My Professional Blog

In these Web 2.0 days, there’s never been a better time to aspire to be a Rockstar Programmer. You’ve seen these people, right? They are household names in our industry, they write the must-read blogs, they write the best-selling books, and they are coveted speakers at our industry conferences. Let’s face it, our jobs aren’t considered among the sexiest, but somehow a select group of folks elevate beyond the stereotype and enjoy the splendors.

So imagine the life: you command the blogosphere, you never eat alone at conferences, you headline magazine covers…and you even parlay this good fortune into a date or two or even a spouse! If you are exceptional, maybe you become the next Mark Cuban.

This sounds pretty good to me, so how do we get there? Today’s your lucky day, I’m going to tell you exactly how. What’s that you say? You say you’ve never heard of me and so how could I possibly tell you how to reach this state of nerdy nirvanna? That’s a fair point. Just consider me the guitar teacher that teaches you your first chords and the discipline to practice. Or the art teacher that teaches you to see beyond the stroke of a brush. The point is, I can tell you what you need to do, but most of this will be up to you.

So without further ado (no, its not adieu), here’s the list:

• Discover your niche. Being a rockstar means you are going to play the same songs over and over as you tour the world. As such, you better like the songs, right? Same goes for you. Figure out where to focus your interests and ensure that your passion has staying power.

• Read cutting edge books and blogs. You need to dig in and be in the top one percentile of those who are considered experts in your niche of choice. In short, figure out who the cool kids are and then figure out which cool kids know what they are talking about. Read them religiously. Basically, I’m telling you to listen to their songs and attend their concerts.

• See beyond present day usages and limitations for current technologies. Rockstars play the impossible solos. You take a technology and do something amazing with it. You extend it and make it seem like magic. You empower others to make magic.

• Start locally. To be a rockstar, you must rock your local venues. This means that you should start at your place of work or in your home town. Build your reputation and your chops locally and then broaden your horizons. What can you do locally? Attend user groups and speak often.

• Master fundamentals and tools.  To be a rockstar, you must be more productive than the most person.  Few people completely master their toolsets and thus leave a lot of productivity on the table.  You will not make this mistake.  Mastering your tools means more energy and time will be spent creating your magic.

• Apprentice with other rockstars. Find an open source project and begin contributing. Work your way to trusted committer. In other words, learn from others before you strike out on your own. Accompany Kurt Cobain, but become David Grohl. Realize that playing the small clubs help you refine your act for stadium venues.

• Blog substantially and regularly. You must establish your “brand” and share your insights and secrets. You must cultivate loyal followers. Your followers will legitimize your efforts and your brand. You must create a stir; electrify the blogosphere.

• Be a mensch. This advisement stolen from Guy Kawasaki. The point is that you must share your work, your time, and your enthusiasm generously and expect no immediate return. Instead, consider these interactions as long-term investments.

• Write books and speak at conferences. You must spread the word in person and through formal channels. Be on the record. Establish name recognition. Write well, speak well. Be entertaining. Let the power of your passion embolden you and spark interest among those who share your interests.

• Maintain an outstanding web presence. Yeah, you have a blog, but you need more. Your presence is your online resume. If you are a programmer, its implied that your website will do cool things or teach others how to do cool things. If you are a web designer, its expected that your design will always be inspired and innovative. NOTE: this is a do as I say, not as I do advisement as my current design reflects poorly on my skills! Remember: Me => your teacher; You: => Grasshopper.

You expected more? There really is no more to it. Follow the list and you’ll be a rockstar. The problem is, most people are unable or unwilling to do so.

Before you go, here are a few rockstars that you might look to for inspiration:

• Rod Johnson and Juergen Hoeller. These are the founders of the Java-based Spring Framework. These guys won’t bowl you over with flamboyance. They are simply great technicians with a framework whose benefits are an easy sell for the disenfranchised EJB (and otherwise) community.

• David Heinemeier Hansson. The creator of the Ruby on Rails web framework. You have to admire a guy who thumbs his nose at established enterprise technologies and goes maverick with a not so well-known language like Ruby. The Rails framework has fueled many Web 2.0 creations.

• Jeffrey Zeldman. The poster child for standards-based web design. No rockstar has ever been so articulate and entertaining in spreading the word. As an aside, I think Jeffrey actually played keyboards in a past life. Rockstardom sometimes takes a while or gives you second chances.

• Dan Cederholm. Web designer extraordinaire: Odeo, Cork’d, SimpleBits, et al. Writes books and now speaks.

So there you go, I wish you good fortune in your quest to rock the house.

I recently purchased a MacBook Pro in order to improve my development hardware. One of the lures was the ability to use Parallels to set up any number of Guest Operating Systems to run other applications or simply to explore and learn. I have an immediate need to set up Windows XP Professional as I keep my financials in Quicken. Unfortunately, the Mac offering of Quicken is always many features behind.

I have no complaint against Parallels as yet since I have yet to really get going. It should be pointed out that the initial install of Parallels gray-screened on me consistently when running my first virtual machine. After googling, I discovered that I needed only to download the latest build from their website. So far, so good on that.

So once I was able to get Parallels to run my first virtual machine, I began the process of creating a Windows XP Professional install. Except that I had overlooked the fact that the only CD I had was an upgrade CD. I have XP on my desktop, my old Dell laptop, and on my PowerBook and yet I don’t have an original install CD. The PowerBook copy was obtained through the Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac, but unfortunately that install appears to be contained into a proprietary virtual disk. So though I have three running copies, I do not have an install CD. This is frustrating since I’ll basically have to buy a copy in order to install it. Now, I think I can be clever and buy the cheapest version and then upgrade, but still it, its money out of my pocket.

On the other hand, I have an Ubuntu Linux distribution CD that was acquired for free. This makes me question why Microsoft insists on charging for their OS products. Shouldn’t their strategy be to give those away and then try to lock users in with the sale of their applications? It seems they should be minimizing the friction for the sale and propagation of their other products.

In the meantime, I have to consider whether I’ll buy a copy of XP knowing full well that Vista is around the corner. I probably won’t on principle.