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digital reading list

Are You an Athlete?

Feb 9th, 2010
by Benjamin Hysell.
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Lord Stanley’s Cup

I grew up playing hockey.  My parents had me on the ice when I was two, and I have been playing ever since.  Growing up, winters were spent traveling every weekend throughout upstate New York, and weeknights were spent at practices in rinks that only had three solid walls, the forth being a tarp.

Grippen ice rink, the rink I grew up playing on that only had three solid walls. Sadly, it is now closed forever after the flood of 2006. Picture credit NOAA.gov

Summers were spent traveling from hockey camp to hockey camp, picking up new techniques, and learning edge control from a figure skating coach who emigrated from the USSR.  Once we were home in the summer my brother and I would break out the street hockey nets and start pickup games in front of our house.

Dr. Smushkin's springboards used to teach coordination and muscle control . Photo credit http://www.hockeyagility.com

It is safe to say hockey dominated my childhood.

The Transition

After high school I stopped playing competitively.  Now, twice a week I break out the equipment.  Pickup hockey is on Sunday night, and Tuesday is league night.  My league team won the championship last fall, yes I am a member of a championship team, a championship beer league team.

Transitioning from competitive hockey to a beer league can be jarring at first.  For one, no more contact.  The game completely changes when you know you are not going to be hit.  Secondly, the amount of ice I see in any given season is drastically less; there are no practices in a beer league.

There are a couple of upsides to playing in a beer league.  Since I know I’m not going to be hit anymore I participate in a lot more risky plays than I did in the past.  Fancy passes, dekes between the legs, having a little “fun” on the ice talking to the players on the other team, most of these things would have been a “no no” in competitive hockey.  Now, however, since nothing is really on the line every game is a fun game where I can go out and really enjoy playing for the sake of playing.

Plus, let’s not forget about the beer in the locker room after the game.  One really couldn’t call it a beer league if there wasn’t beer in the locker room after the game.

I’m not longer striving to be an athlete in hockey, but I am still out there enjoying the game I grew up playing.

The Athlete’s Mentality

Athlete’s practice day in day out, hit the gym, run on their off days, and are constantly preparing for their next game.  Beer league players pick up the equipment once or twice a week, enjoy a relaxing game, and get up the next morning and head into work.  For most of us we can no longer be athletes on the field, but we can each take our athletic mentality and apply it now where it counts the most, in the office.

Do you train and compete like an athlete in the office, or are you merely showing up, collecting a paycheck, and putting in a beer league performance?

To see if you are a beer leaguer or still working on making it to the pros ask yourself a few questions:

Do you read about your industry?

I feel reading is key to staying a head in software development, a topic I have touched on before in My Digital Reading List, http://benjaminhysell.com/archive/2009/01/my-digital-reading-list/.

  • Athletes read about their industry in their spare time.
  • Beer leaguers enjoy not knowing about what is happening outside of their cubical.

Do you try new techniques, software packages, and play with new hardware?

Our industry moves fast, staying on top of what others are doing, researching, and implementing is key to staying ahead of the curve.

  • Athletes are always playing with the latest and greatest, they know when to stay with what works, or jump to newer technologies.
  • Beer leaguers wait to be told what hardware and software they should use.

Do you try to learn about tools and techniques outside of your core field of competence?

There are a lot of other industries out there besides software development,

::I know I was shocked too when I heard this news, but there really is!::

…what can we learn from those industries and bring back to our own?  The restaurant industry has been working with and managing teams of people for decades, do they have tools or techniques we could then apply to software development?

  • Athletes learn about other industries outside of their own to learn from them, and see how they would fit in with their primary fields.
  • Beer leaguers have already found their set of tools and don’t want to know what others are doing.

One might not be able to “go pro” in their job, but who are you likely to want to hire, work with, start a startup with, given the chance?

37signals

Mar 10th, 2009
by Benjamin Hysell.
1 comment

Next up in my digital reading list:

http://www.37signals.com/svn/

I’ll skip the normal, ‘Why you should be reading their blog’ and start with a couple of videos.  Why not let the guys who run the company tell you in their own words what they are up to?

::Plus have you ever tried to type with a band-aid on your index finger? I’m all over the keyboard tonight, and not in a good way::

http://www.businessinnovationfactory.com/iss/video/bif3-jason-fried

I’ll let Jason continue on with how he markets his company and his decision to out teach the competition:

http://www.businessinnovationfactory.com/iss/video/bif4-jason-fried

and lastly:

http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1329-my-talk-at-the-business-of-software-conference-september-2008

37signals has provided me a wealth of information on how one might manage, market, and sell software in the day an age when most companies are giving their software away for free.  How do they do it?

They are assholes.

I’m not the first person to associate 37signals with the term ‘assholes’.  I’m more of a ‘hop on the bandwagon’ type person with this association, but its true…for the most part these guys are assholes.

And it works for them.

They have very strong opinions on how to run a business and they are not afraid to tell you exactly what they are thinking.  The guys at 37signals will likely insult you and your life’s work if you work for a large corporation.  Are you not doing things the way they would prescribe?  They will likely call you a dummy, and then they will move right along without a care in the world.

This style, this arrogance, this ‘assholeness’ works for them.  They have created a strong following of people coming to them for insight and advice on how to manage, market, and sell software.

I have taken away several ideas from their blog over the past couple of years that has shaped how I would market, design products, and build software that I would like to share here:

1. It’s ok to swear in a presentation, given its done tastefully and not abused: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1214-profanity-works

2. Out teach your competition, show that you are the thought leaders in your area of expertise.

This is my favorite message I keep hearing from 37signals, it is a very subtle yet very clever message.  For example, I need to paint my house this summer, the paint is beginning to peel, and it will turn very unsightly come mid August if I do not take action this spring.  I could certainly paint the house myself…there is an abundance of material online to show me the proper way to paint a house.  All the knowledge I would ever desire on the topic of house painting is available for free online.

Am I going to do it myself?

No.

Two reasons: painting my house is not my passion, and my wife does not want me up on a ladder for the better part of the spring attempting to paint the second floor.  To my first point, my passion, who wants to spend every weekend for month and nights after work painting?  I could do it and have done it in the past, and I learned that some things are better left to the experts.

With all the knowledge in the world on how to paint my house, I realize I am not in the best position to do it, and I will gladly pay someone to do the job in a week where it would likely take me three.

I believe this concept translates over to software and product design.  Sure, most competent developers could develop your software or product, but do they possess the passion to see the process through to the end?  Why not go out and buy the product instead of re-inventing the wheel, and in the process why not buy it from the ‘thought leader’ in the industry?

3.Create Fans

Jason states in one of his videos they have over 100k visitors to their blog on a daily basis.  These are people who are motivated to learn from 37signals and they seek out 37signals daily.  In all likelihood these are also the people willing to buy their software.  They’ve created people who are passionate about who they are, and what they sell.  37signals has likely turned peoples’ passion into sales.

4. Just say ‘No’

‘There are no software editors in an industry that desperately needs them…’  Pick a piece of software you are using right now…can you name all of its features?  Microsoft Excel has about 90 features I’m never ever going to use, ::have you tried to use pivot tables?:: yet there they are, all 90 of them taking up real-estate space, using resources, vying for my attention.  It’s not just Microsoft, I’m typing this post on a MacBook using ‘Pages’, Apple’s answer to Word.  Guess what?  Pages still too many features.  Apple has done a better job of hiding their features, yet they are still there, lurking, one mouse click away, ready to confuse and irritate you into having to learn or figure something else out when all I want to do is write a simple blog post.

37signals does more by doing less.  They say ‘No’ to most of their requests for new features or new ideas for their product.  They take a bold stance, ‘if you don’t like what we are doing there are several other software companies out there doing things like us, go try them out.’  37signals is telling people if you don’t agree with us check out our competition.  It seems perverse, sending customers to your competition, however this strategy allows 37signals to make very simple, easy to use products that are directed at people who believe in the way 37signals sees the world…products directed to their fans.

I’ll end this post with the best video I have seen out of 37signals:

http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/981-the-secret-to-making-money-online

It’s simple, charge money.  Period.

Steve Yegge

Feb 19th, 2009
by Benjamin Hysell.
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After a little diversion I’m back into my digital reading list:

http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/

I am not sure how to describe Steve Yegge.  I’ll start with some bullet points:

  • Lately, and sadly, he has been an infrequent blogger
  • Plug in your laptop before you start reading one his posts…you thought I had a few posts that went on and on and on and…I’ve got nothing on Steve
  • Bloody brilliant communicator
  • Insightful comments and vision regarding the industry we all work in

I don’t remember where I found Steve.  I forget if it was Joel’s Reddit feed or if I stumbled across him while on another software related blog, but every time he publishes I clear my calendar for the morning.

“Helen, hold all of my calls, Steve has posted again.”

:: Now, right this second, I don’t have a need for a secretary, and I’m not sure on the Helen part…maybe a Sally, or go another way, how about a Johnson.  I like Johnson, you can really let it rip from your gut…sounds manly.  ‘Johnson, (pause for effect)…Hold all of my calls’. ::

Steve is long winded.

“How long winded is he?”

Long.

However, those who embark and complete the journey will be pleasantly rewarded.

http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/10/programmers-view-of-universe-part-1.html

A couple of years ago I had a 55-gallon freshwater fish tank running in my living room, and I learned a few things from the experience.

  1. I’m not very good at keeping fish.  Towards the end of the experience every morning I awoke to a few less living fish and a few more dead fish.  Emotionally keeping fish can be very difficult.
  2. I never kept Bettas like Steve, but could relate to the heartbreak he had at the end of his post.  I think my algae eater died in the same fashion as his Betta.
  3. You can’t play catch with a fish…I confirmed through the experience of owning fish that I’m a dog person.

:: It didn’t take a tank full of fish to make me realize I was a dog person, but it’s always good to have confirmation. ::

Steve’s post is a classic post, referencing a non-industry related event to make a pointed statement about software and the world of computers.

Not all of his posts are downers.

http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/10/universal-design-pattern.html

Any post that references Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid is ok in my book…as Steve states:

Get yourself a copy and settle in for one of the most interesting, maddening, awe-inspiring and just plain fun books ever written. The Pulitzer Prize it won doesn’t nearly do it justice. It’s one of the greatest and most unique works of imagination of all time.

http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/09/bellic-school-of-management-training.html

I still haven’t completed the Niko Bellic management-training course.  I’m finding it harder and harder to fire up the Xbox 360 and devote the required hours needed for this management course.  One of these I will re-enroll…

Who turns an M-Rated Xbox 360 game into a post relating to management?  Steve Yegge.

http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/08/business-requirements-are-bullshit.html

How many times have you had an idea for something, anything?  You know the type of ideas, like the ones Ron Popeil puts up there in late night TV, but rather than creating the next ‘Pocket Fisherman‘ you want to write a complex software system to make your life and the lives of other people easier.

What if there was a website where tenants could pay for their rent with their credit card?

Seems like a good idea, property owners are paid immediately with recurring credit card payments, and tenants get points on their credit card when they pay rent.  I could use a system like this…dealing with checks every month is a major pain in the ass…I could build a system to do this.  I could do it in Ruby on Rails, play in a language I don’t use on a day-to-day basis.  I have server space…this could all come together.

Here is the rub…financial transaction systems are not my passion.  I would be writing something for me, but in an area I know very little about.  This is a case where I might use something like this if it existed, but to build, maintain, and support a system that I’m not passionate about is a recipe for failure.

Steve dives deep into the idea of building business for yourself, in areas you know, and you are passionate about.

http://blip.tv/file/319044/

This video ranks up there with my favorite web videos…his talk is titled “How to Ignore Marketing and Become Irrelevant in Two Easy Steps.”  Ever wonder how Verizon came to be the company they are today?  Steve Yegge answers all.