I used to really hate meetings. As a developer they seem to just get into the way of doing real work. You sit in a room with other people who are probably thinking the same thing and you are itching to get back to your desk and do “real work”. But at some point you specialise, teams grow and you need some way to sync up. Suddenly you realise that meetings are where some decisions are made and you want to join as many as possible. ...
I am slow, but at least I am persistent. Four years ago I posted “What is in my bag. Part 1: Small Saddlebag”, and I kind of promised to post about what I take on sportives / gran fondos. This is not that post, because I haven’t taken part in any sportives for a while. Instead this is an update to the original post. I am still using the bag from the first post on my commuter bike. ...
Very light on links this week, maybe everybody is on holiday already. But I compensate with some nice podcasts references. Technology More online protection with the new VPN by Google One - a VPN from Google. I hope this is coming to Google Suite/Workspaces too. I also hope this kills off most of the shady VPN providers Bringing Personalized Search to Etsy - nice view inside an approach to personalised search ...
Urbanism bonanza today. Coronavirus has made people think more about their environment, walking and cycling. Also some good long read technology articles about how people approach big projects in various companies. Engineering Management Can agile pods help your team win big at scale? - agile in marketing. If you have a marketing of 500+ people it does seem to make sense. They Write the Right Stuff - from 1996, apparently a classic that I haven’t encountered before. About the software development for the Space Shuttle and how it was pretty much free of bugs ...
Some longer reads and podcasts focusing on management, the current thing and random fun. I like stories about people managing their mental health with what is going on. We are all kind of in the same boat. Engineering Management Cycle time: a secret weapon of efficient software teams - It is a great metric and leads to overall improvements in processes. Even if you don’t bring it down to where you would like it to be, the way there is helping in many other areas ...