Lessons from Paul

"When I hire new employees, I make sure they have a college degree. I don't care what it's in—just that they have one. It shows their ability to commit to something and follow through."

He did concede later, though, that he likes the way Computer Science majors think. "It's just such an amazing way they look at things. I mean, in their classes," he said, "they learn so much about the inner workings of the hardware and the fundamentals of how computers function. They get such an intimate understanding of everything... And that translates into better programs. Programs that work with the hardware, that go along with the basic way computers work. People who try coding and don't have that kind of background, well, they create software that's bloated and slow, that doesn't work as well as it could."

What does that mean? Well, I'll be honest: Part of me wanted to run to the registrar and change majors. To prove that I could be brilliant, I guess. But then I realized that wasn't necessary—that I could pull some wisdom from what Paul had told me:

To really solve a problem—any problem—you need to examine its fundamentals, not just the superficial. Look at it from the backend. See what's going wrong at the root and be prepared to do a complete overhaul.

In a Web site, for example, a "redesign" isn't just a redesign. Changing the color palette and pretties won't do any good if there are still major problems in the backend—if you're targeting the wrong audience, for example, or you don't realize that you're not reaching people in the best way.

Shorter yet: Even if it looks pretty, it can still suck.