technical retrospective
Posted on General

A Technical Retrospective of 2017

We have once again reached the time of year when it is good to look back on what happened in the last twelve months.  This site being the blog it is, I think a technical retrospective is an essential part of planning for the year ahead.  We will find new opportunities and trends to watch. Bots and IOT The Internet of things has started to hit home.  I mean literally, not just figuratively.  We now have competing devices on the market and in increasing numbers of households that allow us to be connected at any time by saying Google, Alexis, or Siri.  The tools are just getting started in what they have to offer and open a whole new interface world. ... Read more

Posted on Podcast

Automation and Batching Tasks for Improved Productivity

It may be my background in technology, but I find automation to be the greatest way to improve productivity.  This time-saving mechanism is not new either.  We can look back a hundred years to see where assembly lines and automation allowed us to progress rapidly.  In fact, computers are made for automation. Automation is Not Just Technology Even though computers have given us a wealth of automation options, there are low tech methods available as well.  At its essence, automation is the concept of “killing two birds with one stone.”  When we combine efforts or tasks through batching we get extra work done in the same time frame.  Thus, we automatically have less to do.  For example, I automate mail... Read more

Posted on Podcast

Finding Work and Getting Paid For Your Skills

There are many ways to monetize the work we have been discussing.  For example, advertising is a typical avenue for a revenue stream.  However, it does not have a high likelihood of being substantial in most cases.  Instead, offer a product or service to generate real revenue quickly.  The problem is that finding work is easier said than done.  Never fear, here are a few suggestions to get you started. Finding Work on the Internet The Internet is an excellent resource for finding work.  The best place to start is work sites like Guru and Upwork.  These sites are built to connect job seekers and job providers.  However, they do require some effort and patience to find a good project for... Read more

Posted on Podcast

Learning Development Languages

The primary communication method and tool of a developer is code.  There are hundreds of such languages in use.  Thus, learning development languages is an essential part of a development career.  No matter when you started developing there were languages that existed, and new ones pop up each year.  This situation only gets more complicated when you consider frameworks and libraries for many of these platforms. Learning Development Languages is Never Ending A true developer is always going to be pushed to grow their skill set.  This fact applies to libraries and frameworks, new technologies, and learning development languages.  The biggest challenge of this need for continuous learning is to do so while still keeping up with the demands of our primary job. ... Read more

New Year Planning
Posted on General

Strategies for Your New Year Planning

As we end a year, it is an excellent time to look back and ahead.  This retrospective time should translate into New Year Planning and setting goals.  The challenge in this activity is setting goals that are meaningful and aggressive enough to grow on where we are today.  Although this is sort of art based on experience, there are also guidelines we can follow to help us in our planning. New Year Planning for Growth First and foremost we should look ahead.  The plan should grow on what we accomplished this year.  Coasting into the New Year is not acceptable.  Thus, our challenge is not whether growth will occur but instead in how much we will grow over the next... Read more

Posted on Podcast

Focus is the Key To Success (and Maybe Happiness)

We live in a world full of distractions.  That fact does not go away just because we have a goal or focus.  In fact, those little distractions can be harder to identify when they are in line with our primary goal.  These are the small time wasters and productivity thieves that hide as helpers. Focus Must Be Guarded Any entrepreneur lives with a steady stream of new ideas.  However, too many of us underestimate our natural creative state.  In fact, we all are creatives to some extent and have to deal with a steady of temptations to drift from our primary goal.  Our struggle can be with big and common time-wasters like Facebook or the latest Netflix series, but these... Read more