As humans, we have a tendency to dream and to worry about what we don’t have, and it can be easy to lose sight of the really wonderful things that are present in our lives. Many of us are lucky enough to have a job, access to clean water, and the freedom of knowing where … Continued
In the book Zero to One, a secret is described as an answer to the question, “what valuable idea is nobody working on?” Do you have a secret like that? It could be something as simple as a better way of implementing a class, or a completely different way of seeing the world. This week, … Continued
Keep moving. Even when it’s scary. Even when you feel like your legs are tired or your brain can’t handle another task, find a way to keep moving. Don’t mistake forward momentum for ignoring self-care; this theme is about perseverance. On a bicycle, you reap the reward of perseverance. At first, hills are daunting. Long distances … Continued
Over time, we lose connections with people that were important in our lives. This week, reach out to someone you were close to, and catch up. That’s what I’ll be doing.
We’ve been running pretty hard the past few weeks, and many of the events we’ve been working so hard to prepare for have now happened and are past. Now that we have the chance again, let’s catch our breath, take the time to evaluate how things went, and then look to what’s coming next. We’ve … Continued
On Saturday, I found myself overwhelmed with emotion at the Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance annual gala. I heard stories from survivors who overcame tremendous odds to beat the terrible disease and watched as family members sobbed openly as we remembered those whose lives were taken far too soon. Less than 24 hours later, I found … Continued
World Backup Day was last week, on March 31st. Have a backup. In the world of software, losing work can range from mildly annoying to catastrophic. A backup can save you from that peril. However, having a backup and finding out at the most critical time it is not viable is almost worse than having no … Continued
This past weekend I headed out to my parents’ place for a relaxing long weekend. Our family consists of me, my two brothers, my Mom and Dad, and two significant others. We’re not a huge family by any means, but getting us all together under one roof is something that generally only happens at Christmas. We … Continued
This weekend I was working through some especially painful asynchronous Reactive Java/Android API processing. I battled all the standard things when dealing with threads like when to properly synchronize, how to properly callback, and when to interrupt. I weighed the tradeoffs and in the end I built a system that had fewer interrupts. The cost … Continued
As developers, learning a new language isn’t really a step outside our comfort zone. Sure, it may be difficult or uncomfortable, but it’s still well within our wheelhouse. This week, try something completely different. Try something outside your usual set of skills. You’re a mechanic? Great. Try floral arrangement. A painter? Fantastic. Build a bird … Continued
This is my experience from MinneDemo 22. My team, presented a demo for our new app, TwistJam. Everything was great, except there was no music or any sound during our speech because of an issue with an audio cable. And we didn’t have a backup plan. Considering TwistJam is a music app, it would have been much better if … Continued
