Notes, thoughts, inspirationhttps://blog.alexchiri.com/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/stuck-in-a-model/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/stuck-in-a-model/From the title, it almost sounds like this post is about some kind of virtual reality. I assure you it's not. It's an (potentially forced) attempt at a…Tue, 06 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/everything-as-code/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/everything-as-code/I am a big fan of doing software development work as-code. It’s a no-brainer when talking about writing software, because that has been done using some sort…Wed, 30 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/a-platform-is/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/a-platform-is/I have realized that even though I have been writing lately quite a lot about platforms and platform teams, I didn’t write anything to describe my view on…Mon, 28 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/first-thing-team/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/first-thing-team/Teams, the smallest work unit in a company, come and go. And in companies where there is a lot of growth, they see the necessity of creating more and more…Sun, 27 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/platform-the-right-time/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/platform-the-right-time/Obviously, the answer to this question is very much dependent on the context of each company. Also, I was never part of the journey of a platform from the…Thu, 24 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/platform-community/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/platform-community/Among the common patterns around platforms is that it is very hard for a platform to exist in a sustainable way without a community. If a community is…Wed, 23 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/platform-experts/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/platform-experts/Platforms usually appear organically. It goes somewhat like this:Tue, 22 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/platform-engineering-the-new-devops/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/platform-engineering-the-new-devops/I confess: I don’t think that titles like “DevOps Engineer” make any sense. It’s like saying “wet water”. Do we want to have any other kind?Fri, 18 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-infra-pipeline-is-not-green/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-infra-pipeline-is-not-green/This is one of those things that most people agree with in theory, but it somehow escapes the implementation.Wed, 16 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/i-dreamed-about-devops/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/i-dreamed-about-devops/DISCLAIMER: This is not another "DevOps is dead" postTue, 15 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/make-sure-your-brakes-are-well-calibrated/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/make-sure-your-brakes-are-well-calibrated/At the beginning of this year, I got a new hybrid bike (combo between speed and city bike). Without making any customizations other than adjusting my seat,…Tue, 15 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/one-major-thing-about-pipelines/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/one-major-thing-about-pipelines/There is one major thing bothering me about CI/CD pipelines: it is hard to test them. I don’t know one good example of pipelines that are properly tested.…Tue, 15 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/solutions-focus-in-personal-development/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/solutions-focus-in-personal-development/I am not a big fan of the so-called “performance review” or “personal development” or whatever-name-they-have meetings. I think the idea is good in…Tue, 15 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/software-engineering-ala-pettson-findus/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/software-engineering-ala-pettson-findus/My daughter is a big fan of Pettson & Findus. I have been reading to her some of their unusual adventures before sleep many times and some of them I have…Sun, 06 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/they-are-platform-engineerings-products-too/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/they-are-platform-engineerings-products-too/In large product companies that have platform teams it is quite easy for the people in the platform teams to not know much about the products they are…Thu, 03 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-tragedy-of-the-common-platforms/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-tragedy-of-the-common-platforms/There is one known trap that most internal software platforms are bound to fall into.Sun, 30 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/internal-platforms-are-products-too/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/internal-platforms-are-products-too/As companies grow, engineering teams start gathering more and more common layers in the company's product parts they own. So instead of each of them…Fri, 28 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/a-perspective-on-education/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/a-perspective-on-education/This is merely a collection of quotes from a very interesting book on learning and education: Leveraged Learning by Danny Iny. Still, I found it useful to…Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/development-environments-as-code/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/development-environments-as-code/For some years now, I have stopped installing much development tooling directly on my computer. Everything runs in containers or VMs running on my computer.…Mon, 20 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/desirable-difficulties/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/desirable-difficulties/We are in a period of immense abundance of information, and yet, I think we are not taught how to learn in a proper way. The…Fri, 10 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/work-enjoying-it-choosing-it/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/work-enjoying-it-choosing-it/Small rant about not numbing yourself at work and choosing a job for the long termSun, 27 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/writing-as-a-way-of-thinking/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/writing-as-a-way-of-thinking/Using writing to think better and deeperSun, 27 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/what-about-hope/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/what-about-hope/What is hope and how can we have more of it?Sun, 20 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/5-dysfunctions-of-a-platform-team/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/5-dysfunctions-of-a-platform-team/Common bad patterns in a platform teamThu, 17 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/learning-strengths-opportunities/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/learning-strengths-opportunities/Learning has "to be customized around the unique strengths and opportunities available to the learner in question."Thu, 24 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/live-corporate-preaching/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/live-corporate-preaching/Why isn't it malpractice for someone to call a Zoom meeting and talk at other in real time? What an astonishing waste. It's like watching someone type a…Thu, 24 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-routine/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-routine/Babies and routines.Sat, 14 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/day-naps/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/day-naps/Depending on your child's age, they might need 1, 2 or 3 naps during the day. When I write this, my daughter is about 11 months old and she has been on 2…Tue, 10 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-birth/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-birth/It all begins with the birth of your child and I was fortunate enough to be living in a country where I was able to take part of it, even during the…Tue, 03 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/professional-software-developer/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/professional-software-developer/Are we behaving like a professional, an amateur or a hack in our work?Tue, 27 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/healthy-planning-in-practice/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/healthy-planning-in-practice/I previously talked about the theory of a way to capture, configure and control how we spend our time, as defined by Cal Newport in his writings and…Wed, 02 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/healthy-planning-the-theory/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/healthy-planning-the-theory/In the previous post, I described how I started re-introducing some of the healthy habits that kept me going before the COVID-19 madness. That already…Sun, 19 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/healthy-habits/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/healthy-habits/The transition to working from home here in Sweden was sudden like everywhere else, little earlier than in other places and the measures towards COVID-19…Sun, 12 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/why-is-there-kubernetes-reloaded/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/why-is-there-kubernetes-reloaded/Not long ago, I posted a small article called "Why is (there) Kubernetes?". Its content inspired me to create a short presentation trying to answer the…Thu, 16 Apr 2020 10:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/why-is-there-kubernetes/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/why-is-there-kubernetes/When people hear that I work with Kubernetes, a very common question is "What is Kubernetes?". I found more useful to answer "Why is (there) Kubernetes?",…Fri, 21 Feb 2020 10:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/make-your-own-podcast-transcription-service/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/make-your-own-podcast-transcription-service/There are a lot of very interesting podcasts out there that I like to listen to, as much as time allows me to do so. But I noticed that I don't recall much…Sun, 12 Jan 2020 10:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-challenge-of-helping-others/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-challenge-of-helping-others/A book I've been reading lately revealed to me how tricky helping relationships can be, even though we put ourselves in such relationships several times…Sun, 20 Oct 2019 10:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/highlights-and-storing-knowledge/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/highlights-and-storing-knowledge/Some months ago I was writing about a routine I setup to manage and refresh highlights from books and articles. In the meantime, I have adjusted it a little…Thu, 04 Jul 2019 20:26:26 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/resurface-highlights-from-books-and-articles/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/resurface-highlights-from-books-and-articles/In the last years, I've been reading a fair amount of books. Besides that, I've been wanting to read more interesting articles and blogs, which is why I…Mon, 04 Mar 2019 20:26:26 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/on-meditation-and-journaling/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/on-meditation-and-journaling/For some time now (months) I have been meditating and journaling every day. I find this combo very useful for keeping myself on track with what I want to…Sun, 16 Dec 2018 14:21:04 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/accept-gravity-and-let-go-of-your-anchors/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/accept-gravity-and-let-go-of-your-anchors/There are a couple of concepts I learned about recently, while reading “Designing your life” by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. These are not part of the main…Sun, 02 Dec 2018 19:14:30 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/three-great-books-to-start-the-year/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/three-great-books-to-start-the-year/Every year, I manage to read one or two books that get my mind going and give me ideas that I could either apply right away or that set me on a larger path…Mon, 23 Apr 2018 18:51:30 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/how-to-go-from-zero-to-sixty-in-nineteen-years-meetup/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/how-to-go-from-zero-to-sixty-in-nineteen-years-meetup/After meeting Woody in a number of workshops and presentations about MOB programming, it was an unique and interesting opportunity to watch him talk about a…Tue, 17 Oct 2017 19:55:38 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/lean-agile-scotland-day-3-6-oct-2017/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/lean-agile-scotland-day-3-6-oct-2017/The third day of LAScot was a little bit shorter for me, because I chose to come back to Stockholm on the same day. That gave me just enough time to see the…Sun, 15 Oct 2017 16:53:35 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/what-newsletters-i-happily-open-my-mailbox-to/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/what-newsletters-i-happily-open-my-mailbox-to/I have the impression that the general feeling towards the notion of newsletters is somewhere close to idea of spam. Lots of ads, poor content and usually…Sun, 15 Oct 2017 09:49:01 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/lean-agile-scotland-day-2-5-oct-2017/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/lean-agile-scotland-day-2-5-oct-2017/One of the tricky parts of LAScot was getting hold of the tokens for tracks 3 to 5, which were not filmed and required a token to get access. Or you could…Thu, 12 Oct 2017 17:52:56 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/lean-agile-scotland-day-1-4-oct-2017/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/lean-agile-scotland-day-1-4-oct-2017/This year was the first time I attended LAScot and I had high expectations from it. I wasn’t disappointed even just one bit!Mon, 09 Oct 2017 19:32:16 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/software-development-metrics/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/software-development-metrics/Author link: https://davenicolette.wordpress.com/ Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Software-Development-Metrics-Dave-Nicolette/dp/1617291358 My rating: ★★★★★Fri, 22 Sep 2017 13:47:46 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/radical-candor-be-a-kick-ass-boss-without-losing-your-humanity-by-kim-scott-2017/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/radical-candor-be-a-kick-ass-boss-without-losing-your-humanity-by-kim-scott-2017/Author link: https://www.radicalcandor.com Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Candor-Kim-Scott/dp/B01KTIEFEE My rating: ★★★★★Sun, 03 Sep 2017 12:49:12 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/firefighting-in-software-development/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/firefighting-in-software-development/The main duty of a developer is to build and improve features of a service or a product, either through big-bang releases or through continuous delivery.…Sun, 06 Aug 2017 14:37:58 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/software-down/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/software-down/As a developer, my first impulse when the service I’m developing is malfunctioning is to jump right on it and try to fix it. But while I do that, I can’t…Sun, 06 Aug 2017 14:35:15 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/teams-are-made-of-people-summary/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/teams-are-made-of-people-summary/To easily remember the main ideas of my previous post, Teams are made of people, I thought of a representative word and a short alternative description for…Thu, 22 Jun 2017 04:21:41 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/teams-are-made-of-people/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/teams-are-made-of-people/I think this is quite an obvious thing to say. At the same time, it is quite common to forget what this fact means. What does it mean that this team that…Mon, 22 May 2017 17:28:19 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-science-of-enlightenment-how-meditation-works-by-shinzen-young-2016/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-science-of-enlightenment-how-meditation-works-by-shinzen-young-2016/Author link: http://www.shinzen.org Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Science-Enlightenment-How-Meditation-Works-ebook/dp/B01KUGQYJO My rating: ★★★★☆Sun, 14 May 2017 10:38:55 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/agile-is-also-about-people/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/agile-is-also-about-people/This has been probably said millions of times until now, but maybe it wouldn’t hurt to say it once more: agile is also about people.Sun, 07 May 2017 16:40:09 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/habits-for-reducing-interruptions/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/habits-for-reducing-interruptions/In most of the companies I worked so far, we usually get a lot of interruptions. Everything is deemed important and our attention is stretched super thin…Wed, 19 Apr 2017 05:57:14 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/mentorship-play-for-the-long-game/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/mentorship-play-for-the-long-game/One of the many wonderful game techniques I found out about in Yu-Kai Chou’s Actionable Gamification is about Mentorship (Game Technique #61).Mon, 27 Mar 2017 18:56:58 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/habits-and-every-day-work/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/habits-and-every-day-work/After reading in the The Power of Habit about how militaries or football coaches use habits to train their soldiers or players to react fast in the field, I…Sat, 25 Mar 2017 18:47:07 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/autonomy-at-work/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/autonomy-at-work/Full disclosure: I haven’t read Daniel Pink’s Drive yet, but that doesn’t mean I can’t talk about autonomy, one of the 3 elements of true motivation he…Sun, 19 Mar 2017 17:37:58 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/product-vision-and-technical-vision-and-something-extra/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/product-vision-and-technical-vision-and-something-extra/Take into consideration the following scenarios:Sun, 12 Mar 2017 16:17:02 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/do-you-micro-manage-much/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/do-you-micro-manage-much/I don’t know about you, but in my experience until now, there were situations where I felt micro-managed. And I hated it. Badly. It frustrated me. I didn’t…Mon, 20 Feb 2017 15:55:43 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-coaching-habit-say-less-ask-more-change-the-way-you-lead-forever/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-coaching-habit-say-less-ask-more-change-the-way-you-lead-forever/Author link: http://www.boxofcrayons.biz/the-coaching-habit-book/ Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BUIBBZI/ My rating: ★★★★☆Mon, 06 Feb 2017 18:45:43 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/leadership-and-self-deception-getting-out-of-the-box-by-the-arbinger-institute/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/leadership-and-self-deception-getting-out-of-the-box-by-the-arbinger-institute/Author link: https://arbinger.com/ Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GUPYRUS/ My rating: ★★★★☆Mon, 19 Dec 2016 18:14:12 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/drunkenpmradio-having-empathy-for-your-project-w-patrice-colancecco-embry-podcast/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/drunkenpmradio-having-empathy-for-your-project-w-patrice-colancecco-embry-podcast/Link: /posts/drunkenpmradio-having-empathy-for-your-project-w-patrice-colancecco-embry-podcast/Sun, 06 Nov 2016 16:38:09 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/octalysis-self-deception-cynefin-and-slickyboards-interesting-nov16/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/octalysis-self-deception-cynefin-and-slickyboards-interesting-nov16/Dust has settled on my blog lately. Writing stuff for the Internet is not my priority, no matter how much I enjoy it. I did decide to try something though:…Sun, 06 Nov 2016 16:19:20 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/my-reading-routine/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/my-reading-routine/I’m always on the lookout for new things, so I’m constantly reading and learning stuff. I noticed that I cannot read always non-fiction, because it is…Sat, 05 Nov 2016 14:46:09 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/actionable-gamification-beyond-points-badges-and-leaderboards/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/actionable-gamification-beyond-points-badges-and-leaderboards/Author link: http://yukaichou.com/ Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Actionable-Gamification-Beyond-Points-Leaderboards/dp/1511744049 My rating: ★★★★☆Sun, 23 Oct 2016 15:12:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/scrum-the-art-of-doing-twice-the-work-in-half-the-time-by-jeff-sutherland-2014/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/scrum-the-art-of-doing-twice-the-work-in-half-the-time-by-jeff-sutherland-2014/Author link: https://www.scruminc.com/ Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Scrum-Doing-Twice-Work-Half/dp/038534645X My rating: ★★★☆☆(3/5)Thu, 29 Sep 2016 17:13:24 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/afh-043-the-agile-mindset-with-gil-broza/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/afh-043-the-agile-mindset-with-gil-broza/Link: http://ryanripley.com/afh-043-the-agile-mindset-with-gil-broza-podcast/Tue, 13 Sep 2016 16:31:48 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/my-personal-map/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/my-personal-map/Inspired by Nikoletta's post and Jurgen Appelo's Management3.0 concept of Personal Maps, I decided to do one for myself. So if you want to know a bit more…Sun, 28 Aug 2016 08:07:12 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/coaching-agile-teams-a-companion-for-scrummasters-agile-coaches-and-project-managers-in-transition-addison-wesley-signature-series-cohn-by-lyssa-adkins-2010/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/coaching-agile-teams-a-companion-for-scrummasters-agile-coaches-and-project-managers-in-transition-addison-wesley-signature-series-cohn-by-lyssa-adkins-2010/Author link: http://www.coachingagileteams.com/ Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Coaching-Agile-Teams-ScrumMasters-Addison-Wesley/dp/0321637704 My…Sun, 07 Aug 2016 15:57:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/scrum-guide-refresh-july-2016/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/scrum-guide-refresh-july-2016/On 6th of July, a refreshed version of the Scrum Guide was released in a live webinar by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland.Fri, 29 Jul 2016 11:34:58 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/afh-042-the-grows-method-for-adopting-agile-software-develpoment-podcast/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/afh-042-the-grows-method-for-adopting-agile-software-develpoment-podcast/Link: http://ryanripley.com/afh-042-the-grows-method-for-adopting-agile-software-development-podcast/Sat, 16 Jul 2016 15:36:54 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/here-it-comes/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/here-it-comes/Before it arrives, everything is pretty calm. There's the occasional walker and the soothing sound of the fountain, but not much else. Everything else is…Sun, 19 Jun 2016 14:41:36 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/agile-info/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/agile-info/Recently, I added a few new sources of agile info (and not only) into my RSS reader and I would like to share them with you:Sat, 11 Jun 2016 17:03:11 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/i-added-rss/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/i-added-rss/Not much to say about this. Felt like implementing something in 1-2 hours and this seemed like a good candidate. So here it goes, I now have RSS feed, I…Mon, 18 Apr 2016 16:59:47 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-project-management-triangle-must-die/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-project-management-triangle-must-die/John Ferguson Smart and Jan Molak in an article I stumbled upon today:Sun, 17 Apr 2016 09:06:01 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/devops-cafe-episode-62-mary-and-tom-poppendieck/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/devops-cafe-episode-62-mary-and-tom-poppendieck/Listened recently to this episode from Devops Cafe Podcast which is loaded with useful information and references. Besides the ones found in the page of the…Mon, 11 Apr 2016 17:32:16 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/procrastinating-by-getting-distracted/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/procrastinating-by-getting-distracted/Attention is a precious thing these days. Emails, Facebook notifications, playlist notifications, colleague asking for help, loud neighbours, annoying ad…Mon, 11 Apr 2016 15:45:16 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/stackoverflow-fun-with-reactjs/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/stackoverflow-fun-with-reactjs/Inspired by Dan Abramov's tweet and with a desire to get better at ReactJS, this weekend I became a little bit more active on StackOverflow.Mon, 07 Mar 2016 18:28:05 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/why-dont-you-do-story-mapping-in-your-agile-projects/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/why-dont-you-do-story-mapping-in-your-agile-projects/Story maps is a concept made popular by Jeff Patton and he started using them professionally before he even started to call them story maps. They were born…Sun, 28 Feb 2016 18:08:02 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/selective-memory/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/selective-memory/Madiha Bhatti about basically racism:Sat, 20 Feb 2016 11:21:01 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/dont-create-a-sense-of-urgency-foster-a-sense-of-purpose/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/dont-create-a-sense-of-urgency-foster-a-sense-of-purpose/Kimber Lockhart on a sense of purpose:Sat, 20 Feb 2016 10:58:25 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/jfokus-2016-day-3-git-parallelism-jcache-reactive-and-boot/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/jfokus-2016-day-3-git-parallelism-jcache-reactive-and-boot/Sadly this was the last day of Jfokus and it was pretty cool!Thu, 18 Feb 2016 17:46:41 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/jfokus-2016-day-2-talks-talks-and-some-snoring/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/jfokus-2016-day-2-talks-talks-and-some-snoring/I decided to try something different and so go to the IoT Keynote: IoT - an evolution from Internet of Screens to Internet of Things, done by Pawel…Wed, 10 Feb 2016 13:37:41 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/jfokus-2016-day-1-microservices-and-mob-programming/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/jfokus-2016-day-1-microservices-and-mob-programming/Microservices is one of the biggest buzz words of the moment. Being a very beginner in this topic, I decided to focus mostly on it through the Jfokus…Mon, 08 Feb 2016 17:00:08 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/next-week-im-going-to-jfokus-are-you-coming-also/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/next-week-im-going-to-jfokus-are-you-coming-also/Freshly moved to Stockholm, I am glad to go to Jfokus next week. There are quite a few talks, so it's good to be prepared. Here are the talks or workshops…Thu, 04 Feb 2016 17:55:37 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/look-ma-i-built-my-own-tiny-blog-in-reactjs/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/look-ma-i-built-my-own-tiny-blog-in-reactjs/When I started working almost daily with ReactJS a few months ago, I was pretty challenged (still am) with all the different modules to use and the concepts…Mon, 01 Feb 2016 17:01:04 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-client-and-the-customer/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-client-and-the-customer/Seth Godin explains the difference between a client and a customerSun, 24 Jan 2016 08:28:25 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/when-youre-moving-houses/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/when-youre-moving-houses/... you get this strange feeling, you sort of feel disoriented.Sun, 18 Oct 2015 15:13:46 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/vacation-and-work/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/vacation-and-work/I am always wondering how would it be if people wouldn't take holidays anymore.Fri, 28 Aug 2015 05:22:32 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/thank-you-and-goodbye-holland-heeellooo-sweden/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/thank-you-and-goodbye-holland-heeellooo-sweden/So here we are, changing the type of the statistic we are. After 4 years and a few months since my wife and I were counted as moving in to The Netherlands…Thu, 27 Aug 2015 07:42:48 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/simple-light-ish-and-tasty-evening-snack/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/simple-light-ish-and-tasty-evening-snack/Fancy a delicious evening snack, but you don't want to feel too guilty about the extra calories?Wed, 05 Aug 2015 17:49:04 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/hot-in-nl/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/hot-in-nl/One of the things I noticed since I've been living in The Netherlands is that when the weather is hot, most drivers are going crazy. Aggressive over takes,…Mon, 03 Aug 2015 16:24:52 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/stuck/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/stuck/Feeling stuck is not pleasant.Sun, 02 Aug 2015 05:35:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/reality-check/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/reality-check/Think of one of your employees. Imagine he asks you the following: how would you sell my job position to me, if I would be a candidate to be hired for it?Sun, 10 May 2015 10:24:45 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/future-of-my-social-media/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/future-of-my-social-media/After sharing The Four Horsemen video (predictions about Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple) on LinkedIn, I was asked by one of my connections if I would be…Sun, 22 Mar 2015 12:25:02 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/links-and-attention/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/links-and-attention/I was reading the other day in some blinks (summaries of non-fiction books) from The Shallows, the following:Sat, 14 Mar 2015 12:57:30 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/rescued-by-pebble/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/rescued-by-pebble/I had a Pebble Steel watch for over a year now, but never took the time to put together an app or a watchface for it. Recently, I started testing RescueTime…Tue, 24 Feb 2015 17:59:47 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/so-theres-streaming/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/so-theres-streaming/There are were and are a lot of discussions about Spotify not paying fair the artists for the number of streams that their creations get in the music…Thu, 19 Feb 2015 18:46:26 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/so-whats-next/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/so-whats-next/Here I am, at the end of the YourTurnChallenge! Uuuhuu, what a ride!Sun, 25 Jan 2015 16:23:47 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/who-am-i/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/who-am-i/In a conversation with a friend (same friend, same conversation as a few days ago), he mentioned that everything that happens in the world is related…Sat, 24 Jan 2015 14:56:54 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/i-have-an-idea/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/i-have-an-idea/I have an idea about a revolutionary recipe website. Yeah, you read it right, a recipe website. Being a software engineer, you would think that it should be…Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:37:17 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/frustration/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/frustration/Have you ever felt like you've been shoved into a corner and there's no way out? Well, there's always a way out, but maybe none that you would prefer…Thu, 22 Jan 2015 17:46:14 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/self-preservation/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/self-preservation/I have thought many times why is it so difficult to admit that we were wrong. What makes it that hard to say "I'm sorry, I was wrong". Is it that important…Wed, 21 Jan 2015 17:48:04 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/why-should-things-be-simple-when-they-can-be-complicated/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/why-should-things-be-simple-when-they-can-be-complicated/Or… should it be the other way around?Tue, 20 Jan 2015 18:25:20 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-people/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-people/By accident, like most of the books I read, I stumbled upon Stephen Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It's one of those books, it's not…Mon, 19 Jan 2015 18:22:46 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/im-joining-the-yourturnchallenge/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/im-joining-the-yourturnchallenge/Maybe you heard, maybe you didn't, but there's a new challenge in town!Sat, 17 Jan 2015 16:28:31 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/success/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/success/I was having a discussion with one of my friends the other day…Wed, 14 Jan 2015 05:39:02 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/proactive-or-reactive/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/proactive-or-reactive/Just a few things I read this a couple of days ago about reactive/proactive:Sat, 03 Jan 2015 08:41:12 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/lets-make-a-change/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/lets-make-a-change/Some of these things are so simple that are easy to ignore, other are a little bit too abstract to act on them right away. It depends on each of us to act…Mon, 24 Nov 2014 18:47:48 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/yet-another-unboxing-of-a-myo-armband/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/yet-another-unboxing-of-a-myo-armband/This is probably the gazillionth unboxing of a Myo that surfaced the Internet, so I won't bother you with too many comments. Let the images speak for…Fri, 07 Nov 2014 16:52:19 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/logitech-anywhere-mx-switch-fixes-like-an-amateur/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/logitech-anywhere-mx-switch-fixes-like-an-amateur/If you own one of these beauties, then get ready for some switches trouble. Don't get me wrong, I <3 this mouse, I have two (one for work, one for home),…Tue, 04 Nov 2014 17:49:42 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/what-makes-a-leader/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/what-makes-a-leader/Like I probably said before, I read quite a lot of books, especially business and self-help books. I found out a few weeks ago about Daniel Goleman's new…Sun, 19 Oct 2014 08:23:18 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-story-bundle-or-how-i-started-reading-more-fiction/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-story-bundle-or-how-i-started-reading-more-fiction/I have to say, I usually don't read a lot of fiction or fantasy books, as in, I rarely go and search for a specific fiction book in a store. It's not that I…Wed, 15 Oct 2014 17:02:06 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/more-on-the-rackspace-cloud-files-action-for-dropzone-3-and-extras/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/more-on-the-rackspace-cloud-files-action-for-dropzone-3-and-extras/Not so long ago, I released my first Dropzone 3 action and of course, I wrote about it on my blog!Tue, 26 Aug 2014 18:33:15 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/rackspace-cloud-files-action-for-dropzone-3/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/rackspace-cloud-files-action-for-dropzone-3/Dropzone is a Mac OS X app which sits in the menu bar and that allows you to configure a series of actions. You can add these actions in a grid that is…Tue, 12 Aug 2014 15:33:28 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-live-deployment-stories-from-bitopia/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-live-deployment-stories-from-bitopia/It was a dark rainy night. You could hear some stray dogs howling, probably annoyed as well by the heavy rain. Everyone was at home. Well, except us, me and…Wed, 06 Aug 2014 17:37:19 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/joel-on-software-work-and-management/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/joel-on-software-work-and-management/Maybe you've heard about Joel Spolsky, or maybe his blog domain joelonsoftware.com sounds familliar. No? Nevermind!Fri, 25 Jul 2014 03:30:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/selfishness/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/selfishness/It seems that people are selfish by nature. All our instincts teach us to take care of ourselves and then of our species. If we would be reduced to our set…Mon, 14 Jul 2014 18:02:46 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/joy-of-coding-2014/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/joy-of-coding-2014/Yesterday I spent the entire day at the Joy of Coding conference, in Rotterdam. From my point of view, it was an example of how a coding conference should…Fri, 07 Mar 2014 17:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/asciidoc-writing/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/asciidoc-writing/I started a little while ago to write a book. Yeah, I know, who would have thought, right? But that's besides the point.Sun, 23 Feb 2014 17:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/standing-up/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/standing-up/Some time ago I started using an improvised standing desk at home. I'm sure some of you at least heard about the article about the 22$ standing desk made…Thu, 02 Jan 2014 17:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/firecrackers-and-what-the-hell/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/firecrackers-and-what-the-hell/Cover picture from ebeijing.gov.cnWed, 01 Jan 2014 14:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/look-ma-i-cooked-again/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/look-ma-i-cooked-again/After the last special, here comes another one. My mother used to cook a version of the following recipe when I was little. Ladies and gents, I give you…Mon, 18 Nov 2013 17:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/holder-js-a-handy-image-placeholder-generator/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/holder-js-a-handy-image-placeholder-generator/Sometimes when you're prototyping a new website or a new page, you would like to add a image placeholder, just to see how things fall into place.Sun, 10 Nov 2013 17:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/developers-can-cook/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/developers-can-cook/Not that there's anyone there believing that developers cannot cook, but there's no harm in stating the obvious from once in a while[1]. So, here you go,…Sat, 09 Nov 2013 14:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/mobile-publishing-with-octopress-and-raspberrypi/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/mobile-publishing-with-octopress-and-raspberrypi/A few weeks ago scriptogr.am decided to suddenly change how their Markdown processor worked, making any HTML embedded in the Markdown posts worthless, among…Sun, 20 Oct 2013 13:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/tourists-in-amsterdam-part-i/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/tourists-in-amsterdam-part-i/Being surprised by the incredible weather this weekend, we decided to walk around Amsterdam a bit, like any tourist would do.Tue, 01 Oct 2013 17:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/dutch-countryside/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/dutch-countryside/A view from the countryside near the Zaanse Schans, a park known for its functional wind mills and traditional Dutch landscapes.Tue, 24 Sep 2013 17:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/do-you-say-no/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/do-you-say-no/Cover picture from growingleaders.comMon, 16 Sep 2013 17:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/playful-squirrels/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/playful-squirrels/A pair of playful squirrels somewhere on the Petřín hill, Prague, Czech RepublicSun, 15 Sep 2013 05:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/mountain-cross/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/mountain-cross/The cross on the "Caraiman" peak, RomaniaWed, 11 Sep 2013 05:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/time-traveling-with-the-java-calendar/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/time-traveling-with-the-java-calendar/Playing with time in Java can be a tricky thing. Here's what happens when you use the Calendar class to make a trip back in time and back again:Sun, 08 Sep 2013 05:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/who-knows-what-dinking-is/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/who-knows-what-dinking-is/I have been reading an interesting book about the history of biking in the Netherlands written by an American. I have encountered some interesting facts.Wed, 04 Sep 2013 17:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/giethoorn/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/giethoorn/One of the most picturesque villages I have visited until now in the Netherlands, only for the ones who don't feel threatened by boats and water.Sun, 01 Sep 2013 17:25:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/problem-solving-and-the-random-factor/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/problem-solving-and-the-random-factor/A colleague of mine asked for my help, after spending hours on trying to figure out why he is getting the wrong results with his code. I went to his desk…Tue, 27 Aug 2013 18:28:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/a-life-protecting-barrier-for-the-rotterdam-area/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/a-life-protecting-barrier-for-the-rotterdam-area/I have visited recently the Maeslantkering surge barrier in the Hoek van Holland area, near Rotterdam. It is an impressive construction with an important…Sun, 25 Aug 2013 07:15:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/theme-of-the-month-deliberate-practice/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/theme-of-the-month-deliberate-practice/I have been recently reading about performance and what makes you better. The term of 'deliberate practice' popped up more than once.Thu, 08 Aug 2013 05:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/you-gotta-love-the-sunday-evening-news/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/you-gotta-love-the-sunday-evening-news/I had the dark thought of watching the news while visiting my relatives and friends in Romania and it happened to be a Sunday (yesterday). Here are a few of…Mon, 22 Jul 2013 08:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/so-good-they-cant-ignore-you-by-cal-newport/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/so-good-they-cant-ignore-you-by-cal-newport/With all the books out there that tell you to follow your passion, whichever that is, this book feels like a fresh breeze in a hot summerMon, 22 Jul 2013 05:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/great-books/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/great-books/I've read some really great books in the last couple of years. Here's a list of those books.Sun, 24 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/how-much-are-we-lying-to-ourselves/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/how-much-are-we-lying-to-ourselves/Random thoughts about self-inflicted lies.Sat, 16 Mar 2013 09:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/life-is-a-dance/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/life-is-a-dance/I have discovered Alan Watts a few days ago and since then I have been going through the Youtube videos with his lectures. I like his way of putting things…Fri, 08 Feb 2013 05:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/type-erasure-and-some-java-bytecode/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/type-erasure-and-some-java-bytecode/If you've worked with Java for a while, I'm sure you've heard about one of the things that Java does at compile time: type erasure. But you don't have to…Mon, 28 Jan 2013 05:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/contra/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/contra/One of the main ideas of the famous TV show, House M.D., was that in order to generate good ideas, you have to challenge yourself or have people to…Wed, 16 Jan 2013 05:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/bank-robbers-and-java-concurrency/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/bank-robbers-and-java-concurrency/Java 7 puts on the table some new tools for concurrency and its family of Executors. Here's my attempt of exemplifying their usage with a small bank robbers…Mon, 14 Jan 2013 05:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/more-or-less/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/more-or-less/I started using my parents old russian vinyl player when I was a bit older than 3 years old (or so I was told). We had a few tens of vinyls, most of them…Sat, 05 Jan 2013 05:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/farming-and-dependency-injection-in-java/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/farming-and-dependency-injection-in-java/It's always good to revisit topics that you already touched before, the chance is that you will find out new things or remember forgotten ones.Sun, 30 Dec 2012 09:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/markdown-blogging/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/markdown-blogging/Today, I switched to a static blog using Scriptogr.am and Dropbox. I thought it might be useful to share what I use to write articles on my new blog!Sat, 29 Dec 2012 15:11:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/gone-static/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/gone-static/Having a small blog where you can ramble about whatever you want should be a simple thing, right? I mean you don't pay much to the host, they have…Sat, 29 Dec 2012 07:17:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/val-team-geek/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/val-team-geek/Let's face it: a typical geek is not known for his social skills, best manners or his exquisite taste in clothes. Of course, most of the geeks are not…Sat, 17 Nov 2012 09:32:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/habits/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/habits/We are creatures of habit. I’m sure you heard this expression before.Wed, 10 Oct 2012 07:26:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-angels-game-by-carlos-ruiz-zafon/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-angels-game-by-carlos-ruiz-zafon/Shortly after finishing The Shadow Of The Wind, I received the second novel from the series.Thu, 27 Sep 2012 17:43:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/difficult-conversations/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/difficult-conversations/We all have difficult conversations everyday, be it with someone who steps in front of you in line or with your boss asking for a raise. Sometimes they…Sun, 16 Sep 2012 04:00:00 GMThttps://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-shadow-of-the-wind-by-carlos-ruiz-zafon/https://blog.alexchiri.com/posts/the-shadow-of-the-wind-by-carlos-ruiz-zafon/One of the best books I read in the last couple of months, it has all the right elements to be a successful novel.Sat, 01 Sep 2012 09:41:00 GMT