J. Timothy King’s Blog

7 Steps to Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions

I usually don’t care about New Year’s resolutions, because there’s nothing special about January 1. That is, you can make resolutions any time during the year, and you should. Because if you better your life only once each year, your life is bound to be boring and unproductive. So make resolutions all year round. Not just in January, but every month, every week, every day of the year. And keep them.

On the other hand, the new year is one of those months, one of those weeks, one of those days of the year. So New Year’s is as good a time as any to make a resolution… and keep it.

Here’s the resolution I’ve made for myself this new year. Actually, I started it December 31, because that’s when I decided to make the resolution. If I had decided to make this resolution in October, I would have started doing it in October. Because if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing now. There’s no point in waiting until January 1 to start improving your life. And that is why I’m here at my computer, working on the holiday, rather than playing Wii. Because that’s one of the steps to keeping a New Year’s resolution. (Read more…)

Does God Get Angry? Or Does He Love Us?

Here’s one of those blog comments I started to write, and then I discovered I was getting so deeply into it, I had to write a blog post. Ben Arment on his trés kewl blog, History in the Making, posted a couple links to a theological controversy that’s been making the Internet. It’s one of these stupid theological controversies that really gets my goat, because both sides are acting like immature little children. And in the process, they miss the most important part of who God is and–more importantly–what that means to you and me.

Here’s the gist: One side says God is angry at us, because God is holy but we are all sinners, and that “the phrase ‘God hates the sin but loves the sinner’ was invented by a Hindu.” The other side says, on the contrary, that God is not angry at us and has never been angry with us, because he loves us.

OK. I’m officially confused. God is angry at sinners; therefore, he hates us?

I get angry at my kids when they disobey me and do stupid, self-destructive things, but I still love them. In fact, it’s when I’m the angriest with them that I do the most to remind them that I love them. None of this even touches on what scripture says God is like. And it completely ignores how important this is to our personal character. (Read more…)

Ten Favorite Books

These are not necessarily my all-time favorites in all categories. I don’t even know whether I could narrow the list down that far. But these are ten really good books from my library, all of which I heartily recommend.

In fact, I continue to be amazed at how many people have not read even the most significant of these books. How many businessmen have never read Peter Drucker. Every executive, every manager, every entrepreneur must read Peter Drucker. Or how many software engineers have never read Frederick Brooks or Demarco and Lister. Or how many software managers don’t even know who Brooks or Demarco or Lister is.

(Read more…)

Five Ways to Improve Your Focus

Many people, especially we creative types, have trouble focusing. I myself have had trouble focusing from time to time. I’m continually learning new things, which is good. But at some point, you have to take action. If I’m always learning, I’ll never put that knowledge into practice. Instead, I’ll go from idea to idea, never seeing any idea through to completion.

That’s not to say it’s bad to have multiple balls in the air at once. But even a juggler coordinating the movement of 3, 4, 5, or more objects, he does one thing at a time. Throw the ball A from the right hand to the left. Throw ball B from left to right. Catch ball A. Throw ball C from right to left. Catch ball B. Throw ball A to right. Catch ball C. And so forth. He can never be manipulating two balls at once.

That’s the way it is if you want to get stuff done. You have to focus on one task at a time and see it through to completion. So if we have trouble with focus, we’ll have trouble getting stuff done.

If you’re a creative type, like me, here are 5 things you can try to improve your focus:

(Read more…)

Overcoming Your Fear of Poverty

Pam Slim, author of the excellent Escape from Cubicle Nation blog and founder of Ganas Consulting, also publishes a free eZine called “Get a Life!” And in the latest issue, she discusses fear about money.

Fear about money creates stress, disturbs focus, saps innovation and productivity, and makes work miserable. The answer, says Pam, is to change the way you treat money, emotionally and spiritually. She gives examples of how she and Darryl (her husband) achieve this. The specific religious symbols and rituals will be different for each of us. But the bottom line is the same.

In U.S. spiritual culture, we don’t talk about money until we’re desperate. If you lose your job and you’re at the end of rope, you can find lots of people to pray for you and even to donate money to you. (Read more…)

When the Best Tool Isn’t, and Why a Growing Team Doesn’t Care

Kathy Sierra excellent post on When the “best tool for the job”… isn’t misses an important point. It’s not that she missed the point so much as she just didn’t go into it. But I think it deserves going into.

Many software developers become very attached to their favorite programming languages, methodologies, practices, and so forth. Checking the link-backs for my post “Twelve Benefits of Writing Unit Tests First” demonstrates this. One commenter on another blog even said he saw no value in reading the whole post, since it was specious and had no redeeming value. I took great joy in that comment, because it means I must be doing something right to push someone’s righteous buttons so accurately. Regardless, would test-first be the right tool for that programmer?

(Read more…)

Why Geeks Should Care About Fashion

As a thirty-something male software engineer, one of the best things about looking for a new job is that I get to go shopping for interview clothes. And that’s what I did this weekend.

If you’ve not appreciated the joy of shopping for interview clothes, you’re missing out. And if you think that this joy is just for women… Well, you unfortunately may be right. Women have so many more clothing options. Not only can they wear anything a man can wear, they get to wear skirts, capris, dresses, and even stirrup pants. (But please, ladies, don’t do that.) And accessories! As a man, I can wear a ring and watch. If I want to be bad, I can wear a crucifix around my neck, or maybe a stud earring. If I want to be formal, I can wear a tie. But the girls get to play with jewelry, scarves, handbags, shoes, and just about everything else. And women can get away with colors and patterns that would just make us guys look gay. Yes, women get to have all the fun and creativity.

(Read more…)

How DeMarco, Lister, and Cockburn Helped Me Find a Better Job (Part 2)

How DeMarco, Lister, and Cockburn Helped Me Find a Better Job (Part 2)

(Part 1 was posted yesterday.)

After four months of teamicide, Peopleware-style, I was ready to die. And when HR or my manager asked me, I told them the truth.

(Read more…)

How DeMarco, Lister, and Cockburn Helped Me Find a Better Job (Part 1)

Two years ago, I was enthusiastic, energized, and about to plunge into depression. I was enthusiastic and energized because I had started a new job two months before, and I was in a position where I could make choices, and I knew I could make the right choices. I was stretching myself beyond what I had done before, and I wanted to prove myself. Within two more months, that would change.

(Read more…)

Dreaming the Dream Supreme

Matt Inglot wrote recently about Developing a Detailed Vision and Having it Become Reality.

The forces of the universe must be aligning for me. Because this sounds awful similar to what Maxine Clark, the founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop, talked about in her book The Bear Necessities of Business: Building a Company with Heart:

I challenge you to think about what your ideal business would look like if there were no obstacles—financial or otherwise—in your way. That’s what I did in the planning stages for Build-A-Bear Workshop… I imagined, down to the smallest detail, everything I would need to build a successful brand and company.

It was a grand vision indeed, and although I wasn’t able to do all the things I dreamed about immediately, I knew the possibilities that were out there. My vision and the resulting business plan provided me with the ultimate blueprint of goals to work toward as the company (and our profits) grew.

In other words, a dream is not a pie-in-the-sky feeling. It’s something you can see and hear and touch and smell and taste. It’s clear, and it’s possible. But these possibilities are not limited by outside forces. A dream is a manifestation of your faith, something you believe in; otherwise, you won’t put your best into it. And it’s something only you can make happen.

-TimK