If you’re a developer, go learn a new language. If you’re not a developer, go learn something different from what you use every day. It’ll force you out of your comfort zone and get you to learn more than you expect.
We all can benefit from being conversant on many topics and understanding their interplay. That broad understand allows us to be more informed in our lives.
A problem is not intrinsically interesting. We find problems interesting for our own reasons. That interest makes us intrinsically motivated to solve them.
This month's SC DUG was a round table discussion on working remotely during the Covid-19 lock down. We had actually planned this topic before the crisis emerged in full, but found ourselves having to pivot our talking points a fair bit.
Due to Covid-19 right now huge number of people are suddenly working remote. Some wanted this for a long time and are suddenly getting the chance; some didn’t really want a remote job but now are forced to try it.
This has been an interesting week for academics as we move to online instruction, perhaps for the first time. Here’s what I’ve learned and the order in which I found it helpful to tackle the sudden move.
For SC DUG Feb. 2020 I gave a talk on the importance of self-directed learning for professional development as a developer – or really any other modern career. The presentation runs a hair over 30 minutes, and parts of the discussion are included as well.
Over time I’ve come to realize that the further you get into your career, the less the distinction between being formally trained and self-taught means anything; eventually we are all mostly self-taught.
Docksal has support for a project init command that helps setup projects for Pantheon. Since I had to run a dozen Google searches to make it work I figured I'd write it up.
In software just about all project management methodologies get labeled one of two things: Agile or Waterfall. There are formal definitions of both labels, but in practice few companies stick to those definitions particularly in the world of consulting. For people who really care about such things, there are actually many more methodologies out there but largely for marketing reasons we call any process that’s linear in nature Waterfall, and any that is iterative we call Agile.
Developers need to know how to communicate. That includes to be able to write well in their primary spoken languages as well as they can writing in their primary programming languages.
Eventually every organization will face a crisis that requires a public response. In my experience most of the time the crisis that actually emerges isn’t what you expected and includes strange details that easily distract everyone from the main issue.
Frequently organizations fall in love with a site design that includes excellent pictures on every page. Those designs and images may be great, but only if you provide new images as fast as you create new pages (often faster).
I’ve worked with expert beginners, and I think it is a curable condition. It requires three things: mentoring, training, and pushing yourself in ways they can see.
A few years ago I was traveling to DrupalCon with a female colleague who was attending for the first time. The all male team had attended several times before that and she had always liked the interesting variety of t-shirts they came home with, and was looking forward to finally getting something for herself. Only she didn’t.
In technology, communications, or any other job that involves one of those two things you are either moving forward or moving backward: standing still is not an option.
Walking around Sydney harbor got me thinking about the advice I’ve been given both about photography and about my work: make sure you try things from different angles.
