Category Archives: management

Not commenting code is dangerous to your career

Posted on March 4, 2009 by patrick

There is this myth that code can be self-documenting and that comments are not necessary in good code. Michael recently comment on an earlier blog post advocating the idea of self-documenting code. “Self-documenting” code is a career-damaging concept, because: Your … Continue reading →

Posted in code review, management | 3 Comments

Grow your own rockstar

Posted on March 4, 2009 by patrick

I have interviewed hundreds of people, technical and otherwise. I have managed a few as well. Most interviewers do not realize that there is no “best” candidate on an absolute scale. The rockstar at Google may absolutely fail to fit … Continue reading →

Posted in management, starting a company | 1 Comment

FAS157: VCs whining about what they have to do anyhow

Posted on February 2, 2009 by patrick

So over at Techdirt, Mike Masnick gets all whiny about having to follow government regulations: And, now, FAS 157 has come into play — a new rule impacting many venture capitalists, forcing them to figure out what the “fair market … Continue reading →

Posted in funding, management, rants | Leave a comment

Compensation in the startup world.

Posted on November 20, 2008 by patrick

My comment to Rick Segal’s post. Peter Thiel at TechCrunch50 (timemark 18:30): He said the #1 predictor of whether or not an investment was a success or failure was the CEO salary. He drew the line at $150K. More than … Continue reading →

Posted in management, starting a company | 1 Comment

Barack Obama: inspiring leadership

Posted on October 30, 2008 by patrick

The greatest thing about this, is that Barack Obama talks, not about himself — but Americans. He inspires us to greatness. It hasn’t been since JFK and Robert Kennedy that we have had an opportunity to be inspired to greatness. … Continue reading →

Posted in management, political | Leave a comment

PASSIONATELY answer questions in an interview

Posted on October 5, 2008 by patrick

Lots of books talk about how to interview, research a job, etc. I have interviewed many software developers. As a result, in 5 minutes I can tell how many years of experience a developer has, how good they are and … Continue reading →

Posted in management, technical | 2 Comments

Where are you wasting your cognitive surplus?

Posted on May 7, 2008 by patrick

She heard this story and she shook her head and said, “Where do people find the time?” That was her question. And I just kind of snapped. And I said, “No one who works in TV gets to ask that … Continue reading →

Posted in entertainment, management, starting a company | Leave a comment

Code Review #6 – ‘Too smart’ aka scared of being dumb

Posted on May 6, 2008 by patrick

One of the biggest failing junior developers have is that they are too ‘smart’. ‘Too smart’??? How can someone be ‘too smart’? Actually pretty easily. ‘Too smart’ is when the person spent hours looking at a problem. And the next … Continue reading →

Posted in code review, management, technical | 1 Comment

About Greatness and the true A-people

Posted on April 7, 2008 by patrick

A-people hire A-people and B-people hire C-people. If something is repeated enough times, people accept it as true without questioning either the assumption or the definitions. When people refer to A-people or B-people they fall back on easily measured metrics: … Continue reading →

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About movie theatres and bad marketing

Posted on April 7, 2008 by patrick

Continuing my comment to Rick Segal’s post: The placement of automated ticket machines at movie theatres is really a marketing question. Where are those machines placed? The movie theaters I have been to, the machines are placed on the side … Continue reading →

Posted in entertainment, management | Leave a comment