When Imitation Is the Sincerest Form Of Failure — “We’re done. We are flipping it.” After training an AI for six days, a group of Marines was told to defeat its advanced detection capabilities. A robot running the system was placed in a traffic circle. …

Naming, but not in the way you think. — Phil Karlton once said, “there are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things.” One is a real problem; the other is a problem of defining reality. A misbehaving cache algorithm compromises the system’s integrity. Inadequate names can compromise the system’s entire existence. On the surface…

First Awareness. Then Productivity. — Jeff Foster wrote a great story on the origins of the expression “10x developer,” contrasting the value of outsized code-writing skills against the ability to focus on the product. From a DevOps perspective, its all-inclusive reach from development to operations demands collaboration. Focusing on the product trumps coding skills every…

A Comfortable Place Is Not Always the Right Place — The pandemic is over and it is time to return to normal. And in the business world, that normal includes the traditional office. But why? Step away from conspiracy theories of power plays and real estate valuations, and you will find two simple reasons rooted in psychology and neuroscience: When…

New Financial Metaphors and Debt Management Lessons for Modern Software Development — “When I began the Ponzi scheme I believed it would end shortly and I would be able to extricate myself and my clients from the scheme.” — Bernard Madoff. Software developers can be great with numbers but are usually terrible with finances. Ward Cunningham coined the term “technical debt” to…

In the Cloud, It Is the Right Choice. — “If it needs more than 50 lines, I am using Python.” I heard this comment during the Q&A portion of a session I had just presented. The session was related to wiring service instances inside a private subnet in a Cloud provider. I had shared a few examples written in…

The Fantastic Tale of an Italian Giant — You may know the name, but you may not know the story. This almost incredible tale starts in 19th-century Italy in the small city of Chiaravalle. A story told many times, familiar to the people of Italy and many working in education circles. It covers three centuries, four continents, world…

But first, we need to go back to the source. — Software development is a continuous process of creating abstract new worlds, a topic I covered in “What Is the Hardest Thing in Software Development?” With so much of that process’ success hinging on the ability to construct knowledge from sensory information — learn — and share that knowledge with others…

Make your travel preparation list for the long journey ahead. — Cloud spending is always an exciting topic, and I mean exciting in the wrong way. Money is a sensitive subject. People get understandably nervous when they feel they may lose their grip on the budget. …