Mark Freedman’s Blog

There is Always a Need for Good Software Developers

What I’m about to say does not pertain to everyone having trouble finding employment in software development during this difficult time, but DO NOT fall into the trap of automatically believing that you’re one of the exceptions.  It’s likely that you’re not.

People have been asking if I had any advice for software developers who find themselves out of work due to the economy. I think they’re looking for consoling words, but instead I’m going to provide a reality check.

A few months ago, my company was searching for a couple of developers.  So for the first time in over a year, I started interviewing developers again, starting with the phone tech. And I was very discouraged at what I experienced, even after filtering out candidates from the resumes we received. The quality of candidates have always been a very mixed bag. After all, as Joel Spolsky makes abundantly clear, “The great software developers, indeed, the best people in every field, are quite simply never on the market.” But the drop-off of overall quality has been significant. If you don’t want to find yourself included in that group, I recommend you come to terms with the following…

Reality Check # 1: If your phone tech runs 15 minutes or less, you’ve failed. And most phone interviews last less than 15 minutes. I’m not exaggerating – 9 out of 10 people I interview are off the phone within 15 minutes. If you don’t care enough about your craft, you’re probably hurting the company you’re currently working for. If you don’t care about preparing for your interview, then not only should you second guess your career choice, you should also work on changing your attitude before considering another field.

Reality Check # 2: If you don’t take the time to think about what you’re doing, you won’t be much help to a company that cares at all about quality. If you can’t answer why you’d choose one technique or technology over another, or show critical thinking, you’re probably not providing enough value to your company. You risk being one of the next to be laid off, if you haven’t been already.

Do Heads-Down Coders Still Exist?

Some people claim there’s a place for "heads-down" coders, but if I just described you in the previous section, you wouldn’t even fit that description. Even heads-down coders need to make internal decisions every day. You’re likely doing things the way you do because perhaps someone once told you to do it that way, or you learned it from the book you’ve read on the topic (telling you "what" you need to do, but not "why" you’d choose to do it that way). You could be hurting your company and don’t even know it, or care.

And that’s the part that’s most frustrating. It seems that most "developers" I’ve interviewed don’t really care. It seems they think that all they need to do is throw out some textbook answers to questions, and it’s good enough to prove that they’re programmers.

That is completely wrong.

Resumes are Virtually Useless

I don’t believe the resumes I see anymore. They’re virtually useless. They’re just there for the collection of people I may need to call and filter out over the phone, because all they do is list technologies the person may have used at one time or another. And I don’t even believe that. Sometimes they just list buzzwords they could give one line definitions of, if asked.

I once interviewed someone who claimed to be a C programmer, but when he showed up for the face-to-face, he admitted, while looking me in the eye, that he only watched his roommate program in C! I’m sure many people have stories like this one, or the one where a friend interviewed someone, and only found out at the end of the interview that the person he was speaking with was actually the roommate of the person he meant to interview, but the other guy wasn’t home yet! The “candidate” went through the entire interview, and then confessed “as a matter of fact” at the end of it!

Your Job Could Be Outsourced to Someone Who Cares

Reality Check # 3: People complain about jobs going to another country. Well, if you’re going to claim you’re a developer, but you don’t take an interest in your career, then your job could definitely go to someone who’s not afraid to really think. I have rarely met a quality developer who lost their job to outsourcing and had been unable to quickly find another development job – even in this climate. True developers are in very short supply, and do not stay unemployed for long.

If you don’t want be another "outsourcing statistic", you owe it to yourself to show dedication to your career, and learn how to truly “think". It may be difficult to imagine, but some people actually act like thinking hurts. People aren’t taught how to think in school anymore, and I doubt they ever have. I was rarely taught “critical thinking” at school in the 60s and 70s. I learned on my own, from my parents, and from books. But I run into too many people who assume they’ve learned everything they need to know by the time they graduate. This is the difference between "book smart" and "common sense".

Take Responsibility

Reality Check # 4: Your career is your own responsibility – nobody else’s, institutional or otherwise. Show me a company that hires non-critical thinkers, and I’ll show you a company to avoid investing in. If you entered this field because you’d heard you can make a lot of money, but then you didn’t take the time to learn the "whys" and "whens" to do things, and all you did was "memorize" the "hows", you’ll be quickly found out. You can’t hide behind that. And then you may wonder why you don’t earn what you expected, or why you’ve been downsized.

You Can’t Hide

Reality Check # 5: It shows up in many ways. It shows up at meetings, when someone asks you how you’d implement something, and you use a generic answer, like, "I’ll write a module like I did for that other project, and just copy the code and change some strings." Or someone will ask for a feature, and you’ll just nod your head, maybe take a note or two, and never question a thing about their business. And then the stakeholder will wonder why you aren’t asking questions, and lose confidence.

During an interview, I’ll find out within a few questions if you’re just a "pretender". And if you think you can look up the answers while on the phone, and I hear paper rustling in the background, I’d know you haven’t been keeping up with the field – because if you had, you wouldn’t even be rustling through papers – you’d be clicking the mouse or typing! Even if I didn’t hear keyboard or mouse activity, I’d still know quickly, because you wouldn’t be able to answer the follow-up "why" or "when" questions. This is not multiple choice.

No Excuses

Reality Check # 6: What shocks me is that if someone made any attempt at all, it’s impossible to avoid accidentally finding the key information on these topics even if they tried. There’s so much information out there, anywhere you’d click would lead you to discussions explaining, discussing, and debating the whys and whens. We’re drowning in it!

If someone isn’t even learning by accident, then they just don’t care. I’d much rather hire an inexperienced developer than someone who just happens to know some facts about programming. I’d much rather hire someone who shows some passion for our field.

You chose this field.  And even if you can’t get passionate about it, your life truly does depend upon understanding why things are done the way they are in our field, and how to make choices in your approach to a problem.

Don’t use the excuse that you don’t have enough time because you have kids, or you’re busy with other things. We’re all extremely busy. This stuff is fundamental. If you can’t make the time for this, you’re wasting every moment. A moment that someone else, somewhere else, is not wasting.

What Top Companies Look For

Why do you think companies like Microsoft and Google are famous for their non-technical questions? Some people think it’s because they’re looking for the smartest people. I’d challenge that and hypothesize that they’re not just looking for the smartest people. They’re looking for people with the capacity for learning. It doesn’t come from knowing facts. Even if you clean toilets for a living, you need to make decisions on how to do it the best way possible.

Like those companies, we’re not looking for people who know everything.  There’s way too much to learn.  We’re looking for people who aren’t afraid to think. Who aren’t afraid to make a decision and stand by it. Who can research their options and make an intelligent choice based upon the situation. Who care enough to understand the fundamentals, but also know how to learn about what they don’t know. Only about 10% of the people I’ve interviewed have shown a desire to do so. Is it that they just don’t know how to handle an interview? There’s so much information available about that, so I don’t give them a bye for it. So many people are just willing to settle. To just to get by. Everyone gets physically lazy at times, but that’s just fatigue. In my opinion, actual laziness is the lack of desire to think.

The Interview

Obviously, some people just don’t interview well. Many are very nervous on an interview. Hell, I’m nervous giving an interview. That’s excusable, understandable, and never plays into my decision for consideration. But you can almost immediately tell the difference between nervousness and dedication.

Any company choosing to not bother even speaking to 90% of the pretenders out there should dominate their industry. Why do you think Microsoft, Google, and Apple are where they are?

Once you get past the first 15 minutes of an interview with us, where all we ask are the foundational questions, the next part involves asking for concrete examples of when you had to actually make decisions. Sounds simple, right? Well, at least half of the people who make it past the first part can’t do this. The third part is where we try to dig into why you chose this field to begin with, and to gauge your dedication to the craft.

If you can get past those first two parts, we’ll usually call you in for a face-to-face. This is where we’ll find out how well you can fit our team, and how you implement what you know. This is why we’ll give you an actual programming exercise. We really don’t care too much if you finish the task. We just want to see how you work. We learn a lot just by observation.

If you aren’t going for an analyst or architectural position, we’re still going to ask you questions that require analytical thinking. Maybe back in the 70s and 80s companies could get by with heads-down, don’t ask questions, locked-in-a-room coders. But these days there are so many things to consider beyond specific programming tasks, that everything you do requires some level of analytical and critical thinking. I feel that’s the most important and rewarding part of being a software developer. If you remember the simple point that programmers are actually problem solvers who use technology as the tool for solving them, you’ll understand why everything I’ve mentioned in this article is so important.

It’s sad to see so many people just sleepwalking through their career. If you care at all about your career and the field you’ve chosen, you should have little problem getting or keeping a job, even in this economy.

Resources

Ok, so I’ve smacked you in the face and woken you up.  Now what?  You’ve decided that you really do care, and that your job is in a tenuous position.  Where do you turn?  The good news is that there’s an abundance of resources available; more than you can even handle.  Sometimes the flood of information can be overwhelming and off putting.  But I’d start with the resources that’ll help you keep your finger on what’s most important.  You normally won’t get into detailed learning with the following, but they’re invaluable for making you aware of what’s important in our industry, and will direct you if you’re interested in a deep dive.  I’m focusing on the .NET development community here, because I work mainly with Microsoft technologies. But there are so many resources out there for all technologies.

Since there are many directions you can go with your skills, it’s important that you keep up with what’s happening.  Then you can choose what you want to dive into.  You can make a great living specializing in just a couple of technologies.  But you can’t even get there until you become aware of what’s out there, and what’s in demand.  Look at the topics discussed.  Do a bit of research before attending a user group meeting or listening to a podcast.

Local user groups: almost every large city has an active user group nearby. These are invaluable, not only for keeping up with the field, but also for networking. I help run two of them: the Fairfield / Westchester .NET and the Fairfield / Westchester SQL Server user groups, both in Stamford, CT.  You can also visit the following websites to find user groups and events in your area:

• INETA : an organization committed to the .NET community’s growth and development.
• DevEvents : a resource created and run by Steve Andrews to bring together the developer community.  DevEvents was written using Microsoft’s ASP.NET MVC , in case you’re interested.
• Community Megaphone : a similar resource created and run by Andrew Duthie, a Microsoft developer evangelist.
  

Podcasts: there are many podcasts that have their finger on the pulse of the industry. I can’t even imagine how much of a positive impact these resources have had on my career and my life. Based on my average commute, I’d lose around 500 hours per year if all I did was drive during these hours. But instead, I spend about 3 "working" months a year in "school" in my car. That’s three entire months! Here are the podcasts I regularly listen to which have been an enormous benefit. I can’t imagine where I’d be without them:

• .NET Rocks! - the twice weekly, leading podcast for .NET developers, hosted by Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell.  If you’re a .NET developer, and you listen to no other podcasts, you must listen to this one.  This may be my single most valuable resource for keeping my ear to the ground about the latest Microsoft development tools.
• Hanselminutes - a weekly, straight-to-the-point show with Scott Hanselman. Scott currently works at Microsoft, but started his podcast before then, and is well known in the development community.  He discusses many topics developers would be interested in; mainly centered around Microsoft technology, but often expanding to other, cooperative technologies.  He also discusses cultural topics that are of interest to many developers.
• RunAs Radio - if you want to have a better understanding of the infrastructure and related technologies that make up the environment your applications run in, or if you just want to have a better understanding of the people who developers often seem to have challenging relationships with, I highly recommend listening to this podcast. At least it could help you understand and gain a bit of respect from your IT support team.
• Stack Overflow - two of my favorite technical bloggers, Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky (one of my heroes), recently teamed up for a venture called StackOverflow. Their site is the number one site to visit if you’re looking for development answers.  I can’t begin to do justice describing the value of this site, and what makes it so special. You’ll have to see for yourself.  They have weekly phone discussions that they make public via this podcast.  I highly recommend it, just for their insights on development and the field.  It’s a bit uneven and not as polished as the other podcasts I mentioned, but it’s still extremely valuable.

Once you’re ready to dig deeper, there are so many more resources.  It gets old when I ask candidates how they keep up with the field, and the common response they think I want to hear is just, "I visit the MSDN site often."  That only shows me that they’ve kept their head in the sand for a long time.

• Coding Horror - this is Jeff Atwood’s blog.  Jeff is one of the founders of Stack Overflow.  He always posts insightful and opinionated articles about our field, and even if it’s not about a specific technology you use, it’s about a topic that developers can relate to and find value in.
• ComputerZen.com - this is Scott Hanselman’s (of Hanselminute fame) blog.  It’s another great resource, especially if you develop with Microsoft’s tools.
• ScottGu’s Blog - although Scott Guthrie doesn’t write too often, his posts are usually detailed, and very timely, coinciding with new development technology releases from Microsoft.  You’ll often find info beyond the documentation, even before the gaps are filled in by books and other articles.  And you’re usually getting the info straight from the source.
• StackOverflow.com - as mentioned above, this is an invaluable resource for developers.
• Search .NET - a great custom .NET search tool by the famous Dan Appleman, where he targets expert articles on .NET
• Google.com or Live.com - although "google" is now a verb, it isn’t the only search tool out there, and I do owe a lot of my career to Microsoft. So I’m also referring to Live.com here.  I often use search engines as my first resort when looking for info, and I’m amazed when candidates don’t even mention it as a resource. Baffling.
• Twitter - start following key players in our field.  You won’t get much more timely than seeing what top developers are reading and discussing.  As a matter of fact, since I’ve used Twitter on a regular basis, I’ve stopped relying on my RSS subscription feeds almost completely.  If you want to see who to follow, start with who I follow from my account – MarkFreedman, and who those people follow.

There are so many other resources, I won’t even attempt to expand on this list here.  Just check out the links on some of these other sites.  There’s just no excuse for not keeping up with our field, and preparing for a new job. You just need to have a bit of desire and care for your career. If you need help working on your resume, just google it. There’s so much info out there.  I haven’t had to make use of these resources lately, so I can’t really recommend one over the other.  But I can recommend an article by my daughter.  Her resume tip article targets recent college graduates, but everyone could benefit from most of her tips.

Good luck!

Songs are People Too

If you don’t recognize the reference of the title, it’s based on a song from the old Wonderama TV show, “Kids are People Too”.

Since the latest U2 album was leaked (and subsequently released), there’s been a remarkable reaction, which has me thinking again about something that I’ve always found curious. The range of opinions on the album is extraordinary. Although the percentage of people who love the album as compared to those who don’t like it is around an 85 to 15 ratio, the minority is vocal, and feel very strongly about how they feel. Some of them are long time U2 fans who are deeply disappointed. For people like me, who absolutely love the album, and think its some of their best work ever, it’s as hard to understand their point of view, as it is for them to understand how people could like it.

And I think I know why.

Songs are a lot like people.

Did you ever have a friend who was dating someone you couldn’t stand, or who was the last person in the world you’d ever think they’d be with? Exactly. Human / human relationships are based on a complex chemical relationship. You can call it physical or spiritual; it doesn’t matter. But our relationship with music has exactly the same basis. It’s entirely personal, and there is nothing you can ever do to force people to feel how you do about an album or song.

Music is one of the wonders of the world. Mathematicians and music theorists have always tried to explain our relationship with music. But I think we understand it as well as we understand human / human relationships. That is — very little.

You know how hearing just a few notes of a song can trigger a memory or a feeling? Doesn’t the same happen in fleeting moments with other people?

And yet, we still tend to give music the benefit of a doubt more than we do other people. You’re familiar with the saying, “first impressions last“, right? That’s almost always true for relationships between people. It’s extremely rare that a person get a second chance after meeting someone for the first time, to change the impression they’ve projected. But with music, we sometimes admit that some music needs to “grow” on us. “It’s a grower,” we’d claim. How often do we say that about people? “Yeah, John may grow on me.” I think we can learn something there, and it shakes up my theory a bit, but nevertheless…

…well, there’s another difference between music and people. Songs don’t have feelings. Well, I take that back — songs have proxies for feelings — the people who like them. We’ll stick up for music like it’s our own spouse or kids. We feel hurt when other people don’t like the same albums we like. Especially if we generally respect their taste in music. Just like we felt frustrated when our best friends didn’t like our boyfriend / girlfriend.

And that’s why we see so many passionate debates about topics like the latest U2 album. Debates that turn into mudslinging affairs where everyone ends up feeling hurt. Besides politics and religion, there’s nothing people get more passionate about than music. Well, maybe Macs vs. PCs, but that’s usually reserved for weirdo techies like myself.

Did you ever immediately click with someone that your friends hated? The type of person you’d usually avoid? Well, did you ever get into a song or album of a type of music you usually could not stand? Humans and music share an extremely complex relationship. If you break a person down into all their different personality traits, you’d never get to the bottom of their essence. Humans are much more than the sum of their parts. Music is the same. Even a simple-sounding song, as, say, “The Day Before The Day” by Dido. It’s easily one of my favorite songs of all time, but it’s really very simple. All it takes is a hook in a couple of right places, inflection here and there, a note placed perfectly, and the right pause between a couple of notes or lyrical phrase, and it’s taken to a level that can only be reached as a whole.

Why do you think Pandora requests input on each song it plays for you, even though it has an advanced “genome” recognition system? It’s because they realize the complexity of music and our musical tastes. No matter how advanced their analytical system is, there’s no way they’ll ever be finished learning about our tastes.

So, when the rest of your family sees dear old Aunt Beatrice as a whacko, don’t hold it against them. They just never gave her a chance to “grow” on them. Just like you never let “No Line on the Horizon” grow on you.

If you love the new U2, great. You’re happy. If you’re disappointed in it, although it doesn’t feel very good right now, don’t worry. Listen to the U2 you loved in the past. Listen to other music — there’ so much out there. As the old saying goes, “there are other fish in the sea.” And you are definitely not alone.

But you may want to give “Aunt Beatrice” another chance.

U2 - No Line on the Horizon - Review

Five years ago, I jumped the gun, and declared U2’s “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” a great album, and a potential classic. Looking back now, although it’s still an album full of some amazing pop songs, my susceptibility to hyperbole got the best of me. I let the emotions of unexpected success at the advanced age of my favorite band persuade an over-the-top review.

I intentionally tried to avoid the same situation this time around. I gave myself a couple of weeks after the leak of the album in order to be a little more objective. It was hard. Very, very hard. And I failed… I failed fast. But first, about that leak…

Communal Experience

Actually, I’m not even going to get into a debate on one side or the other about listening to the leak, but as a mass majority, U2 fans pre-order their albums — and usually the “limited edition,” “gold plated,” “signed with Bono’s blood” box sets, anyway. And when the band releases a new album, it absolutely requires a communal listening party. It’s no wonder 100,000 copies were downloaded within hours (if not minutes) of the accidental (?) leak (actually, a premature release) on an Australian online store, Getmusic.au. You cannot keep a U2 fan from this. And the response was deafening.

That’s one of the reasons holding myself back from this review was so incredibly difficult. I was dying to share my judgment of the music beyond mere descriptions and comparisons with earlier works. While my friends and co-fans were freely rating the album, I absolutely refused. There was a single trait about this album, though, that eased the difficulty just a smidge. It required repeated listenings. There was no way to comfortably form an opinion without several run-throughs. And that was a very, very good sign for the album.

But I compressed two weeks of listening into three days. So, I can hold back no longer. But at least I feel so much more comfortable sharing my feelings this time around.

Overall Impressions

I will start out by saying that this is the most diverse set of songs they have ever placed on a single album — and the fact that it makes for a cohesive whole is remarkable. “Achtung Baby” is a classic, but around half of the songs on that sound like they were cut from the same cloth. That just isn’t the case with “No Line”. This album ought to quiet the fans who’ve been clamoring for “something different”. They should be in heaven right about now.

If the album wasn’t a success, I would still give the band major kudos for the simple fact that they had the guts and confidence at the ripe old age of… uh… me, to put out their most daring collection in over a decade. They finally stayed away from safe — and let’s face it — “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” and the “Bomb” are ultimately both very “safe” albums. Remarkable in the fact that they could come back from such a commercial disaster as “Pop”, but safe, nonetheless. I will never, ever again question their ability to continue to produce at such a creative level again. I will not be surprised if they do it again at the age of 60. Far cry from the Rolling Stones, eh? This album makes me feel young.

In 1991, we were pretty shocked when “The Fly” was released as the lead single off of “Achtung Baby”. But that was ok, because it was a grower, and was ultimately a great song, with perhaps the solo highlight of Edge’s career. This time around, they shocked us again, but not in a very good way. Sorry, but “Get On Your Boots” is not a great song, nor will it ever grow to be one. It’s a throwaway, albeit with the best video they’ve produced in ages. But it fits perfectly smack in the middle of this set of songs. As a matter of fact, one of “No Line”’s strengths in its cohesiveness is the track sequencing. It’s one of the best sequencing jobs they’ve ever done.

A Touch of Achtung

Shortly after “Boots” was released, someone leaked the B-side version of the title track. Although most people thought it was a much stronger song than “Boots”, a recurring theme was its “cheesiness”, mid-80’s sound. I wasn’t in that group, but I did understand their reaction to it. But at the same time, I knew from the “leaked” 22 second Wal-Mart clips that the album version would be a lot moodier and stronger. I was right, and it’s a great start to the album. It’s a bit dark, has more minor notes than most U2 songs, and is very driving. And it contains some very “Achtung Baby” guitar licks.

An 80’s Throwback

“Magnificent” has been a potential fan favorite since the infamous “beach clips”, and with good reason — it’s classic U2, with those signature Edge licks. But when I first heard it, I thought it was a bit repetitive. I really love it now, though, because it is so much deeper than that. That’s a general theme throughout this album. Nothing is as it seems on the surface. Much has been said about the “layered” feel to the songs on the album. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that they finished the album. “Pop”, “Zooropa”, and “October” have often been referred to as their “unfinished” albums. “October”, due to the rush to get out a sophomore effort, despite Bono losing his lyric notebook shortly before recording, “Zooropa”, due to the quick expansion from an intended “EP” to a full-blown experimental album between legs of the “Zoo” tour, and “Pop”, due to the early scheduling of that tour. But this was their longest stretch between albums, and they made good use of their time.

Although “Magnificent” is classic U2, it starts like no other. Is that a drum machine? Sort of 80’s, and doesn’t hint at where it’s going to take us. But I can see this intro getting fans excited at a concert. There’s a definite “Where the Streets Have No Name” rhythm throughout, but it’s quite unlike that anthem.

A Second Attempt

The third track, “Moment of Surrender” is U2 finally fixing the cheesy misstep of “Stuck in a Moment”. This is Bono at his most soulful, and is something quite new for U2. At nearly seven and a half minutes, it feels like half that, despite the deliberate, moody rhythm. It’s beautiful in a way that U2 has not expressed beauty before. Again, more minor notes than expected from U2. Listen in a quiet room, or with noise canceling headphones. You’ll hear it differently every time. I’m totally and completely surprised how much I love this song. It’s usually not my speed.

For Some, a Trip… For Others, a “Trip”?

The fourth track, “Unknown Caller” has gotten some extreme reactions amongst fans. Many absolutely love it, while others find it completely annoying for several reasons. I think it’s one of the best things they’ve ever recorded, and at this writing, is my favorite song on the album and the first track I “repeated”. The multiple voice “chant” effect bugs some people, but being an Arcade Fire fan, who absolutely loves “No Cars Go”, I’m a fan of it. You’ll hear more vocal participation on this album than any other before. I’d color this song “The Hands That Build America” meets “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” meets The Beatles, taken to a completely new level. And Adam owns this track. It’s over six minutes, and I always wish it never ends. But it does, and that’s ok…

A Taste of Pop — No, not THAT Pop

…because the next track is worth it. There’s a bit of “In A Little While” here, but this is so much stronger, and has single written all over it. It’s a pop song, but a stronger and more substantial pop song than most of what we’ve found on the last two albums. This also contains one of the best and most joyful (although somewhat derivative) bridges on the album. I can see them expanding this bridge live. Corny title, but great pop song, and really the only true pop song on the album.

Strongest Starting Five?

Ok, just about half way there now, and quite possibly the strongest start of any U2 album yet. The Joshua Tree owns the greatest three song start ever (and if they would have just swapped “Bullet the Blue Sky” with “Red Hill Mining Town”, it would have been the best five song start). But the streak ends here — enough has been said about “Get On Your Boots”, the middle track. But despite considering this a mediocre song, I never skip it, because it breaks up the album nicely in two.

Led Zeppelin, on a Hot Summer Night

I’m not a big fan of the style of the next song, “Stand Up Comedy”, which has often been likened to a Led Zep song, but U2 can pull this off better than most. Their range is amazing. I can see this as a surprise hit in the summer. It just seems like a hot summer song. There are some great guitar riffs here, and the chorus is incredibly catchy. The Edge is on fire.

A Successful Experiment

“Fez - Being Born” is “Zooropa”, part two. This is their most Radiohead-ish song, the most experimental of the album, and it flat-out works. The first time I heard it, though, I thought, “well, is that it?” I had heard it was a two-parter, and it just seemed like a blur in one part. But it all makes sense now. Repeated listening required for this one. You’ll hear something different each time. Now I hear “Rejoice”, from October.

Looking for Something Profound

It took me a very long time to get into “White as Snow”. I’m still not fully sold on it. I think it could have been taken to the next level, and the thing that saves it from being too generic is the great music behind it. It sounds like an old cowboy song, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It just seems a bit more repetitive than they’ve done in the past. It feels like it’ll take off during the change around the 2:10 mark, but it falls away from that fairly quickly.

I’m not big on lyrics. It only makes much of a difference to me when it’s either completely corny (a LOT the last couple of albums), or profound. I’m looking for profound in “White as Snow” to get by the plainness. But I can’t really complain, because it’s still quality enough where I never skip it. And I can see this still growing on me.

Acrobat for the Masses

“Breathe” is the mainstream version of “Acrobat” — mainstream only in its accessibility. This has the chance of being a huge hit. The crazy time signature of the verses is what most gives it its “Acrobat” feel, and then it breaks into a conventional pace for the brilliant singalong chorus. This is a highlight of the album. You cannot go by the 22 second Wal-Mart clip. It’ll completely throw you off. Even if this doesn’t become a hit, it has “huge fan favorite” written all over it. This is a solid example of how U2 is willing to abandon playing it safe once more.

One Minor Disappointment?

“Cedars of Lebanon” has been the main disappointment for me, but only because I heard amazing things about this from the early listener reviews. The music is tremendous, but the vocals are monotonous. This is the second song I feel could have been so much more. It does get a lot better with repeated listening, so there’s still some hope. But as of now, this closer is a cross of “Grace” (never liked much at all) and “Wake Up Dead Man” (which I grew to love). So it’s somewhere in the middle.

Vocals

Bono’s vocal range hasn’t been this good in over a decade. I hope it remains this strong during the tour. He’ll never reach his “Lovetown Tour” peak again, but if he can be half as successful, we’re in for a treat. What’s very strange is that I’ve seen a few people comment on how he sounds like a tired rock star. I understand how music can be very subjective, but either someone’s voice cracks a lot, or it doesn’t — am I missing or ignoring something? I don’t know. To me, his voice has ALWAYS cracked at times, and I wonder if the comments are due to people comparing his voice to what they’ve always hoped it could be.

And to revisit the vocal chanting — I think it’s great, if only for showing how they’re a complete band, and everyone is getting a chance to sing now. I’m pretty sure Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno are two of the voices in there, too. It sounds like a celebration to me.

This is an exciting album, where hearing the opening bars of a song on the radio could thrill me. I can’t say the same feeling was there for the past two albums.

But Is It a Masterpiece?

Yet, the question remains: will “No Line on the Horizon” be considered a masterpiece? Well, if you consider a masterpiece something that is representative of an entire body of work, yet still unique unto itself… and if you consider that a masterpiece is where each song is strong enough to stand on its own, but the cohesive whole is greater than the sum of its parts… and if you consider that the band is secure enough in its own abilities to invite influences from artists both older and younger, yet still have a strong enough ego to know they can make it their own… and if you can revisit it without tiring of it, and if it can stand the test of time, then it has the potential to be considered a masterpiece. You can only speculate if a new album will eventually be thought of as a masterpiece by the masses. How much time passed before “Achtung Baby” was looked upon as one? “The Joshua Tree”? All the ingredients are there, except for time. That still remains.

4.8/5.0

Hypocrisy as a Management Tool

As I look back over my career, it often pains me to remember the many mistakes I’ve made. But when I push past the pain and embarrassment, I also recall how I’ve used those experiences to improve myself. It’s so true that you come to appreciate the really hard times so much more as the years go by. You try to prevent the people you manage from making mistakes, but it’s often beneficial for them to make those same mistakes, and to feel the same pain. That’s how we learn best. Your real job is to help them pick up the pieces and assist them in learning from their mistakes. Isn’t management a lot like parenting?

We all make many mistakes throughout our careers. But when the time comes for you to take on a management role, you’re forced to think about them. In order to manage effectively, you absolutely must dip into your first-hand experience of the mistakes you’ve made.

Maybe you’ve had the opportunity to work somewhere for several years, with the same core group of people. Maybe you work in one of those fields where you always seem to run into the same people at future jobs. They get to know your warts, and they often — no, always — remember your mistakes. And if you eventually have to manage these people, they will remind you of those mistakes whenever you scold them for making the same ones.

So, how can we manage effectively, while being accused of hypocrisy?

Remember that although you’ve made the same mistakes in the past, you’ve learned from them. And if you play this right, you can use the opportunity to mentor your team towards improvement.

Admit to them that you definitely remember making the same mistakes, even recently, but that you’ve learned from it. Express your complete empathy, since you’ve been in their position. Remind them that if you can learn from a mistake and change, so could they. And remind them that the simple fact that they’re calling you on it, they’re recognizing it as a mistake. And that’s always the first step towards correcting it.

As the saying goes — good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions. We all make mistakes. Use yourself as an example, and you may even earn more of their respect in the process.

Changes

Wow, it’s been a very long time since I’ve posted. I’m not a fan of posting about why I haven’t been posting, but if you don’t tell, I won’t.

A lot of changes going on in my life… Got a promotion at work (and an office, but everyone ignores the door being closed — I know. It’s my own fault).

I helped out with preparations for NYC Code Camp III (which I missed, and will likely regret that forever, or at least until next year’s code camp). I recently attended the NYC MDC, and I’ll be headed to MIX09 in March, compliments of Microsoft — with the expectation that I’ll be presenting to my user group and others on the topics I attend. So I’ve ran out of excuses for not speaking. Good.

As far as the user groups are concerned, due to the state of the economy, UCONN is starting to charge for the use of the rooms. The price is enormous. We were able to secure a single (free) room, thanks to the CITI division, the second Wednesdays of the month, which was the normal day for the SQL Server User Group. So we’ll be merging the groups this year, into the .NET User Group, with about 75% of the sessions focused on .NET, and 25% on SQL Server. It remains to be seen what the effect is on a potential Code Camp this year.

I got an iPhone, which has been the biggest time sink of my life. And loving it.

I got a MacBook Pro, so I could learn how to program the iPhone, because that’s how much it has enthralled me. And loving it.

I’ve been learning how to program for the Mac, using Xcode, Cocoa, and Objective-C, so I could get comfortable with the tools in order to more easily transfer this to learning how to program the iPhone.

I’m planning many articles about several topics. I have a lot to get off my chest, and some of it ain’t pretty.

I know I’ve been all over the map lately, but i think that’s ok, as long as I post more consistently. The main focus is still on productivity through technology, but other parts of myself will still come through. With that said, let’s move beyond this “excuse” post, and I’ll write again soon.