You may think it’s strange, but I actually like sitting here, by the ocean, writing blog posts while the sun goes down. It may not be for everyone but for me it’s relaxing.

I spent a bit of time over the last couple of days converting my blog over to Octopress, the latest in blogging platforms for hipster software developers. It has everything a developer hipster would want: markdown editing, git-based publishing, rake tasks and of course beautiful typography and layout that will probably have said hipster developer turning down hipster designer job offers.

This post made the rounds at work the other day and on twitter. It’s a well thought out piece trying to address the challenges and conflicts that often arise between designers and developers.

The thing is that I don’t think designers and developers are as different as they often see one another. Sure in the extremely hyperbolic stereotypes they are completely oil and water. But today these stereotypes are mostly throwbacks to an era when software didn’t have much design, and design was relegated to graphics arts and flash sites, not a deep part of both the aesthetics and interactivity of our products. Things have changed tremendously, and I think for the most part the developers who lead our industry have changed tremendously since the good ‘ol neckbeard days.

Here were my thoughts and additions to the original post which I sent around in response, please note that I use the term “engineer” loosely because the original author did. I recognize that In many ways software developers are not engineers in the traditional sense of the word…

So it’s another year and time for another year in review. It’s actually quite surprising to really look back on a year, I was taken aback by just how long it actually was. It seems like such an incredibly short thing but now as I look at my Pinboard, Twitter, Github and blog post histories these seem like they happened quite a while ago and so much has changed.

Anyways I’m going to start this of with the raw numbers:

• Number of blog posts: 28 - Well 29 if you count this one
• Number of different OSS projects contributed too 8
• Number of OSS projects started 2 - like Mixpanel.NET
• Number of startup ideas in progress 2
• Number of talks given 2
• Number of new languages learned (learned well that is) 2 - specifically javascript and ruby
• Number of blog posts on the HN front page 1 - #6
• Number of children 1

Just over a year ago I had first heard of lean startup and about the idea of starting new projects with the ‘minimal viable product’ a term that on it’s face value seems so clear and concise I, and many others I was working with, assumed we understood what it meant.

Obviously, MVP just means the minimum amount of functionality that we can sell to customers, hence creating a “minimal viable product” right? Wrong.

Unfortunately I’ve discovered even Eric sometimes slips up and uses a definition of MVP that sounds a lot like this. In this interview he says

The minimum viable product is that product which has just those features and no more that allows you to ship a product that early adopters see and, at least some of whom resonate with, pay you money for, and start to gave you feedback on. — Eric Ries

Except that isn’t exactly it, is it Eric?

You are, probably, not Steve Jobs. A fairly safe bet if there ever was one and one that’s easy to confirm too assuming you have a mirror handy. Unfortunately, it’s seems to be more and more commonplace to see designers, CEO’s and budding entrepreneurs aspiring to what is a folk hero ideal of Mr. Jobs. He is their role model, perhaps the sum of their professional aspirations, and a symbol of the quintessential entrepreneur, designer and creative mind. I call it the cargo cult of Jobs.