Neal Ford
Thoughtworker / Software Architect / Meme
Wrangler
Software Consultant / Speaker / Writer
Neal Ford is Director, Software Architect, and Meme Wrangler at
ThoughtWorks, a global IT consultancy with a focus on end-to-end software development and delivery. He is also the designer
and developer of applications, articles, video/DVD presentations, and
author and/or editor of an increasingly large number of books spanning
a variety of subjects and technologies, including the most recent Presentation
Patterns. His professional focus includes designing and building of large-scale enterprise applications. He is
also an internationally acclaimed speaker, speaking at over 300
developer conferences worldwide, delivering more than 2000
presentations. You can email Neal at nford at thoughtworks.com.
The purpose of this site is twofold. First, it is an informational site about my professional
life, including appearances, articles, presentations, etc. For this
type of information, consult the news page (this page) and
the Biography page.
The second purpose for this site is to serve as a forum for the things I enjoy and want to share with the rest of the world. This includes (but is not limited to) reading (Book Club), Triathlon, and Music. This material is highly individualized and all mine!
Please feel free to browse around. I hope you are entertained and
enlightened by what you find.
September 08, 2015 (Tuesday)
As an architect, value technical breadth so that you have a larger quiver from which to draw arrows. If you are transitioning from developer to architect, realize that you may have to change the way you view knowledge acquisition. more...
September 02, 2015 (Wednesday)
Computers are designed to do simple repetitive tasks. As soon as you have humans doing repetitive tasks on behalf of computers, they all get together late at night and laugh at you. more...
July 20, 2015 (Monday)
Any friction between information and its access represents a cost of that information. Apple Watch drives the cost of the information you want to see to virtually zero. more...
March 30, 2015 (Monday)
Microservice architecture is the first post-DevOps revolution architecture, highlighting the realization that architecture and DevOps must mesh, making operational concerns a first-class citizen in architectural design. more...
October 16, 2013 (Wednesday)
Applying patterns to presentations was a stretch, another in a long string of potentially specious relationships between things that pop into my head from time to time. Yet, I couldn't give this idea up. Despite myself, I continued to identify patterns (and anti-patterns) in my own talks and others. I thought about writing it down, but at the time, the concept was still restricted to technical presentations, and I realized the audience for such a book would be entertaining to many of my presenter friends, but to not many other people. But then I realized that all professionals must do presentations at one time or another. more...
May 28, 2013 (Tuesday)
Creating a technology radar for yourself helps you formalize your thinking. . .You should treat your technology portfolio like a financial portfolio (in many ways, they are the same thing). . .Most C-level types get more advice from sales men than people in their own company. . . While this is a wild fantasy, wouldn't it be great if one of the formalities during job interviews became the trading of radars, personal and company, as a way for each to assess the other? more...
January 22, 2013 (Tuesday)
Maven is opinionated, rigid, generic, and dogmatic, which is exactly what is needed at the beginning of a project. Before anything exists, it's nice for something to impose a structure, and to make it trivial to add behavior via plug-ins and other pre-built niceties. But over time, the project becomes less generic and more like a real, messy project. Early on, when no one knows enough to have opinions about things like lifecycle, a rigid system is good. Over time, though, project complexity requires developers to spawn opinions, and tools like Maven don't care. more...
May 01, 2011 (Sunday)
A Meme Wrangler -- someone who herds ideas into thoughts, generally through lengthy and complicated discussions (not so much quarrels as "impassioned conversations"). more...
June 09, 2010 (Wednesday)
I'm convinced that the iPad is the first iteration of the next major computing platform. PC's will become work and power user tools, but everyone will use iPad-like things for many tasks. This is the first incarnation - can you imagine what these things will look like in 5 years? more...
December 22, 2009 (Tuesday)
Twitter is a meme abiogenesis pool, helping form a karass around a wampeter more effectively. more...
more memes...
Recent Publications
Salary surveys worldwide regularly place software architect in the top 10 best jobs, yet no real guide exists to help developers become architects. Until now. This book provides the first comprehensive overview of software architecture’s many aspects. Aspiring and existing architects alike will examine architectural characteristics, architectural patterns, component determination, diagramming and presenting architecture, evolutionary architecture, and many other topics.
