What’s Next – I Honestly don’t know and am perfectly fine not knowing. My career stalled during my time at CSC, I don’t know why exactly and while I do have some strong thoughts about it I’m not prepared to elaborate in detail at this time. However, I do know I need a change and it’s time to head a different direction.

NGC – My career started fast and I’d like to think very successfully at TRW/Northrop Grumman and there are a couple lessons/ideas that I often think about regarding my time there.

1. I built a solid name for myself there and had total say in what I wanted to do, by in large I had escaped the corporate bureaucracy and wholly controlled my own destiny. I greatly underestimated this benefit prior to my departure there.
2. 6 months or so prior to my departure I was offered a position that would have made me responsible for a nice chunk of revenue. I turned it down for many reasons, but the thing I did not really consider was how much the people who offered me the position believed in me. I regret not believing more in those who believed in me.

Commoditizing Software Development – During my brief time at CSC, it became apparent that Corporate America (or at least CSCs clients) is interested in commoditizing software development, and doing it through offshore resources in India. Personally I don’t believe it can be commoditized and doing so is a losing business strategy because not only does the quality of software suffer, but the “business” also suffers. If the work can be done in India for cheaper, so be it, but in my experience the quality is so bad, it is not worth the cost savings.

Fitness – I spent my 20s way overweight, I guess obese is the proper term. In the last 15 months I’ve lost 75lbs or so, others seems to notice the physical change. But, honestly I don’t so much. However, I do notice a mental change, and it is a huge one. It’s a major differentiator in why I am not nervous about being unemployed, I KNOW I am talented and I KNOW I will figure something out and be successful.

California/Ohio – I think it is safe to say while some good things have come of me moving back to Ohio, I wouldn’t be one bit surprised if I end up back in California, in fact I’d probably me more surprised if I didn’t. I miss it a lot, not sure if I’ll go back to SoCal or look for something new somewhere in the SF Bay area. Time will tell.

Python – I spent some time earlier this summer introducing myself to python. As I have said before something about python just seems right, and now that I have unlimited free time, I’m going to use it to hack some of my ideas together. I may also explore Scala.