Is Editing Dead?

Taking Aim

by Ashley Tinstman

This morning, I was reading a news article online, when I noticed that the writer had missed a very big error:  the exact same sentence was written in the story twice.  As I continued reading, I came across a few other sentences that had typos as well—missing words, grammatical errors, misspellings, you name it.  By the time I got halfway through the article, I had grown so annoyed that I quit reading it and thought, “How did nobody catch this?”

Then, as I thought about it for another minute, I realized just how often I had been seeing these major typos lately.  And it’s not just one newspaper or website—I’ve noticed it happening more frequently in a number of publications.

Personally, I am a big stickler when it comes to grammar and attention to detail in my writing, so I initially dismissed my frustration as me being…

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Smartphone Survival Kit

What are the essentials for your “survival kit?”

300 Words, 2 Minutes

There are many, many realizations that arise, as one moves from a city of 50,000, to a city of 10,000,000.

One is that having a smartphone is not merely optional. It’s a requirement.

Directions. Train schedules. Nearby restaurants. Subway routes. Cabs. Your smartphone is your modern day survival kit for living in the big city.

Here are the most commonly used “tools” in my mobile survival toolkit:

Google Maps– the most used app on my phone. Invaluable for locating the nearest subway station, best route to get from point A to point B, and for just simply finding out where in the heck I am.

Uber – while the mark of a true urbanite is their mojo in hailing a cab, with Uber even a n00b can get around anywhere in the big city… for a price, natch. Sometimes very pricey during “surge pricing”, there is still no better way of getting door-to-door in…

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Road Trip

Man Plans, and G-d Laughs

300 Words, 2 Minutes

Man Plans, G-d Laughs

I began my road trip today – a drive across half the country, from Arkansas to New York City.

I don’t have to tell ya’ – Flatbush ain’t Conway.

This is the third – or perhaps the fourth? – time, that my family and I have loaded a truck, and criss-crossed hundreds of miles to a new home, a new job, and a new set of friends.

You know – it isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s challenging. It’s scary. It’s – literally – life changing.

Five years ago, I didn’t envision being a CIO at a top liberal arts college. Last year, I wasn’t thinking about being the Director of IT at a large independent school in the middle of Flatbush, Brooklyn.

Where will you and I be five years from now? Who’s to say? Man Plans, and G-d Laughs.

I’m very grateful that my new colleagues…

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Decisions, Decisions

Decision making is the very DNA of your leadership style and character.

300 Words, 2 Minutes

Decision making is the key trait, by which your leadership and management style will be judged.

Are you consistent in your decision making approach? Are you thoughtful and considerate? Are you rash? Do you put off decisions, until the matter is settled for you, by outside forces?

Vital to being a good decision maker, regardless of your style of deliberation, is your ability to process data and information from many disparate sources, some contradicting each other entirely, and coming to a timely, best possible decision that you can make; or, at least, the best possible decision that you can make for the moment.

By making decisions, you are declaring your thoughts and decisions for all to see.

But more importantly: Decisions are the key metric by which your job performance will ultimately be judged.

Inaction until a decision is made for you is sometimes a powerful and extremely powerful tactic; however, it is…

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O stands for Oops

Taking Aim

Guest Post by John Marini

Let’s face it, no one likes to have their mistakes pointed out.  But, if you want your message to be received, it’s critical you turn to someone who can spot your faults.  I’m not talking about brown shoes with black pants; I’m talking about the value of proofreading. Grammatical mistakes and typos in the communications industry are an easy way to lose credibility very fast.

Although my children have outgrown it, I keep a book that serves as a reminder of the importance of proofreading.  “Rhyming ABC,” by Fisher Price, is a hardbound children’s book.  Each letter is accompanied by rhyming words so preschoolers can begin associating words with those letters and in turn start learning the alphabet.  Trouble is, the author did not know their own ABCs or something went wrong in the editing process because the copy I have skips over the letter…

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Unreliable Narrators

We’re all unreliable narrators – at least to someone. Be objective, transparent, and authentic in your interactions with others, to minimize your bias.

300 Words, 2 Minutes

I have long claimed that one truly is well on their way to becoming a mature professional, when they can readily spot unreliable narrators.

An unreliable narrator is usually someone in literature, film, or theatre whose credibility – or at even, perceptions and perspective – is compromised. In actual real life, we’re all unreliable narrators; our attitudes and perspectives are constricted to our limited – and biased – personal experience.

Unreliable narrators are generally not deceitful or deceptive. But, their opinions and internal dialogs are informed by incomplete information, past experience extrapolated inappropriately, and, sometimes – by pure naiveté.

And, because someone is an unreliable narrator in one regard, doesn’t mean that they aren’t reliable sources in every other area.

So – how do you know when you’re dealing with an unreliable narrator?

The best advice that I can give is: trust your own direct experience, over the related experiences of others. That…

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Down with Twitter’s Project Lightning

Great breakdown on Twitter Lightning by Bryan Alexander.

Bryan Alexander

Twitter is apparently preparing a reboot.  It’s code-named Project Lightning, and will offer a very new approach to the platform.  It’s also a lousy idea.

Let me start with a caveat. This post is provisional.   I’m working off of a Buzzfeed article and a Wired reaction piece.  We don’t know how Lightning – I refuse to call it Twitter 2.0 – is actually structured and how it will really work once rolled out.

The gist, as far as I understand it, is that Twitter will hire an editorial team who will select and (re)publish Twitter content.  The emphasis will be on major events, around which people are most likely to contribute and consumer tweets, photos, and video.  Buzzfeed says:

To put them together, [Katie Jacobs Stanton, who runs Twitter’s global media operations] is building out a new media team of people in its major markets…

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Recognizing Opportunity

It’s not enough to recognize opportunity. You have to be committed to do something with that knowledge.

300 Words, 2 Minutes

Sometimes, being successful as a software developer has zero to do with having great talent.

Sometimes, being successful is simply being lucky. Being in the right place, at the right time. Having skills and talents that are needed at just that moment. Knowing the right people. Getting in early.

But most times, it involves you recognizing opportunity when it is staring you right in the face.

If I had to choose something (aside from being conventionally handsome, naturally) to have as a career skill, it would be to have an innate ability to recognize opportunity – and the courage to act upon that opportunity – at all times.

This is silly, of course – because it presupposes that recognition has no basis, other than having some sort of Eureka! moment, without having any context whatsoever.

The ability to recognize opportunity is actually possessing mastery over multiple domains; and, understanding how those…

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Not Everyone’s a Special Developer Snowflake

There is a prevailing mindset these days, that everyone should learn to code, or that everyone is a potential creative.

Pffffftttt.

300 Words, 2 Minutes

There is a prevailing mindset these days, that everyone should learn to code, or that everyone is a potential creative.

Pffffftttt.

Thirty years toiling in the business of writing software, and personally doing a fair amount of copywriting and creative work for enterprise systems, small businesses, and mobile applications have convinced me of just the opposite.

By way of disclaimer, let me openly and honestly say that I am not the greatest software developer in the world, nor the world’s reigning Photoshop master. But I have worked with some of them, on occasion. I have also worked with their evil doppelgangers.

Let’s examine who is pushing this trope / tripe that “everyone is a developer”: for the most part, companies whose business it is to teach people how to code. Or, organizations looking to develop a larger base of developers in a geographical region.

Look – having educational opportunities to…

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Process to Proficiency

What you will find, in actual practice, is that not every programming problem needs or deserves the full brunt of whatever team management process you currently subscribe to.

300 Words, 2 Minutes

Every developer is different.

Some sit and stare until inspiration strikes out of the blue. Some talk over problems and solutions with their colleagues. While still others put on their earbuds and proceed to get biz-zay.

What they all have in common is a process by which they approach their work. Proficiency doesn’t occur by accident; it occurs through a systematic application of your craft.

Why is process important?

Because without process, you can’t predictably project when any given engagement will complete. Without process, there is no reliable and repeatable way to communicate what you will do, how you will do it, or how others will sync up with your work.

Now, whether you call this project management, or methodology, or simply your mojo, it’s all the same – you need a consistent programming practice, a method to your madness.

Test Driven Development. Agile. SCRUM. Waterfall. ITIL. All of these methodologies…

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