Too much of anything is injurious to health and this is so true of startups too.

As a startup founder/developer, you are asked to have a blog to let users know what you’re up to, to let other developers get to know you, to enable a marketing campaign that works wonders… the list is endless. Blogging, networking, “github”ing (one of the words that’ll be in vogue by the end of this year): these are productive work, mind you. And as developers, our focus is on “creating” and these productive works involve a lot of creation. This creates an impression – a false one – that we’re actually productive.

I read a post on the state of several projects that never really made it to the finish line. This reminded me of several developers who blog about their upcoming new project and after a few months, there’s no project at all. Did this ever happen to you? Like you started off on a high note – blogged about it a lot in the initial period – and then somehow, the whole thing waned away, ending kind of prematurely with an unfinished project?

Oh and it’s not just blogging that can do this to your project. There are other monsters too – monsters who are basically good but who can eventually turn into productivity-suckers.

Networking: Social networking is an amazing thing that can help your app/project like no one else can (okay, PG, Andreessen and, say, TechCrunch excluded). It can help you build amazing relationships with people who can spread the word about your work, or help you hack some stuff out of Backbone.js so your app kicks ass. But social networking can also drain away your most important asset: time.

A popular hangout for developers is HN. Or even Google+ for that matter. And then there’s Quora these days. These are places where meaningful, insightful, informational and “whatever” conversations take place. These are places I love, too and you get tons of info that is hardly found anywhere else. But developers can – and do – get carried away a lot.

GitHub is funny in a way. You start forking one interesting and relevant open-source project and then one thing leads to another and by the end of the day (or night, if you’re burning the midnight oil to code your project), you’ve seen a ton of interesting code on GitHub but none of this is actually, really going to finish your app.

Startups need to have blogs whether you are just starting out or mid-way into your project. But you should be very strict and disciplined about this aspect of entrepreneurship and marketing. The same goes with your time spent on networking and code-discovery.

A lot has been written about why blogging, networking etc. are mandatory for developers. Let’s just not over-step the line and end up spending time that should have been used to finish that module.

Image by David Precious

Help shape the future of warfare through cyber operations. It’s what we do in the Asymmetric Operations Department at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)—a national leader in scientific research and development, located midway between Baltimore and Washington, DC.

The Asymmetric Operations Department supports the U.S. government by applying research capabilities to high-priority problems in cybersecurity, special operations, and homeland protection. Our department has many full-time opportunities available and will be holding a career fair on Wednesday, March 6, 2013, 3:30–8pm

We're seeking individuals with skills and interest in the following areas: Big Data Analytics, Cloud Computing, Communication Systems Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Security, Digital Forensics, Embedded Software Engineering, Identification, Tagging, Tracking, and Location Systems, Information Assurance, Mobile OS and Application Development, Modeling and Simulation, Network Architecture, Network Vulnerabilities and Exploits, Real-Time Software Engineering, Reverse Engineering, Secure Platform Architecture, Sensor Technologies, Situational Awareness and Analysis (Cyber, Global, Bio), Software and System Architecture (Component, Platform, Enterprise), Systems Engineering, Systems Testing and Evaluation, Web Software Development, Wireless Network Engineering and Wireless Security.

Meet our hiring managers at our career fair and find out how your technical experience can help develop the next advances in cyber systems or technologies for special applications.

All positions require a minimum of a bachelor’s degree and the ability to obtain a security clearance. U.S. citizenship is required to obtain a clearance. Preregistration is strongly encouraged. This allows hiring managers to review your resume in advance of the career fair and may result in a preliminary interview on the day of the fair.

And the winner is… Argo for Best Picture! The 85th Oscars happened last night, and you can view a list of the winners here. But critics are bashing one man who didn’t win last night — host Seth MacFarlane, who is the writer and creator of “young-male” comedies like Family Guy, American Dad, and Ted. 

Others said that the hammering of jokes made the night “An Oscars the guys can enjoy.” Yet we must remember that the night wasn’t about the host. It was about the stars, the talent, and Jennifer Lawrence’s dramatic dress.