Around a year ago, I was chatting with a good friend about an idea I had for a podcast. Over the last several years, I’ve learned that I’ve become really focused on improving existing software over building something new. I’m not a maker. That is…

First off, do we really need — another — podcast about software development? For a number of years, I’ve been kicking around the idea of starting a podcast to talk with people about software but really felt like it’s a saturated market. I kept telling myself that I wouldn’t pursue…

Cultivate our industry’s next generation of talent while improving your team’s mentorship skills. — Running tech internships at Planet Argon has become a regular activity. We’ve had nine separate interns this year (2018) alone and will have around the same number next year. We’re a small company (< 12 employees)…yet we find a way to make this work well for our interns and ourselves.

We recently published the final results from our semi-biennial survey that we’ve been conducting for nearly a decade. Over 2,000 Rails developers responded from 72 different countries across the globe. We posted a collection of articles about a few of the results that caught our attention: The State of Test…

Whether I am researching solutions, writing code, or organizing my email…I’m usually doing that with some music in the background in my headphones. When I’m in this mode — I try to remove music with vocals so that I can focus on my task on hand and less on the…

The majority of Ruby on Rails applications that we provide long-term maintenance and development on are inherited. Our clients usually bring applications to us that were originally built by a freelancer, in-house developers, or another agency. Over a dozen years of working on apps, I believe we do our best…

Confession. I have become bored with most startup entrepreneurs. Lucky me. I have the benefit of meeting a wide array of business owners and stakeholders. Getting to speak with these folks is one of the great joys of running a software consulting company. …but I have a confession. I have become bored with most startup entrepreneurs. A decade ago…

Turning Big Decisions Into Short-Term Pilot Programs In a board meeting recently, the organization shared their desire to drop a program. As they shared their rationale, I reflected on the conversations a few years prior. At that time, the organization wanted to address a large pain point in their operations. …

Two years ago, we signed the Portland TechTown Diversity Pledge with a number of other local tech organizations. At the time, we were ignorant on many aspects of the issues in our industry. Today I say, with confidence, that we’re less ignorant of the issues. …