Blog of Rob Galanakis (@robgalanakis)

quotes

“Delighting customers” is Lean’s secret handshake

Whenever I see the words “delighting customers” (which is, let’s face it, an awkward phrase) in a non-Lean context like a job description, I can feel the author winking at me. It tells me “we try to be Lean and if you get our drift you probably want to...

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Refraktor

Refraktor:  (verb) When you refactor some code and in the process change or mess it up so completely that you need to revert all your changes.

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Get better at coding or get better at arguing

A while ago, one of the junior TA’s here was frustrated with all the code critiquing I was giving him, and exclaimed: “In 6 months, we haven’t had an argument about my code which I’ve won.” I replied, “Well, get better at coding or get better at arguing.” He...

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Great men don’t swaddle themselves in warm blankets

During a discussion today about some necessary-but-scary infrastructural changes, someone (a Lead, mind you) described the status quo as a warm, comforting blanket he wasn’t ready to leave. Horrified, I replied: Great men don’t swaddle themselves in warm blankets.

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Fixing things is easy, but you must be careful about what you fix

On NPR/KUT a few months ago, I was listening to a short story called ‘The Fix’ by Percival Everett. It was about a character Sherman Olney, who could fix anything- refrigerators, car engines, relationships- even bring people back to life. When asked by his employer (the owner of some...

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