Calling baloney

For whatever reason, I'm always tickled when somebody speaks up and says: "Hey, wait a minute, that's a bunch of hooey!"

So these all entertained me, more or less...

• “Eat, sleep, code, repeat” is such bullshit

  It’s wonderful to be so dedicated to your craft that programming is all you ever want to do. I love that enthusiasm. It can carry you to great heights.

  But if you want to become the very best programmer you can be, make space for some non-programming activities. Let your brain stretch its legs and you might find a whole new level of flow.

• Evaluating Delusional Startups

  If you’re in the market for a new gig at a hot startup, it’s worthwhile to spend some time thinking about if your sneaking suspicions are correct and the company you’re interviewing with might be full of pretty delusional people.

• Myths of the Headless Company

  So when the founder tells you “nothing is going to change” it’s simply the guy who lacks enough business experience to actually run the business telling you his/her opinion.

  The reality is new CEOs are hired for a reason, they are hired to change things, that change typically involves a change in focus, and CEO changes are always risky. Sometimes they work out great. Sometimes the new person craters the company.

• Don't quit that programming career yet because of AI

  Machine learning has been advancing at a tremendous rate, it's true. I hope it keeps up. But anyone who's dealt with ML in the real world can tell you that you're likely to spend more time cleaning and dealing with the data than the learning itself.

• The fall of Rome and the ascendancy of ego and bluster

  Without measurement data researchers have to resort to bluster to hide the flimsy foundations of the claims being made, those with the biggest egos taking center stage. Commercial companies are loath to let outsiders measure what they are doing and very few measure what they are doing themselves (so even confidential data is rare). Most researchers moved onto other topics once they realised how little data was available or could be made available to them.

• Proof of Concept Testing Should Never Happen

  If I am buying top quality equipment – why should I prove it works as its supposed to before I use the purchased product?

• Can the Media Please Stop Referring to Company Size by Valuation?

  So why does the media do this? Why do they want to mislead readers by a factor of 20?

  • Because if makes the numbers bigger
  • And makes the headlines cooler
  • And increases drama

  In the end, because it (metaphorically) sells more newspapers.