A healthy product company is, confusingly, one at odds with itself. There is a healthy part which is attempting to normalize and to create predictability, and there needs to be another part that is tasked with building something new that is going to disrupt and eventually destroy that normality.
With all that in mind, its questionable how far you can get just by book learning. Before my first child was born, I read all the How To books, and still felt like a clueless novice. 30 Months later, when my second child was due, did I go back to the books for a refresher? No. Instead, I relied on my personal experience, which turned out to be far more useful and reassuring to me than the thousands of pages written by experts.
There is much to be said about these curves, but the crucial point is this: individual programmer excellence, whether 10x median or 2x, does not drive organizational software productivity. Any team, no matter how talented the individuals, whose costs follow the Boehm curve will, over time, lose to any team, no matter how mediocre the individuals, whose costs follow the Beck curve. It’s just a matter of where the cross-over occurs.
The Roland RD-700NX Stage Piano. The very best digital piano in my opinion (if you’re looking for a decent real piano replacement). The feel of the keys, the action with ‘escapement’ and the sound modelling are all superior to every other thing I’ve played (and I’ve played pretty much everything on the market). So very glad I’ve found what I’m looking for!
Elektricity Will Keep Me Warm – Acoustic Version (feat.Esla Esmerelda) from the new album Yikes by London Elektricty.
NO PET FOR DRUNK HULK! NO SINCE SEA MONKEY DRUNK HULK HAD AS KID! HIS NAME WAS MR BELVEDERE! HE COULD NO BE ALONE! DESTROY FURNITURE! AND FLING CRAP ALL OVER PLACE! DRUNK HULK HAD FLUSH MR BELVEDERE DOWN TOILET! DRUNK HULK CAN STILL HEAR HIS HORROR SCREAM! AND REMEMBER WAY HE NO WANT LET GO OF TOILET! POOR MR BELVEDERE!
A friend of mine was at my house the other day when one of my cats jumped in his lap. “I love cats,” he said, “I just wish they would come when you call them.” I said, “They have those. They’re called dogs.
On a personal level, [owning many possessions] is inconvenient. You need to pick it up, store it, clean it, move it, and dispose of it. My suspicion is that the last point I noted will increasingly become a bigger issue. I predict that within the next 5 – 10 years, we’ll (rightly) start having to pay for disposal.
