This was my first column in The Smalltalk Report.

The Smalltalk Report occupies an important position in legitimizing Smalltalk. While it has in the past seemed the ugly stepchild of the SIGS family, the mere fact of its existence has gone far towards convincing reluctant decision makers that Smalltalk is worth betting on

When I started writing for The Smalltalk Report, I had already made something of a name for myself in the Smalltalk world. The CRC paper was out and making its splash, I had been working on Smalltalk in various guises for eight years, and I was well into my tenure at MasPar.

My life in a startup cloister was a big part of my decision to begin writing the column. Startups are great fun, but you don't join one to see the world and become famous (if you're not in sales, anyway). Writing the column kept me in touch with my friends.

In the end, the benefits of writing the column were much greater than I had imagined, as were the pains. It always seemed that the next deadline hit just after I'd finished the last column. Dragging fingers to keyboard when a paying customer was already waiting for code was tough. However, I got much more from the column than I put into it. First, I learned to write. You will see a distinct change in my writing style from the first columns to the last.