Lighter Side » Skillful Software

9th April 2008

Gentle Return

I hope to start posting again, and was planning on writing something serious, but then I saw this, and it struck a chord.

CAMBRIDGE, MA—After multiple attempts to get the thing to do the thing, 38-year-old freelance writer Joe Garvin gave up Saturday, citing the…

Whenever it happens to us, as it often does, it helps us relate to the Joe Garvins of the world.

What's this?
We all know that software is hard - and most of us like to pretend that is isn't. Who among us hasn't discovered that a quick change to the code suddenly takes most of a week sort out? (And been embarrassed to explain this to your boss...) I'm trying to learn more about why that is, and what I can do about it. This blog is my way of keeping that information straight, and also sharing it. I hope it will also spark some conversation, so please share anything that comes to mind.

About me
From 68000 assembly, dataflow languages, and C/C++, to J2EE and Web 2.0, I've been trying figure out how to write better software, and write software better, since 1988. For the last eight years I've been working on enterprise web applications, as a software architect and lead engineer.