J. Timothy King’s Blog

The Mantra That Will Get Me Through My Last 4 Days

Today I discovered a mantra that I hope will get me through my last four days in this place. And I wrote it on my dry-erase board.

If you recall, I quit my job and struck out on my own. But I still have a few more days before my last. Four days, to be more precise. You see, the thing is, I had already prepared a smooth exit even before I gave notice. So everything’s all set for me to go. Except now they’ve got me hacking a new feature into another impossibly low-quality module. I’m somewhere inbetween demoralized and just plain exhausted.

Alistair Cooke said, “A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn’t feel like it.” This quote is sometimes used by the more pointy-haired to brow-beat their underlings into a sense of pride. And that’s complete B.S. Each of us, professional or otherwise, does his best work when he’s engaged and happy. A professional is someone who can do a competent job when he’s disengaged or unhappy. But he’s not going to do his best work.

(Read more…)

Quick and Dirty May Be Dirty, But Is It Quick?

I’ve been meaning for some time to write about how slow “quick and dirty” is, how misnamed the term is, how misguided are the hoards of managers (many of them former and current software developers) who embrace “quick and dirty” as a fast solution to pressing problems, as though it could ever deliver an actual solution.

I’ve been meaning for some time to write this. It took Lidor Wyssocky’s latest blog post to push me into it. And just in case someone out there couldn’t tell you were joking… (You were joking, right?) The sad truth is that “quick and dirty” may be dirty, but it’s never quick, at least not if you actually want to deliver a usable product.

(Read more…)

Dead Fish and Other Things People Wear

Lidor Wyssocky at The Mindset writes about “The Emperor’s New Clothes Syndrome.” This reminded me of a talk Tim Lister gave earlier this year at the Boston SPIN. “The problem is that although we know exactly what doesn’t work right and how it should be fixed, most of us will never say anything,” Lidor writes.

(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 I Hate Microsoft

Back in the Windows 95 days, I was a huge Microsoft proponent. When Netscape sicked the U.S. DoJ on them, I was on their side. What happened since then?

I’m a Linux user. That is to say, all of my home computers run Linux. The one at work doesn’t, but that’s a long story, which only serves to convince me that I want no Windows box at home. To say that I “hate” Microsoft may be a little hyperbole. But sometimes it does describe the way I feel. But not because Bill Gates is rich, as Bill Hilf is quoted as implying. On the contrary, the story of Bill Gates and MS-DOS and IBM is one of the most inspiring tales I’ve ever encountered. I dream of being a Bill Gates.

(Read more…)

My Performance Sucks, and I’m Proud of It!

Seriously, this week I had my annual performance review, and my manager pointed out several weak areas, and I have no plans to address these weak areas. In fact, as a professional, my answer to this performance review could even end up getting me fired.

(Read more…)

The Thought-Work Uncertainty Principle

It’s like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. You can’t see an electron, but you can measure it, to an extent. You can measure where the electron is or how fast it’s going, but not both. Because the act of measuring momentum throws off the position, and the act of measuring position throws off the momentum. (I know this is an oversimplification, but it will serve for the nonce.)

Thought-work is like that. (Read more…)

Professionals Should Make Mistakes

We usually think of professionals as being people who don’t make mistakes. Amateurs make mistakes, because they treat the work as a hobby, rather than as a profession. But ironically, professionals probably make more mistakes than amateurs do, and that’s how it should be, though different mistakes.

(Read more…)

The Dark Side of Professionalism: An Epiphany

Lidor Wyssocky talks about the dark side of professionalism. I was going to just leave a quick comment. But this subject brings so many thoughts, I could blog for a week just on these alone. Even narrowing the subject down to the most important point, it deserves a full blog post. So here it is.

(Read more…)

Practice Makes Perfect Professionals

What’s the largest number of people you’ve embarrassed yourself in front of?

(Read more…)