Red Squirrel's Nuts

Ward and the Empty Cup

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 07:03:00 -0600

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

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 16:18:00 -0600

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

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:33:00 -0600

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

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:41:39 -0600

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

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:16:00 -0600

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

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 02:30:00 -0600

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!

Autodidactic Programmers Q&A

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 01:34:00 -0600

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 quickly I could learn. I was hacking Perl CGI’s on a Linux box owned by the startup I was working for as an HTML/content editor. The thrill of that project was surprising those guys with what I could do, despite the contrived nature of the project.

My first truly thrilling project was PGAS, a Perl Golf Administration System. Yes, that’s right. You can see the remnants of this interesting time of my career at http://perlgolf.sourceforge.net. I still remember the amazing feeling of knowing that dozens, and hundreds of people from all over the globe were using my software to have fun, compete, and learn more about Perl. It was just a humble set of Perl scripts and a MySQL database, but it was a great learning experience on so many levels.

What resources or tools or books did you find most helpful when you were getting started?

Short, simple, and practical. Tiny, theory-less bites are key. Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web was the book that got me over the hump back in 2000. Then I dug into heavier books about Perl.

Nowadays, I recommend people take a look at Ruby. Give it a try.

What were the one or two biggest wastes of time?

The biggest waste of time was training courses. The quality of these 2-4 day courses was extremely variable. Sometimes they were great, like when I got to pair with Micah for a week. But most of the time, they were complete wastes of time. With no formal training, I felt compelled to go to as many training classes as I could. That time would have been better spent taking the week off and working on side projects. Choose training courses wisely.

Thankfully, I didn’t have any other big wastes of time. I’ve never had any patience for being blocked or distracted, mostly because I always felt like I needed to catch-up to my peers. I absolutely never shave yaks.

Pops

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 21:51:04 -0500

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 was surrounded by his family, he’d often exclaim, “How sweet it is!”

As a child, Pops spent a lot of time in the outdoors, especially in the boundary waters north of Minnesota. He went to summer camp up there, and all of his sons, and some of his grandsons went to that camp as well. When he married my grandmother, they spent 2 weeks up there in a tent for part of their honeymoon. Eventually, they bought some property up there, on the Canadian side. Our family still owns that property. We call it the Island. A lot of our birthdays are in April because the boundary waters are nicest in July. The Island is my favorite spot on this planet. I take my wife and kids there every summer. They love it too.

Pops was a sailor. In 7th and 8th grade, I lived near Evanston. I spent a lot of time with Pops in those summers, serving as his first mate during sailboat races. I don’t remember winning, but I remember the sun, the water, the misty breeze, and the amazing feeling you get when the boat is in perfect tension and cuts through the water. Pops loved to teach, and everything I know about sailing, I learned from him.

Pops was also a skier. My grandparents owned a house in Colorado, and that’s where I learned to ski, along with all of my siblings and cousins. Pops had to stop downhill skiing a long time ago, but did a lot of cross-country skiing. I love skiing fast, so cross-country seemed like it would be boring. But when we spent a day cross-country skiing with Pops, I was amazed at how stunning the scenery was. Some of our best times as an extended family were had in Colorado. At least once during each reunion, Pops would have a little speech for us after dinner. He’d compliment our grandmother, and finish with “How sweet it is!”

Two weeks ago, Pops had a stroke. My dad and I went to see him. He was in bad shape. He had to work hard just to speak. There are three memories I’ll always cherish from my time with Pops in the hospital.

First, was his humor. The first time I visited him in the hospital, he was cracking jokes any chance he could get. I learned a lot about life, watching the way he chose to behave in his final week. His spirit was strong, and you could see it in his persistent humor.

Second, was his love for his family. As my uncle, my dad, and I got up to leave at the end of my first visit, Pops launched into an emotional plea to us, particularly to my uncle. He was hard to understand, and I didn’t have a lot of context into what he was talking about, but the overall message was clear: It was incredibly important to Pops that his family stay connected, led by his sons, acting like a team.

Last, I’ll never forget his final words to me, as we held hands, the day before he died. “Keep doing what you know is right.” The backdrop of this advice is the past year of my life, which has been simultaneously the absolute worst and absolute best year I’ve ever lived. Coming out of that year, it’s a priceless treasure to have my grandfather express that sort of confidence in me. Thanks, Pops. I love you.

How sweet it is.

Toward a More Integrated Life

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 06:48:00 -0500

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 sports. Hard work is for pay. Let’s keep things clean and separate, with nice, clear boundaries.

As a father of three awesome children, and a husband to someone I love spending time with, the idea of an integrated life is appealing. But listening to Ken talk, and hearing how far he’s taken his integration, I was intimidated. Ken’s kids are home-schooled. Ken’s software studio is in the lower-level of his house. Ken’s team prays together before their daily standup meetings. Ken has extra space in his house for his kids’ grandparents. At first it was easy for me to think in all-or-nothing terms, and make excuses. Home-schooling isn’t an option for my family. Chicago housing costs make it incredibly expensive to consider multi-generational living arrangements. The work I want to do is in downtown Chicago, but my family is planted firmly in the suburbs. Everything in my life seemed to persistently nudge me toward the compartmentalization that Ken was talking about. I felt pretty helpless to resist it.

Since Ken’s introduction to an integrated life, though, I’ve been noticing more opportunities. So I’ve taken small, baby steps toward integration, and as a result, have experienced a higher quality of life. One of the first tensions between integration and compartmentalization I recognized was phone calls. If my wife, kids, non-work friends, brother, sister or parents called between 9am-5pm, I would often feel guilty and rushed answering the call or giving them much time. Similarly, if I got a call from a client or co-worker between 5pm-9am, I’d feel the exact same way. I decided to try integrating. I told myself, “If I can take business calls at home, then I can take personal calls at work.” I do the same with email. All of my email addresses forward to a single, unified inbox. I can use any of my email addresses to send from that inbox. It works great and helps me remain extremely responsive when important emails come, regardless of who it comes from.

I do hold certain hours of the day aside for specific activities. The hours between 6pm and 10pm are mostly focused on my wife and children. A friend of mine said it well: “There are 24 hours in a day. If I need to put in some extra hours on a project, I’m up for it, but it will happen during the other 20 hours of the day.” I’ve stuck to this pattern over my entire career, which has always been, and will always be, a challenge. It’s no fun to be the guy who’s walking out the door “early” while so many others stay later. It’s worth it, though, and to toot my own horn a little, I’ve been successful. Successful despite these boundaries? No, these boundaries are a contributor to my success. They help ensure I’m working at a sustainable pace and with a lot of energy.

As I said before, I like spending time with my family. So I’ve been on the lookout for ways of integrating them into typical “business hours”. With Staci, the easiest way to spend time with her while I work is to bring her with me to conferences. With my children, I occasionally bring them with me to the office, but it’s pretty rare since they’re all in school. But when I took my Journeyman Tour this year, I pulled each of my two older kids out of school for a week at a time, and brought them with me.[1] We had some seriously memorable times together. This, of course, made my youngest son jealous. So we’ve been looking for a way for him to come with me on a trip. At the end of the negotiations for Groupon’s Obtiva acquisition, I was visiting my extended family in Seattle. When it was time for us to fly back to Chicago, I suddenly needed to meet with Groupon’s senior engineering leadership in Palo Alto. The family was set to fly back without me when Charlie (the youngest) asked to come with me. I loved the idea, and so we flew to California together.

Having Charlie with me during this extremely important conversation with some Groupon VPs wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns. He got antsy, and needed to sit on my lap for a bit. That was challenging. Same deal with having my wife with me at conferences. I’m balancing my time between her and the conference happenings. Same deal on the Journeyman Tour. The kids limited the time I spent out late with people, and I had to think about how to occupy their time. All of this stuff is nerve-wracking. But, across the board, everyone was extremely accepting of involving my family more in these professional situations. Moment-to-moment, adopting a more integrated life is difficult, and yet I find that these integrations give me energy, which then helps me power through these difficulties.

I believe it’s possible to follow your passion, enjoy your job, provide for your family, and be a good spouse and parent. There are far, far too many people who choose not pursue these possibilities. They have a tough, demotivating job. Or a career that doesn’t pay enough. Or a job that pays great, fulfills them, but requires too much time away. My only advice: don’t give up. Having success in business and career does not require failure in marriage and parenthood. Nor vice versa. I’ve never been satisfied until I could have my cake and eat it too. I want it all, and too many of us settle for success in one or the other “compartment” rather than experiencing an integrated, overall success.

One of the subtle but powerful ways that compartmentalization seeps into our thinking is via language such as “work/life balance” or “live to work vs. work to live”. Bullshit. Juxtaposing work vs. life is a horrifying way to think. It implies that work is a form of death. Do you understand how much of your life you spending working? Work is a huge part of your life so don’t settle for a sort of everyday dying. Don’t work to live. Don’t live to work. Deliberately walk a path that leads you toward a more integrated existence, which gives you the energy to do good work, which in turn opens up more opportunities for integration.

[1] Ken actually suggested I bring my whole family for the entire trip. Instead, I chopped up the trip with my two older kids, but did have my whole family come out for a weekend together in the middle of it. Thanks for the ideas and inspiration, Ken!

Chicago needs Code Academy

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 20:42:00 -0500

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.

I’ve spent a significant amount of time this year looking for ways to grow more people for Obtiva. I’ve been hanging out at the Chicago Technology Academy, talking to i.c.stars, and learning from 8th Light about how they’ve expanded their apprenticeship program to allow them to take on many more apprentices at once. All of these organizations have made growing great technologists in Chicago a top priority. We can certainly relocate some people to help reduce the demand, but let’s face it, Chicago isn’t a one-size-fits-all town. Relocation will only get us so far. So, I want to highlight a startup whose entire existence is dedicated to developing new Ruby on Rails developers in Chicago.

It’s called Code Academy. I first met Neal Sales-Griffin like I meet a lot of other awesome people. Through Corey Haines. It’s really hard to describe Neal and his co-founders Mike and Claire, but I’ll try. First, you should know that the 3 of them constitute the 3 most recent student body presidents at Northwestern University. Yes, that’s right, and the venture they’ve decided to throw their heart-and-soul into is an academy that develops Ruby developers out of the raw materials of intelligence and a passion for learning. They’re looking for raw beginners, and that’s where I come in. I’m looking for new places to find apprentices for ~~Obtiva~~Groupon, and after spending the last few months working with Neal and his team on the formation and planning for Code Academy, I’m convinced that some amazing people will emerge from it. Look at the people they have involved! And the partners and advisors they’ve assembled are truly remarkable, particularly for a few new college grads. The people who leave Code Academy will leave with the Ruby on Rails knowledge and connections to set themselves up for a bright future in Chicago’s technology scene, and I’m looking forward to meeting them.

Why do I believe that Code Academy will be successful? First, because of the people involved. (To land Jeff Cohen as their instructor was a major accomplishment.) But on a more personal note, I believe they will be able to turn beginners into Ruby developers because I’ve been there. I’ve been through that process. Back in January, 2000, I was 25, married, with a baby daughter, and a practicing child and family therapist. During that year, I made the decision to become a software developer. I read books, sought out mentors, went to conferences, and constructed my own education. Looking back over the last decade, I’m glad I made that decision, despite how strange it felt back then. I’ve learned that with the right mix of potential, motivation, and guidance, people can become programmers much later in life than most people think.

In a time when there are historic levels of unemployment and undprecedented demand for technical skills, Code Academy is exactly what we need. If you know someone who you think would make the most of this opportunity, encourage them to apply.

An experiment in self-organized learning

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 05:42:00 -0500

[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 profit-driven and more purpose-driven. Most of my time in the coming years will be focused on developing a world-class software development culture at Groupon that inspires technical innovation through developer happiness. But in the background, like I said, I’m interested in decentralizing education, so I’ll be spending off-hours on that.

While I was off the grid in June, I came up with a crazy idea for a software platform that would help groups of people get together to learn with, and from, each other. For now, I’m calling it iPull, based on the principle that in today’s world of increasingly cheap/free and open knowledge (such as Kahn Academy, Wikipedia, and iTunesU), it’s becoming less imperative that knowledge is pushed at students, and it has become possible for learners to pull knowledge toward themselves. I know I’ve found this to be the case in my self-directed education as a software developer. (For software-development-specific themes around this, see my book, Apprenticeship Patterns.) A long-recognized feature of higher education is that most of the value comes from your peers and subsequent network, and comes less from the degree and hoops you’ve successfully jumped through.

“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.” Walden, p. 46, Henry David Thoreau, graduated Harvard in 1837

Dale Stephen’s UnCollege has more to say about this theme. So, what would happen if a fraction of the young people who are now thoughtlessly entering the US undergraduate system and heaping career-limiting loans on themselves decided to organize their own education together? iPull is my attempt to provide a platform to answer that question.

I’m finally blogging about this because I’ve had some conversations recently that are helping me drill down into the core problem that platforms like this face. At this point, the core problems are:

Should iPull be opinionated about the internal structure of courses? Should it impose limitations on course duration and number of learners? My current thinking is that we should keep this open, but provide suggestions once people move outside the “sweet spots” for group learning.
The downside of being open and flexible is that people who use iPull will likely have a “now what?” experience. This should be solved, especially initially, with lots of one-on-one advice from an iPull course coach via phone, chat, and email.
How do we keep learners coming back to courses? My current thinking is that the simplest way to get people to commit is to have them pay for the course.
How do we reward desired behavior like consistent participation, attendance, leadership, helpfulness, teaching, and insipiration? My current thinking is that course participants can use iPull to grant awards to the course-mates who are being most helpful to their learning. A participant’s award would be iPull credit, equivalent in dollar value to the cost of the course. These awards would be displayed publicly.

With all of these questions, I’m choosing the most radical answer I can think of. I’m choosing to err on the side of openness and flexibility and simplicity and non-tradition. That’s why iPull is open source. That’s why I want to see any money that flows into iPull to flow back out to the learners via food, beverages, and monetary awards from peers. That’s why I won’t use the word ~~teacher~~, despite the fact that people who have a knack for teaching could most certainly use iPull to string together a set of courses that earns them a consistent income. There will be courses where one of the participants will naturally fit into a leadership role and spend significant amounts of time explicitly teaching. There will be courses where these people emerge and fade depending on the current topic. There will be courses where someone intends the former, but the latter happens. I don’t want iPull getting in the way of any of these scenarios.

I’ve been developing iPull in my off-hours for some weeks. I’ve put no effort into the front end yet, and am mostly exploring how to accomplish a minimum viable platform with the technologies I’ve chosen. If you’re curious, and have sufficiently low expectations, you can head over to iPull.org to play around.

If you’re a software developer who is interested in this project, you’ll want to know that I’m using a similar philosophy in my technical decisions. I’ve chosen a platform that I’m not very experienced in (node.js + Redis) and I’m learning as I go. If this entire idea crumbles, or the experiment fails, I selfishly want to ensure I get something out of it. In this case, I’ll leave the experience with a deeper understanding of some technologies that I enjoy. Find out more about the project over at Github.

I’d love to answer questions, hear your ideas, criticisms, and suggestions, so fire away with comments!

Five Years

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:53:00 -0500

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 the person you were five years ago?

Dear Dave,

Keep doing what you’re doing. Yeah, the RailsConf 2006 presentation you just gave last month was pretty crappy, but it was worth the effort, and although you won’t ever be accepted to be a RailsConf speaker again, you’re going to be speaking at a ton of other conferences. Just wait! You won’t believe where your crappy speaking skills are going to take you. (No, I’m not going to tell you where. Be patient.)

The Rails TDD Boot Camp that you’re just starting to work on is going to require a ton of effort, especially when you’re delivering it. You won’t be sleeping much for the rest of the year. But trust me, this is the right time to be putting in some long hours. It’s going to pay off, big time. (Hint: Kevin is open to making you a partner.) Stick to your guns about Ruby. It’s going to be huge, just like everyone is hoping. And Obtiva’s projects are going to almost completely switch over to Ruby from Java over the next few years. Get over your hangups about “doing sales” because that’s how you’re going to land your first full-time Ruby gig. (Spoiler: Gary is open to making you a partner.)

Don’t worry too much about Ricky and Charlie’s (lack of) progress with speech and reading. You just saw Rose make a ton of progress with her reading skills in first grade this year, and both of the boys are going to do the same thing. I know this is almost impossible to believe, but Ricky is going to read all the Harry Potter books over the next few years.

Make sure you tell Matt Puchlerz how awesome he is. Don’t hold back on expressing your admiration and encouragement of people who are doing great work.

Don’t worry about the book you started last year. It’s the right decision to put it on hold, and there will be time to work on it again after you get Obtiva’s Ruby momentum established. (Spoiler: it’s going to be published by O’Reilly!) Also, more good news, software craftsmanship is going to finally pick up steam, just liked you hoped.

For God’s sake, Dave, be attentive to Staci, especially with the little things she asks. Just get over yourself and do some housework and yardwork. It’s seriously easy and will save you a lot of conflict. It really means a lot to her. Yeah, I know you don’t understand why. Just accept it. She’s worth it.

Oh, also, when the guys at The Point call Obtiva next year and you want to tell them you don’t have anyone available to help, I suggest shifting some people around to make sure you can help them. You wouldn’t believe where that little platform is headed. Seriously.

What will you say to the person you’ll be in five years?

Dear Dave,

I really hope you’ve been spending enough time with Rose. She’s 17 now and is probably going to fly away soon. I wonder how much she’s even around these days. I bet she is an amazing soccer player and cross country runner. You have so little time left with her, so you better have been almost annoyingly present in her life during middle school and these first 3 years of high school. Did you teach her how to ski? I hope so. Have you helped her discover and learn about the subjects that she wants to explore after she graduates from high school? Have you been firm and clear, but not alienating, to the young men in her life? Have you been praying for Rose? Have you helped her think openly about her spirituality and her relationship with Jesus?

What progress have you made toward your life’s work? Has Chicago blossomed into a place where people have many options for learning about software development? Are Code Academy, Chicago Technology Academy, and i.c.stars still going strong? I hope they have spread throughout the city and beyond. I’m sure you have your hands in a few different entreprenerial endeavors, but I’m also sure you’ve taken the time to help these different organizations move forward, and mentor some of the people who might someday be your boss.

Keep investing in your marriage, Dave. Staci is an amazing person and absolutely worth the effort. Have you already started planning how you two will be celebrating your 20th anniversary next year? Wow, you guys have come a long way. Keep going.

I choose growth. I choose injustice.

Tue, 31 May 2011 10:00:54 -0500

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 love. I find it much more difficult than destroying.

Difficulty is something I’ve always relished. When I’m running, I run faster uphill. When I’m growing, I grow from the pain of rejection.

I was given the gift of a good start. My roots are strong, and with His Strength and Wisdom, I cannot be uprooted.

Choose to grow. Be gracious and strong in the face of injustice.

Forgiveness is the sunlight that grows life from the wreckage.

Don’t run from it.

[I wrote this as a 15 Minutes to Live exercise, as part of The Domino Project’s #Trust30 writing project.]

For a purpose, But also

Tue, 17 May 2011 22:55:00 -0500

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.

Last November I had the opportunity to travel to Malmö, Sweden. I needed some time to myself, so I gladly accepted the invitation to speak at Øredev. While I was there, I took advantage of my freedom and did quite a lot of reading, thinking, and writing from my miniature and utterly Scandinavian hotel room. It was in that little room that I had an apostrophe.

Through a series of readings, I found myself inside of Christopher Alexander’s “Network of Learning” pattern from A Pattern Language. I’d read it before, but this time it struck me like a bolt of lightning. Over the last 7 years, I had memorized and internalized the premise of the pattern:

In a society which emphasizes teaching, children and students - and adults - become passive and unable to think or act for themselves. Creative, active individuals can only grow up in a society which emphasizes learning instead of teaching.

On that cloudy day in Malmö, though, I finally was ready to absorb the sentence that followed the premise:

Instead of the lock-step of compulsory schooling in a fixed place, work in piecemeal ways to decentralize the process of learning and enrich it through contact with many places and people all over the city.

I got stuck on that sentence for a good long while and eventually sat up, realizing that this sentence described my purpose. Since that moment, this sentence has been in the back of my mind every single day. It helps me understand why apprenticeship and self-directed learning have always been so important to me. And having this sentence in mind has helped me describe to friends and colleagues what I want to work on in the decades ahead. It’s like a filter on all of my interactions that dampens some ideas and amplifies others. It led me to the Chicago Technology Academy and John Seely Brown’s New Culture of Learning. It has pushed me more strongly into supporting people like Gregory Brown’s RbMU and Neal Sales-Griffin’s ideas about a “code academy” in Chicago. And I know these are just the tip of the iceberg.

I feel extremely fortunate to have already found opportunities to work in piecemeal ways in Chicago. To participate in the progress, even on a micro-scale, toward the purpose for which I was created, is a beautiful experience.

I was eating lunch with Neal a couple weeks ago when he asked me about my story of switching from family therapist to software developer. Maybe it was because Neal was a sprinter in high school, but I ended the story with the Liddell quote. And then, unexpectedly, I spontaneously adapted it for me:

I believe God made me for a purpose: to help decentralize learning. But He also made me a natural programmer. And when I code I feel His pleasure.

The self-insight this adapted quote gives me is priceless.

I don’t know how helpful this blog post will be to anyone other than me. I’m blogging it publicly so I can more easily look back on it when I need to refocus on what it is I’m here for. If on the off chance you feel your purpose is parallel to mine, or there is an intersection, don’t hesitate to leave a comment or email me.

Dave Hoover's Journeyman Tour

Tue, 17 May 2011 00:00:00 -0500

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 son Ricky and daughter Rose accompany me for different parts of the road trip (January 17-February 1) as photographer / videographers. I’m so thankful to be a part of a company like Obtiva, who stand behind this sort of activity where we can connect peers, competitors, friends, and colleagues with the wider community. I also have to give a major thank you to Corey Haines for the sole inspiration for this sort of behavior. And of course, a big thanks to all of the people who have invited me to talk to them about what I’m interested in talking about. Stay tuned, I’ll keep updating this as the tour progresses!

Part 1: Completed

November 9-10, Elabs, Göteborg, Sweden

Pair programmed a bit with Nicklas Ramhöj
Interviewed CJ Kihlbom: watch on vimeo
Spoke about “The 9 Reasons You’re Not Apprenticing Anyone” at Got.rb

November 10-14, Øredev, Malmö, Sweden

The 9 Reasons You’re Not Apprenticing Anyone
The Principles Behind Groupon
Interviewed Cory Foy and Michael “Doc” Norton: watch on vimeo

Part 2: Completed

My feelings about this part of the tour

Accompanied by Ricky, my 9 year old son.

January 19-20, Edge Case, Columbus, Ohio, USA

January 21-23, LeanDog, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Visit NimblePros
Pair program with people at LeanDog
Presented A 2 Part Talk on a Boat in Cleveland
Meetup with Joe Fiorini
Blog post

Ricky flies home. I drive to Virginia from Ohio.

January 24-25, Entryway, Floyd, Virginia, USA

Pair program with people there
Day 1 Blog post
Day 2 Blog post

Rose, my 12 year old daughter, joins me.

January 26-27, Relevance, Durham, North Carolina, USA

Pair program with people there
Led discussion on “Stretching toward Incompetency” at lunch

January 27-28, Role Model Software, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

Pair program
Discussed differences between craftsmanship-oriented shops
Dinner with Jared Richardson, Chris Redinger and our daughters

Staci, Ricky, and Charlie arrive for a family weekend in the Outer Banks. Rose leaves (early) with them (to miss the incoming blizzard).

January 31, Norfolk, Virginia, USA

Visit Brennan at WE ARE TITANS

February 1, Washington DC, USA

Video brain dump
Meals with Jeff Casimir and Joe Grossberg

I fly to South Africa.

February 3-4, Rubyfuza, Cape Town, South Africa

The 9 Reasons You’re Not Apprenticing Anyone
The Dangers of ActiveRecord lifecycle hooks

Feb 5 (fun with Mad Mimi teammates)

Feb 6 (fly)

Staci, my wife, joins me.

Feb 7-12, speakerconf, Aruba

Spoke about Stretching Toward Incompetency

Feb 12, sweet home Chicago!

Part 3: Completed

April 2-6, London, England

Visit the Rempt’s at Holmsted Manor
Visit Adewale at Google
Visit Aslak and Dan at DRW
Visit New Bamboo to pair on Pusher
Visit Fred at Forward3D to see some microservices and programmer anarchy
Panel discussion on How can craftsmanship move the industry forwards? with Adewale Oshineye, Dan North, and Chris Parsons at the London Software Craftsmanship Community

April 7-9, Scottish Ruby Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland

Keynote on craftsmanship/apprenticeship

April 10, home for Staci’s birthday

Answering some questions about my faith

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 07:50:00 -0600

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 talk’s title is Jerry Weinberg. In part of my talk, I spoke about an experience I had at AYE 2004 in Jerry and Johanna’s Transforming Rules into Guidelines workshop. Through this workshop, I realized some simple guidelines I could follow that help me to do great work in every aspect of my life:

sleep enough
be connected with my wife and children
be connected with God

My reference to my relationship with God led to the first question…

I’m curious to know more about your faith and how you connect to God while working in a large community that seems full of cynicism of the very things you believe.

Despite that the overall theme of our community is non-Christian, I make it known that I am a Christian, and take note when I see someone else claiming a similar faith, and then try to ensure we cross paths. I have had some of the most amazing and life-changing Christian mentoring come out of the Agile and Ruby communities from two men that I look up to (Ken Auer and Patrick Morrison). Both of these guys are role models to me and have also helped me through some tough times over the years. I literally sat down and prayed with Patrick at SCNA last November. I literally stood in an opening prayer of an XP-style standup meeting with Ken’s team a month ago. Experiences like these help me connect to God in the context of our community.

Reaching out like you’re doing right now is one of the best ways I know of to connect God in the context of our community. This is called communion! :) Being open about your faith on the web opens the door to cross paths with other people who feel like there is no space for spirituality in our field.

I should also mention I’m careful about what I expose myself to in the community. Specifically, I’m diligent about trimming down my Google Reader and Twitter input to a healthy mix of people I agree with and people who expose me to ideas that challenge me. I unfollow negativity and antagonism.

Next question…

I’m curious how your view of mankind and God’s relationship to his creation affects your work as a software craftsman.

The best thing I can do is point to Frederick Brooks’ quotes in The Mythical Man Month, at the beginning and end of his book:

“First is the the sheer joy of making things. As the child delights in his mud pie, so the adult enjoys building things, especially things of his own design. I think this delight must be an image of God’s delight in making things, a delight shown in the distinctness and newness of each leaf and each snowflake.”

“To only a fraction of the human race does God give the privilege of earning one’s bread doing what one would have gladly pursued free, for passion. I am very thankful.”

God created us in his likeness. Did he plop us down in Eden as a fully-formed human? Or did we grow over millennia into what we are now? I don’t have the answer, but I believe he started things in motion and that he has a plan. I discovered when I was 26 that the sheer joy of making things, of solving difficult, logically complex problems, and bringing ideas to life via software, was one of the things that I was made to do. I have discovered more things about myself in the 10 years since then. I am thankful every day that I get to do what I was made for while providing my wife and children with a comfortable life.

The “Abe” in my talk’s title was Abraham Maslow. My talk, and subsequent tweets about Maslow led to this question…

You’ve mentioned Maslow; his writings seem to demonstrate that we are innately good. Yet the stories in the Bible describe us as tainted and in need of rescue.

Before I get to the innately good/flawed question… I just read two things from Maslow recently that actually has something to say related to Brooks above:

“The muscular person like to use his muscles, indeed, he has to use them in order to “feel good” and to achieve the subjective feeling of harmonious, successful, uninhibited functioning (spontaneity) which is so important an aspect of good growth and psychological health. So also for intelligence, for the uterus, the eyes, the capacity to love. Capacities clamor to be used, and cease their clamor only when they are well used. That is, capacities are also needs. Not only is it fun to use our capacities, but it is also necessary for growth. The unused skill or capacity or organ can become a disease center or else atrophy or disappear, thus diminishing the person.”

“We fear our highest possibilities. We are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments, under conditions of great courage. We enjoy and even thrill to the godlike possibilities we see in ourselves in such peak moments. And yet we simultaneously shiver with weakness, awe, and fear before these very same possibilities. Obviously the most beautiful fate, the most wonderful good fortune that can happen to any human being, is to be paid for doing that which he passionately loves to do.”

That integrates cleanly with how I see that we are made by God to glorify him with our talents. It reminds me of my favorite quote from Olympian Eric Liddell from Chariots of Fire:

I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.

Like a lot of people, Liddell had many talents. He believed his life’s purpose was to go to China as a missionary. Yet he couldn’t shake the fact that he was born to run. The beauty of his life was how he integrated his athleticism with his faith and purpose.

As I read Maslow, I see a lot of truth. He writes about human nature and the psyche like one would write about internal organs. This style actually makes it easier to integrate than if he had muddied the psychological truth he discovered within a specific religious tradition. Maslow actually believed that humans needed religion (or something like it) to achieve our full potential:

“The human being needs a framework of values, a philosophy of life, a religion or religion-surrogate to live by and understand by, in about the same sense that he needs sunlight, calcium or love.”

I’m still reconciling the innately good/flawed conflict between Maslow and the Bible. For now, I’m integrating it via the belief that God originally made us good. This would mean the first humans were self-actualized. When we developed a sin nature, we created a series of obstacles to achieving self-actualization, and created an impassable crevasse between us and God. Maslow focuses on how to remove the obstacles in our way to self-actualization. The Bible focuses on how we can be reconciled to God. I believe God wants for all of his children to accomplish both of these things, and as Maslow recognized, a strong spiritual foundation facilitates self-actualization.

Abraham Maslow agrees with John Resig

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 07:18:33 -0600

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 I have tested people with these fancy aspirations simply by giving them a rather dull but important and worthwhile job to do. Nineteen out of twenty fail the test. … The test for any person is — that is you want to find out whether he’s an apple tree or not — Does He Bear Apples? Does He Bear Fruit? That’s the way you tell the difference between fruitfulness and sterility, between talkers and doers, between the people who change the world and the people who are helpless in it.

"Peak" by Chip Conley

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 09:54:00 -0600

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, astonishment, and life.” Studs Terkel in “Working”

W. Edward, father of the total quality movement, once said that the primary duty of every leader to to remove fear from the workplace. But organizational wellness doesn’t emerge simply from the absence of fear. Fear must be replaced with a positive spirit of fulfillment and vitality.

“There’s a reason our flight attendants appear happier than those at other airlines. We take them into account when we make key operationg decisions in our company. I’m not sure our competitors do the same.” Gary Kelly, CEO, Southwest Airlines

In this age of commoditization, one of the truly differentiating characteristics of leaders and companies is the quality and durability of the relationships they create.

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization….it refers to man’s desire for self-fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become actually in what is potentially: to become everything one is capable of becoming.” Abraham Maslow, Maslow on Management

[Andrew] Kay noticed that his workers were more productive at the end of the assembly line, where finality of the assembly provided a sense of accomplishment.

But is the inability to easily measure something a valid excuse for dismissing its value?

Sustained performers are set apart from their competitors by a higher willingness to engage in activities that increase the longevity of their relationships, both internally and externally.

The shared experience of authenticity facing vulnerability and the sense of connectedness that comes from a focused team can create a true self-actualizing experience in the workplace.

Companies like Apple and Harley-Davidson have become highly successful cult brands by creating self-actualizing experiences for their customers.

Maslow believed that you could learn a lot by the “grumbles and complaints,” as he acknowledged, “human beings will always complain.” Our Joie de Vivre team knew that once we started hearing “higher levels complaints,” like what kinds of classes we were teaching in “JDV University” or how often we had fun company events, we had moved our employees beyond the base of the pyramid mindset.

Reading [Fortune’s annual 100 Best Places to Work] article (which usually appears in January) is a must for any executive who wants to understand best practices with respect to creative competency.

In our time-compressed world, maybe the greatest compensation gift an employer can give its employees is time off. For this reason, for years, Joie de Vivre has offered its salaried (and some of its hourly) employees a one-month paid sabbatical every three years of continuous employment.

What perishible asset can your company make available to your employees that would boost their perception of their compensation package?

As physical hunger needs are met, the kind of hunger people feel most acutely is the hunger for recognition.

Giving authentic recognition to peers is one of the greatest ways to ensure low turnover and high productivity.

So the mantra in your company should be, “Whenever possible, connect with your people in person.”

All work contains drudgery; yet the difference between one job and the next is whether employees have a sense of meaning in what they do.

Companies that know how to harness their technology /and/ empower their people have the potential to deliver customized service that will translate into committed customers.

Technology /enables/ great service, it doesn’t /create/ great service.

“It’s pretty easy to spot an overwhelmingly strong candidate or even an underwhelmingly strong candidate. It’s the ‘whelming’ candidate you must avoid at all costs, because that’s the one who can and will do your organization the most long-lasting harm. Overwhelmers earn you raves. Underwhelmers either leave of their own volition or are terminated. Whelmers, sadly, are like a stubborn stain you can’t get out of the carpet. They infuse an organization and its staff with mediocrity; they’re comfortable, and so they never leave; and, frustratingly, they never do anything that rises to the level of gretting them promoted or sinks to the level of getting them fired. And because you either can’t or dont’ fire them, you and they conspire to send a dangerous message to your staff and guests that ‘average’ is acceptable.” Danny Meyer in “Setting the Table”

Your customers aren’t monolithic; therefore, your pyramid needs to be adaptable depending on which customers you’re talking about and their changing tastes.

Companies that create self-actualized customers inspire true devotion and evangelism.

When a company can comprehensively assist customers to reach their highest goals, it has built a deeply engaged relationship.

In his later years, Maslow expanded his Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid from five to eight levels, with the highest level being “self-trancendence,” the almost spiritual sense of being on this planet for something beyond your own personal needs.

Ask Drucker’s famous question, “What business are you in?” or adapt it to, “What business do your customers (or your future customers) wish you were in?”

“The difference between the great and good societies and the regressing, deteriorating societies is largely in terms of the entrepreneurial opportunity and the number of such people in the society. I think everyone would agree that the most valuable 100 people to bring into a deteriorating society would be not 100 chemists, or politicians, or professors, or engineers, but rather 100 entrepreneurs.” Abraham Maslow in “The Maslow Business Reader”

The investor on a path toward self-actualization realizes that the scarce commodity in the investment world isn’t necessarily a good deal but a good partner relationship.

“The secret to great investing isn’t becoming the ultimate whiz kid at financial models or neccesarily being the shrewdest negotiator in the room, it has a lot more to do with building long-term relationships with entrepreneurs and business leaders who deserve your confidence.” Bill Price, co-founder of Texas Pacific Group

When money or ROI becomes the only language that glues a company and its investor together, it is likely this will be a short-lived relationship.

“It seems the more wealth investors accumulate, the smaller and more elite thir social circles become. With that said, they clearly want to remain active in projects, make a contribution and be ‘in the know.’ My experience is that investments allow them to travel outside of their typical social circles into other ‘communities’ for collaboration.” Jack Crawford, Jr., general partner, Velocity Venture Capital

So what can you offer to deepen the relationship with your investors? Is it taking your top investor to the Super Bowl or giving them the opportunity to try out your top-secret new product before it hits the market?

Herbisms: “don’t think about profit, think about customer service; profit is a by-product of customer service” “the customer always comes second; our employees are first” “The tragedy of our time is that we’ve got it backwards … we’ve learned to love techniques and use people.” Herb Kelleher, co-founder, Southwest Airlines

The role of our senior leadership is to create a unique corporate culture and to help it spread throughout all of our businesses.

“We fear our highest possibilities. We are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments, under conditions of great courage. We enjoy and even thrill to the godlike possibilities we see in ourselves in such peak moments. And yet we simultaneously shiver with weakness, awe, and fear before these very same possibilities. Obviously the most beautiful fate, the most wonderful good fortune that can happen to any human being, is to be paid for doing that which he passionately loves to do.” Abraham Maslow

"Failed States" by Noam Chomsky

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 23:30:00 -0600

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 was destroyed, and depressingly methodically replaced with insights into why so many people on our planet are angry, frustrated, and sometimes vengeful toward us. Ignorance is bliss, for a while, and although it was tough to take, I’m better for sticking with it and seeing us through Chomsky’s eyes. Here are a couple notes I’m leaving here for later reference:

[“Free trade”] guarantees free movement of capital while dismissing free movement of labor, a core principle of free trade for Adam Smith. p. 218

…a few simple suggestions for the United States… (1) accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and the World Court; (2) sign and carry forward the Kyoto protocols; (3) let the UN take the lead in international crises; (4) rely on diplomatic and economic measures rather than military ones in confronting terror; (5) keep to the traditional interpretation of the UN Charter; (6) give up the Security Council veto and have “a decent respect for the opinion of mankind,” as the Declaration of Independence advises, even if power centers disagree; (7) but back sharply on military spending and sharply increase social spending. For people who believe in democracy, these are very conservative suggestions: they appear to be the opinions of the majority of the US population, in most cases the overwhelming majority. p. 262

The Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 20:46:52 -0600

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 ego-swallowing to digest, I think their writings on this provide extremely valuable feedback to those of us who identify ourselves as (aspiring) software craftsmen.

I was one of the few dozen people at the software craftsmanship summit over two years ago. It was an attempt to start putting some definition around the ideals that had bonded us together over the years since Software Craftsmanship was published. It was an eventful day, facilitated by 8th Light, which culminated in a group discussion that provided enough building blocks for Doug Bradbury to draft the current version of the manifesto based on subsequent discussions on the mailing list.

My takeaway from reading the posts by Dan and Liz, and also Adewale Oshineye’s response to Dan, is that it’s time we revisited our manifesto and release the next iteration based on what we have learned over the last two years. Let’s consider the advice of these experienced, successful, and dedicated software professionals as we consider the next iteration:

Dan:

I would love to see someone rewrite the Software Craftsmanship Manifesto in terms of getting results and delighting customers. I don’t want “steadily adding value,” I want “amazing their customers every day!” Software craftsmen should be egoless, humble, with a focus on the outcome rather than the code or the process.

Ade:

…perhaps we should add a Further Reading section to the Manifesto’s website to help reduce [Dan’s] kind of confusion?

Liz:

I dislike the wording of the manifesto’s points because I don’t think they differentiate between programmers who genuinely care about the value they deliver, programmers who care about the beauty of their code, and programmers who hold a mistaken belief in their own abilities.

Dan:

Now here’s what I want you to do. I do think there should be a Software Craftsmanship Manifesto, but not the thing that’s currently out there. I think it should be a call-to-arms, feisty, opinionated, brash and everything that a good manifesto should be (I’m channelling Kevlin Henney here). I also think there should be a way for passionate, skilled programmers to differentiate themselves from the mainstream commodity bodies, and also to recognise one another, and demonstrate their value to potential employers. What could that be, and how could we make it work?