I'm not going to offer anything groundbreaking here. But having worked with a variety of teams of talent over the years, I wanted to articulate what I think makes a good Java developer. By putting these thoughts down, I hope to forge a little more of a formal idea of what I'm looking for the next time I run into new talent and have to assess it and work with it.

It's hard to think of a better accompaniment to Kazuki Tomokawa than that boxer barking in the background.

"People always mean well. They cluck their thick tongues, and shake their heads and suggest, oh, so very delicately."

These are the things I hope to teach my kids, mostly by example, over the course of their lives. I'm recording them so that they can read them if something should happen to me. It's important to note that by articulating these I am not claiming to have accomplished them. In fact, I have failed largely at each. But, they remain goals nonetheless.