Richard Hart

Richard Hart

Something @ Somewhere
Kent, UK

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  • Using SCSS with Webby

    To get webby using HAML/SASS’ SCSS rendering engine I added the following to my Sitefile. No doubt there’s a cleaner and quicker way of getting it working, but this works.

      Webby::Filters.register :scss do |input, cursor|
    opts = ::Webby.site.sass_options.merge(cursor.page.sass_options || {})
    opts = ::Webby.site.sass_options.merge(:syntax => :scss)
    opts = opts.symbolize_keys
    opts.merge!(:filename => cursor.page.destination)
    opts[:style] = opts[:style].to_sym if opts.include? :style
    Sass::Engine.new(input, opts).render
  end

  • There has always been a man in the missile turret…

    There has been quite a few posts on Reddit recently about a man being in the missle turrets in Starcraft 2. This comment by empath75 on the topic just blew me away.

    There has always been a man in the missile turret. Just as there has always been a missile turret. I’ve lived in this village for 20 years, and the turret on the hill has been there. Watching over us.

    When I was young, I asked my father, “Father, why is there a man in the missile turret?” He said, “I don’t know, son, he’s just always been there. He was there when I asked my father the same question, and maybe he was there before that.”

    “Does anyone ever talk to him?”

    “Nobody, Son.”

    “Why not?”

    “Because we’re afraid.”

    “Afraid of what?”

    “Of the man. And the missiles.”

    Well I was not afraid of the man. Not any more. It’s my 20th birthday today, and I’m going to talk to the man. And ask him why he’s always been there. I’m standing on the cliff over looking the village now, and the man and the turret are just 50 feet or so behind me. The wind howls around me. I can almost feel it trying to push me over the cliff, as if warning me. Warning me to stay away, warning me to leave things as they are.

    I turn around and walk towards the turret. I yell out for the man, but the wind steals my voice, and I don’t know if he can hear. I hold my hand up above my eyes to shield them from the sun. I cannot make out the man’s features. He must be at least 70 or 80 years old, by now. Maybe older. Nobody in the town remembers a day when he wasn’t there.

    Finally, I approach the feet of the turret. As I do, I can hear it whir to life as the turret turns to face me. There is a man in the turret. There has always been a man in the missile turret.

    He is as old as I expected him to look. Wrinkled, wizened, balding. He looks down at me. He doesn’t say a word. I don’t say a word either. He just looks down at me, and offers his hand.

    I have always been the man in the missile turret.

  • Don’t get bogged down in the details

    A lot of the time we can’t see the wood for the trees. It’s all too easy to get bogged down in the details of what we’re trying to achieve, while missing the big picture. I know I do this a lot. In the gym, I tend to focus on what exercises and weights I’m lifting as opposed to what my overall goal is. With my diet, I tend to focus too much on calories and macros, rather than whether I’m trying to lose weight or gain. With my business, I tend to focus on slick features, rather than what features move my business forward. We all need to take a step back more often and evaluate where we want to be, and whether or not what we’re doing is actually getting us nearer to our goals.

  • Move on, to move forward

    I’m moving gym this month, and while the new place I’m moving to has a lot more equipment than my current gym, that’s not the reason I’m moving. If I really wanted to, I could probably achieve all my physical goals at my current gym, but I’m starting to feel stuck. A change of scenery and new challenges is what I need. Sometimes you’ve just got to move on, to move forward. The same is true at work a lot of the times. It’s very easy to get comfortable. To turn up day-in day-out, do your work and go home. But when we do that, we don’t grow as people. That’s what this is really about, growth as a person. One must take in new experiences and new perspectives. Not always to give us a better understanding of the world “out there”, but to also give us a better understanding of the world closer to home. Seeing how people live half way across the world may not interest you, but it can have a profound affect on how you live your life back home and give you a profound sense of appreciation for the things you have and have achieved.

  • Ivory Towers pt. 2

    I was thinking some more about my post yesterday on Ivory Towers. Not being on the front lines not only means that you don’t get the lay-of-the-land, but you can’t get a sense of the morale of your people. I’m sure that no one would be enthusiastic about being ordered to march to their own demise. And when you’ve been told to shut-up and to stop being negative, what can you do but put your head down and blindly follow orders. Not exactly the most productive environment to work in. I’ve been watching “Undercover Boss” recently, and nearly every boss is surprised when they find the people at the bottom have very low morale. That the orders they pass down the line just end up causing more problems, lower productivity and lower quality offerings. It’s a classic case of bosses living in their Ivory Towers and thinking that all is well is good, while the people at the bottom grumble and can see all the problems before them. Reminds me in a way of the Cylon rebellion against their makers and in the end against their masters. You can never excel when you feel like you’ve been set-up to fail.

  • Ivory Towers

    I get this a lot. Orders come from up high about what needs to be done, while the people on the front lines are reporting back that it’s not working and something needs to be done. This can only be a losing battle. So what does one do? Give up and go home? Ignore the orders given to you and forge your own path forward? How can you work with someone who isn’t willing to listen to your input and advice? Simple answer is you can’t. If people are not willing to take on my advice based upon my experience and from what I’m seeing first hand, then they deserve to fail based upon their own decisions.

    It amuses me to no end when in this situation. It’s evil and cruel I know, but you can’t save someone from their own moronic whims and desires. When that person’s decisions and actions are based upon emotion and reaction rather than logical and rational thought. It reminds me a lot of people I see in the gym. The posers who come in more to look like their doing something rather than actually achieving anything. They’ll swing some dumbbells around, run a bit on the treadmill and maybe even attend some classes. But they won’t break a sweat and they won’t progress. They want to appear to be busy. They want to spin the wheels. It’s the same in the business world. Meeting and greeting people and telling them about your hot new startup is just spinning the wheels when you’re not taking care of the flip side of it. Don’t sit in your ivory tower. Get down to the front lines and see for yourself what the real deal is.

  • Is thinking really doing?

    Does thinking really count for anything? I’m not talking about solving problems or equations. I mean, if I spend all my time reading books on business or computing, where is it really getting me? If the practical doesn’t meet the theoretical side, then I don’t believe it counts for much. I’ve grown weary of reading business books over the years. The vast majority of books have the same underlying message. When you boil away all the fluff, you’re usually left with the same thing. The same thing is true of self-help books. I used to read a tonne of them until I eventually realised I was digesting the same thing just phrased differently. There comes a point when it comes time to put the books down and to put what you’ve learnt into practice. Pondering the finer points of business or self-help won’t get me anywhere. Turning that knowledge into something tangible is where it’s at.

  • Grit & Determination

    “They realized that to be in power, you didn’t need guns or money or even numbers. You just needed the will to do what the other guy wouldn’t.” – Verbal Kint in the Usual Suspects

    Everything in life is about getting up after every fall. If you want to achieve anything in life, you’ve got to be willing to take the punches. A life where we just roll over and accept our fate is no life to live. If that’s the life we choose, then it’s a life spent solely waiting for death. You need to get up every time life knocks you down. Don’t accept the cards you’ve been dealt, because you’re the one dealing them. Get up and fight for what you want.

  • Are you seeing the results that you want?

    Sometimes it’s easy to meander through life thinking we’re doing well, that we’re achieving all the things we set out to do, but are you really? The biggest example of this is at the gym. You see so many people keep coming back, but who aren’t actually going anywhere. You see so many people pumping iron and getting “big”, but really just look fat. We kid ourselves into thinking we’re doing alright, when really need to take a good, long, hard look in the mirror. I’ve done it. I’ve been going to the gym for years, but have I really got anywhere? Not really. I still look fat, flat and like I don’t even go to the gym. Only now have I really made the commitment to reach those goals that I would lie to myself about, as being unreachable. And only now have I broken the cycle of getting big but looking fat.

    Are you really seeing the results that you want? Don’t kid yourself, but be honest. Don’t flatter yourself to feel better. Don’t congratulate yourself for a half won battle, because the hardest part has yet to come.

  • Reacting is not creating

    There is the temptation to react to everything. A new competitor has launched with feature X, we need to drop everything and do it. A customer has called with problem Y, we need to drop everything and fix it. But if you’re constantly reacting to what’s going on around you, how can you ever get anywhere. Some problems will always need to be addressed straight away, but more often then not, everything else is just noise. Sometimes the long term goal is more important then the short term gains that you get by reacting. Reacting to everything is akin to just spinning the wheels.

  • Every customer is a dollar in your pocket

    I admit the title of this post is a little link-baitish. I’m not trying to say that you should only think of your customers as just dollars, what I’m trying to say is that you should never forget that it’s your customers that put money in your pocket. Every time you pick up the phone, answer and email or go out of your way to help someone, you’re putting money in your pocket if you do a good job. As much as customers can grate us, they pay our bills. There are times when customers are a negative drain on resources. When the amount of time taken to help is actually losing your money in the long term. The Four-Hour Workweek talks about cutting out the 20% of customers that take up 80% of customer service time. In those cases, the time can be better spent concentrating on other areas of the business. There is a balance. Just never forget where the money comes from.

  • Everyone is a Designer

    Design is hard. No, actually, design is really hard. I think many people are deceived by the way good design seems so effortless and so simple. Antoine de Saint-Exupery said it “perfectly” when he said “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away”. The temptation of non-designers is to add and add and add. Then when a true designers work is inspected, the temptation is to remark “Is that it?”. And to then think “I could do that”. Of course, anyone can follow the same blueprint and produce the same result, but given a blank canvas, would the same quality of work have been produced?

    Design is so subtle. Sometimes it would appear that no thought or care has gone into what is being presented, but then there is a purpose and a goal behind every decision and every element made. Did I mention how hard design is?

  • Never Give Up

    One of my favourite moments when training, is reaching the point where every single ounce of you is telling you that you’re finished. That you have nothing left. To just give in. And then from nowhere something tells you to get up. To push back. To give it everything you’ve got. It’s such a beautiful moment. Every single session is like a voyage of self discovery. It’s in that moment that I feel complete and I’m faced with my true self.

    I’m not finished. I won’t give in.

  • The Numbers

    I no longer get excited about numbers. Pageviews, unique visitors, signups, fans, likes. There was a time when I would, and I would feverishly refresh the counters to see what it was now at. Much like a new trader will constantly refresh the chart of a stock they’ve just bought. Over time, you realise, the daily ups and downs don’t matter as much as the overall trend. Are we actually gaining traction? Or are people filtering in at a steady pace?

    On top of that, the numbers mean very little if they can’t be turned into something tangible. A million signups for my site means nothing, if those people never come back. A million fans on my Facebook page means nothing, if I can’t figure out how to get some money out of each one. Is an article about my startup on a site that gets 1m page views worth more than one on a site that only gets 1k?

    Always remember the context of the numbers you are looking at and never take them at face value.

  • Rspec/Cucumber Autotest Loop

    Autotest would constantly run my tests even though I hadn’t modified anything. Which made it impossible to actually use. Creating the following in a file called .autotest in my application’s root solved the problem for me. This is on Rails 3 RC, RSpec 2 beta 19 and Cucumber 0.8.5.

      Autotest.add_hook :initialize do |at|
    at.add_exception(%r{^\./\.git})
    at.add_exception(%r{^\./db})
    at.add_exception(%r{^\./log})
    at.add_exception(%r{^\./tmp})
    at.add_exception(%r{^\./rerun\.txt})
    at.add_exception(%r{^\./Gemfile\.lock})
  end

    UPDATE: Updated with Wes' suggestion in the comments.