Computers
Make an Impact
Recently, it has come to my attention that not all developers have the ability to make an impact.
But that begs the question, what does making an impact mean?
Making an impact.
It's coming out the door - swinging. So much of a developers role, especially in a start up, is determined by their first 3 days. Day 1, yes, come in, settle down, welcome aboard. Day 2, start asking all of the questions you had from day 1, and for heavens sake, do something besides look busy.
Day 3, you better have your shit together, and you should be swinging for the fences.
Don't ask for something to do, demand a project. And while you're doing, don't ask questions the very second you think you don't know something.
Look for the answer first.
It's this mentality that I find so damn frustrating - all of the answers should be in the code base. Run a damn grep on your project base, and find an answer. There's no excuse for any mid, to upper mid level programmer to be asking stupid questions. By stupid question, I'm refering to in the inabilty to traverse the code base in search of functions, methods, answers.
Make an impact, 3 days.
Breathalyzer for your Gmail
Personally, I think this is a pretty neat little gizmo. Basically, in a blog post at: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-in-labs-stop-sending-mail-you-later.html
All you have to do is answer a few simple math problems, and boom, off it goes. I think the idea here is it gives you a second chance to reconsider your email. And, if you're too drunk to think of an answer, perhaps you should wait till the next day to send it.
I think it's neat, and of course, you can turn it on and off, so if anyone is complaining about that, well, they're just silly.
PHP & MySQL Tip #3 – EAV Modeling w/ PHP & MySQL
PHP & MySQL Tip #3
I want to share with some of you an easy way to set up your database design in a very flexible and reliable EAV like model.
Problem Solving – guide to PHP programming and debugging.
Problem solving forms part of thinking.
Interesting... so, if so many web devs and IT personnel have such a problem with problem solving, perhaps they're just not thinking? Let's explore some of the problems I've seen people encounter, and how I was baffled they lacked the problem solving skills to complete their tasks.