At 83, I Decided to Develop an App

https://medium.com/@DonRumsfeld/at-83-i-decided-to-develop-an-app-dadd4e53d342#.wt93bm5qs

by dangoldin • 11 years ago

38 28 11 years ago

medium.com

zanewill9• 11 years ago

Inspiring.

colinbartlett• 11 years ago

App Store link:

https://appsto.re/us/UvnC9.i

to3m• 11 years ago

WSJ article: http://www.wsj.com/articles/former-defense-secretary-marches...

    Mr. Rumsfeld can’t code. He doesn’t much even use a
    computer. But he guided his young digitally minded 
    associates who assembled the videogame with the same 
    method he used to rule the Pentagon—a flurry of memos
    called snowflakes.

    As a result, “Churchill Solitaire” is likely the only 
    videogame developed by an 83-year-old man using a 
    Dictaphone to record memos for the programmers. 

    [...]

    “We need to do a better job on these later versions. 
    They just get new glitches,” reads one note from Mr. 
    Rumsfeld. “[W]e ought to find some way we can achieve 
    steady improvement instead of simply making new 
    glitches.”

Related reading? - http://research.swtch.com/discover-debug

sopooneo2• 11 years ago

To me, this seems like the sort of project that would benefit greatly by putting an experienced project manager between the client (ie Rumsfeld) and the dev team. Other than planning meetings, I really think non-technical stake holders should never communicate directly with developers. I say that as a developer.

voltagex_• 10 years ago

Sometimes, especially in smaller teams, devs also have to act in a business analyst role as well as coding - I've got to know how to talk to business as well as other developers and managers.

briandear3• 10 years ago

So, we add another salary to the team for something that amounts to a small project? If devs don't have the acumen to deal with "clients" directly, then they ought not take on projects that would require working with clients.

I see this all the time, especially with offshore development. I was the lead for a US project with an additional India team. We had a US-based PM for the Indian contractor. Then we had an India based PM, then we had 3 developers. Any time I needed to discuss something, I had to consult with the US PM, the US PM consulted with the India-based PM and the India based PM would then ask the devs. Then the answer would go through that path in reverse. A simple question like, "Where is the setup script file in the repo?" That took literally 6 emails, with delays of several hours between responses.

Needless to say, that arrangement didn't last long before I fired the company.

My point is that you don't always need an experienced project manager depending on the scope of the project and the number of developers. 10 devs -- yes absolutely. But 2 or 3 devs? Not necessarily.

SyneRyder• 10 years ago

The description of that development process is dangerously reminiscent of an Oatmeal comic panel:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/theoatmeal-img/comics/design_hell/8....

Rumsfeld himself is interesting, though. There's a documentary about him currently on Netflix, directed by Errol Morris: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2390962/

[Comic panel was from http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell ]

melling• 11 years ago

Rumsfeld has used a standing desk for decades, standing all day:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A946-2004Jun23...

dopamean• 11 years ago

Maybe I'm wrong for thinking this but I can't this man seriously anymore. I look at him in the same light as a common criminal. He should be in prison.

briandear3• 10 years ago

He and Hillary Clinton care share a cell.

flashman• 11 years ago

Then there's Rumsfeld Solitaire, in which upturned cards are known knowns, downturned cards are known unknowns, and unknown unknowns, which are cards slipped into or removed from the deck.

_yosefk• 10 years ago

Unlike the other political comments, this one is on topic and, in my humble opinion, very funny!

at54• 10 years ago

Guess someone should have pointed it out to him, that his childhood hero was an avowed racist ("I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion". Also see the Bengal famine; right up there with Holomdor.)

Why not call it Stalin solitaire then?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943

briandear3• 10 years ago

Really? Let's find the perfect among anyone in history. You'll be looking for a very long time.

at54• 10 years ago

Big difference between perfection and a monster no? I mean he's known for the same thing Stalin is. Interesting that my comment sits in the negative. Says a lot about the crowd around here.

applecore• 10 years ago

The aphorism "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will" is actually a quote by Antonio Gramsci, a Marxist theoretician, citing Romain Rolland.

erikpukinskis• 10 years ago

I love the message that you can understand and do work in this space late in life. Props for that.

But I find his valorization of war really disturbing given his role deceiving the public into increased warfare. The way he writes about this game makes it seem like he has a fetish for callous, take-no-prisoners violence. I think it's an outdated mindset and it disturbs me to think about the human bodies that were burnt to a crisp under Rumsfeld's direction. So many people lost their lives and will lose their lives because of his war perversion.

At 83, I Decided to Develop an App

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