Gáspár Nagy on software

coach, trainer and bdd addict, creator of SpecFlow; owner of Spec Solutions

Doing it right

by Gáspár on April 20, 2009

I’m a software developer. From time to time, I come to the question why it is good to be a developer? Why is it good to write software?

I don’t have the ultimate answer yet, but I already have a few: making someone’s work easier; to able to get out more value from the things we know; because it is a joy for me; because I can teach other developers to find this joy; or simply because it provides a reasonable good salary. (I always pick the one that fits best to my mood, but honestly I can also argue with each of them.)

I’m not working on software that saves lives directly, and there was a time when I was very sad about that. But then I have realized that the world is full of people that also don’t do that, still you can be very happy that they do what they are doing. (Now I cut the long list of examples, because I tend to be too sentimental.) The point is that you are happy with them because they do their job right.

Today I have found the website of the TED community. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and it is a community (and a yearly conference) where people try to bring these concepts together and make something remarkable. It is innovative, but not necessarily technology-wise. And very-very inspiring. The best talks from the conferences are also available on-line, so you should better look at them. They are all relatively short (the allowed time for a speech is 18 minutes).

Why does this come here? Because sometimes you have to step back and look at things from a broader perspective in order to step further or gather new ideas. Here are some:

Matthew Childs: Hang in there! 9 life lessons from rock climbing

You will start listening to this as it would be about rock climbing, but you’ll soon realize that this is also about you (and for example software development). (04:48)

Scott McCloud: Understanding comics

As you’ve guessed this is also about more than comics. It is about vision and about finding ways to understand things (take it apart and put it together). About how technology and art can cooperate with each-other. (In this sense, it can be also helpful for software usability.) And last but not least to show how to make a memorable presentation. (17:08)

In McCloud’s talk, there is an interesting list of rules which I have to think of:

  • Learn from everyone
  • Follow no one
  • Watch for patterns
  • Work like hell

I have learned a lot today.

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