Blogmarks

Exposure – Expenses to Assets via Arjan’s world 

"…When hiring, the best developers I’ve gotten are the really passionate ones who eat, drink, and dream code. They spend a ton of their own time researching and collaborating and growing their skills. But realistically, not all developers are like that. It works out mostly if you have single guys and gals who have that level of interest in coding and architecture and probably little else to get in the way barring the prospect of a nightly raid in Warcraft. But for the rest of society, you have parents and people with other adult responsibilities that demand inordinate amounts of time and energy outside working hours…"

"…For the devs who do little else in their free time, they are getting that exposure through books, articles, online forums, collaboration projects, and many other avenues. But for the devs who can’t really afford to do all that (or as much), the only exposure they really get is what’s in front of them 9 to 5 – which is to say, little or nothing at all that will help them grow beyond what they already do. And here’s where I encourage managers to allow their developers to surf the web, be active in tech forums, contribute to a collaborative project, blog, and otherwise get the type of outside exposure they can only get online *on company time*. Sure, you have to limit it and make sure it’s appropriate, but even a half hour a day can help to vastly improve their exposure to new tips and tricks, technological features, practices, and feedback they would have otherwise never gotten. Try it and see if this doesn’t provide better benefits than forcing them to go heads-down in the project code 8+ hours a day…."

Enjoy Your Life: Separate Work From Home! via Arjan’s world 

Do you live to work or work to live? – This question caught me thinking.