Back in the real estate boom days, lots and lots of my Bud Light drinking friends got rich. The went out and got themselves a contractor's license and built homes. He quickly bought corvette ZR-1s (plurl), a yacht, played golf at Torrey Pines, and bought two weird looking cats.
Sam (real name) built houses faster than anyone else in the business. He was my gorgeous green-eyed blond girlfriend's dad. The faster he built a home, the faster the buyer could stop paying rent on their interim housing, the more money he made. His buyers loved him. He loved his money.
Funny thing about it, just beneath the thickness of three coats of paint is where he hijacked his time. He took every shortcut in the book. Then, he wrote the sequel. Wiring wasn't grounded, beams weren't locked in, insulation wasn't installed. None of this really made any practical impact on the active young couples who moved in and used their new San Diego home sparingly.Â
The people Sam hurt were the elderly who moved into his Las Vegas and LA homes. Their heating and air-conditioning bills skyrocketed. Leaning on a wall made outlets catch fire.
It was also the elderly few who hurt Sam.Â
Journalists just couldn't turn their back on their stories. Even if a dozen younger couples had complained, it was an elderly woman who commanded attention and started off a landslide of destruction in Sam's life.Â
Eventually, after lurid tell-all court dates, Sam's divorce from Linda, and his bankruptcy, Every single one of his properties were devalued. So in the end Sam's shortcut mentality even hurt the younger active couples in Del Mar.
IPhone Apps are here to stay
I realize that there is a huge rush to stake out your marketshare in the virgin mobile world. And getting that market share fast means money. But just like Sam, if you build your app in a way that saves $1 but creates $100 liability later, you're drinking coffee laced with your own brand of arsenic.
IPhone Apps and Android Apps are here to stay. Get yours out there immediately to capture your early adopter market share. But do it in a way that creates minimal liabilities. Here's what to look out for under the third layer of paint:
1. Programmers Annotations
Every experienced and honest programmer places tags in his code that explain what any given lines of code actually do. This way, he can always go back with a "CNTRL-F" keyboard command and rapidly find the sections to modify. This also makes it simple for a new programmer to take over if you part ways. It takes a little bit more time in the first run to create annotations but if you come back with any changes (which we both KNOW you will) the changes will be quick.
Programmer Sam doesn't do this. Sam thinks leaving annotations out or using his own proprietary code will give him job security. This is like your mate asking you to stay married because otherwise that one "video" will hit Facebook. Continued:Â
iPhone App Developer Los Angeles
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