How do you solve problems as a developer? How do you tackle issues that seem completely unsolvable - as an individual or on a team?

In this week’s This Developer’s Life that’s what I take a look at, from 3 perspectives:

1. Mike Moore (Ruby developer) talks about personal skills for solving problems, including the ability to ask a different question.
2. Javier Lozano (Microsoft developer) talks about teams coming together as a “band of brothers”, solving problems that may, or may not, exist.
3. Tamar Cohen (Java developer) shares her story of the unsolvable bug - something she had to solve as the exploration of other planets depends on it. She works at NASA, programming planetary rovers.

Right Click and Download Here (48 minutes)

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Scott Hanselman finishes things off with a story about what happens when trouble finds you…

Some Notes: I’ve been asked by the producers of This American Life to kindly change my logo as well as podcast title. In retrospect it seems rather obvious that I should have thought about this - but the short answer is that I didn’t know if anyone would really care about this podcast. I also didn’t expect the attention it’s getting.

Oops.

I changed the logo - a name change will come soon. Worry not - the RSS will stay intact, as will the iTunes link.

UPDATE - I’ve remastered the episode and removed some of the music.

Soundtrack: If you like any of the songs - please support my efforts to stay within “Fair Use” by buying them… I’d very much appreciate it.

• Mezmerize - Liz Phair
• Please Me Like You Want To - Ben Harper
• Human After All - Daft Punk
• Too Little Too Late - Metric
• NIN Remixes (under Creative Commons)