Skip to main content

No Escupas al Cielo 2

I have a friend who is a very good business analyst, and we naturally tease each other about whether or not the other one actually does any work (note that the explanation for the post title is also in the linked blog post). It's a running joke between us, and neither one of us really means anything by it. The more time passes, though, the more I'm starting to think that the universe really is trying to mess with me as a result of some of this banter.

You see, I fancy myself a software developer. That means that all of the skills I value are about solving technical problems. Sure, I understand full well that you need to actually solve problems for users otherwise no one will use your software; I've had conversations at work with people that included me saying, "sometimes you need less code, not more." Still, there are plenty of situations that require code. That's where I come in, and that's where I earn my paycheck.

However, judging by my LinkedIn profile, it seems that everyone around me thinks I'm really good at being a business analyst. LinkedIn has this feature where other people can endorse you for certain skill sets. It's basically a way of saying, "oh yeah, this person is good at this, take my word for it." I think you can go asking for that kind of endorsement, but that's not really my style. It feels way too close to bragging for my tastes to ask someone, "hey, I'm good at X, aren't I?" All in all, this means that whatever endorsements I have are well and truly the opinions of other people.

As it turns out, I've been endorsed multiple times for things like "requirement gathering" and "business analysis." Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining that other people are praising me for these things. But like I said above, I fancy myself a software developer, so I'd be far more proud of something that said, "Sam writes really bitchin' code." Sadly, that has yet to happen. Instead, my profile reads like a business analyst training plan. Sigh.

All of this leaves me with two possible paths. The first option is to get better at this code writing thing so that endorsements eventually even out a bit more. The second one is to stop teasing my friend so the karmic retribution eases up on me. Yeah, we all know which path I'm going with. Anyone know of any good coding books or blogs?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New York City Trip (Day 3)

By the third day of the trip, I was tired enough from the previous day's adventures/subway rides that I felt like sleeping in. And sleep in I did. I think I woke up at something like 11:30 or noon. Of course, that meant that a later start to the day, which started the vicious cycle all over again. By the time we rolled into Manhattan, it was about two in the afternoon. I had tentatively set aside Sunday to see something on Broadway, so we headed over to the tkts booth for discount tickets. There were actually various 3PM options, and after mulling our options, we figured it'd be a good idea to catch one of those. We settled on The Toxic Avenger , which was actually an off-Broadway option. However, we hadn't eaten yet, and the show started about 15 minutes after we got our tickets. Enter the food carts. There happened to be one right outside the theater, and the guy charged a little bit of a premium for the convenience. Still, I was hungry, and I had yet to try...

Moment of Truth

I forget where I first heard it (I think it might have been Descartes), but I have long been a fan of the notion that certain things just have a " ring of truth " to them. If you've never heard the idiom before, the basic idea is that some things are super-true. They are not just true, but they are so obviously true, that as soon as you hear them, you recognize the truthiness inherent in them. I usually get excited when I hear one of these, since it means that I am a tiny bit less ignorant from that moment forward. For the first time in memory, though, I experienced the ring of truth. First, let me paint the scene with a little bit of background. I'd made plans to have dinner with my friend, but we'd agreed to play it by ear. The end result was that we ended up settling on a pretty late dinner in a local spot. That worked out just fine, since we weren't shooting for gourmet, we just wanted to grab some food and catch up in the process. So, we headed out to ...

Backlog

I am an information junkie. Always have been. I'm one of those people that cares far more about the storyline in a video game than the actual game play. At work, I will spend time researching things related to solved problems, because I want to know exactly why it failed in the first place. And if someone learns something new, I want to go see what it's about, because I want to know what they know. I know it's not exactly the average outlook on life, but it is what it is. Anyhow, this mentality leads to my habit of tracking various websites, blogs, and other internet web sources to keep my information flow constant. Doing all of this manually is tedious at best, though, so I use Google Reader  to organize all of these feeds. It just makes things simpler to have a single source of RSS feeds, so that I can quickly browse through items related to my interests. Given all of that, it should come as no surprise that I also try to keep up with my feeds on a regular basis. I ...