Agile Minds
maddog's Doghouse
How you approach a problem goes a long way toward success in code development.
I am writing this article from Japan, where I am spending the weekend with a former student who I taught 30 years ago. This student was a "late bloomer," as he is only 10 years younger than I am, and we have kept in touch over these many years.
My friend does not do much coding any more, and compared with some people, he has not written that much code in his life. For that matter, I never wrote as much code as some people in the Free Software arena. I tell people that my "C" looks a lot like Fortran, but what I write usually works, and works well.
Both of us have moved on to the job of empowering other people to get their work done on time and "under budget." The difference is that when I say "use Free Software and collaboration to help," most of the people I work with do not have to be convinced; in fact, they would look at me strangely if I said anything else. My friend is not so lucky.
[...]
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