May 30, 2018

Is there a time to just stop learning and write code?

Software development draws many of us in with endless opportunities to learn, but is it right for every project?

Early in my career I wanted to know everything possible about the software companies I worked for. But a couple of years in software consulting taught me...

May 26, 2018

At some software companies, it can be hard for people to learn from mistakes they make as a developer, product manager, or any other role that works together on a project.

Because building software requires so much communication, it’s natural for things to get lost in translation and mistakes to occur.

But we can...

May 22, 2018

There's no shame in getting help from a friend on a software project!

Let me tell you the story of a project I worked on soon after moving to Austin, Texas.

I was new to the consulting side of the software development industry, and didn't know anyone in town. After being put on a project with a more experienced...

May 19, 2018

It’s always been popular to tell people how they’re “doing it wrong” and agile software development is just as easy to call “fake”.

But in working with many teams who read these same articles, they still get lost in a sea of opinions and need a definitive answer.

So I made this short episode to help you spot...

May 14, 2018

Let me tell you a story about one of the weirder software projects I’ve been on – and how trying to change the culture went wrong.

Early in my programming career I had a taste of some successful projects at a Fortune 500, and I focused entirely on technology and basically had *no* soft skills.

So coming into a small...