in|retrospect
Posts on page 37
Craftsmanship in Management
Software engineers will sometimes talk about the craft of software development. The term invokes a sense of art and skill cultivated over years of experience and tribulations, and certainly sounds cooler than framing the act of building software as continuous…
A Mystery Retrospective
When the COVID shutdowns began and my kids were forced to learn from home, I noticed that they were enamored with this app that taught them STEM concepts. Specifically, the app featured a bunch of videos and activities focused on…
Evolving the User Interface to the Software Business
For a little while, it seemed inevitable that desktop apps—well, programs , as they were previously known—would all migrate to be web apps, destined to run as tabs in a browser window. In many ways the architecture of the…
Being Optimistic
What does it mean to be optimistic? My definition is the choice to focus on the positive aspects of a situation, both in-the-moment and the potential outcomes, without ignoring problematic areas. The latter can lead to a phenomenon sometimes described…
All-Encompassing Management
A while back, I happened upon a Twitter thread about incompetent management that I found, initially anyway, quite insightful. First-time founders, CEOs, and even employees should understand the playbook of the Incompetent Leader (IL). The IL is savvy & charismatic,…
Another Housing Bubble
A recent episode of the Planet Money podcast talked a bit about the current housing crunch and the reasons for some of the biggest price increases in housing for decades. To quickly summarize, the Planet Money folks focused on the…
