Sorry for the delayed posting, but I have been slammed between TSL classes and my 2 internships. Let’s get right into it though. We have finally jumped from learning Ruby for the past 2 weeks into Rails at the beginning of this 3rd week at TSL. On top of learning what is called RCAV (Route -> Controller -> Action -> View) we got a good background on how Ruby on Rails came to be. Something said during that presentation bothered me, and that is what I am going to bash TSL for right now.

Now you are wondering, “what? did he just say bash?” Yes, I said bash. It isn’t that I am hating on what we are learning TSL; I think the program is excellent thus far at teaching us web development, but I think some stuff needs to be clarified for my brothers and sisters at TSL (and for anyone that is just going straight into web development.)

Agile Development

Agile Development is great technique for iteration. But here is the thing that I hope we can all understand, it is only a tool down a long line of processes to make sure your idea/passion project is successful. 

You want a successful startup? Well its going to be a long day in hell if you plan on executing by Fire, Ready, Aim. TSL had it right though by saying you don’t want to build something that nobody wants. But I am adding another thought to your heads, Get Out of the Building. 

Make sure you are combining Customer Discovery/Validation before you start building. Eric Reis has got a great article about combining both.

I suggest that everyone check out Lean Startup by Eric Reis to brush up on the theory. Then read Steve Blank’s Startup Owner’s Manual and Ash Maurya’sRunning Lean to put it into practice. 

I guarantee after TSL, if we all have this under our belts, we will be building scalable, profitable businesses. 

Ask me anything above. Lets talk, argue, converse, bump heads; correct me, bash me, grill me, I want to learn.