ve read the following Marianne Williamson quote before, but I read it again yesterday when I read Keavy’s mum’s speech. I felt compelled to share the full quote here:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant,...
1 tag
In December, 2000
My commute from Warrenville to Skokie reached the peak of nasty as the snow started to fall in Chicagoland. After a couple 2-3 hour snowy drives home in creeping traffic, I started sleeping at my grandparents’ place in nearby Evanston whenever it snowed. But, the bad commute was definitely still worth the effort. I had transitioned from my toy assignments from Irv and Steve to working on bug...
Try to keep up
As I read Groupon’s Biggest Deal Could Transform City’s Tech Start-Ups, I felt compelled to write up a few related thoughts.
The deal, tech executives say, could represent a game-changing moment for Chicago’s economy — a chance for the city to establish itself as a major tech hub that can grow talent and keep it here.
For anyone in technology in Chicago, this fact should...
November 2010
5 posts
Stories at the Intersection of Passion and...
One of the activities I need to spend more time on during the next year is telling stories about some of the great people I see at Obtiva everyday. We tend to be a fairly understated bunch, so it’s easy to get lulled into the sense that what we do is normal and that there’s not much to write home about. Yet, when I stop and look around once in a while, I can see some amazing happenings...
The Values of an Apprenticeship Program
For the past 8 years, My blog has always been a place where I can dump my ideas… to “bury my nuts” as my current subtitle says. Back in early 2005, I dumped a quote from Pat Metheny that grew into a book. Actually, that quote grew into 2 books, because Chad used it in The Passionate Programmer too. (We were reading the same blog)
I’ve been fielding questions about...
1 tag
In November, 2000
Irv Shapiro, the CEO of Edventions, took me aside and let me know it was time for me to learn to program. The company was tightening its belt and starship.com was being de-prioritized. But, if I could get up-to-speed on Perl, I could make myself useful. He left a dog-eared copy of a book with a Camel on it on my desk, and walked away.
I grasped the magnitude of the opportunity, so the Camel Book...
Techniques for the Self-Directed Learner
I met Sjur Kvammen at Øredev this week. He introduced himself and told me he’d read something of mine a while ago, something about psychology. I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but he found me later and said it was my writings about heedful programming. Wow, what a blast from the past. I’d actually de-linked that stuff from my home page because it’s so half-baked,...
Apprenticeship Programs on the Rise
A little over 3 years ago, I posted a call to action: A Call for Apprenticeship. At the time, there were only a couple other active formal apprenticeship programs that I was aware of beyond Obtiva. Nothing changed much in the years since. Companies that had apprenticeship programs continued apprenticing, with incremental improvements, but there wasn’t much uptake from other software shops until...
October 2010
1 post
The Right Way to Improve Software
Therefore, it seems the right way to improve software is to improve software developers themselves, through deliberate practice and constant learning – including what we’re not taught in school.
This insightful quote was from Gael Fraiteur’s recent blog post Why Should We Care About Software Craftsmanship? Part 2. If you’re involved in software development, I recommend reading it.
...
September 2010
2 posts
1 tag
Quotes from "The Fountainhead"
I’ll keep adding new Fountainhead quotes as they strike me…
“But you see, I have, let’s say, sixty years to live. Most of that time will be spent working. I’ve chosen the work I want to do. If I find no joy in it, then I’m only condemning myself to sixty years of torture. And I can find the joy only if I do my work in the best way possible to me. But the best...
1 tag
In September, 2000
After an interesting but mostly insignificant summer at Edventions, I found myself more confident in my abilities, but less confident about the future of the company. People were talking about the “dot-com bubble” and I noticed some serious faces among the sales team and leadership of the company. My boss Carolyn and I were hard at work on starship.com, but the content management...
August 2010
1 post
The Design of Everyday Doors
Back when I first started learning about software design, someone recommended I read The Design of Everyday Things. This book forever ruined doors for me, because up until the time I read it, I felt like a doofus in situations like the one below. But then I’d get on with my day, having chalked up the mishap to my own obliviousness.
After reading the book, I stopped feeling like a...
July 2010
1 post
1 tag
Excerpts from Reinersten's "Flow"
I believe it was Aslak who first mentioned The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development by Donald Reinertsen at speakerconf in February. I finally finished the book on vacation this week. I’m listing the excerpts that resonated the most strongly with me so I can easily reference them in the future. I highly recommend the book if you want to learn why...
June 2010
1 post
Expose Yourself
Derek Sivers just posted yet another excellent story to his blog. It’s a good, quick read. I wish he had written it a few years ago so I could have referred to it in my book. Specifically, in this chapter.
After reading it, I feel compelled to point out something that I think a lot of people will miss as they read Derek’s story. He’s writing about the importance of practicing....
May 2010
3 posts
1 tag
In May, 2000
I quickly learned that commuting by car from Warrenville to Skokie every day during rush hour wasn’t going to work. Thankfully my new boss, Carolyn, was flexible about it, and let me do an early-in, early-out commute. I would wake up at 4am, do a quick workout, and hustle to Skokie before traffic set in. Then I’d be out the office’s back door at 4pm every day, and home to Staci...
Going Local
Back around 2006-2007, as Obtiva was growing beyond our initial client, we started asking ourselves what sort of company we wanted to be. We had a couple of successful examples nearby that we could have chosen to emulate. We could have tried to be like my former employer, ThoughtWorks, which had scaled a successful transnational consultancy with a world-class culture around software development....
Obtiva's Secret Sauce
Obtiva came from simple beginnings and we’ve grown slowly, conservatively, and frugally over the years. We’ve worked hard, and with small budgets, to reach where we are today. Where are we? We are one of the premier custom software consultancies in the world, and the most prestigious Rails shop in Chicago. How did we accomplish this without a cent of investment capital? Culture. We...
April 2010
1 post
1 tag
In April, 2000
On the day before my 26th birthday, I took the day off to interview at Edventions. I drove the long (painful) drive to Skokie (from Warrenville) and found my way to someone named Irv. Craptastic! Irv’s the flippin’ founder and CEO! He had me sit with one of his content editors who sorta quizzed me on HTML, online content editing, and general (non-techie) web knowledge. Then I spent...
March 2010
1 post
1 tag
In March, 2000
The Chicago area was starting to thaw. I started spending an increasing amount of time between my client appointments walking around nearby Hidden Lake. As I walked in circles, I pondered the possibilities of this unexpected idea of becoming a computer programmer. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made to me. I prayed about it, and felt peace about what I was considering. So I kept...
February 2010
1 post
1 tag
In February, 2000
I was a child and therapist, questioning whether I could become a software developer. My attempt at learning Java was stalling. The exercises in Java for Dummies didn’t seem to have any purpose. Even if I could get them to work (which I couldn’t), they didn’t seem to do anything useful. I was filled with doubt. Did I really want to switch careers? I had a good job and had just...
January 2010
1 post
1 tag
In January, 2000
I was a child and family therapist. I worked in the Intensive Outreach Unit of the DuPage County Health Department. I had just finished my master’s degree in 1999 and was excited about my first gig as a “real” therapist. We worked in pairs and did in-home family therapy to prevent children and adolescents from being hospitalized for suicidal, homicidal, or psychotic behavior. ...
November 2009
1 post
Second Nature
A Japanese translator contacted me last week. Apparently, Apprenticeship Patterns is being translated into Japanese. (In other news, Enrique might be working on Spanish and/or German translations.) Well, the translator wasted no time, and started asking Ade and me questions about the meanings of some trickier sentences in our dedication and Ward Cunningham’s foreword.
His question about...
October 2009
2 posts
The Publication of Apprenticeship Patterns
Now that I’ve had the pleasure of holding my book in my hands I feel like it’s time to (re-)tell the story of how this book was born.
In the Spring of 2002, I worked at a big, old (bloated) non-profit organization in Chicago. My boss (IT manager) handed me a book that had been given to him by some local consultants. He had seen my accelerating appetite for software development books...
What are you practicing for?
I’m running the Chicago Marathon this Sunday. I’ve done a bad job of preparing for this race, so I don’t expect my time to be better than my first two marathons. One of the reasons I haven’t had much time to prepare is that I’ve been coaching football 3 days a week. We practice Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings, with games every Saturday. So, between the...
September 2009
3 posts
The Growing Role of UX at Obtiva
[P]eople are recognizing that UX work is important, but I don’t think they realize quite how important yet. Michael Feathers in Thoughts on the Future of the Boutique Software Shop
In his post about “boutique software shops”, Michael pondered the future of companies like 8th Light, Obtiva, Hashrocket and Edge Case. I can’t speak for those other shops, so I’m...
Be careful what you are good at
Michael Feathers wrote about his shift in focus from people to programming, which got me to thinking. To me, the two pivotal points of Michael’s post were:
He feels himself pulling away from a deeper involvement in teams and organizational change
Be careful what you’re good at
Being the self-centered guy that I am, I immediately wondered how I might fit into Michael’s post....
Who are you comparing yourself to?
One of most important moments in my 9 year career came in year 2. I had spent the previous two years diving head first into Perl and had quickly become a strong-ish Perl developer. But then I saw some of the leaders in the community talk about books and ideas that were not Perl-specific, and they made it sound like reading these books (like “Code Complete”) and understanding these...
August 2009
1 post
Alternatives
My colleague and friend Todd Webb and I were
riding the train to the office discussing my motivation for writing
my Breeding post.
Todd is very good at asking questions and our conversation helped me verbalize
my motivations for a couple ideas I’ve been pushing recently.
The two ideas are that:
Software developers can remain technical for their entire career
Software developers can...
July 2009
1 post
Breeding
been around the world and found
that only stupid people are breeding Flagpole Sitta, Harvey Danger
As Obtiva has grown to about 20 people in the last few years, we made a key decision that was guided by a simple principle.
We decided to make Obtiva a Chicago-focused company.
At the time, this felt like a big move to me, but it’s actually not that big a deal.
After all, Chicago is...