Field Guide to Programmers

Kevin Kelly’s Technium has turned out some great articles of late. His latest tidbit is a little question about the computerization of, well, everything.
Turing’d:

We have this long list of tasks and occupations that we humans believe only humans can do. Used to be things like using tools, language, painting, playing chess. Now, one by [...]

Just a quick nod to a great post over on Coding Horror about the importance of interaction design… I just couldn’t stop laughing about this quote from Alan Cooper.
The Ultimate Unit Test Failure:
But when it comes time to marshal the solution to the problems, we find ourselves slamming into this kind of Stay-Puft Marshmallow [...]

If you’re a programmer, you might want to put in some time with books like Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres and Competing on Analytics by Tom Davenport.
Why?
Here’s something for you to think about…
In 10 Years, Marketing Will Be Taught In Engineering School:
Technology is removing all friction from the marketplace. Marketing will really be about figuring [...]

Today’s Smart looks a little different but it is basically the same car I lusted after in Switzerland back in 2000:
From the streets of Zürich…

Until you see a Smart in person, you really can’t grasp how tiny it really is, especially when you see it parked on the street next to regular cars. SUVs [...]

I’m a fairly hands-off manager. This means I give folks a lot of room for independent decision making. However, I also believe in providing team members with a clear understanding of their role and how that fits with the rest of the team.
So when hiring someone into my team, I make [...]