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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
The web is enough.
Recently at work I’ve found myself being pulled in a few directions by some departures and reshuffles and this has made me think about something I haven’t had to really articulate before so I thought I’d give it a go here.
Do more of what makes you happy at work
On the weekend I attended an event called Trampoline. One of the speakers, Rod Sherwin, suggested among other things that in order to improve our satisfaction with our jobs we should analyze what it is about them we like so that we can actively pursue ways to get more time to spend on those tasks.