Sunday, January 15, 2006

.NET Rocks! Episode ???: Bob Reselman

UPDATE #2: Apparently, Bob didn't feel comfortable with the outcome of the interview, so they opted not to "air" the podcast:

http://codingslave.blogspot.com/2006/01/q-why-didnt-you-do-dotnetrocks.html

UPDATE #1: Seems that Mr. Franklin already had a previous episode in the can, because the current .NET Rocks show is with Shawn Wildermuth. The following discussed the show that was taped last Friday (1/13/2006) with Bob Reselman:

We (the live listeners of .NET Rocks!) got lucky on Friday evening because Carl managed to get the media server working (after first announcing that it would not be up). After a few hiccups, I found myself listening to the first live stream since sometime near the beginning of December.

This week's episode was different. I'm not sure how much editing that Carl and the gang will do (I'm writing this before the episode is released), but whatever the result, don't expect a highly technical show. But, do expect to take away some common sense approaches to the business of software development. There was some great content discussed, and I'm going to give the show a second listen.

One thing that I found interesting is that Bob once worked for a company that had an open payroll policy. That is, everyone knew what everyone else was making, so there was never the thought in the back of your mind that your employer is screwing you by paying you far less than a peer. Speaking for myself, I know about that distraction all too well...

Another point that Bob made was the fact that people are too afraid of the truth. For instance, a project manager would rather have somebody lie to them about when a task will be complete, rather than an honest "I don't know" answer. In my personal experience, "I don't know" is really the best answer in a lot of cases. Sure, I could say that something will take a week, but that's a guess. It could really take 2 days, or 2 weeks.