“I’m an institution man, now”1. Over the years, I’ve become a big fan (should I say addicted?) to a Google-based workflow. The tools provided by Google are excellent, and still continue to improve on a daily basis. The last updated I’ve noticed were: google talk video (and there goes skype), the multiple account sign-in mechanism (no more two browsers open, one for each account) and the “face-lift” to gmail interface.
Regarding the last item, it seems that Google could have done better regarding tasks management. Mail and Contacts seem very well integrated, but Tasks seem a bit out-of-place. What’s that little pop-up windows all about? I think that’s the only thing that makes me use a “foreign” app in my workflow.
If Tasks were to follow the EverNote or OneNote approach, that would be perfect. And after that… maybe a Google based file syncing service. And them… web-based mind-mapping. And them…
1 from “The Shawshank Redemption” (@ imdb)
The correct answer to that question is “I’m a father, a lover, a living being… In that order.”. This is an important aspect of the answer, since how one seed himself obviously influences the way the reality is perceived, but today I want to talk about a different aspect. So, in professional terms, what am I?
The other day, during “team motivation” training there was an exercise where a colleague tried to motivate me to work with him in a new project. The idea was to have a “coaching” session in order to perceive my expectations, but the way he approached the session made me thing about what I am and what I would like to be doing in a short/medium term.
Having a computer science degree, I’m obviously very interested in Software engineering, but above all I consider myself a Systems Architect/Engineer. Of course I’m able to understand an existing “blue-print” and build the building (give me a specification, an editor and a compiler, and I’ll be a very happy man), but I’m also very interested in participating in the “sketching” of the “blue-print”. Especially, and above all, I like have a global view of what is being built.
So, this colleague suggested a baby-steps approach, where a complete birds-eye view of the system was only achieved after several months. I don’t want to start by implementing very specific I/O routines, or be in charge of a very specific infrastructure component. I don’t believe in having computer guys working the infrastructure (low-level design, I/O, supporting middleware) and leaving all the domain stuff (domain algorithms, specific computations and modelling) to the domain experts. Software should be built by software engineers with the support of domain engineers ([DDD] has a very nice discussion on this issue). I need to see the complete architecture of what I’m building, that’s when I most capable and most efficient.
References:
[DDD] Eric Evans , “Domain Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Business Software”, 2002 (@ google books)
