Entries from August 2007 ↓

Planet Ajaxian is your one stop for all things Ajax and Web 2.0. It aggregates content from multiple blogs and gives you your dose of the latest on the Web 2.0 / Web Apps scene. It’s filled with many posts everyday, so I quickly scan my RSS feed for it and choose if I want to read something, but if you want to get a grip on what new  startups are doing and what you can expect to come next, this is your definite source.

Over to Planet Ajaxian.

IBM developerWorks has a nice beginners article about how to write code that others (and you, 3 months down the lane) can understand.

The six tips are:

1. Comment like a smart person.
2. Use #define a lot. No, a LOT.
3. Don’t use variable names that will mock you.
4. Do error checking. You make errors. Yes, you.
5. “Premature optimization is the root of all evil.” - Donald Knuth
6. Don’t be too clever by half.

The resources section at the end of the article lists some good food for after thought! If you want to improve your code, go check out the article!

I saw the latest Shahrukh Khan movie Chak De India last Friday. I really enjoyed the whole movie - the story was simple, characters full of personality, there was humor, defeat, victory and  the game of hockey! Watching the movie, I kept thinking about how it relates to leadership and management in today’s times.

Here are a few points:

• Nothing is better for you than your biggest failure
• If you have the talent, passion and commitment, you can make underdogs win
• Unless pushed to limits, your team will not perform at its best
• People always want easy things, and it is difficult to overcome cynicism
• Be strict and straight with your team. You don’t have to always be nice with them
• In short, be ruthlessly compassionate!
• Strategy is important - know the team members individual strengths and weaknesses
• There is no alternate to hard work, not even smart work!
• If you are after a cause big enough, you will always have people to support you
• Follow your heart!

I am sure there are many more meanings! What did you find?

I was reading Ramit Sethi’s post about his first book - Recruit or Die: How Any Business Can Beat the Big Guys in the War for Young Talent, and found some interesting insights. I have been blaming today’s young graduates for running after money and material things. I found some reasons why they do this.

• They feel guilty. They feel guilty that their parents invested a lot of money on their education. And to make up for that, they need to make money fast.
• They measure their worth by comparing how much they earn with their peers - especially classmates.
• They want prestigious corporate careers and quickly move through jobs to reach there.

All this makes me wonder, just when will we start living our own lives??? 

Frank Wiles wrote about how companies make mistake by hiring average programmers. It is well known that expert programmers are way better than average programmers. More importantly, average programmers produce worse code and tail spin a project as the Slashdot discussion goes on.

Of course, expert programmers do a great job. But it’s so damn difficult to find (and keep) expert programmers. I have seen just so many people come to programming to make money - rather than to invent something or express their creativity. Simple headcounts will get a company more billing, but less satisfaction to the developers. But I guess most companies don’t really care for the later…