Being Good at Software: a Tragedy in Three Acts
The late Stephen Covey, world-renowned leadership author and speaker, said many times that “You don’t break principles. You only break yourself against them.” Like any other discipline, software engineering is governed by its own set of unbreakable principles. Those who discover and align their behavior with them often seem to be good at this business we call software, and those who ignore or willfully violate them inevitably fail, sometimes in spectacular ways.
Our industry has existed for several decades. One could logically surmise that we should have discovered and aligned around at least a few of these principles by now. And yet the trained eye of a historian, focused on the events of our industry’s last two decades, would observe a troubling cycle of discovery leading to failure, leading to rediscovery and further failure. What is the nature of this cycle? Why are we trapped? How do we escape? We’ll confront these questions and more in this tragicomedy that has something for everyone, from the novice script kiddie to the seasoned blowhard jamboree.
About Matt Stine
My passion is taking a metaphysical approach to software engineering: what is the nature of the collaborative game that we continuously play, and are there better, more contextually-aware ways to play that game?
By day I lead a team tasked with taking a first-principles-centric approach to intentionally enabling programming language usage at the largest bank in the United States.
By night I write and teach my way through a masterclass in software engineering and architecture targeting early-career software engineers working in large-scale enterprise technology organizations.
What is the primary goal?
To win the game. More seriously: to get 1% better every day at providing business value through software.
Who am I?
I'm a 22-year veteran of the enterprise software industry. I've played almost every role I can imagine:
- Software Engineer
- Software Architect
- Technical Lead
- Engineering Manager
- Consultant
- Product Manager
- Field CTO
- Developer Advocate
- Conference Speaker
- Author
- Technical Trainer
- Technical Marketer
- Site Reliability Engineer
- Desktop Support Specialist
I've worked at Fortune 500 companies, a tenacious teal cloud startup, and a not-for-profit children's hospital. I've written a book, and I've hosted a podcast. I've learned a lot along the way, including many things I wish I'd known when I first got started. And so now I want to pass those learnings on to you, especially if you've only just begun your career.
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