There is much talk these days about building a product for a niche and making a lifestyle business out of it. Much of the online literature about starting up is focused on how to create some fantastic product which will gather millions of visitors and make you a billionaire, and the “new wave”, so to […]

Once or twice a year, the same thing happens to me. Suddenly, unexpectedly, I feel overwhelmed with simply too many different things to do. It’s hard to juggle a lot of unrelated balls, and I inevitably let a couple fall at the beginning, before I finally re-learn what I learnt the last time this happened, […]

In this article, Adrian Hon, picks up on the idea (originally from Gregory Bateson, I believe) that time pressure creates what Bateson calls false endpoints, that reduce the quality of the final solution. He also proposes that the development process in creative fields should be altered to encourage “play” as a way of generating solutions, […]

You’re a business guy, a manager, or you’re a developer. You work on a startup, or within a large corporation. You’re about to start on your company’s flagship product, or you’ve been asked to take project X forward. Or you could be anywhere in between those extremes. One question should be worrying you as you […]

Over at Business Of Software, there’s an article trying to present some approaches to hiring managers. This struck a chord with me, since I’ve been thinking of whether there was a way to translate my how to recognise a great programmer article into something similar for managers.
The difficulty I’ve hit, and which is not mentioned […]

When building something new, mistakes are unavoidable. To paraphrase the common saying, “if you’re not making any mistakes, you’re not trying hard enough”. There’s another saying which says that the difference between a good carpenter and a bad carpenter is not that the good carpenter doesn’t make any mistakes, but that he’s better at turning […]

If you’re in the office of a large or medium company right now, stop reading and look around. Chances are, there are a few managers about. Maybe they’re the embedded project manager types, sitting amongst their team. Maybe they’re the senior manager types, ensconced in their offices (or trying to construct one in the corner […]

When designing a feedback system to influence change (for instance, a status report to influence the project progress, or an attempt to lose weight or save money) it’s easy to fall into the trap of going for accuracy first. Countless hours can be wasted designing the perfect measure of progress, making sure it’s accurate as […]

There is a natural tendency in most people I know to gravitate towards voting as a management tool, particularly in situations where there is a vocal disagreement. This is probably because it’s part of the western culture to favour democracy, and because it works a lot of the time.
However, there are times when voting is […]

ComputerWorld just published an article called The 5 users you meet in hell (and one you’ll find in heaven). In this lovely piece, they argue from the point of view of helpdesk support workers, and describe various ways for support workers to “handle” difficult user species. It even describes a “Dream User” type that all […]

People compare programming languages all the time. Often, comparing languages can feel like comparing pieces of string (as in the expression “how long is a piece of string?”). There doesn’t seem to be much common vocabulary to rely on, particularly when explaining things to a non-programmer.
If you talk to computer scientists (the kind who like […]

How do you approach learning a huge new subject that you know nothing about?
Approaching a completely new, large topic can be intimidating. Making a complicated decision or analysing a complex situation can also be quite daunting. We humans tend to be naturally wary of what we don’t know. Experience makes us doubly wary when we […]

How do you recognise good programmers if you’re a business guy?
It’s not as easy as it sounds. CV experience is only of limited use here, because great programmers don’t always have the “official” experience to demonstrate that they’re great. In fact, a lot of that CV experience can be misleading. Yet there are a number […]

You know that feeling. You’re about to start on a new piece of work. Your gut tells you “this is going to take 2 months”. Your client/boss/friend tells you “no way, that’s just two weeks’ worth!” Truth is, your gut’s probably right. With experience, you become quite good at quickly estimating work. It’s a basic […]

In a comment to my post about the benefits of working from home, someone pointed out that one of the great difficulties of working from home is self-discipline, and asked how I approached that problem. That’s a very good question, and one that I myself struggle with sometimes, so I think it deserves a post […]

This is a story that I was told during my initial training in the consulting corporation where I worked for 4 years. It’s of course not specific to that place - it’s a very well known parable. I’ve met many people who never heard it, however, so here it is, with some commentary.
A man was […]

Here are seven reasons why I believe that working for yourself is better than working for someone else.

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What’s the best way to earn money? Many people suggest that “working hard” is the way to make money.
Well, I agree, but only to the extent that working hard is an essential element. If you don’t work hard at all, ever, you won’t ever make lots of money. Also, there is a huge caveat: work […]

In this article, I’ll assume that you’re familiar with Stephen Covey’s Four Quadrants approach, and present one technique to help apply one of the conclusions of this perspective on time management.
Stephen Covey splits our tasks into 4 quadrants, by importance and urgency:

Quadrant 1: important and urgent
Quadrant 2: important but not urgent
Quadrant 3: urgent but not […]

One of the things you learn in a corporate environment as well as in a small business environment is that there’s always too much to do.
Some people react to this by working harder, and trying to get everything done within the day. They become workaholics, obsessed, with little social life. Although I’m definitely an obsessive […]