It's common to compare ourselves to doctors, lawyers, and other highly-paid professionals. Unfortunately, almost every comparison breaks down dramatically, very quickly.When doctors screw up (massively) they get sued. When (permanently employed) programmers screw up they get let-go, and they go find a new job, usually with more responsibility...

It's common to compare ourselves to doctors, lawyers, and other highly-paid professionals. Unfortunately, almost every comparison breaks down dramatically, very quickly.When doctors screw up (massively) they get sued. When (permanently employed) programmers screw up they get let-go, and they go find a new job, usually with more responsibility...

Back in August I started working with Java the majority of the time. I still do a bit of Ruby, but the vast majority of my work these days is in Java. Java is good for a lot of reasons, but that is absolutely not what this post is about. This post is, in no particular order, the things about Java that I really dislike.Closed ClassesI'm not sure...

Back in August I started working with Java the majority of the time. I still do a bit of Ruby, but the vast majority of my work these days is in Java. Java is good for a lot of reasons, but that is absolutely not what this post is about. This post is, in no particular order, the things about Java that I really dislike.Closed ClassesI'm not sure...

The vast majority of actively evolving business software is written in Java these days. Java has long enjoyed the title of One Language to Rule Them All. However, in a previous post, The Next Big Language, I mention that I'm skeptical that there will be one language that is perfect for solving all possible problems in the future.I might be...

The vast majority of actively evolving business software is written in Java these days. Java has long enjoyed the title of One Language to Rule Them All. However, in a previous post, The Next Big Language, I mention that I'm skeptical that there will be one language that is perfect for solving all possible problems in the future.I might be...

generalist: a person competent in several different fields or activitiesIf you read my blog entry on Language Specialization you might have concluded that I prefer generalists. If, in our industry, generalists were what the definition describes, then I would prefer generalists. Unfortunately, business software developers seem to have created...

generalist: a person competent in several different fields or activitiesIf you read my blog entry on Language Specialization you might have concluded that I prefer generalists. If, in our industry, generalists were what the definition describes, then I would prefer generalists. Unfortunately, business software developers seem to have created...

Didn't you just totally sell out? -- Obie Fernandez @ Rails Summit Latin AmericaObie and I are good friends. He wasn't trying to insult me. I was talking about how much I liked my new job (at DRW Trading), and the different aspects of the job. One aspect of my job is that I spend a fair amount of my time working with Java. I do some C# and some...

Didn't you just totally sell out? -- Obie Fernandez @ Rails Summit Latin AmericaObie and I are good friends. He wasn't trying to insult me. I was talking about how much I liked my new job (at DRW Trading), and the different aspects of the job. One aspect of my job is that I spend a fair amount of my time working with Java. I do some C# and some...

At RailsConf Europe, in the Q & A portion of my talk on Functional Testing someone asked what I recommend for testing Javascript.Ugh. Testing Javascript. Is it possible to recommend something when everything you've seen is terrible? Usually I'm cool with picking the tool that sucks the least, but when it comes to Javascript testing the only...

At RailsConf Europe, in the Q & A portion of my talk on Functional Testing someone asked what I recommend for testing Javascript.Ugh. Testing Javascript. Is it possible to recommend something when everything you've seen is terrible? Usually I'm cool with picking the tool that sucks the least, but when it comes to Javascript testing the only...

Building a brand takes a lot of effort, but I think the payoff justifies the investment. Having a strong brand definitely helped me find a fun and very well paying job. So now that I have a dream job (@ DRW Trading), what should I do with my brand?I have to confess, I didn't start writing because I wanted share information. I started writing...

Building a brand takes a lot of effort, but I think the payoff justifies the investment. Having a strong brand definitely helped me find a fun and very well paying job. So now that I have a dream job (@ DRW Trading), what should I do with my brand?I have to confess, I didn't start writing because I wanted share information. I started writing...

I've never seen distributed development succeed. However, before we get into what I've seen, I need to be specific about what I'm describing.Distributed Development: A group of individuals who work across time, space, and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technologyThe link above for Distributed...