Been Born Yet – Creating a Rails Application for the first time
About three months ago I started to work on my first Ruby on Rails application. As the annoying “more of a designer than a developer” type of web person, I’ve always felt reliant on developer friends and colleagues in order to build anything more than static HTML/CSS & Javascript. While I acknowledge that I’m not an excellent ...
Beginning to understand
It is an epic commitment to bring someone into the world. I realized that the last few nights may be among the last Natalie & I have alone for years. Soon, we will be secondary in a way I hadn’t fully comprehended until now. My feelings, thoughts and well being will be less important than ...
Population 9 billion, all Borg
At the start of the movie Star Trek: First Contact, the Enterprise is trapped in a temporal wake in which a vision of the Earth, assimilated by the Borg is revealed. “Population 9 billion, all Borg“ exclaims Commander Data to the dismay of everyone on the bridge. Although this is bad for the people of ...
StoryWallApp: Digital Kanban Cards
As I’ve said before, most digital task systems don’t cut it for me. They’re either too opinionated or intrude on my life constantly to the point that, when coupled with my personality, I can’t get away from a to-do list that follows me around wherever we go. A colleague of mine, Toby Hede, has just released something which ...
The hidden cost of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach
Recently we’ve been adopting a more disciplined approach to launching websites in their minimum viable execution and then iterating improvements based on feedback. The idea behind this approach is explained well in Eric Reis’ new book The Lean Startup (which I recommend). The basic concept is to get to a point where you can learn ...
Unorganised or overworked? Battling the Never Ending To-Do List.
I’m not unorganized, I’m just overworked. For me, coming to this realization was pretty profound. As someone with a strong desire to be productive, it has really bothered me recently that I haven’t had the headspace to really deep dive into major project work. I’ve felt as if periods of blissful concentration and useful problem ...
Staying sharp as a web worker in a big corporate
Yesterday I listened to a podcast entitled ‘Putting employees first: The new war for talent in knowledge industries‘) – I’d suggest having a listen. The podcast is an interview with Professor Ian O. Williamson from Melbourne Business School. In it, Ian makes some really great points about the changing relationship between employers and employees in ...
Hosting a Jelly: Is co-working a better way to work?
Last Friday I was lucky enough to host a Melbourne Jelly at The University of Melbourne’s Woodward Conference centre. So far, everyone I’ve told about the Jelly has asked “What’s a Jelly?”, so let me explain.
“A bias towards action”
Today I’ve started to try and use the Action Method for organising myself. Mostly this has stemmed from listening to Scott Belseky talk at a Portable talk the other day.