programmer-driven vs programmer-run

from joelonsoftware, talking about software company management:

( Companies need infrastructure )

and if your programmers even spend one minute thinking about this that's one minute too many. ( ... )

That's why you have management.

It's for the kind of stuff that no company can avoid, but if you have your programmers worrying about it, well, management has failed, the same way as a 100 foot yacht has failed if the millionaire owner has to go down into the engine room and, um, build the engine.

( Some companies are too sales-focused, others are too code-focused )

Both of these companies can easily be wiped out by a company that's driven by programmers and organized to put programmers in the driver's seat, but which have an excellent abstraction that does all the hard work to convert code into products below the decks.

A programmer is most productive with a quiet private office, a great computer, unlimited beverages, an ambient temperature between 68 and 72 degrees (F), no glare on the screen, a chair that's so comfortable you don't feel it, an administrator that brings them their mail and orders manuals and books, a system administrator who makes the Internet as available as oxygen, a tester to find the bugs they just can't see, a graphic designer to make their screens beautiful, a team of marketing people to make the masses want their products, a team of sales people to make sure the masses can get these products, some patient tech support saints who help customers get the product working and help the programmers understand what problems are generating the tech support calls, and about a dozen other support and administrative functions which, in a typical company, add up to about 80% of the payroll. It is not a coincidence that the Roman army had a ratio of four servants for every soldier. This was not decadence. ( ... )

Management's primary responsibility to create the illusion that a software company can be run by writing code, because that's what programmers do. And while it would be great to have programmers who are also great at sales, graphic design, system administration, and cooking, it's unrealistic. Like teaching a pig to sing, it wastes your time and it annoys the pig.

I added the bolding in that last paragraph because I think it does a great job of explaining what needs to be done in the software business besides making great software - in fact, what needs to be done in most businesses. It's stuff that most people don't think about because, usually, no one individual does it all. But it's the stuff that can make-or-break useability, sales, operations, and employee satisfaction. As Joel goes on to say,

Microsoft does such a good job at creating this abstraction that Microsoft alumni have a notoriously hard time starting companies. They simply can't believe how much went on below decks and they have no idea how to reproduce it.

I would amend that to be most people who have worked at successful companies have no idea how much is done outside their own area...and have no idea how to reproduce it.

Full article: here.

trivia

on Elizabeth II:

The Queen sent her first email in 1976 from an Army base.

In June, 2002, The Queen hosted the first public concerts in the garden of Buckingham Palace to celebrate her Golden Jubilee. The Queen attended both the classical and pop concerts. The 'Party at the Palace' pop concert was one of the most watched pop concerts in history, attracting around 200 million viewers all over the world.

The Queen is the first member of the Royal Family to be awarded a gold disc from the recording industry. 100,000 copies of the CD of the 'Party at the Palace', produced by EMI, were sold within the first week of release.

Source: Buckingham Palace

Eye appointment notes

• The eye doc doesn't have a "poof" machine anymore; the eye pressure check requires the thing that touches your eyeball.
• It is not a good idea to weasel out of the eye pressure check 2 years in a row, and you weaseled this year.
• You also weaseled out of the retina scan this year.
• You've had exactly one eye appointment in the last 15 years where your prescription did NOT change.
• While the cool $200+ Flexon frames are very durable, and the lab can re-make them with new lenses, this requires sending them to the lab which means giving up the current glasses for a week to ten days ... and your old pair is
  1. at home and
  2. from 1999 and
  3. gives you headaches.

So, next year....

• Get there early and have some wine (probably with lunch) at the restaurant next door to help you stay calm.
• Consider bringing someone to hold your hand.
• Bring both pairs of Flexon frames ("old", which I'm wearing now, and "new", which are on order) so the old ones can go to the lab for new lenses.
• And if you do weasel on the pressure check, do it before the anesthetic and dye drops are in your eyes so you can also skip the lovely burning sensation.

Oh well. At least my focus-at-different-distances rocks, so I can stick with one simple pair of glasses. Progressive lenses would work for everyday, but I don't want to have to peer at a monitor on my desk through the bottom half of my glasses, which would mean an extra "computer" set for close work....

update to movie still meme

For those who were curious about the still I posted from a movie, the movie was 1981's The Four Seasons

The photo is of Claudia & Danny Zimmer (played by Rita Moreno & Jack Weston) skinny-dipping. You can also see them in this larger collage: ( probably not work-safe )

I would also like to note that I dislike the html editor built into LJ's update/edit pages and I HATE how it mishandles lj-cuts. And I especially HATE how it insists on popping up when I use scrapbook's auto-post feature.