The holidays are the perfect time to read, and I’ve been doing a good share of reading. The selected books where “Peopleware” from Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister, and “Clean Code” from “Uncle Bob” Martin.
- Peopleware ~ Productive Projects and Teams, 2ed
This book was presented to me as a selection of small essays and articles on team management, but it is so much more than that.
The first thing that becomes clear to the reader is the voice of experience that is expressed in each chapter. Some of the ideas win your over due to their simplicity, they are so obvious that they can’t be contested by anyone. But seeing then written down, black over white, gives then another aura of comprehension.
The authors devote themselves to the issues like the team environment (the physical space that the team needs), team members and their selection and team building.
I really like the metaphor of having a “jell” glue team members, and so increase their productivity. Some introspection really allowed me to relate with the requirements to achieve the “jell formation”, and also identify the issues that make it harder to build a better team.
- Clean Code ~ A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
The quality of you code is obviously something that should never be disregarded, but after reading Clean Code I’ve gained some very good tools (and specially validated arguments) to say “My code still isn’t ready, it needs to be cleaned!”.
The book purposes the idea that you need several iterations to incrementally clean your code. This alone, is not something new, but the author makes a good argument advocating that most of the time that clean up is not done. This leads to severe code rot, and decreased productivity and decreased motivation and…
Apart from showing several techniques to improve/clean your code, it also defends the benefits of Test-Driven Development. On this subject, I need to do some more investigations but it seems that the TDD approach has advantages over the usual “ill-defined” testing that is the normal approach. At least the book opened the “appetite” for the subject…
vacation
- noun
: a scheduled period during which activity (as of a court or school) is suspended;
a period of exemption from work granted to an employee
in Merrian-Webster Online Dictionary
My vacations are ending, batteries are recharged, stress levels are at minimum…
I’m ready to get back to work!
My last post was almost 3 weeks ago. It might seem a long time ago but, after a very stressful last work week, I’m currently enjoying a well deserved vacation. So, I haven’t had much time to write! After hitting the beach for a week, I’m sure this vacations shall be a time for resting, resting, resting and… a lot of reading.
The photo (on the side) shows some of the expected reading materials:
- “The Girl Who played with Fire”, Stieg Larsson.
- “I, Robot”, Isaac Asimov.
- “One Continuous Mistake”, Gail Sher.
- “The Children of Men”, P.D. James.
- “Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software”, Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides.
Has you can see by the contents of the above list, I like to read a lot, and the topic is not very focussed… 
I’m considering adding some comics to the list. Maybe I’ll read “Watchmen”!
Today was my first working day after almost a month vacation. The day started slow but the working rate increased to normal quite quickly, and before lunch my production rate was as strong as before leaving for vacations. It was a good start because usually it takes almost two full days to get the ‘engine’ started.
This conquest leads me to think about some new year resolutions that I made:
- fulfill only the strictly mandatory work hours
- take more time for myself, my family and my things
- enjoy all my vacation days
- travel more, during vacation but also by making regular weekend “escapades”
- relax and enjoy the little things
- support more, the people around me
oh, and a last one, write more…
During my last vacation, I had time to finish a great book. Ensaio sobre a Cegueira is an excellent bedside reading and a great companion for some nice vacations.
José Saramago’s [EN] novel was adapted to the big screen by Fernando Meirelles (the producer of one of my latest favorite ‘independent’ movies - Cidade dos Homens/City of Men). But it is still waiting to premier in Portugal.
Blindness was nominated for the Golden Palm (in the Canne’s Film Festival), and it will be worth the next trip to the theatre.
The long time since the last post doesn’t mean that the work is taking all my time… it just means that I’m on a well deserved vacations!
The first week was spent near the beach. Although the weather was usually cloudy during the morning, the afternoon always brought a very good hot sun. An excellent weather to enjoy the beach.
After the beach comes some rest, maybe interrupted with an occasional trip to an attraction nearby. I really need the rest… but, essencially it’s time for the family.
