Keep your eyes on the fries

You know what it's like; you're learning to ride a bike and you have to learn not to look at obstacles, 'cause you can become transfixed by them, and if you're not careful you'll run into them! Before you know it -- you're on your arse.

I love my new gig with Cogent, but since landing the gig one of the main things on my mind has been "don't fuck it up". And I can't help but think, I've been pre-occupied with failure rather than success. If I'm not careful, I'm going to be on my arse.

So I have to work at turning my mind to success.

The last six months have been great - I've not been more challenged both technically and personally since I started web development in Melbourne nearly ten years ago! Working with Cogent, and in the open and transparent way that they do, has been a revelation. It is a very real business experience -- I'm closer to the work, the business development and the bottom dollar than ever before.

I have embraced a new platform (Mac, OS X - not to mention Unix), a new language and framework (Ruby, and Rails), a new way of working (strict BDD with Rspec, coverage, complexity and similarity analysis before check-in), and since I started I have deployed two really great web apps. Not too bad for six months work. Not to shabby at all.

The staff at Cogent are awesome, they're super, super smart guys who are always on their game and always ready to lend one-another a hand or provide support where needed. It just doesn't get any better than that.

So, focus on the candy. Accentuate the positive. Celebrate your victories - no matter how small - and keep your eyes on the fries.