About

My name is Alan Skorkin and I am a software developer by profession, as well as that I am a gamer, reader, amateur futurist and I also fancy myself a reasonably good candidate for the role of ‘great military leader’, if machines ever decide to take over the world.

I started this blog because I wanted to write about software and the software development profession. I love what I do and consider it more of an art (or craft) rather than a science or engineering discipline, this is just one of the ideas I want to convey through this blog. Aside from the act of writing software itself I am passionate about software process and the people who work in this industry. I believe that together we can not only improve our industry but also improve ourselves as human beings and software developers. With the right tools and knowledge at our disposal and by creating the right atmosphere and influencing those around us this is not just possible but highly probable. That is the other thing that I would like to convey through this blog – the knowledge of processes, tools and the how of creating the right atmosphere.

Undoubtedly I will frequently go off-topic and blog about other things that fascinate me or that are just plain fun/crazy. I consider a diverse range of interests part and parcel of what makes a good software developer and therefore wouldn’t dream of narrowing my focus to only one topic (and thereby boring the crap out of everyone :)).

What’s the deal with the blog name? What the hell is a Skorks?

Well the more astute of you would have guessed that Skorks is derived from my surname and is one of my nicknames (yeah, I’ve had more than one). I could have come up with a suitably “software developish” title for this blog, but I think Skorks is just about as uniquely me as you can get. Only I can brand my blog this way, I think Seth Godin would approve :).

Hope you enjoy reading this stuff as much as I enjoy writing it and don’t be afraid to leave a comment and voice your opinion.

If you want to contact me, see the contact page (I bet you never would have guessed that).