Develpreneur: Become a Better Developer and Entrepreneur

We often talk about momentum and incremental improvement as substantial steps towards progress.  However, we have to take action to benefit from those.  Thus, we have another facet of failing to take a step.  Not only do we not make any progress, but we also find ourselves in the same situation weeks, months, or years later.  On the other hand, a little activity can put us in a far better position for the future. Incremental Improvement Leads To Significant Progress There are many examples of little steps covering substantial ground.  Progress and incremental improvement add up to a much better situation over time.  For example, if you want to get better at situps, you can start with one a day.  Even if you add one to that each week, you should be easily capable of 50+ situps after a year.  That may be a long time, but it is better than still being stuck at zero pushups a year from now.  While that can be a noticeable physical difference, it holds for many other pursuits.  Anything that requires time or repetition can be addressed this way.  Even writing a book can be achieved one page at a time.  Most of our achievements are not done in one bug effort but are the culmination of many smaller steps. The Lesson Learned I have lived enough years to recognize numerous potential goals that were not achieved (yet) because I failed to get started.  If only I had started, I could play guitar, juggle, or have commercial software among my skills and achievements.  While those opportunities are in the past, that does not mean they are lost.  That makes our action similar to planting a tree.  The best time was years ago, but the second best time is to do it today. If you like this season, you will probably like Scott Adams' book, "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life."

Sometimes the obvious escapes us.  The suggestion to save your work often and habitually is one of those apparent recommendations.  It is a newer phenomenon as we have to worry about data loss through various means.  Likewise, we have a virtual workplace, and the idea of our work not being done until it is committed is new.  The latest generations may not see it that way, but "us old folks" do.  There was no need to "save your work" on a typewriter or a written journal.  When you performed an action, it was done.  The idea of saving or committing our work is a new challenge. Save Your Work - Avoid Loss First and foremost, we must consider saving our work before an application dies or power is interrupted.  While these occurrences are not necessarily typical, they are destructive when we fail to save early and often.  We also might run into a situation where we thought our work was done and saved, but it was not.  That can be frustrating when you send a partial document in an email or cause a loss of valuable time when debugging old source code.  When in doubt, just hit save again.  The time you save may be your own. The Lesson Learned I am not sure how many people are surprised that save your work rose to the top suggestion for debugging.  While this is often a technical and complex task, it also has simple facets.  That is a lesson in itself.  We can overthink problems and skip right past the simplest solution.  Often that simple step gets us to our solution quickly and easily.  However, we must accept that sometimes we make silly mistakes, or human error enters the equation.  Next time you are perplexed by a problem, step back to square one and ensure you save your work first. If you like this season, you will probably like Scott Adams' book, "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life."

There is a great truth among those that have been successful.  One must take a risk to succeed.  The safe road is too popular.  Thus, most people take it, and you will travel a path of high traffic.  The nature of success in a noticeable way is that you are among a minority of the population.  For example, we can all tie our shoes, and most take a common path.  That is why no one talks about their success in tying shoes.  I guess it is important to note I am talking about Success as a significant achievement, not simply completion or avoiding failure. We Must Accept Risk To Succeed There is an investment required for almost any success.  Likewise, we can lose what we invest, whether time, money, or relationships.  That equates to risk.  While we can mitigate risk, we can never eliminate it completely.  Unfortunately, it is hard to argue that we do not gain larger success without a corresponding risk.  Therefore, we have to risk to succeed in a meaningful way.  That gets us to the point of this story.  We have to try out an idea if we are ever going to take advantage of it. The Lesson Learned The road of life is littered with ideas, some brilliant, that never saw the light of day.  Some genius got so far as to think about how that idea could change the world and then let it die a horrible death.  No one will come to you,  pluck out your good ideas and implement them.  Thus, we have to take a step (or leap) of faith in ourselves and take a shot at making the idea a reality.  That can be risky.  However, you have to take a risk to succeed. If you like this season, you will probably like Scott Adams' book, "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life."

We often feel like we can not get away from work and those that want our time.  However, multiple contact options can easily be overlooked.  That can cause delays and information loss.  The ease of communication in the modern world should not convince us to overlook the need for contingencies and other channels.  Any time we rely on one path, it can be blocked and stop progress.  That goes for our available communication channels as well as any physical path. We All Have Multiple Contact Options To Share While we all have preferred ways to communicate, we also have other options.  None of us are so special that we can ignore multiple contact options for those that are most important to us.  Yes, that can even mean our customers and coworkers.  We can look at the negatives, such as getting a call at an inconvenient time.  However, we might also get a call that says we need to stay home from work today due to weather or some other emergency.  Not all "surprise" news is negative.  In any case, we are always better off when we can choose what to ignore rather than have the choice forced on us. The Lesson Learned There is value in having at least a couple of communication channels you are comfortable with. These can be a primary and emergency or a 1A and 1B option.  The essential point is to have more than one just in case the other goes down.  The message you do not miss could be the one that changes your life. If you like this season, you will probably like Scott Adams' book, "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life."

We provide many ways to become a better developer.  One of the best ways to do hits over the long run is to stay healthy.  Big things like cancer and chronic disease can disrupt your career.  However, smaller things like the flu or seasonal cold can also knock you out for days or weeks.  That unplanned "time off" can cause a sizeable setback.  Likewise, it can derail time-critical plans and cause missed opportunities. Stay Healthy As A Good Investment There is a cost to doing healthy things.  It takes time to exercise and eat well.  Regular rest is often seen as directly opposed to the high octane lives of the driven.  While less sleep and focusing on your projects can be useful in the short term, that will catch up to you.  You effectively roll the dice when you skip over healthy habits to hit that deadline.  That can be an effective way to squeeze every minute out of your day.  On the other hand, it can lead to a "surprise" illness that takes out days or even years of your life.  A healthy body is much more likely to shrug aside illness of all sorts and avoid chronic issues. The Lesson Learned We have natural alerts to help us stay healthy.  Our bodies will slow, grow tired, or send pain signals when we fail to care for them.  Those signals are warning signs that often can help us change course long before things become unmanageable.  It makes no sense for us to spend so much time looking for signs that a project is going off track and ignore our lives doing the same.  If you need more motivation to stay healthy, then look at the articles that link it to wealth, such as this one. If you like this season, you will probably like Scott Adams' book, "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life."

In this episode, we share a story that shows us to take the high road.  It is a road less traveled but one worth the effort.  While shortcuts and quick fixes are often mistakes, shadowy paths can also be far more costly than expected.  There is far more at stake than a single goal.  Our reputation and its impact on our future must also be considered. Take The High Road - A Worthy Plan The error of this episode comes from a partner who (unwittingly) shifted his hard work to me.  While it is not a mistake I made, it is one that I witnessed and shows us consequences.  I gained a client for years that only came through his foolish approach to business and trust.  This story also points to how we approach the delivery of bad news.  Sometimes we over-think the situation, hedge our message, or try to hide it.  In the end, it is often much better to deliver the news directly and clearly.  When we water it down, we show a lack of trust in the recipient.  Thus, we start in a weak position for good communication. The Lesson Learned When we have two paths to take, take the high road.  Honesty and clarity will win out over deception and trickery.  The best client relationships are partners; we cannot have that without trust.  They trusted us enough to hire us in the first place. So why would they suddenly bail out on that trust over disappointing news?  Even if our mistake led to the bad news, it is better to lay things out clearly and avoid getting stuck in a web of deceit. If you like this season, you will probably like Scott Adams' book, "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life."

Project completion is the focus of this episode.  We discuss how to start and implement a solution but ignore finishing.  That changes in this story.  We look at how "moving the goal line" can be expensive and self-defeating.  On the contrary, we are often far better off declaring victory and putting a stake in the ground.  That gives us a solid foundation to build on.  When we do not, we often find ourselves on shifting sand.  That causes delays, overruns, and unneeded frustration. Project Completion - Declare Victory One of the essential facets of the Agile Manifesto is delivering working software.  That seems like something that should go unsaid.  However, we see that being an issue in far too many projects.  When there is a moving goalpost for a milestone or completion that vexes us.  Likewise, it causes delays, confusion and pummels morale.  However, those are just the highlights.  There is much to be gained by declaring something "done" and building on that.  The label and related processes help solidify what we have and stabilizes the solution.  When we delay completion for "small additions," we block our solution from getting to a static and stable state.  It is not different from teasing someone with a gift and constantly taking it away again. The Lesson Learned Stick to the plan.  We have requirements, design, and implementation plans to keep our focus.  That includes Agile projects where we have an undefined number of sprints to get to project completion.  Rather than "sneaking" in scope creep, we need to work towards completion first.  That allows us a better approach to project completion and then a focus on the next phase or version.  We can declare victory, take a deep breath, plan our next moves, and then progress with a fresh mental start.  Never underestimate the value of such milestones. If you like this season, you will probably like Scott Adams' book, "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life."

We dive into the exciting world of accounting in this episode.  Timely billing is the focus, and a worst-case scenario teaches the lesson.  While the mistake is not directly mine in this story, I was a first-hand witness and deeply involved.  That experience cemented my habit of providing regular status and gave me limits for billing flexibility.  These steps have helped me avoid much loss and frustration over the years. Timely Billing - And Payment Terms Billing is not the only thing we need to do.  There also needs to be follow-up and expectations set for when they should be paid.  When those limits are exceeded, then we must have a plan for proceeding in a risk-appropriate manner.  It is helpful to have in the back of our mind that someone might try to skip out on their bill entirely.  That can be devastating for large write-offs. Therefore, we must stay aware of what we have at risk as we move forward with a project or customer. The Lesson Learned Not all customers are equal, nor are they all ethical.  That can lead to situations where our time is wasted partially or entirely.  When money is paid out to resources, as in this story, we can be out cash and time.  That can devastate a business and even impact how much trust others have in us.  Therefore, we must be as mindful of the commitments others have made to us as we are those we make to others. If you like this season, you will probably like Scott Adams' book, "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life."

Few things cause excitement like the phrase, "status reporting."  Yes, I know you are already quivering from anticipation, but that is our topic.  This episode looks at how much confusion could have been avoided (and some loss) through better use of this communication form.  Accordingly, this is an excellent lesson to learn early in your career. Status Reporting - Staying on the Same Page The best reason for regular communication in a project is to ensure everyone stays on the same page.  A lack of cohesion in a team is a common reason for failures, over-runs, and low quality.  While status reporting may feel or seem like busy work, it is not.  There is a noticeable value in even the most basic update that provides high-level bullet points.  The typical approach of "What we did," "What we plan," and "Blockers and challenges" can be covered in minutes.  However, the information can save hours, days, or weeks.  The story in this episode is just one such example. The Lesson Learned Project status and plans are the primary measures of progress and milestones.  These combine to give a picture of how things are going and the focus during a given period.  While that may seem vague or unhelpful, it is not.  Status reporting provides a method for refining and clarifying project work before it is too late.  Thus, a failure to keep in touch through the tools is a recipe for disaster. If you like this season, you will probably like Scott Adams' book, "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life."

Our approach to becoming a better developer requires planning.  Likewise, we need smart scheduling to hit our targets.  That is the focus of this episode.  I look back at a time when I overloaded my schedule and ended up stressing out.  That led to more harm than good in many ways.  Thus, we need to look at building in ways to allow our schedule to be flexible and adjust to life events. Smart Scheduling 101 - Add "Wiggle Room" A rigid structure is more likely to break when it is shown resistance.  Think of a dry spaghetti noodle.  Once you apply pressure, it is likely to break or crack.  However, there are similar things (like a wet noodle) that are flexible and more difficult to break.  Those are examples of how a rigid schedule is more likely to break while less rigidity makes it more likely to last.  While it is nice to be able to fill every block of our calendar, it is also not practical.  Reality forces us to accept that unforeseen events and circumstances arise that must be addressed.  Those either break our schedule or our schedule must allow for them.  Smart scheduling means including space to soak up those unplanned events. The Lesson Learned Missing a planned target can be minor or major.  However, adding stress to almost any activity makes it more draining.  Thus, we are less productive overall when we add stress to our schedule.  That leads to lower quality or other increased costs that are better to avoid. If you like this season, you will probably like Scott Adams' book, "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life." Edited with BlogPad Pro