Coming down the pike

So there I was, surfing reddit and DZone for some Helltime material, when I found the 5Whys blog on technical leadership. I found a post about a possible job description for a tech lead:

… Here’s what you need to do:
Remember what it was like to be a junior programmer
Teach others to avoid the mistakes you made so they don’t stay junior for long
Know about the next generation of technology coming down the pike …

Ah yes, the fabled advice to know what the next big thing will be and not be left behind. I have written before at a somewhat high level about the future, and I have also expressed my own concerns that I try to stay up on the latest and greatest. That is partly the reason behind the Code H’yungs my severely-delayed re-implementation of The Project.

I haven’t gotten specific, though. What are the specific languages, tools, and ideas that are up and coming right now? Let me share my findings, categorized of course.

Lessons of “Why Software Sucks”

I’m not a usability engineer of any sort, and I don’t pretend to be. I still couldn’t resist buying a book titled “Why Software Sucks” by David Platt, though. This is a raucous read that I recommend to everyone, developer or not.

Platt excoriates us, like Buddy Rich to his marching band, in a hilarious and memorable way. The first half of the book contained three main technical lessons, which I outline here. The second half, namely the final three chapters, are themselves potentially the subject of a separate post.