Develpreneur: Become a Better Developer and Entrepreneur

There is an old joke about sweeping consequences in IT related to wildcard commands like "rm -rf *."  However, there are ways to avoid getting bit by them. For example, we can do test runs and subset queries before doing the real thing.  While it is undoubtedly faster to rip off one of those commands, it is also dangerous.  This episode looks into some tricks of the trade I learned after countless times of being tripped up by this concept. Sometimes Easy Creates Sweeping Consequences A database is the best tool for examples of doing something quick and dirty that ends up costly.  We can see this even with resource usage before more significant effects like data loss or corruption.  The old SQL command of "SELECT * FROM ..." is one of the first many people learn and the biggest culprit.  We do not see any problem with a table with a few rows.  However, once we move to millions of rows, we can quickly turn this quick call into a time-consuming one that ties up a lot of resources.  Even worse, we can add a join or two without constraints and bring a system to its knees.  It is easier to grab all the columns for a quick browse, but that can also drain more resources than desired. Check Your Expectations The database example is nice and clean because we can always add limiting constraints or do counts of result size.  These tools allow us to validate our query meets our expectations without fully running the query.  For example, we can do a select before a delete is run and ensure that the records we will delete are the ones we desire to remove.  Likewise, we can select before we update.  We can also do smaller selects to determine the result set size before joining those queries.  These are just a few examples; we can apply this to our other coding efforts and most life situations. 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 continue the series about errors and recovering with an excellent example of acceptable loss and when to walk away.  We see these appear in negotiations regularly.  They are shown in movies, television shows, and in real life.  We walk away regularly without even realizing it. So yes, when you decide not to purchase an item or enter a store because of products or pricing, you are walking away from the negotiation. Determine Acceptable Loss Up Front The key to being able to walk away from any negotiation is to determine your breaking point beforehand.  This preparation allows us to detach emotion from the negotiation and have a way to hold ourselves accountable.  It can prompt the internal conversation of "I thought we would not accept that..."  That one can be a lifeline when emotions start to kick in.  Likewise, we can create a list of wants/needs to help us avoid giving in to speed up the process or prevent conflict.  Those are all "tricks" used by good negotiators. Good After Bad We all have a built-in desire to avoid loss.  That is why the idea of having invested too much to stop investing in a person or project is a common pitfall.  We have this false equivalence of thinking we can invest more in a loss and turn it into a win.  Likewise, we often make the mistake of thinking we have spent so much we have to continue.  Our point of no return needs to be set before starting a project.  That is why this story works so well.  I could have quickly decided that my time was worth X dollars.  THen, when faced with a change in value, I would have had a hard line to measure against.  These bad habits involve emotion and can be avoided if we think them through beforehand. 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."

This episode looks at a marketing campaign and my lack of paying based on key performance indicators or KPIs.  This was a slightly costly mistake and, thus, one that sticks in my memory.  The mistakes that cause us some level of pain are also the easiest to remember. However, that is not the only lesson to learn from this past mistake. KPI - Key Performance Indicators Any form of sales or marketing campaign can be a black box when we do not set KPI values.  There must be a way to measure success (or failure), and our metrics are the key performance indicators.  For example, most advertising campaigns focus on clicks or leads for a measure of potential additional sales.  Likewise, there is a KPI referred to as impressions that is to measure how many people see the ad. Pay On Delivery The most significant challenge in any transaction is matching delivery and payment.  You can see this on e-bay and Etsy sales, among other similar sites.  We want to ensure that we get what we pay for or are paid for our product/service.  However, we can take a "trust them" stance and pay upfront or provide a service before payment.  Those options allow us to get burned, and I was in this case.  Trust is something to be earned.  Therefore, we should avoid cash upfront situations unless we have reason to trust the other party. 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, our trip down memory lane stops at my first professional interview and when I learned to ask questions.  It is thought by many that those that know never ask.  However, that is far from the truth.  There are always details to be learned.  Likewise, good questions can impress others in an interview or other assessment situation.  Smart people still ask questions; they ask insightful ones. You Provide Insight When You Ask Questions This story is about an interview, and that is the number one situation in our lives where we want to provide a lot of information in a short period.  A good interview goes deep quickly and gives the audience a chance to understand us to some degree, not simply meet us.  Therefore,  everything we say or do not say will be used to evaluate some facet of our personality, skills, and drive.  While that can be stressful, it should also help us realize that we need to be focused and intentional.  Research is helpful before we go into an interview and can alleviate some of our worries.  On the other hand, we cannot use what we learn to short circuit the interview process.  Instead, we need to use that to go deeper. Learn What To Ask All of this may seem confusing and even counterintuitive.  Thus, it helps to simplify the recommendation.  The goal of an interview is to get both parties to understand each other better in a short time.  Research about the others and related organizations can help you get past surface "get to know you" items.  Do not use that to shorten the interview.  Instead, use that time to ask more probing or leading questions.  A simple example is if you know the interviewer will be your manager, you can skip talking about that arrangement and instead ask about their management style.  What you know can save time on introductions.  Then you get to talk about meatier topics and discussions that will help both sides of the table. 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 look at another childhood error and its somewhat humorous result as an example of how to plan for acceptable risk.  We often think of that as something where you are willing to pay the price.  However, we also need to examine mitigating the consequences to where they are acceptable.  It is sort of like placing a monetary bet.  There is a limit we can lose, but maybe a side bet will help reduce the overall loss.  Precautions And Acceptable Risk Preventive action is an excellent way to adjust acceptable risk.  We see examples of this in beta testing and limited releases in the business world.  Yes, the product may fail. But, on the other hand, we have less invested and less potential for negative backlash.  That allows us to push out a new product and consider it an acceptable risk rather than delay release or continue to redesign or refine it.  Testing Theories and Risks Momentum is so often an underlying item of concern in our discussions.  This story is no different.  Sometimes the best way to approach a novel idea is incremental.  That allows us to verify our assumptions without building as much momentum and even limiting potential loss or harm.  However, sometimes we have to reach certain minimums of progress or speed to provide a proper test of our idea.  We can't attempt to jump over a portion of a gap.  Likewise, testing the result of an impact is useless if the impact is so slow as to be unnoticeable. Nevertheless, we can take incremental steps towards our solution.  They need to be adequately sized to be effective. 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."

A lack of situational awareness is just one of many youthful mistakes we make.  Yet, it is the root of tons of lessons.  We see it as children shining they are immortal in some way.  However, sometimes there is just a misunderstanding of risks involved in actions or environments.  Some of these same mistakes can hit us much later in life and come from incorrect assumptions. Situational Awareness Cures Many Ills Sun Tzu points out in "The Art of War" that the best way to win a battle is to avoid it.  Life is full of similar situations.  We are often faced with a challenge that is best avoided.  That is why we spend so much time and money on preventative medicine and other precautions.  Why deal with consequences when you can avoid the source event or action instead? Take A Breath And Pause A scene that often occurs in action movies is a sort of calm before the storm.  The hero or heroes are overlooking the enemy territory or compound.  Then we have some sort of planning scene or montage.  A great example of this is the 80's TV show the "A-Team" where there was always a pre-battle planning frenzy.  We need to do something like this on a regular basis in our lives.  When we take a few moments to gather ourselves we avoid rookie mistakes."  This process may include running through a checklist or simply surveying the path(s) ahead.  In any case, those moments taken to pause and plan can often be a highly valuable investment. 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."

This episode covers one of the more dramatic points of my youth where a lack of caution lead to me being declared dead.  However, the declaration was hardly from a medical professional.  Nevertheless, the impact to others was a lesson in itself to consider the source for any messages.  I digress, this focus is on the initial mistake and rushing forward without proper analysis. Lack Of Caution Can Lead You Over A Cliff We often talk about momentum and how that can work in our favor.  However, it can also work against us.  Boxers and similar fighters will tell you how you must maintain balance and not over extend.  History is also full of examples of momentum gone too far.  The day I got stuck and fell out of a tree is a nice and concise example of realizing too late that you crossed a line you did not want to.  There are countless areas in life where this applies. Proper Level Of Analysis There is another side to this where we spend too much time analyzing and then we lose windows of opportunity.  Thus, we have to find that "happy medium" where we are able to see far enough ahead to avoid potholes.  There is also a level of risk we need to be aware of.  We will have times of clear sailing that allow us to run ahead at full steam.  Likewise, there are dark and cloudy times where we need to slow down and proceed with caution.  A lack of caution in those latter situations can cause needless pain and suffering.  The trick is to be aware of your environment and whether it is safe or requires caution. 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 explore another auto-related mistake in my past in this episode to spend time discussing a need to highlight features.  In fact, an argument can be made that unknown features are not features at all.  For example, I can give you ten dollars, but if I do so by hiding where it cannot be found that is not helpful.  Am I even giving you anything in that case? Highlight Features, Users Want To Know The feature in our story of a handicapped parking space is one we expect all parking lots to have.  However, it is only useful when people know where those spots are.  While the story has a special situation that hides the feature, I have seen plenty of similar situations where these spots are poorly marked at best.  Thus, it becomes too easy for that feature to be lost to those that can use it.  This same situation occurs at times with VIP or other parking spots/areas that are not marked well.  People that might want or need to use the feature miss out because they do not know how to access it.  When we create a feature for our customers, we need to make sure they are notified of its existence. Make The Work Matter Every feature big and small requires effort.  There is planning, design, implementation, and testing that goes into every feature.  It makes no sense to use those resources on a feature only to see it never get used.  We need to consider communication through navigation, notifications, and other methods.  Thus, our users can easily determine where and how to use the features we provide.  When we fail to highlight features we might as well have never created them. 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."

This episode is a tale that shows us that we should question everything.  Yes, even our assumptions.  Actually, our assumptions first.  We have so many sources of information available and yet we still tend to rely on only a few.  Whether that is our point-of-view or intelligence gained from "reliable sources", we give them too much credit.  Everyone makes mistakes and resting too much on an error can be a recipe for disaster. Question Everything - Even Your Givens When we talked about anti-patterns, we saw that a lack of facts could lead us down the wrong path.  This situation often came from a lack of reliable communication.  We could also see it when the requirements were not properly or fully defined.  This obstacle does not stick to software design.  It can appear in nearly every decision and problem-solving situation.  That is at the core of the idea of the fog of war and how it impacts decisions.  We have that "fog" throughout our lives and often do not realize it. New Paths And Avoid Embarrassment When we put aside assumptions we open up new paths for a solution.  The story I share is a good example of assumptions blocking us from a good solution.  When we shut our options down, we may end up forcing a complicated or wrong solution.  Instead, we need to know when we are ready to question everything and find alternate paths to our destination.   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."

The first mistake I want to share in this season is when I chose a major in college. While I was young and naive, it still is a teachable moment to prepare for meetings. This incident was not my last mistake around meetings. However, it is a good launching point for those further discussions. The error covered here is also one that may set the stage for later mistakes.  We will discuss those as the season progresses. Prepare For Meetings Large and Small No meeting is too small. That mantra can help you avoid all sorts of mistakes in life. I have found that we often discount a meeting or discussion, fail to prepare, and then wish we could get a do-over. This situation is not just one that occurs in business. How often has your personal life included a flippant or off-the-cuff remark that set the wrong tone? When we over-prepare, we will not regret it as much as when we under prepare. But, of course, that also means we should be confident enough to cancel or reschedule when we realize we are not adequately prepared. Decisions Matter While we focus on our need to prepare for meetings, there is also the idea of decisions making a difference. We may be asked our opinion or select a path without realizing it. Maybe this episode will help keep us all more alert as to when we are being asked to make a choice. The roads we do not travel are almost as important as the ones that we do.   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."