fighting the lack of good ideas
This will likely be an ongoing series as time progresses, but here are a handful of thoughts on how to really WOW your employees (or potential employees). Some of these ideas were garnered from my personal thought and observations, some from former employers, and some from other sources including “A Field Guide to Developers“, Fog…
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I first heard about The Traveler in Albert-László Barabási’s book Bursts (review). Now that I’ve had a chance to read John Twelve Hawks’ novel, I can say I can’t recommend it. Not because it’s a bad story – but because I couldn’t get into it. I think it has the potential to be a good…
Paul Graham is one of my favorite essayists. The following are some excerpts from his excellent 2004 essay, “The Age of the Essay“. The most obvious difference between real essays and the things one has to write in school is that real essays are not exclusively about English literature. Certainly schools should teach students how…
Back in 2009, Joel Spolsky wrote an article called The Duct Tape Programmer. Of everything he has written, I think this is the very pinnacle, and it is summed in one simple sentence in the middle: “Shipping is a feature.” I’ve referenced this article twice before (in Feb and Sep of ’11). Why is this…
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It was with great excitement I reserved Atlas of the Year 1000 from my local library. John Man’s work did not disappoint (excluding the humorous typo of “a a” when only the single article use was intended). Starting with the Americas, then working Eastward to Europe, the Islamic region, and Asia before moving back west…
Last week I went to the Geeks’ Night Out at Beerworks in Lexington. One of the people I met was a junior EE major at UK named Robyn who, along with two of her friends, is looking to start a home automation company (The Unity Box) – but not in the realm of a company…
We farm tilapia. We farm chickens. We farm oysters. We farm deer. We farm shrimp. We farm bison. We farm ostriches. We farm kangaroos. We farm all kinds of stuff. Why don’t we farm whales?