This is part 2 of many in my "Open-source as a project model for internal work" series and a follow up to "Empathetic Infrastructure Code Management: An Introduction" So you've seperated your codebases by application and infrastructure code. Now what? One of the most dramatic changes… Continue Reading 'Shipping Updates: Pushing Them Out vs. Pulling Them Down'
This is part 1 of many in my "Open-source as a project model for internal work" series. In order for your project to thrive beyond its initial set of releases, it needs a flexible upgrade model. The benefits both the maintainer of the project and the consumer. What… Continue Reading 'Empathetic Infrastructure Code Management: An Introduction'
4:30am - Wake up, get baby out of crib, hand baby to wife 4:40 - Take sleeping baby and veeeeery carefully put him back in crib 5:05 - Finally fall back asleep 5:10 - Wake up and get baby out of crib, hand baby to wife… Continue Reading 'My early morning wake-up routine'
A recent post by Mathias Meyer titled "From Open (Unlimited) to Minimum Vacation Policy" has illustrated an important point when implementing any sort of change in a company. Embrace the law of unintended consequences. Many times in my career I've seen good intentions end with poor results. As… Continue Reading 'Embrace the Law of Unintended Consequences'
I'm a big fan of using online tools to facilitate communication. Ever since the days of AIM, I've enjoyed having a keyboard at my fingertips, typing away my thoughts to those who would listen and respond. I'm usually more comfortable digging in to deeper subjects via computers than face to… Continue Reading '15Five for Weekly Family Retrospectives'
Note: An extended-length recording of the talk is available on YouTube In March I have the honor of presenting the opening session at Space City JS. The talk, titled 'Open-Source as a Project Model for Internal Work', will cover a topic I've been brewing over in my mind for years.… Continue Reading 'Open-source as a project model for internal work'
Zen Pencils always gets me thinking. Even when a comic doesn't quite strike the mark at first, it inevitably comes back to enlighten me. This adaption of John Green's words is one of those that I had to chew on a bit before it finally hit home. I've focused myself… Continue Reading 'Make Gifts for People'
On the recommendation from a co-worker, I picked up Man's Search for Meaning and promptly breezed through the book. The first half covered the author's time in Nazi concentration camps during the second World War, which was quite sobering to read. The second half delved deep into Logotherapy and how… Continue Reading 'Book Review: Man's Search for Meaning'
A conversation about 'use strict' came up yesterday at work. I was on side of it being unnecessary, as tools like JSHint and such can handle most of what 'use strict' does. But a co-worker smartly pointed out that it's not just about syntax checking that counts, that it also… Continue Reading 'Is 'Use Strict' Worth It?'
One of my major goals over the past few years has been to increase my consumption of books. While most people (myself included) do a lot of reading throughout the day (twitter, news items, etc), most of that is fairly shallow in content depth. There's only so much you're going… Continue Reading 'Book Review: The Art of Non-Conformity'
1. Start small, real small 2. The first year or two will be filled with a lot of work and only a little reward 3. Chasing your dreams is really, really inconvenient 4. Some days you just don't want to chase your dreams 5. Grow your dream a little bit… Continue Reading '10 lessons parenthood has taught me about chasing my dreams'