The world is full of commercial software developers who breathe a huge sigh of relief when they ship a new release of their project. They start thinking about vacations. I used to be able to relate to that.

Before starting WGM, I used to be among the purist crowd who considered the ability to [...]

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Usually you don’t hear someone described as well-intentioned until they’ve messed up somewhere.
I know too many talented and well-intentioned people who are professionally ineffective. Ineffective, because the result of their effort isn’t meaningful progress toward making tomorrow better than today.
(Measuring better is going to depend on the task at hand. For knowledge work, let’s say [...]

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Paraphrased e-mail:
“You should be ashamed of yourselves for charging for software built on free software!”
Hey Potential Customer Who Feels All Software Should Be Free,
I wanted to write you a quick note about your “free software stack” jab.
Libraries, frameworks, languages and operating systems are the prime candidates for being open-source software.  Hobbyists, professionals and students can [...]

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I’m clenching a rough rope tightly between my left thumb and forefinger as I descend down the throat of a bottomless pit. I am not encumbered by the panicky implications of safety equipment. My right arm is gesturing wildly into empty space, acting as the ground-wire for an overstimulated mind.
I tilt my head back and [...]

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After my post “JIRA Is More Annoying Than Having to Eat Three Times A Day” was published yesterday, Jon Silvers from Atlassian (developers of JIRA) stopped by and left a friendly comment.
I’m incredibly impressed that my tongue-in-cheek critique came to his attention so quickly.
Hey Jon,
First, thanks for commenting! I’m glad you [...]

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Photo by bocavermelha
Up until I snapped a few minutes ago, I wasn’t sure anything could be more annoying than having to eat every day. After all, I’ve been told by close friends that I’d be a happier entity if I was simply a brain in a jar, left entirely to its own thoughts. I don’t [...]

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Photo by Grazie, Davvero
Robert Scoble recently stated why enterprise software isn’t sexy enough to cover on mainstream technology blogs.
He offers two arguments:

The majority of tech blog readers will never be in the position to buy enterprise software.
Stories about business software, due to a disconnect with their readership, don’t produce meaningful traffic for the blog’s advertisers.

He [...]

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Photo by Balakov
I’ve been programming for about 16 years now.
I almost called this my “Most Important Programming Lessons”, but I consider writing software to involve far more than a mastery over programming arcana.
When I first discovered source code, I didn’t pick up a manual and start reading about data structures and flow control. That [...]

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photo by Jeremy Johnstone
Burnout.
It starts with the feeling you can overcome anything.
It’s reinforced when you overcome a swell of adversity.
It languishes when you thirst for more mountains to climb.
It roars into revival when your enthusiasm brings you to the truly insurmountable.
It laughs when you try.
It grows when you struggle.
It lays roots when you capitulate.
It wins [...]

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