Episode 324 | Obie Fernandez - Timing Opportunity

Guest:

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Obie Fernandez talks with Dave Rael about attention, connecting varied interests, lifestyle, timing, and meaningful impact

Obie Fernandez resides in Mexico City and runs a boutique tech consultancy. He makes his living as an author and by helping clients to build kickass web software. Early in his career, he worked on some of the world’s first Java enterprise projects and founded Atlanta’s Extreme Programming User Group (later Agile Atlanta). At ThoughtWorks and his own agency Hashrocket, he led high-risk projects for massive companies like Daimler, John Deere and Sony Ericsson, delivering some of the world’s first successful enterprise Ruby on Rails systems. More recently, he has founded or consulted various successful technology startups, including Andela, which is well on its way to training 100,000 brilliant young Africans to become the world’s next generation of technology leaders. His previous books include The Lean Enterprise and Serverless. He’s currently working on a new Ruby on Rails book called Mastering the Rails Way.

Chapters: 2:20 - Dave introduces the show and Obie Fernandez7:17 - Putting yourself out in front of people10:25 - Creating content with good timing to access an audience that wants and needs it15:52 - The virtue and vice of a deficit of attention, coping strategies, the writing process, and completing large projects19:20 - Beginning with the end in mind24:06 - Deliberate practice for software programmers29:01 - Obie's lifestyle, location, and adventures31:55 - Remote work vs onsite, the limitations of prescriptive advice, and the importance of context36:25 - Obie's story of failure - overlooking the constraints of the environment, leading to embarrassment and animosity from and toward the client42:54 - Obie's success story - The mission and success of Andela49:53 - Obie's book recommendation53:42 - Obie's top 3 tips for delivering more value56:40 - Keeping up with Obie

Resources: Obie's Website Obie's Consulting Business Hashrocket Andela The Rails 5 Way (4th Edition) (Addison-Wesley Professional Ruby Series) - Obie Fernandez Jason Swett on Developer On Fire OkCupid Shawn Wildermuth on Developer On Fire Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method - Gerald M. Weinberg Jerry Weinberg on Developer On Fire David Heinemeier Hansson on Developer On Fire Vanity Fair Article on Twitter Scale and Rails Rehema Wachira on Developer On Fire Prosper Otemuyiwa on Developer On Fire

Obie's book recommendation: Business Improv: Experiential Learning Exercises to Train Employees to Handle Every Situation with Success - Val Gee

Obie's top 3 tips for delivering more value: Don't just listen to what the client says they need, figure out what they truly need Always be honest and transparent Think about timing