For any of my friends that haven't seen it, please take a look at JimFlow. I'm pretty amazed. More when I have time to write. For now, take a look!
Such a perfect match to my own conundrum about the discipline of software development practices we so often call Agile.
It's hard, because industry calls on us for names to indicate proficiency. But for me this is a whole set of common sense ways to do better. And I've been at it a very long time.
So when people ask "but are you a Certified Scrum Master?" it's hard to answer. I tend to say things along the lines of "No. BUT! I predate that term and know all about the practices and definitions that make it happen." But that doesn't fit into their box. Even though it means I'll bring more actual agility to the discussion than any one set of practicies, like Scrum.
Let's aim for Agility, and use the Agile Manifesto values and principles as that guideline.
So much fun to get this online. :)
How'd ya like it?
Be watching, everyone! I'm on the road with Worth again. So grateful to be able to have this adventure, to be making art with these friends. I'll be posting thoughts and pics from the trip an I hope you'll follow along. @worthmusic
Wow! It's finally starting to happen. Changes in my life that have been building for many years are just hitting that tipping point and becoming real. I wanted to post this first, so that many of you who typically see me only in a professional life will know to look away. :) My posts here are likely to get more personal. The surprising catalyst for making this public was a comment in a forum. Someone took note of the .signature line I've used for most of my career, and that appeared in almost all of my web presence 'about' boxes:
Husband & Father ( i also write software )
There's a great story behind that (that many of you have heard) involved my desire to share my priorities with the people i deal with professionally. That being a good mate and a good parent were always going to be more important than any other endeavor. That life balance sense is still true. And many in the industry have comented on that and learned from that tag line.
But several of those pieces are different now. My parenting is different because my amazing kid is now grown and out of the house. And what it means for me to be a husband is different as well. More on that to come.
So now, my tagline will be more generic, but also more true to who I am in this moment.
bassist, agilist, learner, enthusiast
- I am a Bassist as near to full time as I can be
- I am an Agilist, coaching agility in software teams, much more than a coder
- I am a Learner, always questioning and incorporating new things
- I am continually living Enthusiastically... It's probably the biggest comment I hear from those who know me.
So there you have it. A first sense of how much my world is changing. And posting now simply because someone pointed out the tagline I've used for decades. :)
As I talk with various groups about what I can offer, what I want to do in my next gig (do we ever stop answering the "what do you want to be when you grow up" question?), I find myself explaining this ALL the time:
I think Barry Hawkins answers it very well. :)
And it describes me pretty much to a 'T'. Many many teams, projects and a variety of startups in a variety of industries. All of which leads to a significant humility and an aversion to dogma. :) Give it a read. I think you'll enjoy!
During my time mentoring at Burnside Digital, I enjoyed sharing the idea of Agile Discovery as a practice for helping entrepeneurs and product visionaries work through their ideas. It went so well that Jackson Broshear prepared this wonderful introduction. Give it a look!
So, it's remarkable how much changes over the years.
There was a time when my ambitions drove me to want credit, to claim glory, in anything I could in any way show my involvement. I needed people to see that I was responsible for things. Indeed, I used to use that as the example for what motivated me in software. That scratchy clip at the end of the "X-Files" was my touchstone: "I made this!" says the little boy's voice.
Somehow, though, after years of startups and products, coding to managing and back to coding, things changed.
Now I'm far more excited by the accomplishments of those around me. It means more to me when someone that I've mentored, or affected in some way, succeeds and does well. I can see the threads of ideas we've woven together. I can see the blooming of seeds planted. And I rejoice in those successes.
No striving or clawing... it's more fulfilling rejoicing in my friends and colleagues.
Love this tune. Not the typical center of Christopher's music, but really wonderful all the same. LOVE.
I got this more than a year ago, but I haven't really posted about it. I'm a supporter by temperament and talent. I'm best when I can help others accomplish their goals and I LOVE providing the basis and platform for that to happen.
So, of course, I'm a bass player.
This is my bass clef tattoo. :) From Dan at Atlas Tattoo.
It took me many years to decide that this is the artwork worth depicting in a permanent way. THEN it took two full years to find someone I fully believed would make that dream look beautiful.
So CRAZY excited to share this!! Please watch the new music video from Worth, Caught Up:
I'm briefly in the video, but proud to say that's me on bass on this track and the album.
I don't really understand people who are unhappy all day and just wishing for "time off". To do what? Sit and stare? Lay down?
I wish for everyone the joy I have most of the time... spending ourselves in endeavors we believe in. For me, I'm playing music (practicing, rehearsing, performing, recording) and I'm building things in software (the products, relationships, minds and talents of my teams). I'd *rather* do these things than "watch tv" or "hang out" aimlessly.
Exhaust yourself in a good cause! If it feels like play time, you're doing it right.
Love this addition to my gear. The RS112 replaces my Phil Jones Briefcase as my "small rig". Four times as loud and the same total weight. :)
I favor higher costs for gas. My hope is it leads to a more realistic valuation of transportation and it's costs.
When importing a 200lb finished wood item from China is still cheaper than making it here, we're not doing it right.
When people think cars and gas and highways and accidents and lost time due to congestion are all less of a burden than public transit, we're doing it wrong.
When we falsely keep the price of fuel below it's current real value, we lose the differentiation it SHOULD make.
We currently have some of the lowest fuel prices in the world, aside from the producing countries (gulf states, etc).
Think about our commuter habits. Big employers just expect people to drive great distances to them, when they could reasonably set up satellite offices much more effectively. :)
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/72363.html
“I actually think that is going to make economic sense, but for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that ‘for unto whom much is given, much shall be required,’”
“I actually think that is going to make economic sense, but for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that ‘for unto whom much is given, much shall be required,’”
Been having a BLAST recording with Christopher Worth http://worth-music.com/. Here's a tiny snippet:
Just realized, I haven't updated that post to show you all the Ikea solution i found. $150. :-)
Coders! Dark Horse Comics Needs YOU!
We're doing *our* part to make the world safe for Digital Comics [1][2] and we need bright engineers to keep up the fight.
Join us if you:
- Have a bright mind and a passion for software
- Have been coding in an OO language at least a year
- Know mobile (iOS and Android) or want to learn [2]
We offer
- An Agile/XP development environment
- Pairing and collaborative interaction
- Test-driven culture (still growing)
- FREE COMICS!
- Mobile and Digital Media experience
- Low stress, sustainable pace
To apply, send me an email with the URL to your LinkedIn profile. If you have links to Github/Bitbucket repos, portfolio sites and other examples of your work, also good. Tell us about your passion for software and one idea for how to make the comics reading experience better.
Oh! More specifics? Uh... Well, we're really more interested in finding bright intelligent people that will work hard and fit our tightnit team than in any laundry list of specific buzzwords, but...
All our developers mix tasks cutting across our project and tools so you'll be expected to work in:
- Python/Django for current web work, many frameworks and libs
- Javascript and HTML5/CSS (have you seen our Web Reader!?[1])
- Objective-C for our Dark Horse Comics reader app [2] and other iOS efforts
- Java for the Android version currently in development
- PHP for legacy apps waiting to be re-tooled [3]
- Linux/*nix and AWS for servers, comfort with the shell is a must
- Various tools in our stuck including fabric, puppet, hudson, mercurial, , raw SQL (still!) and more
We practice facilitated code reviews (using reviewboard currently).
We use Pivotal Tracker for planning and during sprints.
We provide Macs with second monitors decked out as each of us prefer. (Dark Horse is a top to bottom Mac shop)
Most of our development happens collaboratively, so being on-site in our offices in Milwaukie is the norm, but hours and work styles are flexible. Style is very casual, come as you are.
(Did I mention the FREE COMICS!)
Links
[1] http://digital.darkhorse.com/
[2] http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dark-horse-comics/id415378623?mt=8
I know I'm late to this, but maybe still early enough to have fun. This question, "What are the benefits of developing in node.js versus Python?", on Quora sent me off on a reading spree last night. Some of those links:
My excitement, of course, goes back to the Newton and it's wonderful NewtonScript development environment. NewtonScript was one of the first follow-ons to the Self language (evolving Smalltalk) to take advantage of "instance-based object inheritance" (prototypes) that javascript has now popularized. Great stuff, man. :)
I'm definitely excited to poke around in server-side javascript and a more async.-model programming style as well as seeing how the proto-inheritance idea would change system models in design. Fun stuff.