Category Archives: Soft Skills

Video: Padawan to Jedi – A Developer Jump-Start (my presentation at Austin Code Camp 2011)

By ChrisEdwards | Published: September 15, 2011

Here is the video of my “Padawan to Jedi – A Developer Jump-Start” presentation I gave last week at the Austin Code Camp 2011. It touches on all the principles, patterns, practices, and such that I have learned in my many years being a developer. I designed the Padawan2Jedi talk to present knowledge in a […]

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Do you lead by influence or position?

By ChrisEdwards | Published: June 24, 2011

I was listening to the Manager Tools Podcast and learned there are two leadership styles: leading by influence or leading by position. Leading by Position Leading by position is when others follow you only because you are in a position of authority. “Do this…because I am your boss!” While people should follow those in a […]

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Be a Mentor, Not a Critic

By ChrisEdwards | Published: July 11, 2010

This quote was posted on twitter last week and really stuck with me, "Be a mentor, not a critic." I don’t remember who posted it, but it really made me think about my attitude at work. I like to think of myself as a mentor. I try to help others become better developers. I make […]

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Fighting Perfectionism—What Is Good Enough?

By ChrisEdwards | Published: June 24, 2010

Perfectionism is a disability deceptively disguised as technical proficiency. It is adds risk to a project while deceiving the developer to believe they are doing the right thing. Where do you draw the line and stop refactoring knowing the code is good enough? Perfectionism is something I have struggled with for a long time. I […]

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Thou Shalt Not Love Thy Code

By ChrisEdwards | Published: August 14, 2006

On my most recent project I have learned a very humbling, yet very useful lesson. Never fall in love with your code, or it will be too hard to let go. In the Agile world, your code needs to adapt to changing requirements and the introduction of new features. When this happens, it just might […]

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