Jeff Atwood has written a good piece about why you should ship your product, even if you are not pleased. This is very much the story of Anarchy Online.

When we shipped the game in June 2001, it was at least half a year behind schedule, and it was still a miserable launch that made history for just how bad it was. But, and this is the point of Jeff’s blog posting, what we had been working on in those final 6 months turned out to be not what the real problems were. And the 6 months after the launch were the most productive, goal-oriented work I’ve ever experienced. Because we knew what the customers expected us to work on. And we could point at the prodcut that was live, and tell anyone who was championing another new feature that there were more important things to be done. Before the launch, that was not easy at all.

So I agree with Jeff (and have for some time) that it’s important to stick to your deadlines and ship. Get the customers involved. And don’t talk to me about beta. Beta is all fluffy bunnies.

In the end, even shipping a broken product did not hurt us – the game is still alive today, 9 years after the proposed shipping date. Sure, we gave the early customers free playtime and lots of hugs, but they gave us something more important: reall-life feedback, honest criticism, dedication and a constant sense of urgency.

That, and a few 80-hour work-weeks.

It rained last night, for the first time since I got here. This is an improvement on the weather so far, as the air is much fresher, and it’s nice for biking.

Mark Twain never complained about the summers in California, and I don’t know what they are like either, but I know that autumn is not for me. Temperatures fluctuate between 19ºC in the day and 3ºC in the night; how do you dress for that? I wear several layers in the morning, then sweat during the day, and freeze as soon as the sun goes down. Just give me some snow, please!

Watching the webcam at Frognerseteren makes me a little bit homesick every time.

• Any party with the intent of getting rid of your alcohol will have the opposite result.
• Not everyone has facebook, but it’s events are still useful.
• At the end, there’s always someone who leaves and you think “Oh no, we hardly talked at all tonight”.
• Having a good collection of hearted songs on thesixtyone makes music selection a non-problem.
• At this time of the year, warm food = good.
• If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. Or let Oprah help you.
• You don’t have to buy chips. Everyone else will bring way too many.
• Instead, focus on making some good food.
• Make food you’ve made before. This is not the time to try out that polenta recipe.
• OTOH, making apple pie, even for the first time, is a winner.
• I’m going to miss my friends.