Beyond the technical skills, however, Fintan seems to have a knack for asking interesting questions, a trait that can be harder to find than the ability to answer them.

I’m not at all surprised at how RedMonk went about their latest round of hiring. Sounds like they have landed a great fit. Congrats all around.

One such pattern I noticed five years ago or so was that companies were having a harder time making money from software. Not a hard time, precisely – Microsoft and others were effectively still printing money through the up-front sale of bits – but harder. Traditional software companies were facing stiff competition from SaaS-players and open source.

I had the opportunity to read Steve’s latest book wihle he was putting the finishing touches on it. Like his previous book, The New Kingmakers, this is a thought-provoking must-read for those of us in the software industry.

An interesting Q&A session with the fellow who is testing the Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours posit by learning how to golf. I was interested to see he’s a 3 handicap now, about halfway through his journey.

There aren’t many too many jobs available that allow you to influence the strategic direction and decision making process of some of the biggest and most important technology companies in the world – as well as their disruptors, that give you a pulpit to produce public research for some of the best and brightest developers on the planet.

If you’ve ever even remotely wanted to be an analyst, here is an opportunity to jump in with the best. Bring your A game.