Passionate Development

09/17/2006

Thanks to greg Ostravich for passing on the following story:

Pete Wright of Microsoft has decided to leave Microsoft for the more exciting, passionate world of development in Ruby on Rails.

On his blog, he concludes in part with this quote:

“Microsoft are the new IBM, and Microsoft customers are just like the huge corporate suit-wearing monoliths that bought into the whole IBM mirage back in the 70’s and 80’s. I don’t want to work for IBM. I just want to write cool software with talented passionate people, and make a difference in the world. I want to push the boundaries again like I did in the 80’s and early 90’s. I want to have fun and come home with a smile and a hug for my wife and kids instead of trudging through the door burdened with stress induced by boredom and corporate ineptitude.“

If you follow Kathy Sierra’s blog, you’ve probably read about the importance of passion: creating passionate users, and feeling passionate about your own career. If you can’t feel passionate about your organization, then perhaps it’s best to follow Martin Fowler’s advice: change yoru organization, or change your organization.

Pete did. And I wish him all the best in his new venture.