Worst Movie Title Ever?

I’m currently reading Why Smart People do Dumb Things. The premise is pretty much what it sounds like. It investigates how some smart people ended up making some bad decisions and how it all could have been prevented. Granted, it’s not totally obvious sometimes when you don’t have a good idea or not making the right choices. But some ideas and choices are just BAD.

Whoever decided to go with this movie title needs their own special seat in the class.



The worst (funniest?) part is I first saw this trailer in the movie theaters. The music and suspense builds up and the voiceover finally announces the title of the movie. Half of the audience bursts out laughing, the other half sits there wondering what they missed.

Worst Movie Title Ever?

Hacks, Tricks, and Techniques

I’m reading Out Of Their Minds – The Lives and Discoveries of 15 Great Computer Scientists by Dennis Shasha and Cathy Lazere. I’m almost half way through but I just read an awesome quote that I wanted to share:

In the culture of computer science, an idea that works in one situation is called a hack, an idea that works twice is called a trick, and an idea that works often and pervasively is called a technique.

Out Of Their Minds, 1998

Hacks, Tricks, and Techniques

Business of Software

It’s been a very relaxing weekend. I spent most of my time plopped on the couch reading Eric Sink on the Business of the Software. The book is really just a collection of blog posts on Eric Sink’s blog but I enjoy holding a book rather than a laptop when reading for long periods of time. After reading countless technical books/blogs, it was extremely refreshing to read something like Sink’s book.

The book is split into four parts: entrepreneurship, people, marketing, and sales. The section that covers entrepreneurship reminds me of Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of the Start. The section on people covers the kind of people you want to work with and hire, which reminds me of Joel Spolsky’s recently released Smart and Gets Things Done. The section on marketing is what really made me enjoy this book. After reading Eric’s book, I have a newfound appreciation and a deeper understanding of the dark science known as marketing. He breaks it down and explains it from a developer’s perspective. The sales section is not surprising about how to get a potential customer to give you money for your software.

The book has a lot of insight into becoming ISV (Indepedent Software Vendor), more specifically a microISV. I think all software developers have pondered the what-ifs and wouldn’t-it-be-cool of starting their own software company. Very few make the jump. I would like to change that statistic.

Business of Software

Founders At Work

I finished reading Founders At Work by Jessica Livingston a few days ago. What a great read. For those who have ever thought of starting their own tech company or enjoy hearing about how great things come out of startups, this is a must read.

The book gives such deep insight into the inner workings of the minds behind of these companies. I’m inspired by what some of these people have built and in many cases, without any outside investment. It’s interesting to see that most of the founders had no idea what they were getting themselves into when they started. The startup mind set is so different from Corporate America’s. These founders had passion for technology and their products. It’s very refreshing to see how you can create a company without money being the main focus. Passion drives great companies.

I can’t really think of any job better than waking up in the morning and being able to say, “Today, I’m going to go build something that’s going to change the world.”

Founders At Work