It’s (too) long conversation in ‘This week in Startup’ but you might want to browse it.
Lots of good stuff and it’s funny to see how David is refusing to the virtual offers Mr. C. is throwing in his direction.
Enjoy.
Category Archives: life
Marathon (short) Tutorial
Here is (yet another) lighting talk I gave at the Java Posse Roundup 2010
It’s a short presentation that give you the basic idea what is all about this trend of running 42.195 Km (or 26.2 miles if you want to count less).
Planning – there are lots of good resources out on the web. Here is one that I’ve used – It’s A Guru trainer site. You can pick the right plan base on your current shape. Another good online tool is this pace calculator. But like anything in life, it’s all about execution! You must follow the plan and do your best to stick with the runs.
The hard part and the most important part of any plan is the ‘long runs’. These runs build you body and make sure it will be able to do the distance and be active for 3 to 5 hours.
Be Strong and (try to) have fun.
Java Posse Roundup 2010 – Suggested Books
With so many great recommendations…
I felt it was right to share it with the world. Here are some of the books that people in the Java Posse Roundup 2010 recommended you to read (quickly).
Agile Books
- Lean software development an Agile Toolkit by Mary and Tom Poppendieck.
- Succeeding with Agile by Mike Cohn.
- User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development by Mike Cohn
- Agile Estimating and Planning by Mike Cohn
- Practices of an Agile Developer by Andy Hunt
- Agile Retrospectives; Making Good Teams Great by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen
- Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship by Robert C. Martin
Testing Books
- xUnit Test Patterns by Gerard Meszaros
- Growing Object-Oriented Software Guided By Tests by Steve Freeman and Nat Pryce
Complex Event Processing
- The Power of Events: An Introduction to Complex Event Processing in Distributed Enterprise Systems by David C. Luckham
Version Control
- Pro Git, by Scott Chacon
- Version Control with Git: Powerful Tools and Techniques for Collaborative Software Development by Jon Loeliger
- Pragmatic Version Control Using Git, by Travis Swicegood
Scala
- Beginning Scala by David Pollack
- Programming in Scala by Martin Odersky, Lex Spoon, and Bill Venners
JavaScript
- JavaScript: The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford
Career Books
- Career 2.0 by Jared Richardson.
- Passionate Programmer by Chad Fowler.
- Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
- The Myth of Multitasking: How “Doing It All” Gets Nothing Done by Dave Crenshaw
- The Power of a Positive No: Save The Deal Save The Relationship and Still Say No by William Ury
- What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question by Po Bronson
Business
- Peopleware by Tom DeMarco.
- Small Giants by Bo Birlingham.
- Nudge by Richard H. Thaler.
- Drive, by Daniel H. Pink.
- Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work by Paul Babiak and Robert D. Hare
- Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
- The Management Myth: Why the Experts Keep Getting it Wrong by Matthew Stewart
- Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (P.S.) by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
- Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson (BTW, you can get a free version in iTune for the audio version)
- In Search of Stupidity by Merrill R. (Rick) Chapman
Software Projects and Their Teams, Groups, Processes and People
- Adrenalin Junkies and Template Zombies: Understanding Patterns of Project Behaviour by Tom DeMarco, Peter Hruschka, Tim Lister, Suzanne Robertson
Release It! writing and maintaining software from an operations perspective
On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins – How a new understanding of the brain will lead to the creation of truly intelligent machines
Why you should run on regular bases?
Here are few points that I’ve took from the article in the WSJ:
* People who exercise regularly heal from colds 20-30% faster.
* People who walked briskly for 45 minutes, 5 days a week for 12-15 weeks reduced their number of sick days by 25-50%.
* 36% of US adults didn’t engage in ANY leisure activities in 2008. Can this be true?
* Exercise can lower the risk of stroke by 27%, diabetes by 50%, high-blood pressure by 40%, risk of recurring breast cancer by 50%, colon cancer by 60%, Alzheimer’s disease by 40%.
* Physical activity reduces erosion of telomeres, which essentially is an anti-aging effect at the cellular level.
So next time you thinking on doing some sport activity – follow Nike rule “Just do it!”.
Good Books I’m reading now
It’s mainly a post to my presents (not that they are going to read it).
Hey, after all these years that you thought me the love of books. Here is a short list of what I’m reading when I don’t have time (usually around midnight). In this list I’ve included some recent books I’ve read:
- What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures. After Outliers, Blink and Tipping Point anything that Mr. Gladwell will write – I promise to read (as quickly as I can).
- The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable – it’s very good book on a simple topic. We know NOTHING on the stock market.
“Assuming more order than exists in chaotic nature” – Our brains are wired for narrative, not statistical uncertainty. And so we tell ourselves simple stories to explain complex thing we don’t–and, most importantly, can’t–know. The truth is that we have no idea why stock markets go up or down on any given day, and whatever reason we give is sure to be grossly simplified, if not flat out wrong. - Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
In a similar way to the Black Swan – it contain lots of answers on how can we recover from an economic crisis. 
The Intelligent Investor: It is the best book I’ve read about investing. The greatest investment advisor of the twentieth century, Benjamin Graham taught and inspired people worldwide. Graham’s philosophy of “value investing” — which shields investors from substantial error and teaches them to develop long-term strategies — has made The Intelligent Investor the stock market bible ever since its original publication in 1949.
2010 Mavericks in Half Moon bay
This is the competition we are going to watch tomorrow…
Amazing place with great surfers.
What can I say? Panama man! Panama is the place for surfers
Ahh…. thanks to Yaron – I’ve saw this clip and I’m planing my trip down to Panama.
What an amazing waves!
Forget your MBA
It’s a great talk that David Heineimeier Hansson gave in Stanford last week. For those of you that are not developers (or geeks) – DHH, is the creator of Ruby on Rails and partner at 37 Signals. This company build (with Ruby on Rails) some very useful/powerful/popular colaboration tools. All are using this ‘strange’ business model of getting money from users that like your product 🙂 The main thing he claim in this talk was that planning is guessing, and for a start-up, the focus must be on today and not on tomorrow. I would add, focus on monitization and not only the product/technology. In a new industry, don’t plan, work like Nike saying: ‘just do it’. It’s not 5 year plan that you need, but rather 2-4 weeks.
Another very important point, tune your skill for the real world and not the academic style.
He is a great speaker and worth an hour of your valuable time.
Here is a link to get the mp3 version so you could listen to it on your next run/car ride/commute etc’.
Enjoy.
Ido Green 