This is truly a concept that has only dawned on me recently – in fact, probably within the past day or two. The ironic part about this, I’ve actually considered myself an author for the past 3 years, since the release of my first book. And most developers I meet or work with seem to have the same reaction when I tell them, “Oh you’re an author, that’s pretty cool.” When in fact – as the title states – all developers are authors, including you! Now let me tell you why.
Category: Rants
-
Bad Developers Should NOT Use Frameworks
The sad part about this article is that the people that actually need to read this won’t. Why; because they simply don’t care about what they do. It really is the honest truth. Nonetheless, I will courageously continue writing in hopes that the good developers will magically convey this message to the people who need to learn it!
When you consciously pick a framework, you’ve made a decision, a decision that this existing code (black box as some call it) will help me accomplish what I’m trying to do better and faster than without it.
However, there is a catch! As you learn from a young age, nothing is free and this includes using a framework. It takes work and effort to learn how to use the framework. It’s not some magic tool that you wave your wand at and magically the work is done. It can be! Believe me it certainly can be, but only after you’ve spent the necessary time to understand and use the framework!
-
My Epic Farewell Poem
I blogged recently about how I had to decide to leave my job and I tweeted about how I was Googling funny farewell letters. I found some pretty funny stuff, but definitely nothing appropriate to write before I left.
Instead I wrote the following poem in a parody of “Twas the night before Christmas”. P.S. I think this is probably the greatest thing I’ve ever written.
Twas the night before my last day at XYZ, when all through the pit
All the XYZian’s were stirring creating a hit.
The build system is hung on the VMs with care,
In hopes that Jarret soon would be there.The server team were nestled writing their code,
While visions of a platform began to decode.
And Mike out in Vancouver, and I with my cap,
Had just received a deadline that was due in a snap.When up in the Danger Room I could hear quite the clatter,
I sprang from my office to see what was the matter.
Up to the Danger Room to see what was adrift
But it was just Pascal playing a great riff!With a little PSD file, all layered and in black and white,
I knew in a moment I was in for a late night.
The master of delegation was on his game,
And I Skyped, emailed, and paged them by name.Now Brian, now Bill, now Peter, Martin and Robb!
On Pat, on Matt, on Ingrid, Daniel, Dayna, Don and Chris.
To your laptop, to Visual Studio
Code away, code away, code away all!And then, in a twinkling, I saw Braden get on a chair,
Singing something about putting his arms up in the air.
A bundle of toys that he was about to reveal
All packed up nice – like it was a Happy Meal.I sprang to my keyboard where I always do strive
And away I coded in HTML5.
But before I take flight,
Good luck to you all, and to all I’ll build you a great web site! -
Should I Leave My Job?
This is a question I recently had to ask myself. It’s not an easy decision. As a father of three and the sole provider, it places a lot pressure on me. Changing jobs is never an easy decision and this makes it even harder.
At the end of the day, to answer this question I had to ask myself one question in turn:
Will I or will my current employer be able to fix the issues I’m currently facing on a daily basis?
If the answer is no, then the choice becomes much simpler. When the answer is yes, then you need to place the focus on the new company you are thinking about.
It’s important to not fool yourself thinking that the grass is greener on the other side. Every company will probably have “some issues”. It’s all about whether you can deal with those issues on a daily basis.
Also, while the grass may not be greener, fresh sod is always greener for a short while unlike dead grass!
-
Why is my calendar always full?
Curse you full calendar! I find it impossible to get anything accomplished when most of my day is spent in meetings. More importantly, meetings with the “big wigs” always seem to be the worse. Really, we need to spend 30 minutes to review a three page Word document that we could have read before the meeting!