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I’ve been working at Atomic for just over three years. In that time, I’ve learned a lot about designing great custom software. But I’ve also learned about working with people. I work with some good, caring people. Atomic’s 5 value mantras pave the way for a work environment in which people are able to make…
Atomic has added Crucial Conversations to our short list of required reading, meaning new hires will be expected to digest this book within their first weeks on the job. We think it’s important enough to rank right up there with Extreme Programming Explained (1st edition!) as a book that explains how we work and what…
On March 27, 2013 Local First held its 5th Annual Sustainable Business Conference. I was invited to speak on a panel about sustainability initiatives in business. My fellow panelists were Marcia Rapp of the Grand Rapids Community Foundation, Kris Spaulding of Brewery Vivant, and Matt VanSweden of Integrated Architecture. Bill Smith of CompuCraft was our panel’s moderator. Participating on…
I believe frameworks that foster cross-pollination of ideas work better than top-down policy implementation when it comes to spreading knowledge and innovation across an organization. The Need to Share Knowledge and Innovation Atomic consists of self-managing teams that are organized around projects. Our projects can typically last anywhere from three months to over two years,…
I saw a number of great talks this year at South by Southwest. One talk, in particular, stands out in my memory: Behind the Iron Curtain. Mike Butcher, Maria Constantinescu, Bogdan Iordache, Alec Andronikov spoke as a panel about the state of technology companies in Eastern Europe. Though they discussed a number of topics, one…
The past couple months have been busy here at Atomic Object’s new office in downtown Detroit. What have we been up to? Hosting meetup groups like Girl Develop It, D-NewTech, and Detroit Lambda Lounge. Running another installment of Bitcamp, our hands-on camp that introduces 7th and 8th grade girls to the world of software development….
I’ve had an interest in 3D printing for a while, but couldn’t bring myself to drop a couple thousand dollars (or even several hundred) on a 3D printer without fully understanding their limitations or how they work. Eventually I realized other Atoms probably felt similarly, and I started gauging interest at our December SpinDown party.
“He who knows best knows how little he knows.” - Thomas Jefferson I’m not trying to be rude with the title of this blog post; it was inspired by reading a post about the 5 Orders of Ignorance: You have 0 OI when you know something. You have 1 OI when you know you don’t know…
At Atomic Object we say that we hire generalists. I work with people who I think of as generalists. I self-identify as a generalist. But how general can you get, practically? Well, it’s all relative, of course.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about interoffice dynamics and the importance of diversity. We know that diversity of all sorts is incredibly important for innovation, and survival, really. (Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m sure I’ll get a comment or two about efficiency and productivity. Forget it, you’re beat. Move on. Diversity is good; case closed.)…
Carl is the president and co-founder of Atomic Object