In every country’s recent history there are some villains whose unspeakable deeds qualify as a national trauma, especially when the judiciary sorely let down those it was charged to protect. There have been few so egregious as the UK’s Jimmy Savile, about whom you can watch the Netflix documentary Jimmy…

Previously published on DZone In a recent article, I argued that it is becoming even harder to be a credible full stack developer, one who is sufficiently up to date to contribute to every stage of developing a modern web- and/or mobile-based application. You’re not expected to build it all…

Previously published on DZone There are reasons to give key stakeholders the opportunity to officially sign off on a new software release. We need some formal approval from the people who commissioned it, or at least their delegates. This last stage prior to release is commonly called the user-acceptance test and…

Today I want to talk about remembering and forgetting, and particularly the vast difference between human and computer memory. Popular fiction likes to cling to some flawed analogies, but any AI expert or neuroscientist knows better. The brain doesn’t distinguish between software and hardware. Memories are not pieces of data…

Many non-technical skills, qualities, and mindsets are part of software craftsmanship. Today I want to talk about two: Resilience Improvisation Resilience helps us cope with difficulties by not giving up too soon. Improvisation deals with compromise and creativity in the face of the unexpected. The intuition to distinguish negotiable best…

Dave Eggers’ new novel is a darkly comical techno dystopia. The Every (no link: buy it from your local book shop) is the sequel to The Circle. Its eponymous company is an unholy alliance of the major tech behemoths whose names need no mention. The Every is well on its…

Previously posted on DZone Joel Spolsky’s once prolific blogging output dried up years ago, but Things You Should Never Do, Part I is still a classic after 22 years. He wrote it as an outsider’s postmortem following the first beta release (6) of Netscape’s browser, three years after the previous major…

I consider soft skills crucial to success in an IT career, but I find the term crude and confusing for two reasons. …

Originally published on DZone There’s not much buzz about design patterns these days. They appear to have joined the hall of fame of accepted wisdom, alongside the Silver Bullet, SOLID and DRY. Lately, I had the opportunity to share some thoughts on the importance of good old design patterns with Koen…