My most important lesson
Our customers don’t come to us because we have the best technology, they come to us because we provide a better value....
Starting over
I’m feeling ready to write again, and I’ve set up this new environment to do it in....
The Status of Status
Last week I presented some of my thoughts about status reporting to the Vancouver Software Development Managers. What do you think?...
People, Process, Product, Customer, and how people fit in organizations
My best work has been in places that are process-customer, but I've done well in process-product as well. I have not done well in people-dominated...
In praise of simple tools
I write using Emacs and LaTeX. I'll grudgingly copy and paste to other formats because the organization demands it but I do better work with...
Broadly vs. Locally-useful skills
Early on, I programmed on mainframes in COBOL... I'm sure I could do it again. But I'd be tossing away some highly valuable, broadly-applicable and...
Rosh Hashana (New Year) Update
It's been a busy year with a lot of changes, both Covid-related and otherwise. As is my custom, here's my update for this circle around...
How I got hired at AWS
Being yourself matters as much as anything.
And be nice to the airline staff. They can really make or break your life....
How I became “glue”
As has often been the case in my life, I was in a category of people who were not supposed to exist. I was that...
Don’t buy tech from somebody you meet in Church
If the answer to why you should do business with somebody is ever "we're part of the same group, you can trust me," then you...