Last week I recommended the book "Bewilderment" by Richard Powers, and if you saw it, you'll remember that I was actually halfway through it when I recommended it and that I had promised to come back and tell you a little more about the book. Well, it turns out that right after I posted that recommendation, I went on a 9-days vacation. I took some paid time off from work, and since we weren’t traveling anywhere, I took advantage of the downtime to get ready for Thanksgiving with my family—and to finish that book.

Hey everyone, this is Og Maciel with another book recommendation for Bellwether. Last week, I had the opportunity to give a presentation on career development for the team of an old teammate, who is now a software engineering manager himself. His team had just grown, and he happened to be doing what’s called a face-to-face meeting here in Raleigh. He asked me if I would come over to talk about career development.

Hey everyone, this is Og Maciel with another book recommendation from Bellwether. Your weekly book recommendation is delivered every Tuesday—no miss, no fail! This week, I’m excited to recommend a book that falls into the self-help category, but don’t roll your eyes just yet! I know the term "self-help" can make people cringe, but trust me, this book is different. By the time you finish hearing what I have to say—and if you give it a chance—I think you’ll agree it’s worth your time.

When I was 12 years old, my parents bought me a TK90X, a Brazilian ZX Spectrum 8-bit home computer clone that came with a thick manual teaching the syntax for the BASIC language with sample programs. I remember that when they gave me the computer as a gift, we were in the process of traveling for a competition, my dad at the time being a professional supercross competitor. The day I got the computer, once I overcame the magical thrill of knowing that I had my own personal computer that I could just plug into the back of a TV and start playing with, I immediately proceeded to turn it on and was welcomed by a very anticlimactic black …