joshuago’s management Bookmarks

Have someone assigned to do production support at any given moment. Communicate well and manage expectations with your customers.

Why mergers and acquisitions fail.

The pattern: Company gets bought out. Users rejoice. Company lies fallow for months. Users grow impatient. Company's employees get farmed out to other Google projects. Company lies fallow for more months. Users get even more impatient.

Tips for being a more productive programmer. Avoid distractions. Work in long stretches. Use succinct languages. Keep rewriting your program. Start small.

Remember to ask the all-important question of why you're building a website, even if it looks like everyone else is enthusiastic about building one just for the hell of it. Everyone will be happier and better off if you ask.

The desire to redesign is aesthetic-driven, while the desire to realign is purpose-driven. One approach seeks merely to refresh, the other aims to fully reposition and may or may not include a full refresh.

The real trouble with using a lot of mediocre programmers instead of a couple of good ones is that no matter how long they work, they never produce something as good as what the great programmers can produce.

Interrupting programmers and forcing them to context switch is harmful, but the obvious should not be overlooked. Sometimes business calls for a sacrifice, or choosing the lesser evil.