Down the Road

Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

Since 2007

Tag: programming

  • Twenty-five years in the software salt mines

    Tomorrow it will have been 25 years since I started my career in the software industry. It might seem odd that I remember the day only until you know that I started work on Monday, July 3, 1989, making my second day a paid holiday. The office was nearly deserted on my first day. My boss regretted…

  • Technical problems can almost always be solved, but people problems are hard

    I’ll never forget the revelation it was when I figured out how to write computer programs. You mean, I thought, I can make this machine do what I want it to? It was a watershed moment in my life. I was shy, introverted. People often frightened me, at least a little. I struggled to interact with people I…

  • Even a mediocre plan will work if everybody follows it

    I have been astonished in my life by how few problems are truly unsolvable. I have also noticed that, most of the time, when a problem ends up not being solved it is for one of two reasons: people deny the problem, or they won’t work together on the solution. I make software for a…

  • Twenty-one years in the software salt mines

    A personal anniversary passed quietly last Saturday. It was the 21st year since I started my career. It may seem odd that I remember the day only until you know that I started work on July 3, making my second day a paid holiday. The office was nearly deserted on my first day. My boss…