0:00:00Hello, and welcome to Developing Perspective.
0:00:03Developing Perspective is a near-daily podcast discussing the news of note in iOS, Apple,
0:00:07and the like.
0:00:08I'm your host, David Smith.
0:00:09I'm an independent iOS developer based in Herndon, Virginia.
0:00:12This is show number 23, and today is Thursday, September 8, 2011.
0:00:17The format of Developing Perspective is that I'll cover a handful of links, articles, things
0:00:21that I found interesting since the last show, and then move over to a more general discussion
0:00:25towards the end.
0:00:26The show will never be longer than 15 minutes.
0:00:28Let's get to it.
0:00:29All right, our first link today is entitled "Lessons from Valve, How to Build a Designer's
0:00:34Paradise."
0:00:35I mean, if you're not familiar with, Valve is one of the most sort of renowned game sort
0:00:40of development and design studios that there probably is.
0:00:44They're responsible for sort of some amazingly canonical games, things like Half-Life is
0:00:50probably the most famous example.
0:00:52And this is just an interesting article kind of talking about what it's like to work there,
0:00:56of their environments like, how they've structured things.
0:01:00And some of the things they say are just kind of interesting.
0:01:02And I'm not a game designer or developer myself,
0:01:06but it's just kind of interesting to get inside and see
0:01:10how they do what they do when they're so successful at doing
0:01:13what they do.
0:01:13And so it's just kind of worth taking a look
0:01:15at if you're at all interested in just different office
0:01:18environments and how they work.
0:01:20Next, there's a really fascinating article
0:01:22I found in an unexpected place.
0:01:25And so it's on the blog of Tim Ferriss, who's
0:01:28kind of famous for his 4-Hour Workweek, 4-Hour Body series
0:01:34of books.
0:01:34He's kind of a life hacker extraordinaire.
0:01:38And it's kind of interesting because I was reading his blog,
0:01:41and I found this article about Pivotal Labs.
0:01:44And Pivotal is kind of a very famous software consulting
0:01:48company out there, especially famous in the Rails world
0:01:50where I first ran into them.
0:01:53And it's talking-- there's an interview here
0:01:55with a guy named Rob Mee, who I think
0:01:57is one of the directors or heads there.
0:01:59And it's kind of a fascinating article,
0:02:02because it kind of walks through,
0:02:04I guess you could call, some of the myths of software
0:02:07engineering.
0:02:08And so for example, some of the myths
0:02:10are you have to hire ninjas.
0:02:12Programmers need to work in a quiet environment
0:02:15without interruption.
0:02:16Startups need to run hot, and you've just
0:02:19got to burn everyone out.
0:02:20Looming deadlines necessitate shortcuts.
0:02:23Developers should take ownership of their code.
0:02:26And you need to have a quirky hiring process.
0:02:28And these are just some of the things that he talks about.
0:02:30But it's just kind of interesting to get
0:02:32kind of the inside look at a company that is clearly
0:02:36doing very, very well, and doing so in a way that is perhaps
0:02:40a bit counterintuitive, or maybe a bit runs to the contrary,
0:02:44to what a normal startup mindset or those types of things are.
0:02:48And I agree with a lot of what he says. And I think a lot of what he said, the big thing about it is, it's about sort of building something that's sustainable. And that sort of creates skill within your within your sort of team that allows you to not worry about sort of rough situations.
0:03:06I think he gives a really interesting analogy where he compares the way that, for example,
0:03:12a team of army seals or something like that, an elite group of people in the military handle
0:03:20a very stressful situation.
0:03:22And it's not that they all go crazy and start sort of doing things out of their normal habit,
0:03:28which is sort of a way that a lot of companies kind of expect development to happen where
0:03:33you're kind of cruising along, you're cruising along, and then all of a sudden, oh, no, we're
0:03:36short, we need a deadline. Everyone, it's 24/7, everyone's got to work crazy hours,
0:03:42bring in the Mountain Dew. Whereas you see, you know, some of these examples of people
0:03:48who do amazing things under imagine, you know, crazy pressure, they just do what they always
0:03:53do. They do what they're trained to do. They do it, you know, they just that's how they
0:03:56work. They sort of, they've planned ahead enough that they've adapted to that situation.
0:04:02And I think it's just an interesting example. And there's a lot of other little nuggets
0:04:05like that in that article that I definitely recommend checking out.
0:04:09Next, there's a really kind of fascinating thing.
0:04:11And it's a little bit tangential to what I normally talk about here.
0:04:15But I just thought it was absolutely gorgeous.
0:04:17And basically, someone redesigned the London Tube map.
0:04:23So if you've ever been to London, there's
0:04:24this very, very famous looking map that you'll
0:04:28have for the London Underground.
0:04:29And it's very square.
0:04:33It looks a lot like a circuit diagram.
0:04:35And the problem with it, however,
0:04:38is that it's actually very non-representative of how
0:04:41the actual layout of the trains are.
0:04:44A lot of the trains are laid out on the map
0:04:47so as to look as though they are all the lines run north, south,
0:04:53or east, west for the most part.
0:04:55And the problem with that is, of course,
0:04:56that doesn't match what's actually
0:04:57happening on the ground.
0:04:58And so you have this funny thing where this abstraction
0:05:01that someone came up with to make the map very readable
0:05:04actually made it less useful.
0:05:05And they have some interesting data in there
0:05:07about how 30% of people actually take
0:05:09a route that is non-optimal for them on the London Underground
0:05:12because the map kind of looks like that would be quicker.
0:05:16But in reality, it's not.
0:05:17So this guy redesigned the London Underground map,
0:05:20and the result is just gorgeous and something
0:05:22that I would definitely-- if you're going to London,
0:05:25it's definitely worth checking out from a usefulness
0:05:27perspective.
0:05:28And it also just from a design perspective,
0:05:30where you can kind of see something
0:05:32that I think has become so sort of almost expected,
0:05:36or it's just such a part of London, sort of London,
0:05:41in many ways.
0:05:42And he took it, and he reinvented it
0:05:44in a really interesting way.
0:05:45And so definitely just worth checking out.
0:05:47It's kind of interesting to think
0:05:48about that in a lot of other ways of what
0:05:50are some that we take for granted
0:05:51and could potentially do with a bit of changing.
0:05:55And then lastly, I have a link to a review of the Pomodoro Technique Illustrated, which
0:06:01is a great book, highly recommended.
0:06:03I have a copy of it and it's just a really nice thing.
0:06:07The Pomodoro Technique, if you're not familiar with it, I think I talked about it before
0:06:10on the show, but it's a way of creating focus and motivation by breaking down tasks into
0:06:1625-minute chunks.
0:06:17And there's a bit more to that, but basically it's about saying it's hard to sometimes wrap
0:06:22your hands around a large task.
0:06:24saying, oh gosh, I want to build this whole feature.
0:06:26I want to write this whole book.
0:06:27I'm going to do this whole thing.
0:06:29But it's much easier to say, OK, I have 25 minutes.
0:06:31What can I do?
0:06:32And you define that out.
0:06:34And this technique is a bit more beyond just that,
0:06:36because you can create armatures and frameworks around that
0:06:40so that you can get your work done better.
0:06:43And that process is more effective.
0:06:45But it's just kind of interesting.
0:06:47I was reading his review of that book,
0:06:49and I thought it was kind of interesting.
0:06:51So definitely just worth checking out.
0:06:54especially because his notes are kind of-- he gives you
0:06:56a nice sort of summary of the book
0:06:57that you don't need to necessarily go and get it,
0:06:59though I would recommend it.
0:07:01All right.
0:07:01And lastly, I'm just going to have a brief discussion today
0:07:05talking about the iPhone 5.
0:07:08Ooh, the iPhone 5.
0:07:10Everyone knows it's coming.
0:07:11Everyone knows it's due any day, probably about a month from now
0:07:15when I'm recording this.
0:07:16I think we're expecting it early October.
0:07:18At this point, it's probably waiting mostly on iOS 5
0:07:22to be ready rather than necessarily the hardware
0:07:24because they're going to have to be geared up and ready to do
0:07:28all the production for that.
0:07:30So it's very unlikely at this point.
0:07:31If it's not ready, they're going to have some bigger problems.
0:07:34But the interesting thing that I was kind of struck by
0:07:37is how increasingly now, I don't think it matters as much
0:07:41as it used to.
0:07:42I think the-- in terms of when I was--
0:07:45I remember back in the day when the first iPhone came out,
0:07:48the 3G came out.
0:07:50It was a big deal.
0:07:51was a massive change in functionality there.
0:07:54And most importantly, they added the App Store around the same time.
0:07:58And that was obviously massive and huge.
0:08:00The 3GS, it was kind of a blah thing.
0:08:02But what it did do is add video.
0:08:05And I think that was a big step in a big direction.
0:08:08Then they came up with the iPhone 4.
0:08:10And the iPhone 4 is an amazing device in such a small space.
0:08:14It does pretty much everything you could think of.
0:08:17And you look at all of its competition and things
0:08:20that if you are kind of one of those Walt Mossberg guys who
0:08:23does the reviews and kind of brings up
0:08:26all these checklists of, oh, it should do this,
0:08:28oh, it should do that.
0:08:29And the thing is, I find very few things at this point
0:08:32that it doesn't do that I would like it to do.
0:08:34There's a few things it could do maybe better.
0:08:36Have a slightly sharper camera, a few things like that.
0:08:40But they're not really fundamental changes.
0:08:42They're not really improving the phone itself.
0:08:45You could have different phones.
0:08:46You could say to people who are like, oh, well,
0:08:47I want a smaller one.
0:08:48I want a bigger one.
0:08:49I want one in different colors, those types of things.
0:08:53But it doesn't really change the fundamental dynamics
0:08:56of the phone.
0:08:56I mean, Apple could certainly surprise me and throw something
0:08:59in there that I can't even imagine,
0:09:02and that would be amazing and cool.
0:09:04But I think it's an interesting tipping point
0:09:05for the maturity of the platform, where
0:09:09I think at this point, we're going to kind of transition
0:09:11from this kind of revolutionary change
0:09:14into a more evolutionary change.
0:09:16And that's a good thing.
0:09:17I think as a developer, that's great,
0:09:19because we'll increasingly be much more standardized
0:09:23and much more--
0:09:25it's kind of everything will be much the same.
0:09:27And so if you're designing for usability,
0:09:29you're designing for aesthetics and ergonomics,
0:09:33I think this is roughly the shape and form factor
0:09:35that we'll be expecting.
0:09:37And I think it will be really great in terms of also
0:09:39just because it's a really great design.
0:09:41I mean, the iPhone 4, this was probably
0:09:43the best of the best designed and best engineered computer
0:09:47I've ever owned.
0:09:47I've owned a lot of pretty interesting computers.
0:09:51So it's just one of those things that I was thinking about recently, and it's just kind
0:09:53of nice that I'm excited for when the new iPhone comes out, and I'll almost certainly
0:09:58be in line in the middle of the night, make sure I get my hands on one in the first day.
0:10:02But that's not because it's doing something that I can't do now.
0:10:05That it's not that it's something new and better.
0:10:08It's just it'll be that little bit of extra sort of icing on top of the cupcake that just
0:10:14makes it that much sweeter.
0:10:15And that's great.
0:10:16all I want and I would be perfectly happy with that.
0:10:21It's the classic thing.
0:10:22If it's the iPhone 4 but with the A5 chip in it and that's the only slightly sharper
0:10:29camera or whatever, I'll buy one.
0:10:31That's great.
0:10:32I'd be delighted with that and I think it's just an interesting point that we've hit in
0:10:37the iPhone market.
0:10:38I think the iPad will continue to change and develop a lot for at least the next couple
0:10:41of years but I think the iPhone may have sort of settled down a little bit but I guess time
0:10:45will tell.
0:10:46Alright, that's it for today's show. Hope you enjoyed it.
0:10:48And yeah, have a good day, happy coding, and I'll talk to you later. Bye.