Maddening Productivity

A relaxing drumming of raindrops is beating against the windows at DevBridge – nature is preparing for yet another season of slumber. Shades of yellow and red are embracing forests and parks alike; the pesky neighbor squirrel is no longer bothering Tomas as it’s time is consumed with various nut gathering activities. Spirits inside the office, however, are quite on the other side of the spectrum with activity peaking at an all time high. New employees, multiple product launches, and deadlines creeping up on us leave little time for melancholy and nut gathering (Marius also buys us nuts in these large containers, so we technically don’t have to gather them in preparation for winter).

Our dysfunctional technology obsessed family grows once again as a new developer joins our ranks from the already ice covered Lithuania. Logistical hurdles of working in sub zero temperatures aside, Karolis is good at more than fending off polar bears that tend to crawl into his development lair. A self proclaimed hacker extraordinaire, Karolis has picked up the workload like a true champ: his recent Facebook post indicated that he’s “Looking for some hot Chix”. While we would hate to crush his dreams we feel it is important to inform that the sickly paleness acquired while working in front of a monitor for ten hours a day will indeed make women believe one to be a vampire. Vampires are the new hotness these days, however, so it may not be such a bad thing.

Since we couldn’t find any large comic book conventions happening this fall, we decided to visit Microsoft Professional Developers Conference yet again. Everyone here is very excited about the conference because we had such a great time last year: Tomas for the industry insights, I for the excellent lunch and dinner buffets. To compound the effectiveness of all this training we’re even shipping over Gedas for a four week long coding binge. A complete program of advancement has been prepared, including Call of Duty basic training that we like to call “how to collapse gracefully as the masters induce heavy lead poisoning into your system”. We would also like to inform that our workload bandwidth will slum incredibly on November 10th, the release date of the new Modern Warfare game. Office computers have been equipped with new headsets, all coffee cups now feature rubber grips, and developers communicate in short bark like commands that are usually followed by a string of random Alfa Tango Charlies.

As I have mentioned previously, we’ve been staying really busy with projects, nurturing this economy back to life one AJAX call at a time. Just recently we launched a new version of AirCycle.com, expanded LoweryMcDonnell.com to have e-commerce and distributor communication capabilities, and launched Ballco Manufacturing and Health Directions websites. Our efficiency is in part due to the recent fascination with certain inspirational/technique books, which should be read in the following sequence:

• A seminar recording of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done”


• Snowball – the biography of Warren Buffet


• The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss

You can learn more about the books by clicking on the links, I honestly don’t feel like reviewing them here one by one… I must stress, however, that they all have some very good, functional advice for individuals and professionals alike.

The clock is showing 2PM on a Saturday afternoon and my lunch time calzone is slowly tranquilizing me to sleep. As exciting as it is for you to read this blog post, I’m sure, I must spin it to an end. Farewell and keep in touch!