Archive for the 'Work' Category
Posted June 5, 2008 at 3:37 AM | Tagged as: Career, Computing, Geekout, Work | 4 Comments
Software programmer Sara Chipps (yay! a woman!) has written an article titled Natural Programmers (Code Monkeys) vs. Career Programmers (Geeks in Suits). It’s probably the best non-techie explanation of the behaviors, habits, and beliefs of the “natural programmer” that I’ve read — and yes, I completely identified with much of what she wrote.
However, I have to take a step back and address an issue that I have with the two types of programmers she defines and the names she assigns to them.
First there’s the “career programmer (geek in a suit)”. These days I find that career programmers are not geeks, and they’re definitely not in suits (always business casual!). I’ve found that they’re in programming for the money; they learn enough to do their work — perhaps well, maybe even to get to the point of being perceived as geeky. But I also find that these people lack a true passion for the craft of writing code. Sara suggests that the career programmer is more of a business person, concerned with cost effective solutions, but I’m not even sure that’s true anymore. To me, this person’s work is just a job, and if flipping burgers paid as much as programming, they might be doing that instead.
Like Sara, I fall into her other category of “natural programmer”. But I am certainly not a code monkey — I am a code ninja! (Actually, with a nickname like “Obi-Wan Kimberly”, I’m probably a code jedi, but anyway…) I find the term “code monkey” to apply more to the previous category of programmer. Why? “Code monkey” implies that anyone can do what we do and that we work for bananas. “Code ninja”, on the other hand, says that we’re stealth and secretive, jumping out of the darkness when you least expect it. Our code takes you by surprise in its brilliance and our swiftness of execution is legendary. We could do no other job because we have trained for so long, perfecting our natural talent, and nothing else can satisfy our need for control over the systems we affect.
Sara closes her article with some OR logic about which type to hire, however I need to propose a more detailed and different solution. If you have only one programmer working for you, you probably don’t want either of these types — you need someone who really does fall into the gray area between the two extremes. (Yes, they are out there!) And if you have a team of programmers, you need a mix of these two types, and you need to put effort into getting them to communicate effectively with one another. Only then will you have both a killer team and killer code.
Posted April 1, 2008 at 3:11 AM | Tagged as: Photography, Travel, Work | Just 1 Comment
Back in February, I traveled to India in order to do some Web development training for PayPal. In addition to having a wonderful time meeting and interacting with all of my coworkers, I got the opportunity to see some of the sights, including Mahabalipuram and DakshinaChitra in Tamil Nadu and the Taj Mahal in Agra. I did my best to document my experience in photos, and while it took some time, I’ve finally uploaded and tagged all of them. Go check them out!
Prior to leaving for India, I made plans to visit Delhi and Agra with two of my co-workers, Jeremy Gillick and Reena Bansal. Reena lived in Delhi for some time and she made a great tour guide. Thanks to accidentally perfect timing, we saw the new Bollywood epic Jodhaa Akbar just prior to visiting North India, and this gave us history on the sites we were seeing and really helped to bring them alive.
As great as that trip was, I really loved spending time in South India. The culture was simultaneously alien and completely familiar. There were more people and there was more activity than I think I’ve ever seen before, foods were completely unfamiliar, the language was completely unknown to me — yet I felt completely at home with the chaos and the people. For my free time in and around Chennai, the role of tour guide was filled by fellow team-member Guru Prasath. He did a great job of ensuring that I gained a greater understanding of the cultural, spiritual, and linguistic history and traditions of the region. And, with the help of Anitha, another co-worker, I gained some lovely Indian fashions, too.
I’ll admit that I didn’t know much about India — but one of the few things I knew, I learned back elementary school. For nearly 25 years an image has been stuck in my brain: that of a woman drawing an intricate pattern on the ground outside a home. The accompanying description explained that women in South India would wake each morning to draw kolams, or “painted prayers”, in order to bring prosperity to the home and family. Never did I think that I’d see one in real life! Now that I have, I’ve been inspired to learn more about the designs and to draw some myself (just on paper, so far).
Drawing a kolam is a wonderful meditative practice that I would suggest to anyone who needs to quiet one’s thoughts or develop greater concentration and attention to detail. It’s also a practice in generating mathematical patterns. In my further reading about kolams, I’ve seen them referred to as “spiritual mathematical patterns”, the practice of drawing them as “geometrical acts of kindness”, and the women that create them as “great female mathematicians who solve complicated line patterns every morning”
. Kolams are so intriguing, in fact, that computer scientists are studying them. How’s that for ancient traditions mixing with technological advancements?
I guess that’s what appeals to me about India — the blending of old traditions with new technologies and outside influences to create something that is still uniquely Indian. As I see it, the people of India have one foot moving toward the future with the other rooted in the past, and I respect how they’re working to reconcile the two. I can’t wait until I return again, to learn more about what’s been and where they’re going. And next time I’ll be sure to rise early to witness the kolam ritual, and maybe even try some of my own.
Posted March 4, 2008 at 2:22 AM | Tagged as: Web Standards, Work | 3 Comments
Right now, the Web Standards community is celebrating. After weeks of telling us otherwise, Microsoft has announced that IE8 will enable standards mode by default.
Like others, I’m very happy about this change and I applaud Microsoft for reversing their decision. However there’s something bothering me about their latest statement…
Developers who want their pages shown using IE8’s “IE7 Standards mode” will need to request that explicitly (using the http header/meta tag approach described here).
You see, originally Microsoft wanted us to add an HTTP header or META tag in order to indicate that a page was compliant with the latest-and-greatest standards mode; now that we get that mode by default, we don’t need the header/tag — except to explicitly indicate that we want the older, IE7-like standards mode.
Don’t see the loophole yet? If you work for a big company that’s not quite so Web Standards savvy, you might. The loophole is that there’s nothing in IE8 that’s going to force anyone to upgrade their code! While you, dear Standards-abiding designer/developer, want this opportunity to clean up your site and trash the old code, The Man is going to tell you that there’s no point investing in this change and they’re going to point you to the HTTP header/META tag solution.
So, now is the time to begin strategizing — how are you going to convince your boss(es) that an IE8 code refresh is necessary? Also, how do you plan to support IE8 and IE7, and possibly even IE6 and IE5.5?
Go ahead and start the party without me… I need to work this one out first.
Posted January 8, 2008 at 5:32 PM | Tagged as: Career, Meeeeeeee, Web Standards, Work | Comments Off
I’m very honored to be featured as Christopher Schmitt’s first interview of the year. Christoper is a stand-up guy, a great designer, and prolific author. We had a good chat about work and non-work stuff, and you can read the whole thing here!
And just in case you didn’t notice, the line-ups for the 2008 An Event Apart conferences have been posted. Eric and Jeffrey asked me to speak to the Boston crown on June 23-24, and how could I say no? I had such a good time last year in San Francisco and it seems about time to take my message to the East Coast.
Wow, we’re only eight days into the year… how am I ever going to keep up this level of ass-kicking for the remaining 358 days? Whewh!
Posted December 19, 2007 at 12:26 PM | Tagged as: Books, Web Standards, Work | Comments Off
Not having mentioned it here before, you may not be aware of the fact that I contributed a chapter to the new book Adapting to Web Standards. But I did, along with Rob Cherny, Meryl K. Evans, Kevin Lawver, and Mark Trammell — all coordinated and organized by lead author Christopher Schmitt.
My chapter (chapter 5) relates to the five years I’ve spent as a standards evangelist and standards consultant in the enterprise. I write about the Circle of Standards: the process I invented to make standards adoption and ongoing practice an easier task. There aren’t too many “professional” standards evangelists, so I hope this chapter encourages more people to step up to such a role. Of course, I hope that it helps all standards enthusiasts through the process of establishing standards in the work environment.
If you’re interested in checking out the book, you can try to win a copy in this contest! Of course, you can also buy a copy.
« Previous Entries
