Timisms

I've collected a number of sayings over the years that may just save your life one day. I forget where the term Timism came into the picture, but somone at some point started calling them that and the name stuck. Take them for what you will, and feel free to use them when appropriate.

• “Never let someone else decide your happiness.”

  — MR Bartlett, High school band director

  Since marching band is a judged activity, the band could get really down if the scores didn't match what we felt like we should. So Mr. Bartlett would always remind us that our happiness should be based on our feelings of our own performance. Seems like a good lesson for events off the field, as well.

• “Never come off the field saying I should've, would've, could've”

  — Mr Bartlett, High school band director

  You only ever have one shot at any individual moment. Make sure you give it your all.

• “One Band. One Sound.”

  — Drumline (2002 movie)

  Another marching band favorite. Applied to a software development team, the idea is that we're all in this together, and we all have our own separate jobs to deliver the same value at the end of the day. One team, one product.

• “Always be three mistakes above the ground.”

  — My father, who told me it was an old stunt pilot saying. He was an insurance agent and never flew a plane, so who knows if it's a real saying or not.

  Mistakes will happen. Make sure you have enough room between where you are and disaster for those mistakes to happen.

• “In systems under pressure, something always gives.”

  — Me... I think

  Systems could be software systems, or they could be teams or even individuals. Stress and pressure is a fact of life, but every 'system' can only handle so much. It's important for leaders to remember that if they don't let off of the release valve to let off some stress, eventually that stress will be released some other way.

• “Ask more questions, make less assumptions.”

  — Me, though it's a variation on a theme

  Plenty of variations on this one, and you've probably heard some before. But people generally don't have all the answers, so to actually understand a situation, you should ask more questions and make less assumptions.

• “If you think you're overcommunicating, you're probably not communicating enough.”

  — Probably me

  This is something I say on my teams a lot. Software development is very much a team sport, and a high performing team thrives on open and frequent communication. Too many things get lost in side conversations, DMs, emails, etc. So make sure you're bringing along the entire team for the whole ride.

• “One crazy thing at a time.”

  — Me

  Humans are terrible at multitasking. There are plenty of sayings like this, such as 'Focus on the job in front of you.' Focus on the thing in front of you, get it done, then move on to the next one. Otherwise you'll get overwhelmed and balls will get dropped.

• “You don't deploy features, you deploy builds.”

  — My own wording on common software development wisdom

  This may or may not depend on the tech stack, but since I primarily have worked in .NET, this regularly applies. Users don't use features individually, they interact with an entire build. As developers and product teams, we tend to focus on individual features and getting them out the door. However, a single build could introduce regressions or a CI/CD hiccup could introduce some unexpected issues. Make sure you focus on the actual bits that will be delivered instead of just the abstract concept of what features are going out.