Best of A Techie Thought 2008

A new year is a good forcing function for honesty. Looking back at 2008, the posting frequency here dropped—particularly the technical writing aimed at SMB developers, which was supposed to be the core of this blog. Good intentions, inconsistent execution. The usual story.

For 2009, three things I want to change: acquire a proper domain and move off WordPress.com, post at least twice a week, and stay closer to the SMB developer topics that started this whole thing. Writing publicly is one of the better ways to clarify thinking, and 2008 taught me that irregular publishing is almost as bad as no publishing at all—you lose the thread, and so do readers.

That said, 2008 produced some writing I’m still happy with. Here are the eight posts that hold up best:

Programming is an Art — The case for treating code as craft rather than mere output. Still think this framing matters.

Architect’s Standpoint — What changes when you move from writing code to designing systems that other people write code in.

Difference between Abstraction and Encapsulation — One of the most confused distinctions in OOP. Tried to draw it clearly.

Web Development Series—HTTP Basics — The foundational protocol that web developers often know just well enough to get by. Worth understanding properly.

User Driven Product Development and Innovation — Why letting users drive product decisions is harder than it sounds, and more necessary than most teams admit.

Indian IT in Different Perspective — The industry from a vantage point that doesn’t get enough honest coverage.

My Process Vision — What a healthy software development process actually looks like, versus the process theater most organizations perform.

Process Commitment and Communication — Process without genuine commitment is just documentation. Communication is what makes commitment visible.

These aren’t ranked—they’re just the pieces I’d point someone to if they wanted to know what this blog is about. The HTTP Basics post in particular generated good discussion, which is the surest sign a technical piece landed.

2009 starts here.