http://www.stevengriffith.net notes on life and software Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:44:12 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Negative space in art is the area around the subject that you are drawing. In an art class, you may spend a whole lesson drawing the negative space of an object. In forming a business strategy, the negative spaces are those things you say “no” to. You should use the ... http://www.stevengriffith.net/?p=30 Occam's razor is a principle that "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity." In software development, I believe strongly that smaller code is better. I humbly call this my "law of software economy." Another way to state Occam's razor is "plurality should not be posited without necessity." Now you can't cheat ... http://www.stevengriffith.net/?p=29 One of my favorite quotes--can't find it credited online but I saw Ed Harris say it in a TV interview, so it's a bit mangled from memory--is that when someone asked him about his choice to become an actor he said, "I didn't have a choice, I had no choice, ... http://www.stevengriffith.net/?p=28 A crisis can drive innovation. Being able to hold the software in your head at a high level because it is well architected can give you many ways out of a bad situation. Often you surprise yourself how easy a leap forward can be once you have no choice but ... http://www.stevengriffith.net/?p=27 CEOs are story tellers; you've got to create a story people want to work for, a story people want to buy, a story people want to invest in. A fantastic story may be your last when it doesn't come true. An unexciting story may never get off the ground. How ... http://www.stevengriffith.net/?p=26 Elite runners get to finish Marathons in less than two and half hours. The average non-professional runner is going to be grinding it out for over four hours. Who suffers more? In some ways the average runner is going through a unique hell that an elite runner never experiences. The same ... http://www.stevengriffith.net/?p=24 Ask our two sons what the #1 one rule of the house is and they know it by heart: "When Mommy's happy, we're all happy." ... http://www.stevengriffith.net/?p=23 Those that have worked with me know that I am passionate about getting to the simple truth that lies below the surface of what may at first appear very complex. I believe discovering the fundamental use-case of a product and describing it in its simplest form empowers a development team ... http://www.stevengriffith.net/?p=22 Here is a quote that recently crossed my path: Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it." --Brian Kernighan I believe this is true. Beware if you are ... http://www.stevengriffith.net/?p=21 Here is a little advice for the beginner runners out there. You really should buy running shorts, shirts, and socks. Especially as you start getting some distance on your long runs. The technical material really does wick moister away and can prevent chaffing. When you finally go buy some running ... http://www.stevengriffith.net/?p=20