Maps and Territories: Exploring “The Lean Startup’ through Nature, Part III

Maps and Territories: Exploring “The Lean Startup’ through Nature, Part III

One of the main tenets of outdoor survivorship is that it is essential to observe your environment. Closely. But observation is only half of the required skill. The other half is an unbiased interpretation of the data you are being given.
Wilderness mishaps and death stories are filled with cautionary tales of people who blindly ignored obvious signs of risk and danger. And, when I say blindly, I mean they made the types of decisions that cause people – those safely listening in their armchairs and far from the buggy, evening woods – to gasp, agog, and say, “What were they thinking?”

Socks and Sandals (and software-development faux pas)

Socks and Sandals (and software-development faux pas)

I’ve worked with a lot of clients and potential clients over the past 10+ years. Sometimes, in conversation about a project, the client will roll out, oh-so-casually, one of about 10 pat statements that reveal a pernicious and erroneous belief about the process of...
Collaboration and Software Development

Collaboration and Software Development

Most of us have probably used the term collaboration enough to have such a good idea of what it means that we don’t really have to stop to consider its implications. As the Google summary above says, the term derives from the latin word collaboratio (which also...

How Can You Trust a Software Developer?

The world is full of deception. Many creatures use it to capture their next meal. Many of the rest of them use deception to avoid becoming someone else’s next meal. Deception is used to entice mates. Orchids are masters of deception in the plant world, enticing...