no, really

I stumbled upon a particular blog this morning that worried me at first. I don’t like finding out that I’m heading the wrong direction with something, and this one in particular seemed to make me think that I was. I read on, and saw that it wasn’t mocking the processes of agile development, but the people who have made it a religion.

Amongst the quotes that I was very pleased to see – particularly from a guy who went from “bitter” to “google”, was this:

“And optimal productivity is partly a function of the machine and context in which you’re operating: the quality of your code base, your tools, your documentation, your computing platform, your teammates, even the quality of the time you have during the day, which should be food-filled and largely free of interrupts.”

That sounds like: support your people so they have no blockages.

Overall, I think his thesis is “do what’s right for your people, make sure they’ve got excellent incentives and motivation, and you’ll get it done as soon as it can humanly be done.”

I’ll have to think about it more, but I’m sure it’s an everything-in-moderation point of view.

For the past few months, it’s been *impossible* to find developers. Specifically: experienced, creative, energetic, open-source active LAMP developers. We’ve been trying since February, and were lucky to get the _one_ that we found.

Then today, I was discussing the employment situation and my current options with Neil, and he shared a fascinating theory: Google is sucking up all the good talent in NYC.

The evidence, he cites is: this revealing nugget .

So, it looks like they’re tripling their space, then tripling their staff! It was hard enough to find people a year ago, and now the competition for candidates has increased rediculously! Of course if Google offers a job, you say yes, but what do the rest of us do??

I’m betting all the job boards (Joel’s included) are making a killing these days! So many people need to fill out their teams, and can’t find the people to do it!

Over the course of your life, you make bazillions of decisions, such as:
* What color socks to wear with those sandals
* Tall or Grande
* Stay or go
* Liquor or Beer

Then, a few times in your life, you make decisions that take a lot of time and effort. They consume your thoughts. You consult everyone you’ve ever trusted, including those you haven’t seen in years. You examine other parts of your life to make sure you’re answering the right questions.

Then you make it.

But not all at once. At least for me, I need to make that decision in my head, and live it for a little – see how I like it. Maybe I can re-convince myself of the other option(s). Maybe more opportunities will come up.

Then you make it again. And now, you actually do it.

So, yesterday I made one of those big moves in my life. After two whirlwind years at Money-Media I’ve decided to move on.

There are a lot of reasons prompting this move. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about them all and weighing their importance. I’m also making this move without an exact plan for what’s next. I need to sort out my personal and professional goals, and find an environment where those goals will be honored and nurtured.

I’m sure that this is the right decision for me. I’m sure that I’ll be able to move up from here. I’m very sad to be leaving such a dense group of smart and creative people, but it’s more important that I be happy in the right situation.

…it’s remarkable to me that some average hotel bars maintain a distinct lack of choice. I mean, I get that the Bryant Park Hotel is trying to do an asian thing. The decor is creative and interesting; modern and chic, but when you only offer -three- two beers (and a half, if you’re into light) that are both standard asian stock… you’re kind of in for failure. I mean, what Sapporo fan is going to visit _your_ bar, specifically to drink their favorite beer? Decor counts for something, but in the end… choice is key. If you’re going to do the asian thing, at least have a wide selection. I can rattle off three or four that would make for an interesting menu to say the least. Tiger, Singha, Kirin… even some weird ones like “33 Export.”

No wonder it was pretty empty last night.