The real question is not “how to build” something. There are enough technology experts around us who can build stuff. Capital, technology, processes and standards are only secondary to good product design [http://www.apple.com]. The real question then, is “what to build”, or “what to build” better. It’…
For the past few months I’ve been sitting on some ideas (for Web applications) that I’ve scribbled here & there. I’m working on a few (not listed here) in my spare time, but realistically I won’t be able to work on all of them. So I…
The other day I was browsing through the list of world’s most popular goals on 43 Things [http://www.43things.com/zeitgeist/popular_goals], when I came across something one might call a “true lie”. Apparently, 25271 people want to “Fall in love” [http://www.43things.com/things/view/…
Recently I read about the yet unbuilt 2011 Ford Fiesta that attracted more than a thousand online pre-orders [http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/12/09/fords-unbuilt-car-snags-1000-pre-orders-online/] within the first 6 days of the launch of its reservation program. It made me wonder not only about the marketing hype associated…
At one of the company stand-ups I attended recently, the topic of discussion was ‘Good Communication’. As simple and ordinary it may sound, it did make me think about an interesting hypothesis. Research tells us that only 7% of all communication is impacted by the content or the words used.…
Joel Spolsky recently wrote about the “Duct Tape Programmer [http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2009/09/23.html]“: > Duct tape programmers are pragmatic. Zawinski popularized Richard Gabriel’s precept of Worse is Better [http://www.jwz.org/doc/worse-is-better.html]. A 50%-good solution that people actually have solves…
Not so long ago, an acquaintance who was seeking a software development job interviewed for a role at a “market leader” in the development, implementation and support of financial services software. During the interview, it was revealed that the position is concentrated around the implementation of an Enterprise scale project…
Long story short. Today I was having some trouble with one of my email addresses. I raised a support request with the hosting provider. Within a few minutes, their technical support person replied back telling me that nothing is wrong at their end. And then, soon after, the problem was…