Personal Improvement
Depression and the Software Developer (Part 2)
(This is a continuation from part 1 of “Depression and the Software Developer”.) If one of the most powerful weapons against depression is hope, one of its most powerful fuels is hopelessness. I attacked my next job with gusto and enthusiasm. The company had previously outsourced a project to an offshore contractor, and now that [...]
Depression and the Software Developer
Knowing what I know now, I wonder how I avoided depression for as long as I did: Stress causes depression. Perfectionists are more prone to depression. Isolation reinforces depression. As a software developer, those frequently go along with the job description. Seasonal Affective Disorder has gotten the rap for at least some of the funk, [...]
Are We Scared Yet?
I’m experimenting with a new newsletter, starting just through the holidays. I’m actually mailing this to people, but I’m also posting back-issues online. Here’s the first, the October 2008 issue, all about fear. -TimK
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]