What Programmers Want
Lots of good points in this post that apply more broadly than just engineers.
Generally speaking, the larger the distance between the design and engineering teams, the worse the Gap tends to be.
Source: thelayout.cc
The three types of specialist
Cue The Beatles.
McDonald’s Theory
“No. Shut up. Stop sabotaging yourself.”
Be suspicious of lists, advice, and lists of advice.
Quotes and Accents
If you use a Mac, learn and use these keyboard shortcuts. It’s for the good of humanity.
Dropbox - iOS app automatically pauses Camera Upload when the battery is running low.
After acquiring users, the real battle to keep and ultimately monetize consumers begins. In the brave new world of “mobile first,” engagement is the new battleground.
Yours vs. Mine, a UI Conundrum
Dustin Curtis, adding his voice to a dilemma that I’ve had to wrestle with almost since day one of my career:
A question that inevitably comes up very early in the process of designing a new app is this: should the interface refer to the user as “your” or “my” when talking about the user’s…
Git: subtrees versus submodules
I recently learned about a newish feature of git called subtrees. They’re conceptually similar to submodules, with a few differences. I wrote up a quick gist about why I think subtrees are a better way to include subprojects than submodules.
Journey of a lifetime
Seventy-five years ago the average rent for a house in the US was $27 per month, cars looked quite different from today, and a young man in Tokyo named Jiro was beginning a journey that would consume the rest of his life—a journey he’s still on today and says he hasn’t finished.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a film documenting this remarkable man’s tireless endeavor of honing the details in an effort to make the world’s best sushi.
The film opens by showing Jiro and his employees crafting sushi. It’s beautiful, for sure, but it doesn’t look that complicated to my untrained eyes. How hard can it be to put a slice of fish on a clump of rice? As it turns out, maybe not too complicated if you merely want to put some fish and rice together, but to make three star Michelin-rated sushi demands a level of work and attention to detail that goes to the core of what it means to be a master craftsman.
Details, details, details.
The rest of the film gives an in-depth view into how Jiro has over and over again tackled details like:
- figuring out how to select the absolute best seafood,
- deciding the best tasting thickness of sliced fish,
- creating his own high-pressure cooking system so he can use the best (but difficult to cook) rice,
- and serving customers differently depending on if they are right or left handed.
He has done this all in the pursuit of making the best sushi in the world, but to do that, he couldn’t just pursue the assembling of the pieces, although that involves many details. He has pursued every aspect that impacts the quality of the final creation. He’s never finished finding another detail to understand and improve.
Jiro’s intense focus on details and consistent practice motivate me to keep going on the journey that I’m on, wherever it may lead. A few other things stick out to me when reflecting on his life and approach to the art of making sushi:
- There is always more to learn and room for improvement. Always.
- It’s important to keep moving and pushing because I’ll never be “finished” with my work.
- The result of my life’s work is cumulative: there are no shortcuts to mastery.
- Mentoring and teaching are a vital part of craft. Jiro’s eldest son is most likely better than he is, but he wouldn’t be if Jiro hadn’t spent many, many hours teaching his son what he had learned.
- Work is a life-long endeavor of mastering details through constant practice and improvement. If I’m not loving the details of what I’m doing or not interested in the (often mundane) practice of my work, I probably need to find a new endeavor because otherwise, burnout is just around the corner.
Onward.
Photo credit: OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
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