For those of you who are unaware, JP Boodhoo is holding a .NET training course in Edmonton the month of February.  And I can tell you that for those who want to:

• learn proper software development
• snort a line of cocaine off JP's back*

this is definitely the best investment of your life savings that you could ever ask for.

But what about for those of you who spend most of your money on strippers and alcohol every week - those of you who can't afford to attend JP's life-altering boot camp?  How do *you* get the technical prowess with C# and TDD that drives those ladies wild?  Well, my friend, I'm here to give you that info, and I'm not even charging for it - though I should.

The story begins two weeks ago, when I had the good fortune of visiting a former anonymous co-worker of mine.  Now, said coworker would be the first to admit that at our office he was best known for the ridiculous levels of sexual harassment he was inspiring from some of the other male developers at our shop.  In fact, it's a little known secret that my pitch for purchasing "Peer Reviews in Software Development" is a true story based on the tragedy of his experiences.   

You'd think that being known as the 2nd sexiest man on the development team would have been enough for him, but he had other aspirations.  One day he was heard to say, "I'm tired of everyone treating me like a piece of meat!  I want to be respected for more than just my looks!  It's time I got some respect for my development abilities, and not just these fabulous eyes."  And just like that, he vanished.  

I eventually tracked him down a while later at one of the best, if not *the* best, development shops in Edmonton.  He had dropped several pounds, gotten married, and now works exclusively with C# 2.0 advocating and developing in Agile (XP) methodologies.  How did all of this occur?  What was responsible for this miraculous transformation?

My friend had grown a veritable *lion's mane* of hair.


Sure, he gets sexually harassed even *more* than he used to (I thought that a fight was going to break out in the developer area - no wonder they call it a "war room"), but at least now he *also* receives his long-sought goal of being respected for his development prowess!

Perhaps you're thinking that I'm off-base, that it really *isn't* that simple - surely, you say, it takes more than wild, lustrous hair to increase your technical acumen.  Well, you're wrong.  This experience, as well as my own, simply affirms a long-held truism in our industry:  hair quality == developer quality == quality of life.  

Although you can't tell it from the outdated picture in the corner, I too have grown out my hair in the past year.  My results have been no less than spectacular:

* greater confidence
* stronger advocacy for test-driven and agile principles
* larger salary
* clearer, more elegant code
* increased speaking ability
* sassier appearance

Admittedly, I consider myself a bit of an expert on this topic since we've talked about follicular follies in the past.  To drive this home to you with the cold, icy facts of science, I will leave you with a graph that one of my co-workers drew the other day...


I think this speaks for itself.