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Category Archives: Efficacy
Outliers? The Myth of the 10,000 Hours Rule
Following the “Outliers” book by Malcom Gladwell, some people are convinced that if they “just” invest 10,000 hours in something they will become really good at it. I think that this is not always the case. I don’t believe any … Continue reading
On Developer Wisdom and Software Quality Attributes
What is wisdom? In order to answer this question, we will look into some ancient Jewish texts. From the Talmud (Tamid 32A), compiled 1500 years ago: “Who is wise? He who discerns what is about to come to pass.” In … Continue reading
The Psychology of Reviews: Distinction Bias, Evaluability Hypothesis and the Framing Effect
Design Reviews are one of the most important activities in the software development process. If a bad design is approved and implemented, it is very expensive to correct that afterwards. Therefore, we want to have high confidence in our decisions … Continue reading
Posted in Efficacy, Psychology of Programming, Software Architecture
Tagged Architecture, Efficacy, Psychology
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Illusory Superiority: Are you a good programmer?
Programmers are known to be proud of their work. Some developers even feel that writing elegant code is a form of art, and thus they call themselves “software craftsmen”. I am sure that the desire to perform outstanding work is … Continue reading
Continuous Learning: Keeping up-to-date and acquiring new skills
According to the Bible, after Adam sinned and ate the forbidden fruit, God said to him: “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread” (Genesis 3:19). Hard work has been the reality of humanity during known history, however … Continue reading
Planning Poker: Avoiding Fallacies in Effort Estimates
Many years ago I was working as a software developer in a team with three other programmers. We once had a meeting in which our Team Leader said: “You are late again! All of you are late! Actually, you are … Continue reading
Self-meetings: Avoiding distractions in the workplace
In the modern workplace, in which we are always connected, there are simply too many distractions. You need lots of discipline to really use your time effectively, besides the capacity to clearly define your priorities. You must be able to … Continue reading
The Seven Rules of Effective Communication
In every professional environment, it is essential to communicate effectively with your peers. This is particularly true during meetings, in which people expect to discuss a subject, reach conclusions and make related decisions in a short time. Here are seven … Continue reading
Learning from a Shipwreck
In the last week we followed the story of the Costa Concordia disaster, the cruise ship that partially sank after hitting a reef off the Italian coast. When I first heard about it, I could not understand how this was … Continue reading
Super-Productivity
In a previous post I discussed the reasons some programmers are much more productive than others. But the fact is that every programmer experiences periods of time when he is much more productive than average, and I think there are … Continue reading
