People wonder what makes Bill Belichick successful. As a Colts fan throughout the 2000s, I would have said that it was his willingness to bend, stretch, and break the rules, as every time Peyton Manning got a drive going, one of the Patriots defenders would suddenly have a mysterious injury and lay down on the field, completely unable to move. Then two plays later he would be back in the game. Then there was the whole thing about recording the other team’s walk-through in the Super Bowl.
But if you look past all those things, what Belichick says about his success is what we used to say when looking for great developers. We wanted to find the guys who had the “love of the game,” guys (or women) who wrote code in their spare time because they loved it. They didn’t just write code from 9 to 5, they were always thinking about it, exploring new languages and tools, etc.
(The image comes from the sportingnews.com.)
