Hello World

if (isNerd) return true is a blog about software.

It's also a blog created for this module I'm taking this year: CS3216 Software Development for Emerging Platforms.

What I expect to learn from this module
I want to learn kung fu. Like Neo in the matrix. Stick a spike up the back of my head, and pray I don't die.

Okay no, seriously.

I hope to learn a couple of things. I'm actually expecting the most valuable lessons from CS3216 to be the ones that I'd never thought of, but here goes anyway:

I want to learn team-based web development.
Web apps are relatively small products, so the teams working on such applications are usually groups of no more than 5 people. I want to know how it feels like to work in teams like these, because the dynamics are, as one might expect, quite different from typical software development. And while I've worked as the designer-half of a two man (development) team before, I'm still rather green around the ears, and am particularly interested in the challenges of working in a programmer/designer/marketer environment. (Curiously enough, 37signals, a premier webapp company, does most of its work in teams of three: one programmer, one designer, and one 'sweeper' - a guy who hops between both worlds.)

I want to learn how to launch under pressure
Startups regularly launch under pressure. The difference between that and CS3216 is that there's no risk of you going bankrupt in school.

I want to learn talent evaluation
One of the scariest things, I think, for me, is this idea that we'll have to pick people for our teams in CS3216. Recognizing talent and recruiting them to your cause is an important skill to learn, particularly so if you intend to work on a startup in your spare time (caveat: for the long run, because I'm beginning to become rather suspicious of startup founders who create their companies with an exit strategy in mind). At any rate, I'm determined to approach this part of the module with an open mind, because while it's intimidating and all it's still going to be rather interesting to see how we pick and choose our teammates. Snap character judgments? Now that's scary ... very scary indeed.

I'd like to meet new people
And this is plain simple. I mean, c'mon! CS3216 is an interdisciplinary module, no? That does usually mean a high concentration of clever crazy people, from all kinds of places.

In return:
I hope to do all I can to help my teammates, whoever they are, perform to the best of their abilities.

Right. It's late, and I've spent far too much time fiddling with the blog design. I'm off to bed.