L’audace, l’audace, toujours l’audace!
Tiger Mothers
In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers, almost 70% of the Western mothers said either that “stressing academic success is not good for children” or that “parents need to foster the idea that learning is fun.” By contrast, roughly 0% of the Chinese mothers felt the same way. Instead, the vast majority of the Chinese mothers said that they believe their children can be “the best” students, that “academic achievement reflects successful parenting,” and that if children did not excel at school then there was “a problem” and parents “were not doing their job.” Other studies indicate that compared to Western parents, Chinese parents spend approximately 10 times as long every day drilling academic activities with their children. By contrast, Western kids are more likely to participate in sports teams.
Now he would never write the things that he had saved to write until he knew enough to write them well. — Ernest Hemingway, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”
Fault and Change
Think of all the things that are not working in your life. That job you don’t like, that relationship that’s not working, those friends that annoy you. Now turn them all on you. Imagine that everything that’s not working in your life, is your fault. How would you approach it? What would you work on to change your life to the state that you want it to be?
EppsNet at the Movies: Punching the Clown
Michelangelo apparently once said that if people knew how hard he worked, they wouldn’t call him a genius and I think with me, it’s sort of the opposite, you know. I think that if people knew how little I worked on this stuff, I don’t think they would say that I suck.
Cannot recommend this movie highly enough!
Five Guys in Europe: France
We’ll always have Paris . . .
Software Development is Capable of Much, Much More
If there is one message I would like to communicate, whatever your job title and however your work is touched by software development, it is this: software development is capable of much, much more than it is currently delivering.
The Word “Requirement” is Just Plain Wrong
Software development has been steered wrong by the word “requirement,” defined in the dictionary as “something mandatory or obligatory.” The word carries a connotation of absolutism and permanence, inhibitors to embracing change. And the word “requirement” is just plain wrong. Out of one thousand pages of “requirements,” if you deploy a system with the right 20% or 10% or even 5%, you will likely realize all of the business benefit envisioned for the whole system. So what were the other 80%? Not “requirements”; they weren’t really mandatory or obligatory.
One Piece of Wisdom
The Simplest Thing That Could Possibly Work
I ask people to think about the question, “What is the simplest thing that could possibly work?” I’m not asking you to think about what is too simple to work, just to bias your thinking toward eliminating wasted complexity.
Epilogue
The floods, the flames, the questions–
till the ashes tell you one day:
“Life is the building of bridges
over rivers that seep away.”
Five Guys in Europe: La Sagrada Familia
La Sagrada Familia is a nice building . . .
Change Isn’t the Problem
Everything in software changes. The requirements change. The design changes. The business changes. The technology changes. The team changes. The team members change. The problem isn’t change, because change is going to happen; the problem, rather, is our inability to cope with change.
She was a girl who knew how to be happy even when she was sad. And that’s important — you know? — Marilyn Monroe
Live Like a Jackass, Die Like a Jackass
To anyone who misses Ryan Dunn, may I suggest that you honor his memory by getting drunk and driving your car into a tree.
The tragedy here is that Bam Margera wasn’t in the car with him.
I object to having these guys introduced into my life via front-page headlines. Why is Ryan Dunn’s death more noteworthy than any other moron with a fast car and a drinking problem? Because he shoved a toy car up his ass?
Here in our neighborhood in Irvine, we had a drunk guy a few weeks ago run a red light at Irvine and Culver and smash his truck into a car containing a father, his 14-year-old daughter and three of her friends on their way home from a birthday party.
One of the girls, a freshman at Northwood High School, was killed.
The fact that Ryan Dunn killed himself and a 30-year-old man rather than a 14-year-old girl is just a matter of chance.
If your idea of a good time is to go out drinking, then get in your car and drive around real fast on PUBLIC ROADS, then you are lethally stupid and I don’t like you.
Five Guys in Europe: Museums
Null Hypothesis
Five Guys in Europe: Departure
In today’s update, the boys catch a break at the airport . . .
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. — Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
Happy Fathers Day!
Hi Dad! Happy Fathers Day!
We didn’t spend a lot of time together but my owner says I have the heart of a much larger animal and I know I got that from you!
He also says I have a “stubborn physicality” which I don’t know what that is but I know it’s good! LOL!
Here’s a recent picture of me at the dog park. Well, I’m not a puppy anymore but I’m still the alpha dog of my whole neighborhood!
If you’re ever in California, let’s get together!
Love, Lightning 