Career
3 Books Every Software Developer Should Have Already Read
Here are three books I feel are required reading for all software developers regardless of age, job title, or years of experience. The earlier you can get a hold of them, the better. Spoiler Alert: only one of these books specifically deals with writing code. Clean Code: A Handbook of
Board Games Improve Leadership and Decision Making Skills
In Inc.'s June 2013 issue [http://www.inc.com/magazine/june-2013.html] there is an interesting article about how board games help hone leadership and decision making skills [http://www.inc.com/magazine/201306/leigh-buchanan/games-and-leadership.html]. I was a bit skeptical at first, but there are some
Summer Reading: The First 90 Days
> The president of the United States gets 100 days to prove himself; you get 90. The actions you take during your first few months in a new role will largely determine whether you succeed or fail. The First 90 Days by Michael D. Watkins is a classic piece of
Summer Reading: To Sell is Human
> Whether it's selling's traditional form or its non-sales variation, we're all in sales now. I just finished reading To Sell is Human by Daniel Pink as part of my summer reading list. This was a very interesting book with some serious implications to
Read Fiction, Be a Better Leader
One of my favorite things about the Harvard Business Review IdeaCast [http://blogs.hbr.org/ideacast/] is the exceptionally diverse list of topics they cover each week. June 20th's IdeaCast was titled Read Fiction and Be a Better Leader [http://blogs.hbr.org/ideacast/2013/06/read-fiction-and-be-a-better-l.html]
Succeeding and Not Failing
If asked, I would say that I devote a great portion of my life trying to succeed at something. However, when I try to be a little more introspective, I realize that most of the time I think I spend trying to succeed I actually spend trying not to fail.
Your Project Needs a Theme
Every day, you chug away on your project (software, widgets, budgets, whatever) making incremental progress towards your final goal. One day something happens that you don't expect, in the biz we call this a production defect. Because of that, you have to pull valuable resources away from getting
The Trust Equation
> You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. -Dale Carnegie I was reading The Trusted Advisor [http://www.amazon.com/The-Trusted-Advisor-David-Maister/dp/0743212347/] over the weekend based on
Take the Pessimist's View
As my career has progressed, I have noticed that my best work comes from when I constantly step back and take a pessimist's view of the solution. Through this lens I am able to find potential pitfalls that I otherwise would have missed. I remember a recent brainstorming
Sync to Paper
Sometimes I find myself overwhelmed by the massive amount of digital tools I have at my disposal to solve a particular problem. What was originally meant to be a time-saving tool-set can quickly dissolve into a morass of confusion and frustration. When the tools themselves become a hindrance to you
