Sunday, May 27, 2012

Quotes from James Dyson

I recently read an interview with Sir James Dyson. There were two quotes from him in it that really struck a chord with me.

"I don't care how long things take. Failure is to be celebrated - that is how we learn ... We invest in and rejoice in failure, and we stick at it. I learned from each of my mistakes. That's how I came up with a solution."

Many people think I am a perfectionist, but I don't see myself that way. Things must be as good as possible - but that doesn't require perfection at stage one. This quote states my thoughts about software development and programming very well:

"'Perfect' is in fact the completely wrong word to use. You start with a goal and you make the best possible version you can make at that moment. You give the customer the best available at that moment, and then you set another goal and start working on it again." 

He may invent and engineer vacuums and other mechanical devices, but his words make good sense for software architecture as well.




Wednesday, May 16, 2012

JavaScript references

I just found Chris Shiflett's April 26 posting with a great list of references for JavaScript. The first one I have started reading is "JavaScript for PHP Developers" by Stoyan Stefanov. It is one of the most clear and concise descriptions I have found to date as I try to apply my knowledge of other programming languages to JavaScript.