At the 32km marker a series of signs were staked into the grass along the course. The first sign read “You’re doing it!”, the next “Only 10 more kms!”, and the next “You’re running a marathon! You ARE a marathon runner!” A tear welled in the corner of my eye, perhaps from the pain in my quads, or the reality of still being 10km from the finish, but more likely because it finally dawned on me that I was indeed running a marathon - an event I’d been looking forward to since running the Half Marathon a year earlier.

Training for a Marathon was relativity easy. Basically you run one long run every week, in addition to running 6-10km 4 times every week, then rinse and repeat for 3 months. As boring as that may sound, once I got into a routine, and found a running partner, I looked forward to running. Here’s the schedule I followed (I know, I know, don’t laugh, it’s from the far from reputable About.com): Basic Marathon Training Schedule for Beginners.

My next goal is to qualify for a Boston Marathon (qualifying time is 3 hours and 10 minutes) and run alongside the 20,000 participants in the Boston next year. I’m not too far off the qualifying time, as I managed to finish this Marathon under 3 hours and 30 minutes - look me up in the 2010 Scotiabank Calgary Marathon Results.

Get out there and run! :)

The business world is full of “professionals” who wear the uniform and try to seem perfect. In truth, they just come off as stiff and boring. No one can relate to people like that.
Don’t be afraid to show your flaws. Imperfections are real and people respond to real. … Don’t worry about how you’re supposed to act. Show the world what you’re really like, warts and all … talk like you really talk. Reveal things that others are unwilling to discuss. Be upfront about your shortcomings. … You might not seem as professional, but you will seem a lot more genuine. - Rework: Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson

I’ve struggled with the personal vs professional tension for sometime. Back in 2002, I started this site with the intention of professional self promotion (image above is my site from 2003). The results were predictable: the tone boring, the topics dry and most visitors saw through the veil of self promotion. I’ve matured since then (well I hope I have). :) Over the years I’ve found that a personal, down-to-earth tone maintains a healthy level of transparency both on the web and in real life. As Gandhi once said:

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Funny enough. Today, I don’t consider myself a Senior Developer, but a couple years ago I would have told you to “Call me Senior”. Back in those days I may have been a Senior Developer within the monocultured context of the domain, language, and environment I was working with, but certainly not within the larger context of the software realm. I had surrounded myself with homogeneous tools, like minded colleagues, and had fallen into the trap of thinking I was an expert when I wasn’t - we all thought we were Senior Developers.

“When you are not very skilled in some area, you are more likely to think you’re actually pretty expert at it … The converse seems to be true as well; once you truly become an expert, you become painfully aware of just how little you know.” - Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware

Over the years I’ve observed that Experts and true Senior Developers are collectively regarded as such by their peers, not by corporate credentials, not by job titles, or duration of employment. Experts and Senior Developers are more preoccupied with getting things done, improving themselves, improving their environments, and helping others - not worrying about job titles and status.

“The people who are best at programming are the people who realize how small their brains are. They are humble. The people who are the worst at programming are the people who refuse to accept the fact that their brains aren’t equal to the task. Their egos keep them from being great programmers. The more you learn to compensate for your small brain, the better a programmer you’ll be. The more humble you are, the faster you’ll improve.” - Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction

Please, don’t call me a Senior Developer, I’m Mr. Developer or Señor Developer.

remember from school other students preventing you from seeing their answers by placing their arm around their exercise book or exam paper.

It is the same [in the working world] …

The problem with hoarding is you end up living off your reserves. Eventually you’ll become stale.
If you give away everything you have, you are left with nothing. This forces you to look, to be aware, to replenish.

Somehow the more you give away the more comes back to you. - Paul Arden, It’s Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be

I identify with Arden’s philosophy. The creative process is enjoyable. If I’ve had fun producing it, then why not share it? I think our tendencies to hoard, get hung up on copyright, and get picky about attribution stem from our fear of being taken advantage of and the fallacy of thinking we’re special (we’re not special). I think we should throw our code into the public, share our content, give away everything, and watch what comes back.

The painting above was created by Ron Krajewski, based on my photo (licensed under Creative Commons). Ron mailed me a copy of the painting - it’s also available for purchase at Pet Art.

The most popular conception of creativity is that it’s something to do with the arts.

Nonsense. - Paul Arden, It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Wan’t To Be.

This year marks a new decade for me (I’m saying goodbye to the late 20’s). According to Arden’s Creative Circle this blog was written during my era of Maturity and for the next 10 years I’ll be Hell Bent On Success. Thanks for putting up with my growing pains and griping.

Today I do find my work fun, but I couldn’t have got here without the experience I gained while plowing through boring jobs (like working the assembly line, tree planting, or digging outhouse pits). In order to find the job you love you need to start gaining experience now.

I found the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition neat. It’s a central theme throughout Pragmatic Thinking and Learning by Andy Hunt.

Here’s how Wikipedia describes the Dreyfus Model:

The Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition postulates that when individuals acquire a skill through external instruction, they normally pass through five stages. … the five stages of skill acquisition are: Novice, Advanced beginner, Competent, Proficient and Expert - Dreyfus model of skill acquisition

We have different skills and are at different stages simultaneously in each skill - for example, someone might be an Expert at underwater basket weaving and a Novice at cooking. As we cultivate our experience we progress through these stages.

The categories (again, from Wikipedia) are as follows:

1. Novice
   • rigid adherence to rules
   • no discretional judgment
2. Advanced beginner
   • situational perception still limited
   • all aspects of work are treated separately and given equal importance
3. Competent
   • coping with crowdedness (multiple activity, information)
   • now partially sees action as part of longer term goals
   • conscious , deliberate planning
4. Proficient
   • holistic view of situation, rather than in terms of aspects
   • sees what is most important in a situation
   • uses maxims for guidance, meaning of maxims may vary according to situation
5. Expert
   • no longer reliant on rules, guidelines, maxims
   • intuitive grasp of situation, based on tacit knowledge
   • vision of what is possible

Presented with these categories we can draw some parallels with the software realm. Like say, create a list of events that you’d most likely find these different categories of software developers hanging out.

Developer Event Attendance and Developer Skill Categories:

1. Vendor or Technology Specific: User Groups / Code Camps / Corporate Training / Evangelistic Events
   • Many Novices
   • Many Advanced beginners
   • A small number of Competents that are transitioning to Proficients
   • Proficients and Experts might be leading the group or may have been mandated to go by their organization
2. Open Book Clubs / Non Specific Technology Meetings / Non Specific Bar Camp Type Events
   • Mostly Competents, Proficients, and Experts

Of course, this is just my opinion. I’ve noticed that my attendance to the events listed above continually shift. Initially I thought I was becoming a curmudgeon, but instead I shifted a couple Dreyfus categories.

I once had a strong aversion to Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, pick the site of the week, …) but today I embrace it. In the old days, I thought these sites were silly, a waste of time, and preferred to spend more of my time pursuing technical / academic activities. In retrospect, I think I was feeling insecure in my technical abilities (placing to much focus on technical pursuits), I probably thought I had a boring life (and thought everyone else was bragging about theirs), and I certainly misunderstood the fundamentals of Social Media (somehow I thought being part of the conversation meant I had to consume everything).

I eventually realized that Social Media is a lot like TV. TV is overwhelmed with commercials and mediocre shows, the content is hard to find. When I watch TV (if I watch TV) I mute the commercials, flip through the channels looking for something interesting, and multitask (magazine, laptop, …). In the end TV is a leisure activity, I don’t try watching every channel (I know I can’t) and don’t pay attention to the advertisements. I do the same thing on Social Media sites too. I don’t pay attention to every post (I can’t) and I don’t pay attention to self promotion, promotions, or advertisements.

Today I embrace Social Media because it lets me participate in the conversation, share my opinion, connect with friends and family, and be an active part of our world. Oh yeah, and it’s fun too!

“Don’t be shy … or nobody will know you’re there” - Yusuf Islam / Cat Stevens

As an entry level developer I thought professional meant:

• talking incessantly about technology (hiding my personal life behind shop talk)
• dressing up for my cubical (wearing polyester dress pants, cotton dress shirts to work, and occasionally ties)
• focusing on things that can be proven (giving little concern to interpersonal relationships or the general untestable messiness surrounding softskills)
• writing the FASTEST CODE EVER (I was sidtracked with premature optimizations)
• I tried to be a programming machine (working 29 hours a day)
• becoming a Microsoft Most Valueable Professional (MVP)

Those ideas were skewed and I was running the risk of becoming a bit of a douche.

Today I think professionalism means:

• being comfortable in your own skin
• being able to delegate tasks within a team
• being an effective member of a team (not participating in gossip, back talk, or other activities that erode a team)
• being transparent
• maintaining a work / life balance
• choosing the best tool for the task

It’s funny how experience can change perspectives. I wonder what my definition of professionalism will be in five years?

I ran my first half marathon this past weekend. Finding training resources online was difficult so I’m passing on the advice that I found useful.

How to train for a half marathon:

• Ensure you can maintain 30 minutes of moderate running at least a month before your running date (this is the most important step)
• One month before your race, run 18 kms (6 easy, 6 moderate, 6 hard, don’t worry about how long it takes)
• 7 days later run 20 kms
• 7 days later run for 90 minutes hard
• 7 days later run for 60 minutes at a moderate pace
• 1 day before the race run for 20 minutes at an easy pace

The week before the race you should be feeling lazy, lethargic and ready for the race - you’ve tapered correctly. Tapering leads to improvements in running economy and muscle strength. Learn more here Tapering For a Marathon.

Other tips I picked up:

• If you’re planing on taking gels or sports drinks during the race then make sure to take them while training
• Don’t mix sports drinks and gels - take one or the other or you’ll get end up getting sick (like me)
• Bring Advil or Tylenol with you
• Avoid fiber foods 2 days before the race (you don’t want to visit the portables)
• Add more carbs and salt to your meals the week of the race
• Have your last big meal 10 hours before the race
• Have your breakfast 2-3 hours before the race

Running with 3000+ people for the first 16 kms was an amazing experience, after the 18 km mark I was questioning my sanity, and when it was over all the race participants were on top of the world. I highly recommend doing a half or full marathon. I raised some money for Team Diabetes and managed to finished under 2 hours.  Next year I’m doing the full. Look me up in the 2009 HSBC Calgary Half Marathon Results.

The plan was to sell domain names, web hosting, and deliver websites to my clients - a one-stop-shop of sorts. I’d frequently obsess over the idea and smatter my coworkers, and friends (actually, anyone that would listen) with my fantastic ideas. I was obsessed. By obsessed, I mean, I obnoxiously sent out weekly (sometimes daily) emails containing mindmaps, and reams of links - all while maintaining a wiki bursting with my exceptionally mediocre ideas. :) I purchased reseller accounts, hosting plans - nothing was stopping me! Now that I think of it, obsessive tendencies probably run in my family - to this day my Mother vacuums her house three times a day, sure there were 11 people in our family and things got messy, but three times a day!! Try watching TV with the vacuum running three times a day It’s enough to make you quit TV and take up programming. Anyhow, during the time of my obsession, a couple senior coworkers gently suggested that I need more experience. I remember thinking:

Man, I’ve already been through school, I have an freak’n edumacation. I’m building sweet programs. How much more experience do I need?

Of course they were right. Since then, every year / month / day has brought heaps of new knowledge and experience - experience is one of those things that can only be acquired with time. My idea of the one-stop-shop crumbled when I realized that I couldn’t compete with discount hosting like GoDaddy / Dreamhost. I also realized that I enjoyed working in teams on large web applications rather than solo projects. Today I’ll occasionally meet an obsessive CEO, I’ll offer some advice, and smile. Good ideas tend to be self evident - they don’t require wikis and link farms to convince people. If you can execute your idea (develop it yourself) then your personal passion and drive will contribute to it’s success or at least provide you with irreplaceable experience - even if it is a hair brained idea.

If you’re interested, I still have the reseller account which offers reasonable domain discounts. Thanks to all my friends who tolerated me through those growing pains. :)

Some of our pictures from Japan.

A video of our messy apartment:

My training up to this point has been terribly lax, I’ve been running 7km in about an hour. At this pace it’ll take at least 3 hours to break 20kms - Ouch!

If you're interested in donating (or better yet, joining the run too), then follow these steps:

1. Visit The Canadian Diabetes Association
2. Search for Adam Kahtava
3. Donate

Anyhow; life isn't just about geeking out. I've got to run. :)

Content matters, design doesn’t: Subscribers read your blog through RSS readers. Content is key, twitter widgets, plug-ins, and badges are self serving - they matter more to the blogger than their audience. If readers desire a more granular need-to-know-you level of information, then chances are that they already stalking you. If you’re a graphic designer then aesthetics do matter.

Debriefings on local events without a unique personal voice are lame (actually, anything without a personal voice is lame): Most subscribers skim, they seek out information and move on. Well written articles with a unique personal voice continue to draw me in. Information about the number of people who showed up, what you ate, or the decor of the venue are minor details. Seriously, I’ll email you if I’m interested.

Subjectivity is interesting: Reading / writing / learning is about considering alternative views and new opinions, there’s always a degree of subjectivity - nothing is absolute.

Some authors are always right, which is always wrong: A blogger’s blog is their domain, but it’s distasteful when an author defends their posts in an attempt to save face (to appear right all the time). Sharing opinions publicly is about collaboration, and validation, not being right or wrong.

Gary Vaynerchuk offers this piece of advice:

The only way to succeed now is to be completely transparent, everything is exposed, everything you do - Gary Vaynerchuk

For most web / knowledge workers, transparency is key to cultivating an online presence - today, your online presence (your Google search results) is your resume, everything you do online is fair game - your search results (or lack of results) generally reflect whether you're an overall good-person, experienced, or a bit outdated.

A reassessment: last month the faltering economy finally hit home - I was out of work. While search for a new job, I was surprised that most potential employers (nearly all) were looking me up on Google. From Google they'd land on my blog, my Twitter account, flickr, and so on. In one of my interviews I was told of an unfortunate candidate that had questionable content and photos online - this was a deciding factor in his no-hire decision. This had me feeling a little uncomfortable and begged for a reassessment of my level of transparency.

Randy Pausch once said:

I'll [hire] an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short-term, earnest is long term - Randy Pausch

I echo Randy's sentiments. If you're an earnest, authentic, and good natured person, then transparency can be a huge asset. You should be exposing everything you do! Well… maybe not everything, there's little value in knowing what you ate for lunch, or when you're sleeping / awake - practicing some self moderation and making use of your inner monologue is recommended, because excessive transparency can bleed into white noise.

no matter what remember the web is NOT Las Vegas. What happens on the web does NOT stay on the web. I'll bet this guy wishes he'd have remembered that. - Arcanecode, Guard your credibility

With applications like Twitter and Facebook it's easier than ever to be transparent, but do we run the risk of being too transparent? How much is too much?

Over the past couple months I had the pleasure of working in a Java shop. Up to this point I've spent most of my time in the .NET realm. Working with Java was a great chance to experience the similarities and contrasts between environments, cultures, and web application implementations. Here are a couple of my observations.

Java developers are more knowledgeable than the typical .NET developer. Java developers tend to gravitate towards complexity, Linux, UNIX, open source, and continuous learning. They are less familiar with the wizards and drag-n-drop style development that often characterize .NET development. The Java developers I worked with didn't depend on a single unified IDE (like Visual Studio), instead each developer chose their text editor / environment (Emacs, Eclipse, TextMate, E-TextEditor, and jEdit were all being used on a single project). Each developer was responsible for being productive with their editor; and took responsibility for learning shortcuts, and other performance enhancing techniques. This broad use of editors placed an emphasis on the core command line tools which ensured that developers knew how the application was put together, and cultivated broad application troubleshooting skills within the team.

Unified IDEs (like Visual Studio or Eclipse) do not result in faster development, better developers do. Developers empowered with the ability to choose their development environment / text editors / operating system resulted in more passion and responsibility. Informal friendly rivalry between editor users drove development faster while providing diversity within the work place.  

Programming languages and technology stacks don't matter to experienced software developers. As a developer it's easy to become a fanboy of languages or technologies stacks, but… they don't matter - writing good software within the bounds of our project do. There's no reason to be tied to a specific language or technology stack. Sure, languages fall into a specific category (dynamic, static, classical inherited, prototypical inherited) but programming languages are very similar.

Steve McConnell has been saying this all along:

mastering more than one language is often a watershed in the career of a professional programmer. Once a programmer realizes that programming principles transcend the syntax of any specific language, the doors swing open to knowledge that truly makes a difference in quality and productivity. - Steve McConnell, Code Complete 2nd Edition

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. - Mohandas Gandhi

These books set the tone for my perspective in this new year.

A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson) emphasizes that, as humans we rarely know what we're doing - our existence as a species on this earth is a tiny fraction of time, but we continue to kill ourselves while obliterating other species and our environment. This book was also a great reminder that the greatest innovators and inventors are individuals with a burning passion - not individuals with a laundry list of formal qualifications.

The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century (Thomas L. Friedman) argues that, we can't accept complacency in our jobs or careers - the world has changed and you'll be left behind. Bureaucracy on every level may save your job today, but this won't be the case in an increasingly global world. As individuals our careers and future are solely our responsibility - we should be versatilitsts, not specialists.

The Age of Heretics: A History of the Radical Thinkers Who Reinvented Corporate Management (Art Kleiner, et el) demonstrate that, most corporations / business / organization don't really know what they're doing (MBA theory is based on the past, and not entirely relevant for the future). Many successful businesses have been run by heretics - people who understood the system around them, then push the limits of these systems to provide more value, innovate, and become successful. Also, that success is almost entirely dependent on people, teams, integrity, honesty, and the relationships that ensue.

The Last Lecture (by Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow), is a sober reminder that living life to the fullest and living a good life are what really matters. Also, that: “engineering isn't about perfect solutions; it's about doing your best with limited resources” - Randy Pausch.

Cheers to another great year as we continue to gaining broader perspectives, seek out a better quality of life, get out and do more things, meet new people, and cultivate existing relationships. :)

Our postulation wasn’t earth shattering by any means. Basically we were reiterating that: if you already know how to do it right (or at least righter than the alternatives), then do it right the first time. Developing cross browser compatible web sites using web standards jumps to my mind as another example - a cross browser site is trivial if you’ve had a previous success. This idea extends well beyond software. Experienced professionals like Mike Holmes (from the construction industry) runs his organization (Make it Right) on this very idea.

If you’re going to do something, do it right the first time - Mike Holmes 

The Law of Two Feet is just as applicable to life, as it is to Open Spaces.

The Law of Two Feet:

If at any time during our time together you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet. Go to some other place where you may learn and contribute. - Open Spaces, Wikipedia

By applying this philosophy to software development (programming languages, operating systems, and development ecosystems), I’ve really been been re-igniting my passion as a software developer. I am foremost a software developer and the tools and products I choose are secondary, but I lost sight of this over the past couple years. I was buying into being a [insert your choice of ecosystem, language, operating system here] developer.

Anyhow; this isn’t to say I won’t be raising my concerns (running away), I’ll continue to make noise (because I believe it has value), but when change doesn’t manifest. I will (like so many people before me) use my own two feet and move towards a situation where I can continue to learn, contribute, and be the change I’d like to see .

Like a horse with blinders on, avoiding some degree of Big Design Up Front (BDUF) can force your team and project into tunnel vision, because… If you don’t look at what you’re building in its entirety, it is harder to see the big picture, to have to that ah-hah moment that leads to a break through, to maintain conceptual integrity, or have a successful project.

I worked on a project where we attempted evolutionary design (avoiding Big Design Up Front) while taking an Agile approach. We used Continuous Integration, and Test Driven Development. Looking back, our attempt at trying to avoid Big Design Up Front was fatal for our project’s success and probably our biggest mistake. The funny thing is, the only reason we avoided BDUF was because it seemed non-Agile (note the capital ‘A‘ in ‘Agile’ read Yegge’s post Good Agile, Bad Agile for the reference). As a development team we were inexperienced Agile (eXtreme Programming) teenagers and somewhere along the way we exchanged our brains for dogma.

eXtreme Programming [is at odds with] “Big Design, Up Front” (BDUF) _ Because “Ya Ain’t Gonna Need It” (YAGNI) … [but this is often] taken as permission to not do any planning - Gerard Meszaros’ Alberta TechFest slide deck ‘07

In the past Big Design Up Front (BDUF) was associated with large inflexible architectural solutions that are designed upfront (before development begins) - like the waterfall methodology. However; BDUF (like most techniques / methodologies / tools) are quite useful when used with a sprinkle of common sense and moderation. BDUF can be a productive lightweight tool for fleshing out the high level overview of a system. It is important to note that I’m not advocating Big Architectural Design Up Front which is often composed of reams of documents, UML, ERDs, diagrams, and other unneeded artifacts. Instead I’m advocating for paper based story boards, wire frames, paper prototypes, user stories - anything that is easy to create, destroy, and recreate. These techniques provide the foundation of the final product, they start to verbalize the common product goal and can start to draw out the language, metaphors, and model that will eventually compose the project.

Avoiding some Design Up Front was a mistake for our project. As a team we were trying to cope with the complexities of our domain under very tight deadlines. Our code became increasingly brittle, we had overlooked obvious shared functionality that a high level overview would have fleshed out. At the same time we had segregated our application into sprint sized silos with no clear relationships - each sprint was essentially a two week tunnel, and disconnected.

Without some form of BDUF it was difficult to:

• maintain conceptual integrity, a common goal, a consistent user interface
• estimate the whole product cost
• have a successful project

We should have headed Steve McConnell’s words:

people were claiming,  “I don’t have to do requirements or design because I’m using object-oriented programming.” That was just an excuse. Most of those people weren’t really doing object-oriented programming-they were hacking, and the results were predictable, and poor. Right now, people are saying “I don’t have to do requirements or design because I’m doing agile development.” Again, the results are easy to predict, and poor - Steve McConnell, Code Complete

Or perhaps Martin Fowler’s suggestion:

the planned design approach has been around since the 70s, and lots of people have used it. It is better in many ways than code and fix evolutionary design. But it has some faults. - Martin Fowler, Is Design Dead?

Not doing some Design Up Front is probably another excuse for being sloppy, but what do you think?

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest. - Confucius

In the IT world the debate over the value of formal education vs the school of hard knocks (real life experience) has been waging for a long-long time. I’m biased towards the education side of the debate to some degree, and here’s why I think having a formal education is important.

It’s easier to work or migrate to foreign countries
With a University education (regardless of discipline) it’s easier to obtain work and long stay Visas in foreign countries. Candidates with a formal education can move through the Visa process quicker and in some cases those without degrees are bared entirely from obtaining a Visa. While I don’t think these restrictions are fair, unfortunately it seems to be the global statuesque.

Job security, and increased marketability
When an employer chooses between two candidates for a position, experience often trumps education, but an educated candidate with experience can trump both - education and experience is the best of both worlds. In addition, as an junior / intermediate some employers will bill you out at a higher rate based on education, and some clients feel more confident with certificates and education - both factors increase your marketability.

A strong core, a long term personal investment
I attended Community College before University. While attending Community College some of my friends were enrolled in Computer Science at the University level. These friends would talk of fascinating things like: assembly language, processor registers, paging tables, and abstract data types. Sure my Computer Science friends were immersed heavily in theory, but I was immersed in the practical side of programming (without the theory) - I felt that I was missing out and was envious of their University education. After completing University, I found that the process of working through University helped me cultivate my ideas, understand the basics of computation, draw other disciplines into my work, and relate with the larger world. Today, I think of my University education as the center (hub) of a bicycle wheel - all the spokes branch out, but they all start at the center (this center being the core, the theory of the computer / software world). Sure, we can learn the theory on our own, but working through a conventional program with assignments and with instructors that continue to push you, enforces rigor and promotes personal growth (for myself anyways).

There are no recipes for success and formal education is not the end all - although every advantage helps in our increasingly globally competitive world. To this day, I’ve only been asked for proof of my education on two occasions: once while applying for a Japanese Working Visa, and the other while considering a position in the US (I’m a Canadian). To anyone considering a B.Sc in Computer Science or going to University, I recommend it over experience - it is a long term investment.

I WANT MEANS if I want it enough I will get it.
Getting what you want means making the decisions you need to make to get what you want.
Not the decisions those around you should make.
Making the safe decision is dull predictable and leads nowhere new.
The unsafe decision causes you to think and respond in a way you hadn’t thought of.
And that thought will lead to other thoughts which will help you achieve what you want.
Start making bad decisions and it will take you to a place where others only dream of being. - Paul Arden, Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite

In one of my previous posts I said that I wanted more passion in my work - I want to be a happy satisfied developer (to use the tools, editors, frameworks, computers, and languages that make me happy). After publishing those thoughts, I wondered if I was being self centered - I kept thinking: “maybe I should just be happy with where I am? People are in worse situations right?” Then Arden comes along and offers that bit of encouragement.

We only live once, happiness and passion is important, I can’t settle for mediocracy. I continue to want.

“If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all” is bad advice and here's why.

During the process of discussing something not nice we develop a vocabulary to express our discomfort with the item in question. Once we've developed this vocabulary we can then communicate our concerns within our community - the chances are, others probably share these concerns / frustrations, but they might not have developed the vocabulary. The community discussions might result in a resolution to the problem, or may be ignored, but at least you can feel satisfied that you tried.

It's kind of like that one person during a lesson / presentation / lecture that asks the exact same question you were thinking, when the question is presented a whole new slew of questions are asked as the class engages in discussion.

Conversely, saying nothing, does nothing, you remain isolated, and your concerns / questions / frustrations are permanent.

Speak your mind, you only live once, and most of us can accept that your ideas today will differ in the future - we change. More companies / people / organizations should take feedback as a compliment and encourage discussion.

GUY KAWASAKI: Okay. … so it was like in the ashtray of your Lexus?
STEVE BALLMER: I’m a Ford guy, and I’m slightly offended by that. My father who worked for Ford would be offended, but nonetheless …

Fair enough, Ballmer likes Ford, but what kills me is that he apparently made his choice by association. Like Ballmer, my extended family are (were) also employed by Ford in the US Rust Belt. However, I still value quality and the economics of a purchase over my family affiliations. Of course, this is a broader issue - many people favour historical affiliation / brand loyalty over critical thinking and this may never change, but Ballmer is the CEO of Microsoft!

Now Ford, GM, Chrysler are on the verge of bankruptcy, and while many factors contribute to their situation. I think most people agree that these automakers kept making poor decisions for short term revenue gains - they kept making bigger expensive, less efficient cars, they were inward focuses and failed to look at possible future scenarios (like a global economic recession, skyrocketing oil prices, doomsday, blah-blah-blah). Basically, the big three automakers have been out of touch with the rest of the world. People like me (and probably you too) have never owned a domestic car. For myself, imports offered better value for my money (better fuel efficiency, a higher resale value, and a longer life). In addition, imports felt safer, sturdier, and were more aesthetically pleasing. Imports offered quality over quantity, and they looked nice too - imports made me a happy satisfied consumer.

Like the big three automakers, Microsoft (or Ballmer at least) is out of touch with their community (their developers). For myself, the community oriented / collaborative communities outside Microsoft are continually drawing me in. The openness of these communities and their open solutions is one part of the interest, but I’m also growing tired of working in an ecosystem (and with developers) that literally lag years behind the rest of the software world. Down here in the trenches Microsoft centric developers bear a striking resemblance to the unionized American autoworkers - inflexible, arrogant, and inward focused.

I want a development stack I can be proud of, that embraces quality over quantity, to work with developers that share my values, and an environment that offers more aesthetics. In short I want to be a happy satisfied developer.

In all fairness, it’s great how Microsoft is opening up (i.e. IronRuby, IronPython, MVC, etc…), but there are already more open established and mature communities outside Microsoft. I also really like C#, WCF, ASP.NET MVC, and Server 2008, but it’s all the baggage associated with the Microsoft ecosystem. It’s also fair to mention that the ALT.NET community is making great strides, but it is fundamentally discouraging that ALT.NET had to be formed in the first place. I mean, where are all the ALT.Rails, ALT.Ruby, ALT.Linux, ALT.Java communities?!

Try not to wast too much of your time reading [blogs, facebook, twitter, podcasts, and the like]. “Internet addiction” afflicts adults and teenagers alike. … Keep it all in perspective. Not all, but most of this “stuff” just becomes noise in the massive global echo chamber. And when there is so much noise out there, it eventually turns into white noise. And white noise, as anyone who goes to sleep with the air conditioner on knows, is a kind of silence. - The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century 

Thomas L. Friedman presents an interesting study in his book titled: The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century:

The Gartner study noted that “specialists generally have deep skills and narrow scope, giving them expertise that is recognized by peers but seldom valued outside their immediate domain. Generalists have broad scope and shallow skills, enabling them to respond or act reasonably quick but often without gaining on demonstrating the confidence of their partners or customers. Versatilists, in contrast, apply depth of skill to a progressively widening scope of situations and experiences, gaining new competencies, building relationships, and assuming new roles.” Versatilists are capable of not only of constantly adapting but also of constantly learning and growing.

Friedman goes on to suggest that in order for knowledge workers to remain globally competitive we need to be versatile. “[We] can’t just be head down, eye on the glass”, instead we need to be cultivating our core knowledge which can provide the versatility to transition through industries or technology, and we “have got to be able to see things from the business’, the customers’, and the market’s perspective.’ He also makes the point that most corporate training policies are outdated in our post globalized world, and that we should be taking educational and training into our own hands.

technical aptitude will no longer be sufficient to secure their future in IT organizations. Skepticism toward the effectiveness of IT, the rise of IT automation, worldwide geographic labour shifts and multi-sourcing will lead to the emergence of a new breed of IT professional, the ‘versatilist’, who will have technical aptitude, local knowledge, knowledge of industry processes and leadership ability. - Gartner Says Technical Aptitude No Longer Enough To Secure Future for IT Professionals 

For me, being a versatilist means embracing, higher level software design strategies, design / architecture patterns, management techniques, and honing communication / presentation skills.

Tree planting is a common job for university / college students in Canada. For those unfamiliar with tree planting, the connotation often conjures images of hippies and tree huggers, but in reality it’s grueling work most often embraced by entrepreneurial minded individuals - most tree planters are trying to pay their way through school or save up some fast cash for traveling. Over the years I have found some strong parallels between my experience tree planting and the software realm.

An Quick Introduction to Tree Planting

The tree planting season begins when the Canadian ground is soft enough to stick a shovel into it (in BC this could be as early as May) and ends in late July or August. As a planter you spend your summer living in bush camps (out of tents) close to remote cut blocks (your workplace) - my furthest camp was 5 hours from the nearest town via logging roads. Bush camps rarely have amenities, you dig your own bathrooms, and shower from the closest puddle. err… water source. As a tree planter your daily job involves getting up hours before sunrise, making lunch, going to a cut block, then spending most of the daylight hours running around desert like wastelands (clear cuts) as you try to plant 3,000 or more trees. 

As a tree planter you’re replacing the trees that lumber mill have cut down, the trees you’re planting are a crop that will be harvested in the next 60 years. You’re paid either by piecework, or on a per tree basis. One tree was worth about $0.12, but the tree / fixed piece price depended on the complexity of the land - for example when teetering on the side of a mountain you could expect $0.30+ per tree (along with the great view). As a student the pay was great, if you planted 3,000+ a day you were making $360 plus a remote allowance based. On top of this you were living in the bush making it difficult (never impossible) to spend your money.

How Tree Planting Relates to Software

Quality, Quantity, and Economics: Tree planters have to meet quality standards - periodically through the day a tree checker validates your work and provides quality feedback. As a planter you need to meet prescribed density requirements (you might need to have at least 8 trees in a 6 meter diameter), you need to meet specie requirements (you might need to have one fir tree for every 20 spruce trees), and you also need to meet planting requirements (the tree needs to be green side up, standing straight, the roots in soil, and the roots can’t be ‘J’ rooted). Usually there is a 10% leeway for poor quality (for every 10 trees you plant a single bad tree), this leeway is granted since it impossible to find a suitable planting site for every tree. As a planter you’re consistently working to keep quality in balance with quantity (since your income depends on your production) - an overly dogmatic approach to quality could mean you didn’t make much money while losing your mind as you searched for a suitable planting site on a rock face. On the other side if you placed too much emphasis on quantity (production) you risked forfeiting a day of work as you painfully pulled and replant (reworked) all of your trees. Occasionally there were severe imbalances between a contract’s quantity and quantity expectations, in these situations we could often negotiate a higher rate, and it wasn’t unheard of to have an entire crew go on strike. Similarly, in software we’re constantly balancing quality, quantity, and the economics of the project.

A Process Unsuitable for Automation: On the surface tree planting (like software development) appears to be automatable. A tree planters job boils down to some core tasks (make hole with shovel, bend over, plant tree, close hole, rinse and repeat 3,000 times a day!). Attempts have been made to automate the process, but the wide variation of terrain coupled with the constantly changing tree specifications are no match for an automated machine - the wide variation in terrain could require riding in a helicopter to a mountain top, riding in a rolligon the next week, or hiking for kilometers through the bush loaded down with trees for days. In the software realm automation is perceived as highly desirable (and some think it’s inevitable), but software, like tree planting is too complex for wide scale automation. Human agility, resourcefulness, and adaptability continues to succeed widespread automation.

The Quest for Continual Improvement: In order to improve as a tree planter you need to be self aware and reflective as you hone your skills daily. Ideally you’re searching for techniques that conserve energy and increase productivity while allowing you to stay in your flow. On my first day I made $-15 dollars in a 10 hour day. In the software development realm there is a constant quest for self improvement and enhancing your productivity.

Motivation: Your income depends directly on your motivation. Similarly in the software realm, if you’re not motivated to maintain and augment your skills, then you soon discover your rate and opportunities directly reflect your motivation level.

Team Work: You spend four months in bush camps with the same group of about 35 people, the camps are further subdivided into crews - with each crew containing 10-15 people. You work with the same people in your crew day-after-day and get to know them in EVERY way - you probably interrupted them taking a sh*t in the middle of a clear-cut, or took shelter in a crummy as a hail storm moved through. When working in a small finite team you quickly learn that it’s not possible to choose your members and that making (and maintaining) healthy relationships with your team members makes everyone’s life easier - and might even keep your sanity. Often times (like when bears are in the area) you work in groups or teams, side by side on a single piece of land. While pair planting you get to know the style of your partner, you can predict where they probably forgot to plant a tree and how they keep track of their line of planted trees. During the day you informally compete with your partner, and cajole each other for fun. Pair planting (cluster planting) relates nicely to paired programming and the importance of team work in the software realm.

Organizational Composition: As a tree planter you are a self employed contractor, you’re responsible for your own equipment, and lining up jobs with multiple companies to bring you through the summer. The composition of each tree planting company varies. Some companies will hire anyone and heavily recruit (these companies typically underbid on land, offer lower prices, and have a high turnover rate), whereas other great companies hire planters based on referrals and experience (these companies are known to have dependable annual contracts and a better environment). The best companies give their crews autonomy, respect, and adequate resources to get the job done. Again this transfers into the software realm.

Communication and Responsibility: Living in remote camps on dangerous logging roads requires additional safety. Communicating with your team is often necessary for survival. Not only are you responsible for yourself, but those around you. Tree planters have been known to be forgotten over night on remote cut blocks hours away from camp because no one knew where they were, or if they even came to work that day. Similarly, software teams should be taking collective ownership of a project, you are responsible for your code as well as the code base as a whole. Communication is essential.

What odd jobs have you taken to get you through college / university? How do you find they relate to the software realm? Have you ever planted trees?

Listening to Yegge, Spolsky, and Atwood really brought up this uncomfortable memory of projects past.

[Yegge] some people … they can’t handle [a failed project]. They’re out on the ledge, you have to talk them down real slow, it’s usually more junior people. 

[Spolsky] I don’t know about junior, but … that they identified with the project, and that is kind of important. … People are going to be … devoted to a project that they identify with.

[Yegge] … identifying with anything so strongly that it starts to give you emotional reaction is really bad. You never know when your language is going to be obsolete or your project is going to get canceled or your favorite framework is going to be replaced. - Steve Yegge, Joel Spolsky, stackoverflow podcast #25

I can certainly relate.

My experience was a lesson learned, which resulted in a couple personal changes:

• No overtime at the expense of personal life or prior commitments.
• A quest for a more outward facing perspective on projects and the industry in general.
• A need for remaining emotionally detached from the project - as well as the frameworks, technologies, and the languages that I use.
• An aversion towards organizations that encourage the type of situation I had gotten into.
• Skepticism towards company loyalty, brand loyalty, etc…

the experiments … organized some public school, middle-class eleven year olds into [clubs] with five boys in each and a carefully trained college student leader. 

Some of these collegiate club leaders were told to become autocratic. They gave detailed directions to the boys, telling them exactly how to paint their clubhouse signs or build model airplanes. Other, the laissez-faire leaders, stayed out of the way, and in the third group, “democratic” leaders helped the boys execute their own ideas, with as much non coercive guidance as possible.
…
Laissez-faire leadership, letting the boys do whatever they wanted, bred frustrated cynicism. Under authoritarianism, some boys became extremely obedient … while others fought, bullied each other, and destroyed their own toys. In the democratic groups, boys became more conscientious, more tolerant of each other, less selfish, and more adult. - The Age of Heretics, Art Kliener

The reactions these groups exhibited, is similar to what I’ve experienced while working in software teams. The best experiences I’ve had have consistently been in democratically structured teams - with a very fine balance of aristocracy from a team lead or architect. it also follows that the most challenging teams have been rigidly autocratic or Laissez-faire (hands off, with no guidance).

If a system is to have conceptual integrity, someone must control the concepts. That is an aristocracy that needs no apology. … In an unconstrained implementation group, most thought and debate goes into architectural decisions, and implementation proper gets short shrift. - The Mythical Man-Month, Fred Brooks 

The balance between democracy and aristocracy is delicate. A team leaning too much on aristocracy runs the risk of undermining the team, while a overly democratic team can fall into paralysis which places the project’s completion in jeopardy.

the obvious … is never seen until someone expresses it simply. - Kahlil Gibran

The preface of Object Oriented Software Construction literally introduced me to the three-step sequence:

the well-known three-step sequence of reactions that meets the introduction of a new methodological principle:

(1) “it’s trivial”;
(2) “it cannot work”;
(3) “that’s how I did it all along anyway”.

(The order may vary.) - Bertrand Meyer

Naturally people consider themselves smart, which sometimes translates into knowing everything, and these three reactions are probably a manifestation of thinking you’re overly enlightened. If we put ego aside - along with our natural predisposition for being lazy (trying to avoiding learning new things) - we often change our views altogether.

Looking back at my technological naivety: I was once wrongly convinced that client-side languages would never work and server-side languages / frameworks would dominate (until I really learned JavaScript), I had also mistakenly assumed that I was already doing TDD (until being introduced to the concept of Mocking), and I even thought that HTML table based design was the future (until I really learned CSS). With a little bit of knowledge and some experience I changed my views altogether.

Reflecting on these incorrect assumptions and decisions promotes growth - with every experience we grow. Which of my latest assumptions / reactions will change over time?

Through all these experiences I was convinced that I was unique. Then I started becoming part of the bigger conversation. While engaging online I began learning that there were thousands of people like me: weened on computers, interested in good software design, and passionate about what they do.

Imar Spaanjaars’ signature always reminded me of this lesson:

Everyone is unique, except for me.

Yegge’s recent post brought up this thought again:

people like to think they’re unique and special, and that their tastes aren’t necessarily widely shared by others. This is what drives fashion: the need to differentiate yourself from “the crowd”, by identifying with some smaller, cooler crowd. … The reality is that for any given dimension of your personality, there are oodles of people just like you. - Business Requirements are Bull**** 

David Heinemeier Hansson reiterates this:

it’s somewhat counter intuitive … for a lot of developers …  it’s counter intuitive for humans in general to think they’re not that special, but when they do think they’re special … they kind of get these assumptions that they need very unique and special tools that will only work for them … We as programmers aren’t really unique or that special. - David Heinemeier Hansson, 37signals: “Friday Keynote”

Remember you’re not really special. :)

Working in a noisy work environment and listening to music is counterproductive for intellectual demanding work. For example: we don’t write exams in busy cafeterias, or write resumes through loud movies, and Libraries are quiet for a reason. Noise; whether it be music or background noise does negatively affect your ability to get things done.

DeMarco and Lister (in Peopleware) present the results of an interesting experiment:

During the 1960s, researchers at Cornell University conducted a series of tests on the effects of working with music. … They put half of each group together in a silent room, and the other half of each group in a different room equipped with earphones and a musical selection.  Participants in both rooms were … given a programming problem …

They discovered that the majority of the people working in the silent room could pick out a pattern in the programming problem and could come to a quick clever creative solution. Whereas the people working with music playing were able to solve the problem, but didn’t make the creative leap.

They go on to explain:

Many of the everyday tasks performed by professional workers are done in the serial processing center of the left brain. Music will not interfere particularly with this work, since it’s in the brain’s holistic right side that digests music. But not all of the work is centered in the left brain. There is that occasional breakthrough that makes you say “Ahah!” and steers you toward an ingenious bypass that may save months or years of work. This creative leap involves right-brain function. If the right brain is busy listening [to music], the opportunity for a creative leap is lost.

In their book they also make the point that open space work environments and cubical farms are not conducive to knowledge work, and that all employees (or at least groups of employees) should have the ability to close their door. Great companies do follow these guidelines, but many of the smaller companies or transitional companies (at least the ones I’ve worked in) tend to air on the dilbertesque side (the noisy cubical farms / open concept).

To compensate for the noise in the work place I’ve resorted to wearing noise canceling earphones without music. These earphones double as a metaphoric door - it indicates to those around me that I’m hard at work and not to be disturbed. Noise canceling earphones let me create my own personal audio walls, but eventually I become the weird guy with the earphones that aren’t plugged into anything guy.

As a lowly developers it’s hard to make the case to management for a quieter work environment (let alone an office with a door), but we can keep our eyes out for companies that share these values, start our own company, or take opportunities that let us work from home. In the meantime thank goodness for ear plugs (err.. I mean earphones).

Quality over quantity: Some blogs adhere to rigid posting schedules. I've never paid attention to a blog's schedule and wonder if anyone (beside the author) does. I find scheduled blogs result in diluted content and that their posts become daunting to sift through. Eventually I start skimming all their content and might unsubscribe altogether.

Consolidated feeds are bad mmmm-kay: Occasionally blogs consolidate posts from multiple authors, or group similar topics into a single feed, this results in excessive noise with no granular filtering capabilities. I won't subscribe.

Personality is important, Professionalism is dull: Personality should permeate your posts. Software development is kind of boring, live it up, inject some originality, show your true colors, try to be funny, take the risk. We're all human, your readers aren't robots and zombies. As a subscriber I'm more interested in getting to knowing you (the developer) than how professional you're trying to be. Professional flavoured blogs run the risk of being too sanitary - a lesson learned the hard way *yawn*.

Easy on the code: I look at code every day. I'd rather read something funny, inspiring, thought provoking, philosophical, or related to the human factor of software development. Code in blogs can often come across as filler, if I really needed more code I'd head down to Google Code, CodePlex, and download one of the many projects (take a look at Chrome). With code, there's a million ways to do the same thing, if you're code isn't in my specific problem domain, then I'm falling asleep already.

Subscribing and reading blogs is important for software developers and knowledge workers in general. Blogs offer cross pollination of ideas between problem domains, organizations, and people. What factors determine the blogs you read?

Politics, religion, famine, pollution, and relationships; these are parts of our world. I'm messy, my hair falls out, and yours might too. The world is messy and complex, so what would make software different?

During my first real job after graduating College / University, I was horrified by the state of my project's source code. The code was spaghetti; it looked like someone crammed a stack of poorly written technical manuals through a blender that funneled into our source code. Regions (#region) were running willy-nilly, negated values were passing conditions; delegates were calling properties which were in turn calling delegates which were creating infinite loops… SQL rows were being sent across TCP/IP, centralized build servers were taboo, unit testing and TDD was unheard of. Each of the members of our team were build / release masters, developers, and ninjas.  Our job was to maintain this juggernaut and affirm the stakeholders that everything was OK.

But were things really that bad? Remember, I was a recent grad; I was used to creating pristine frameworks (like elevator simulators) crammed with design patterns and fascinating abstract data types. In a way, I was an architecture astronaut being rudely ejected into a toxic tailings pond. The courses I had taken in school, the projects I completed, the languages I used were a great start, but not a valid representation of the real world. In the academic world things were clean; out here (like the rest of the planet) everything is a mess.

I started coming to the realization that, producing software is more about managing people than science, technology, or math. Mistakes and human flaws are the norm, software entropy is inevitable, and technical decisions are often based on nontechnical considerations: time constraints, politics, religion, and relationships rather than sound research and science.

There is hope; realize that you can't control everything, that the one-size-fits-all solution and silver bullets are myths. Then focus on what and how you can change yourself, your software, and your situation. Developing good software (like living a good life) is about making informed decisions, choosing opportunities that encourage growth, reducing complexity, and having a long term vision or goal. Today I still think software is messy, and I'm still horrified by most source code, but abstractions, n-tiered design and testing sufficiently help me manage the chaos.

Science often exists in a pristine clean vacuum, whereas software deals primarily with people. Software is not a science, and humans (like software) are inherently messy and complex.

One of my biggest pet peeves is trying to efficiently complete development work on a slow machine. In my mind, trying to work quickly on a slow computer is like asking a marathon runner to wear snowshoes then demanding they WIN the marathon. What ensues, is painful for the runner, painful for all who watch, and reaching the end goal feels impossible - bottom line good equipment matters. However, many client’s overlook the relationship between getting stuff done and a slow machine, or they don’t care, or they can’t do anything about it.

Maybe they find it thrilling (in some sick way) to watch your soul fizzle away as you spend 300 minutes a day compiling your application (or running your tests). :)

In great organizations slow machines aren’t an issue. According to the The Programmer’s Bill of Rights: “Every programmer shall have a fast PC”, and from the Joel Test: “[Organizations should] use the best tools money can buy?” But reality is often a different beast, and in my experience you have to make the changes you want (or “be the change you want to see…” - Gandhi).

I’m sure in Silicon Valley, good computers would be mandatory for most organization, but I live in Canada - we suffer through black flies, mosquitoes, 8 months of winter, and organizations with poor resources. :) Did you know that Canada’s population is roughly equivalent to the population of the state of California alone!?

Anyhow, I started working from home full-time this year - up to this point most of my work has been done onsite using whatever machine the client provided (some with outdated hardware). My home desktop was a six year old PC that would make Frankenstein look sexy - it was a collection of old and new parts. I needed a new computer.

I based my specs on Jeff Atwood’s and Scott Hanselman’s specs for the Ultimate Developer Rig. The machine turned out to be economical, the prices have come down significantly since the initial post was published, and to top it all off, I was able to chop shop my old machine and sell every single part through eBay and Kijiji - for a surprisingly decent price too (who would have thought a 6 year old Sound blaster Audigy would sell for $50?).

Contrasting my setups:

Working on my new machine is enjoyable. I find myself more productive without being distracted by the frustration of a slow machine, and having dual monitors also contributes to my productivity (Does More Than One Monitor Improve Productivity?). My favourite parts of the new setup are the monitors, the Ergotron stand, the speed, and the case. You really get what you pay for with LCD monitors, the SyncMasters are easy on the eyes when compared to my old economic Acer, and the case is dead silent.

In the future, if I’m provided with a substandard PC, you can expect to see me hauling my new machine into the office. :)

Take a look at my old desktop setup in my older post: Something About the Cobbler’s Children Having No Shoes

Have you ever had to use an outdated machine as a developer? How does working on a slow machine effect your work? What are your thoughts on taking matters into your own hand (like purchasing your own computer to replace the slow one at work)? Have you ever installed additional resources in the computer you use at work?

The classic geek haircut. I still sport this cut today. :)

How old were you when you started programming?

Somewhere around the age of 8 or earlier, computers were always just there - they’d been in my life since I can begin to remember.

How did you get started in programming? What was your first language?

My dad went to College for robotics when I was around 8 years old. His robotics program involved lots of programming and together we worked through a couple BASIC programming books. I continued to mess around with BASIC and wrote scripts so I could get at my favourite games. Later I was frequenting BBSs (The Fisherman’s Scroll), and surfing the internet through lynx (a text based browser). I eventually became a Script kiddie - being a Script kiddie was what really turned me on to programming. My friends and I would write IRC war scripts, play MUDs, and try to figure out how Trumpet Winsock, networks, and HTML worked - those were the days of Netscape 1 (the version with the big glowing ‘N’). Later we tried writing our own version of NetBus with the help of C / C++ programmers on IRC - the fragments of the C language these programmers exposed to me were magical, and sparked an genuine interest in computer programming. In addition to all this my dad kept a constant supply of old and new computer parts funneling into our house, my brothers and I would build computers from the parts - today my closest brother is a Linux fanatic, evidently all this sparked his interest too.

Programming has always been a part of my life, BASIC was my first language.

What was the first real program you wrote?

I followed a couple game tutorials from my BASIC books, but my first real program would have been Pacman programmed in Turing - in my final year of high school I enrolled in a computer course, where the instructor let us write any program we wanted for half a school year I chose to write a game.

What languages have you used since you started programming?

I’ve spent most my time in C, C++, C#, JavaScript, SQL, and the mark-up languages. I primarily program for the web or at least for the network, but have used many other languages like COBOL and so on…

While using multiple languages are great, I really believe that we you should completely understand the fundamentals of at least two languages (like say a static language and a dynamic language), because:

Once a programmer realizes that programming principles transcend the syntax of any specific language, the doors swing open to knowledge that truly makes a difference in quality and productivity. - Steve McConnell, Code Complete 2nd Edition. 

What was your first professional programming gig?

I would have been 18. It was my first year of College, I needed a part-time job in order to pay rent, I initially worked on an assembly line, but would occasionally help the office workers troubleshoot their IT issues. I soon found myself working as the company’s network admin / computer gopher. I went on to develop their cataloging system and a website. At the time I was going to school for Electronic Engineering, but decided to switch to a Computer specific program. Previous to this, I had freelanced a couple websites for local businesses while in high school.

If you knew then what you know now, would you have started programming?

Absolutely! The industry continues to instill a sense of wonder in me. I can’t imagine doing anything else.

If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be?

• Read! You’d be surprised how little progress has been made in the software industry over the past 30 years. By reading we can learn from the mistakes others have made.
• Don’t be intimidated by code or frameworks handed down by large organizations, their code isn’t any different than yours.
• Hard work always pays off, or as Thomas Edison said: “Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.”

What’s the most fun you’ve ever had … programming?

Collaborative programming is always fun whether it be paired programming or working together on a project. It’s hard to pinpoint the most fun I’ve “ever” had, because it’s all fun. :)

This post was in response to Michael Eaton’s initial post on: How did you get started in software development?

Now it’s your turn to answer: How did you get started in software development?

Why are student loans good?
I grew up in a small village in Northern Ontario, in a huge family - in total there are 11 of us. YES! I have 8 siblings and we all have the same parents. :) Most Canadians are familiar with the rural community setting (maybe not the huge family scene). A railway runs through town, the town has 2 gas stations, a single postal code is associated to the entire area (including all the outlying hamlets, and farms), the local high school is 30 minutes from home, the high school kids are bussed from a 100km radius (and there’s still only about 700 students in total). Most of your childhood is spent: crawling across beaver dams, building tree forts, playing Lego, banging away at BASIC on rainy days, swinging from ropes in barns, chasing sheep, skateboarding, and shooting guns. Most of the residents in these towns live modest lives, and have chosen the rural community because it’s cheaper than living in the neighbouring city, or they have just always lived there. The residents are employed in the dwindling lumber industry, the agricultural industry, the local businesses, they are seasonal workers, or unemployed.

In short, living in these remote communities can be economically challenging, supporting a massive family in these areas can be difficult, and receiving educational assistance from your family is even more difficult. So… If it wasn’t for government funded student loans I probably wouldn’t have gone to College/University, and if it wasn’t for an education I probably wouldn’t have been able to develop the skills necessary to be where I am today - yesterday I paid the last of my Student Loans. :)

Thank-you Government of Canada for the student loans!

For all the students out there, keep your chin up, keep your eyes on the goal, don’t let finances get you down, focus on your studies, and keep pushing forward. Education is a sound investment in your future - provided you’re not going to school for underwater basket weaving, or attending an atrociously expensive private college, and not going to school forever (everything in moderation, right?). As the old adage goes: “you’ve got to spend money to make money”, and education is a sound investment.

Steph (my wife) and I had been toying with the idea of getting a dog, we've been looking at different breeds, visiting shelters, and emailing breeders - I have to give Steph all the credit, she did most of the research. Anyhow, we came across a post on our Kijiji for a mature Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier. Now we have a dog.

Being a Geek and all, I wasn't sure if I was a dog (or cat person), but Belle is a great dog. Her constant need for a walks is a great reminder to take a micro break while working from home.

Belle, our dog.

As the old phrase goes: “The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes” - the Cobbler was so busy with other peoples shoes, that he couldn't make shoes for his children. Like the Cobbler I often find myself burried in work, and neglecting the things that could improve my situation.

A couple personal examples: this website (the design has remained unchanged for the past couple years), my desk setup (the mountain of books for a monitor stands and a single 17″ monitor) demonstrate this.

I've since purchases an Ergotron LX Dual Desk Mount Arm, and will soon be upgrading to these Samsung SyncMaster 226BW 22″ monitors, which I plan on running in portrait mode.

How can you improve? What does your desktop look like?

You mean I can go to school for a single year, save time and money by skipping the extra 2 years, pop out as a professional, start my career, and start making money?

Needless to say it was a hard lesson of “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is”.  In my last year of high school I inquired about RCC, a recruiter promptly replied, and even came to my house where he discussed all the positive benefits RCC had to offer. My parents were sold, I was sold, I wanted to go - I was 18 years old, I was naive, like taking candy from a child, I was easily sold. I didn’t tour the facilities; I didn’t question the financial implications. Instead I signed on the dotted lines (signed a contract), filled out an application for a government loan, and eagerly anticipated disembarking into post secondary studies.

Image taken from Canada.com

My first week at RCC was a rude awakening. When I attended, the facilities were substandard, the equipment outdated, the computers were yellowed with age, the keyboards missing keys, the CRTs monitors flickering with monochromatic colors, and the carpet peeling away from the walls. The cafeteria was a retrofitted truck garage complete with an overhead crane for removing truck engines or something. I distinctly remember their lobby near the entrance adorned with leather sofas and leather chairs, but all the new students quickly learned that these props were strictly for visiting guests - no students allowed.  This wasn’t what I expected; this wasn’t what I signed up for.

Every day on my way to RCC I would ride past the local Community College (Seneca College of Applied Arts & Technology) - my bicycle was my main form of transportation. I would stare through the windows of Seneca. I remember being impressed by the sheer size of the school, the architecture, the cutting edge equipment, state of the art computers, a library, a fitness facility, a large cafeteria with a diverse selection of food, a couple thousand students - all of which RCC lacked. I assumed the cost for attending this school would be astronomical, but decided to ask anyway.

My conversation with the registration clerk went something like this:

Me: “I’m interested in attending Seneca College, how much does it cost?”
The clerk replied: “$1200 per semester”

I nearly choked, RCC was bleeding my wallet. I was paying nearly $4000 per semester compared to $1200 at Seneca - a semester at RCC was about 3 months, a semester at Seneca was 4 months.

I asked: “I’m attending RCC will I be able to transfer any of my credits?”
The clerk: “Where is RCC?”

I scratched my head thinking: “How could anyone not know about RCC? It’s the pinnacle of technological education, right? “

I replied: “It’s around the corner, a 5 minute bus ride from here”
The clerk: “Nope… I’ve never heard of RCC, but here’s some information on Seneca’s transfer policies, and a course catalog”

I then climbed back on my bike and continued to RCC.

Later that week I began doing some calculations where I realized the following:

A year at RCC would cost me about $16,000 dollars, this didn’t include cost of living, or housing expenses, and certainly did not include any part-time jobs since RCC’s rigorous schedule required that you catch up on your studies over the weekend. In total, a year at RCC would cost me about $23,000 dollars. Conversely a year at Seneca would cost me about $9,000 dollars (including living expenses), I figured that 3 years at Seneca would cost me somewhere around $27,000, but I’d have the ability to work part-time throughout each of those years, which would bring the overall total well below RCC’s single year program. So a single year at RCC (a private College) was roughly equivalent to 3 years at Seneca College (or any publicly funded Community College for that mater). This really got me thinking, and made me wish I had done more research before signing up for RCC - financially Community College was a much better deal.

Image taken from Seneca

I continued to compare RCC and Seneca, and to my horror I discovered that the RCC program only awarded a Certificate whereas Seneca awarded an Ontario College Diploma - now professionally and financially Community College was a far better deal. At this point I was convinced that RCC was probably not in my best interest, and decided to make the switch.

Back at RCC I notified the Registrar of my intentions to quit, attended a counseling session (where I was strongly advised not to quit and given the opportunity to switch programs), and was then informed that I would be have to pay 10% ($1,600) of the full years tuition ($16,000) for quitting. RCC had a dropping out fee!!! My jaw dropped, I was furious (and still evidently am, since I’m spending the time to write this entry), for a brief moment I considered staying with RCC to avoid paying this fee - I was only 18, money was tight, I was a poor student. I then asked for some confirmation for this fee. The Clerk then produced the document I had signed upon enrolling, and there it was under the dotted lines - the contract I had signed when the recruiter came to my house. I paid the fee and left.

Words of advice: “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is” Publicly funded post secondary studies are the way to go whether it be College or University. Private education is almost always more expensive, and probably not as valuable for a professional career (although some private polytechnic schools are pretty good too). In my opinion, fast track programs should be avoided, because you can’t really compress education. Most of the learning experience is developing your own ideas, opinions, honing your learning skills, maturing, and gaining life experiences. In addition compressed Diplomas or Certificates are not received as well in the real world some employers will interpret it as a sign that you aren’t really dedicated to your profession - they may conclude that you like taking the easy route.

Many of my RCC friends that completed the single year certificate at RCC have fought for jobs related to their education since graduation. A couple friends have pursued additional certification, many have settled for jobs completely out of their field of study, and almost all are still paying their RCC student loans.

Before you sign on the dotted line, know what you’re signing for - a lesson learned the hard way.