E-Scribe News : a programmer’s blog

About Me

PBX I'm Paul Bissex, and e-scribe.com is my consulting business. I build web applications using open source software, especially Django. In the '90s I did graphic design for newspapers and magazines. Then I wrote technology commentary and reviews for Wired, Salon.com, Chicago Tribune, and lots of little places you've never heard of. Feel free to email me.

Book

I'm co-author of "Python Web Development with Django", an excellent guide to my favorite web framework. Published by Addison-Wesley, it is available from Amazon and your favorite technical bookstore as well.

Colophon

Built using Django, served by Apache and mod_wsgi. The database is SQLite. The operating system is FreeBSD, on a VPS hosted at Johncompanies.com. Comment-spam protection by Akismet. Vintage topo imagery from the Maptech archive. The markup engine is Markdown.

Pile o'Tags

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Stuff I Use

Akismet, bitbucket, del.icio.us, Django, Emacs, FreeBSD, Git, jQuery, LaunchBar, Markdown, Mercurial, OS X, Postfix, Python, Review Board, S3, SQLite, TextMate, Ubuntu Linux

Spam Report

At least 96060 pieces of comment spam killed since January 2008, mostly via Akismet.

Beware of the "just"

This post on the 37signals blog validates something I have been saying for years, and have recently been telling my students to watch out for: client requests that hinge on the word "just."

As in: "Can you just make this webcam grab into a 16x20 print?" Or, "Can you just make our shopping cart work like Amazon.com?"

"Just" means, "I have no idea how this is actually going to be accomplished, but I would like it to be instantaneous."

The "just" rule is a corollary of "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing." Suggestions or requests involving the word "just" often have a frosting of technical detail, as if to suggest that the speaker's casual attitude toward the effort required stems from an intimate understanding of the process.

In fact, when people express themselves in this way it's generally because they don't want to wait for (or pay for) the effort the task actually requires. They may not even be conscious of this fact. By tapping the task on the head with the magical "just," they hope to see it shrink down to mouse-size in a flurry of fairy-sparkles.

We all do it. We all have our areas of expertise and our blind spots. But as a creative professional, if you learn to listen for the word "just" in your discussions with clients, you can catch unrealistic expectations early and save yourself and them a lot of frustration.

Monday, November 21st, 2005
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Some related posts: Digg vs. Reddit vs. Me

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