Escaping the office
Posted by Gavin Bowman on Tuesday, March 07, 2006 at 10:26 AM
Me getting out and doing something active is rare enough to justify marking the occasion with a blog post. We trekked up a nearby mountain on Sunday, and I had to share the view.
I really don't take advantage of this area, some people actually move to Cumbria because of the hills and lakes. It's on my doorstep and hardly ever get out there....
I meant to post this on Sunday night, but my router tricked me into thinking my blog was offline. As it's a weekday, here's a work-related angle.
It's common for people to neglect things on their doorstep, and it's common for people to make do with their own situation. Take the cobbler's children principle (they have no shoes), or John Seiffer's "Never Remodel all your bathrooms at once" (surprisingly, it's about not making do. I think the title implies another important subject, but that's by the by). I've always wondered how all this relates to "dogfooding" software. Sure, you use it yourself, but how do you ensure you don't make do with something that will really annoy customers?
3 Comments:
I think dogfooding means you'll be less likely to "make do" with something because you'll notice it more often.
If you're testing a new feature, it's easy to overlook the bug in an old feature because you're busy trying to get the new feature working. The more often you notice the bug in the old feature in your peripheral attention, the harder it will be to ignore.
But I didn't come here to chat about software development... I wanted to express my envy that you've got snow and mountains, whereas down here in Cambridge I've got drizzle and flatness :-( But then, like you I didn't take enough advantage of the Lakes when I was at Uni in Lancaster.
Is that by the Lake District?
What did you mean about not going home yet in your previous post?
Adrian, I don't doubt the value of dogfooding software. I've just always wondered about the cobbler's children thing, and this seemed like a good opportunity to slip it into a post!
If it makes you feel any better, I had to drive a short distance to get to the snow. All I can see from my window today is drizzle too :).
Ben, yes, it's in the Lake District, I'm right on the edge of it, so it's fairly easy to reach places like that.
About not going home, we're still staying with family while the flood repairs to our home are finished off. The flood was in January 2005 (there are some pictures and links in my archives if you're interested, April/May of last year mostly). I haven't been able to live there since then, so it's very frustrating!
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