Having spent the last twelve or so years writing Perl web applications and other bits on a variety of platforms, talking to a variety of databases, I'm considering doing Something Different. That requires some introspection, which leads to this post.

Why don't you want to write code any more?

I love writing code. One of my most recent projects was writing a REST API using Dancer and DBIx::Class. Both of these modules are fantastic -- they require some new ways of thinking, but they remove the drudgery of All The Usual Web Application Junk as well as All The Usual Database Junk and leave you the interesting stuff. I'm really proud of the result.

But I've been writing code for close to 30 years; before Perl, I was writing code in C and assembler (6809, 68000, x86). I think it may be time to move on.

So what are you good at?

I'm good at digging into a specification and finding the dark corners and corner cases. I love to debate the boundaries of what a product or service is going to do -- what we want to include in phase 1 (do this now), what we should leave for phase 2 (do this later, if the project has legs), and the other stuff that belongs in phase 3 (um, never?). I also consider myself a bit of a usability/user interface expert, and I really enjoy testing software, both manually and using written tests.

I'm not sure if that's starting to sound like a project manager, but it could be. The part of that job I may be weak on is talking with the customer, but I'd probably be OK with that if I under-promise and over-deliver. Meetings may bore some people, but if it's focussed conversation, I love it.

So .. I'd like to get your feedback on my new direction. Let me have it.