Author Archive: Paul Epps

Family Happiness

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I was reading a Tolstoy story called “Family Happiness” in bed last night. It was close to midnight when I finished it. “Good story,” I announced to my wife, although she was 90 percent asleep by that time. Without opening her eyes, she asked, “What was it about?” “A man and a woman fall in love and get married. They’re very happy for a while but then the marriage starts to come apart.” “Because the husband spends too much time on Facebook?” she asked. “No, they didn’t have Facebook in 1860. What I didn’t see coming though is that the story turns out to have a happy ending after all.” “Perfect,” she said. “What did you learn from it?” “The past is gone, but you can still find a new life and a different kind of happiness.” “With the same wife?” “Yes.” “Perfect,” she said. Read more →

Comfortable With Our Stupid Children

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Researchers have found that generic American parents, faced with a child who can’t do math or science, will say “Don’t worry, Johnny, because you have so many other talents.” Asian parents, supposedly, will say “Since you aren’t apparently naturally gifted at math or science you’ll have to study extra hard in these areas,” and not stop nagging until the kid is doing well. — Philip Greenspun Read more →

New Used Books

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I paid a visit to The Bookman — a local used book store — today, spent $36 and came home with the following haul: The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories, Leo Tolstoy Despair, Vladimir Nabokov Hunger, Knut Hamsun The Lover, Marguerite Duras New York Trilogy, Paul Auster Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray The White Hotel, D. M. Thomas Read more →

Pug on a Diet

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Early every morning, the pug comes into our room and paws at my side of the bed for me to lift him up. It’s too high for him to jump — the top of the bed’s about four feet off the ground. This morning I leaned over and hoisted him like I always do, but instead of the dog ending up on the bed, I went over the side and almost decapitated myself on the corner of the nightstand, on the way to a hard meeting with Mister Floor. “It’s okay,” my wife said. “Try again tomorrow.” The dog was unharmed. He’s not fat but a modest weight reduction program may be in the cards for him . . . Read more →

Twitter: 2009-08-14

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$200K? That's all? The kid doesn't play hockey obviously. http://bit.ly/p0NxA via @TheOnion – Cost To Raise Child Exceeds $200,000 # RT @capricecrane: Cops called to Gosselin home, but somehow forgot to shoot Jon and Kate. What are my tax dollars paying for, exactly? # "Software Engineering: An Idea Whose Time Has Come and Gone?" by Tom DeMarco http://bit.ly/k32gm # Read more →

Control is Not Important

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To understand control’s real role [in software development], you need to distinguish between two drastically different kinds of projects: Project A will eventually cost about a million dollars and produce value of around $1.1 million. Project B will eventually cost about a million dollars and produce value of more than $50 million. What’s immediately apparent is that control is really important for Project A but almost not at all important for Project B. This leads us to the odd conclusion that strict control is something that matters a lot on relatively useless projects and much less on useful projects. It suggests that the more you focus on control, the more likely you’re working on a project that’s striving to deliver something of relatively minor value. To my mind, the question that’s much more important than how to control a software project is, why on earth are we doing so many… Read more →

Twitter: 2009-08-13

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HarvardBusiness.org: How to Innovate With Less http://bit.ly/V0upg # RT @capricecrane: Heidi Pratt claims 20-30 orgasms in a day. Less impressive when you figure she has one every time she talks about herself. # Read more →

What Was Difficult

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One friend described an interaction with Fujio Cho, former head of Toyota, visiting a plant and gently chiding people for too much attention to accomplishments and too little on struggle points. If he didn’t know what was difficult for them, he was reported to ask, how would he know where he could be of help? — HarvardBusiness.org. Read more →

Ultra Lean Planning

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I’m not wholeheartedly endorsing the Ultra Lean Planning approach but it does lead you to question how much of the overhead of traditional software development is really necessary. It may be important to know that the author is one of the top guys in the industry and not a random flake. Read more →

Cash for Clunkers

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Cash for Clunkers has the following elements of spectacle: Americans destroying perfectly functional cars Americans whose skills are uncompetitive in the global marketplace driving around in fancy new cars Somewhere in China and India they must be having a good laugh. — Philip Greenspun Read more →

Microwave Instructions

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“There are no microwave instructions,” my son says, looking over a frozen pizza box. I say, “You want microwave instructions? Put it in the oven and turn it on. Aren’t those pretty much the microwave instructions for anything?” Read more →

You Better Believe It

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These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views–but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades. — Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, ‘Un-American’ attacks can’t derail health care debate   The “facts” to which they refer turn out to be not facts at all but representations about the glories of ObamaCare: “Health insurance reform will mean more patient choice. . . . Reform will mean stability and peace of mind for the middle class. . . . Reform will mean affordable coverage for all Americans. . . . Reform will also mean higher-quality care.” What, you don’t believe it? You better believe it, or you’re un-American. — Best of the Web Today Read more →

Polite Acerbity

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I am learning to bring into [my voice] that polite acerbity that makes people feel that far from being welcome they are not even tolerated and are under continual and scathing analysis at every moment. — F. Scott Fitzgerald Read more →

Twitter: 2009-08-09

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RT @paulandstorm: [S] A proper diet is half the battle: Upper GI Joe. # RT @diablocody: I used to think grownups automatically knew how to take care of themselves. Flash-forward to my squalid adulthood. # "I'm sorry but business is business." #usefulphrases # "You ought to have thought of that before you got into this trouble." #usefulphrases # "I'm not the person to see about that." #usefulphrases # Read more →

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