Raise of hands: who wants to start the next 37 Signals, Fog Creek, or even Google? Both of my hands are up and I doubt I’m the only one. Just think of all the creative and interesting software that is being created in garages, basements, and commuter buses out there. While I don’t want to […]

Read Full Post »

Steve Yegge writes about the problems with technical interviews. He certainly paints a bleak picture of the current state of the art. I think the real problem is that technical interviewing is really the type of unconscious decision making that Malcolm Gladwell described in Blink. When a really good hacker walks into the room […]

Read Full Post »

Many professional software developers are concerned that the rise of open source will take away their ability to get paid for writing software. It is easy to see why they are worried: open source software is “free” and developers do not usually get paid for software that is given away. The situation really isn’t that […]

Read Full Post »

Interviewing candidates for a development position can be a daunting task. The consequences of making the wrong decision can be expensive and difficult to correct. One potential solution adopted by many employers is the pop-quiz interview. In a pop-quiz interview the interviewer asks technical questions with a very specific predetermined answer. Employers need a good […]

Read Full Post »

Fact: Good developers are hard to come by. Anyone that’s had to do any hiring knows that unless you get really lucky, you’ll see many resumes before ever finding a good developer to add to the team. Finding the right person with the right skill set that fits into the team well and can deliver […]

Read Full Post »