5 hours ago
Research, Analysis and Dissemination
1 day ago
The Importance of Design
2 days ago
The Pace of Change is Collapsing
3 days ago
A New Fresh Look
4 days ago
Knowing your Code Context
5 days ago
Chocolate Milk and Coffee do not Mix
6 days ago
Your Daily Learn
1 week ago
I Don’t Know
1 week ago
The Developer Leadership Balance
1 week ago
You’ve hit your Usage Limits
Want to look good at working on a problem? Research – Identify the issue, what are the different “things” that could be causing the problem, dig deep into what they are, don’t scratch the surface. Analysis – Look at your research, what applies, what doesn’t, what is feasible, what isn’t, what could work, and what can’t. Come up with a solution that fixes the problem and explains why. Desseminate – Complex solutions don’t always have simple answers. Being able to disseminate to an end user, another team member, or your manager is a skill beyond value when you can translate …
The Importance of Design
Greg Thomas
Design without code is not a great design; it’s airy, never been proven, just there, who knows what it could mean. Design is important, whether you do it with AI or on your own; there is value in that work, and it is largely unhidden. If it fails, everyone knows it was a bad design. If it works, no one ever mentions it again. Some of the best code I ever wrote was a simple design to send out invoices every day to customers to get our money. It ran for years without ever needing someone to coddle it or …
The Pace of Change is Collapsing
Greg Thomas
I can go onto LinkedIn, do a bunch of reading on where people are at, and then I can go learn how things work. Learning is the fun stuff; it’s where you get to open your mind to all the possibilities around you. And then you can go back to LinkedIn and realize you are behind (or think you are). Every day, people are doing something different with what they have learned, and the gaps between what they learn and implement are shifting dramatically. With that, we lose something, though, the time to ponder, to think, to consider, to absorb, …
1 week ago
You’ve hit your Usage Limits
I tried out Claude Design this weekend. Pretty cool, lots of fun. I thought I’d build a presentation with it. I got pretty excited as I worked through it, and then after a few hours of work, I hit my weekly usage limit. One presentation, 32 slides, 2 hours of work – usage limits hit for the week. No deep thinking on learning. Does it mean it’s a bad product? No, I just didn’t plan for the usage limit to kick in before I was done, or know what it equated to. What I learned; When you hit your usage …
1 week ago
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
In University, I took a critical thinking course with a slant towards Psychology. Others took critical thinking courses with a slant towards Philosophy. I’m sure there are other options out there. Regardless, they were two (separate) books, you had to pore through. They weren’t easy reads, and they made you question many things. But they taught me how to approach problems, how to break things down, how to make the complex simplified. In the age of AI, getting to the root of a user’s problem is the most valuable resource you have. Anyone can go type into AI and get …
2 weeks ago
We still Need Walkthroughs
When I was stuck on a level in a game, magazines and instruction booklets that came with the game were my way through; they were the walkthrough I needed to get there. I still had to do the work, but I had the path forward; now I just had to take it. Just because we all have AI, don’t discount the use of giving your users a walkthrough – they still want to be able to do things themselves, with a little help. Want more? Check out my book Code Your Way Up – available as an eBook or Paperback …