On finally reaching the 100th post on GWB, I decided to focus on people as opposed to technical details. In recent times, there have been a plethora of blog entries on "How I am becoming a better developer (in six months)".
While everyone has thoughts on their own roadmaps, this is not just a six month venture. In this industry, individuals are constantly required to reinvent themselves and build upon their technical savvy.
One of those tidbits, that should be consistent, is reading... Speaking of which, I've been reading Beautiful Code in the last little while. The bioinformatics anecdotes are interesting. One of my favorite sections is "The Most Beautiful Code I Never Wrote". While the author walks through shrinking code line by line, you can go further by applying this at a higher level. The best designs are almost always been the most simple and clean approaches to solving problems.
This generality can be applied in any context; whether it is that of a user on the UI of an application or a consumer of an API. By the way, Beautiful Code is a recent publication that I highly recommend. It's a great light read and one of the few exceptions to a golden rule of thumb for book quality. You know...how there is an inverse relationship between the number of authors in a book and the quality of a book?
Anyway, I've digressed far enough. It's great to absorb content from prominent folks in the industry and to soak up the latest technologies (whether it is .NET 3.5, Katmai - SQL Server 2008, etc). But something indispensable is to really grok & connect with the people behind the code. Unfortunately, something that I would also read up on that you don't see many technology blog entries on "How to become a people person (in six months)". Perhaps this is mainly because it is a natural skill that cannot be taught. As an optimist, it is my hope that, like code, people are capable of refactoring themselves. Not everyone can achieve the charisma and communication savvy of a Guy Kawasaki or <insert a famous dude here>. This may mean simple things in the info age like remembering the real people behind IMs and emails. In tech organizations, there is often disconnect between different crowds (Devs, Product, Ops, etc). Being "People Ready" as a general guideline whether it comes to interactions in your immediate environment or your consumers.
A student of life, looking to continually refactor oneself. I look forward to the journey!