Programming insights to Storytelling, it's all here.
There is a moment in programming where you have to make the transition. From incompetent to competent, from worst to better, from junior to, well, less junior. Unfortunately there is no specific time when it occurs. For some it comes very early on, for others it comes very late. Some never even experience it. But the realization comes suddenly and often it is followed by shame. That moment is when you realize that you are the problem.
Only others can use the word "Smart" to describe you. They have to do it with their own will, in their own time. You can't force it. The smarter you feel, the more you want to use it. As you perform great deeds, the closer it comes to your lips. But you know you can't use it, because the more you want to say it, the less it describes you. And when you say it, you are no longer smart.
A few years ago, a meeting was held about an issue the QA team was facing. The JIRA work-flow had become too overwhelming. It was tedious to create the hundreds of sub-tasks that sometimes accompanied each feature development. The summer was approaching, so the decision was made to use the resources from the summer internship programs to snatch one of those under graduate and have him build a new system, independent of jira, to solve the problem.
Developers use the word crud to describe a very simple project. For example, Stackoverflow is just a crud, I can build it over the weekend. Facebook is just a crud, I can build it over the weekend. Even Snapchat is just a crud, I can build it over the weekend. In a sense, it is true. But as the project grows in importance, so does its complexity.
What happens when you can't work anymore? If you work at a company and your department is crippled because you were sick, it is a sign of bad management on their part.
The more I focus on one project, the more I find it appealing to start this cool new thing in the back in my head. The further I get into the technical details of this difficult task I am working on, the easier the other idea in the back of my mind seems.
I'm not one to make resolutions every new year, but I often find myself asking others about their new goals for the year. Every year, I send wishes for fortune, success, or just a better life without putting much weight behind it. It is a courtesy or just the standard holiday greeting. But if there is one thing I want to wish to others and myself and actually mean it, it will be to make this year a year of personal responsibility.
Machine learning powered ads are here to stay. I'm not endorsing it in any way, but I see its ultimate power over any other method currently in use. And I fear this is how it is going to stay for at least the near future.
Have you ever wondered how amazon always seems to know what you want to order? The way those recommendations just pop up after you purchase an item and it is a must have product? The same thing happens when you think of a person and suddenly they appear on your Facebook list of people you may know. Type only two characters on google search and it will complete it with the full query you were thinking about. This is the state of technology today. It is powerful enough to kind of predict our next move.
I usually am very excited about tech. I spend my days reading and being distracted by tech news. In the past few years my curiosity has increased dramatically, but at the same time, my will to buy a new product has decreased considerably.
