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Drift Work, Shift Work
I've heard many ways to frame the tradeoff in work conditions that optimize contributors' work productivity and managers' work productivity.
While I agree that some kinds of work are best suited to specific work conditions, I'm unconvinced a manager versus individual contributor framing is helpful when attempting to determine how to structure my workday.
Posted on January 8, 2020 - about work, theory, productivity
2019 Year in Review
In 2018, I set out to establish habits that made me physically, economically, and mentally healthier. It's been tough, but worth it. And it gets easier every day.
Here's the metrics I've used to guide me, the goals I set to improve those metrics, and where I am now.
How Kiera and I Merged (some of) our Finances
Having been with Kiera for going on 4 years now; and having lived together for 3 of those years; It seemed a bit unnecessary that we maintain separate budgets for shared resources like groceries, rent, utilities, streaming media accounts, etc. We’d cobbled together a “I‘ll pay for Blue Apron if you pay for the CSA” form of spreading of fiscal responsibilities, but that was getting more and more complicated and difficult to balance to ensure an equitable split based upon our respective incomes.
Defining My Dream Job
About a year ago I got back into freelancing and started building a small, distributed development studio. While I enjoyed the freedom and the people; I couldn't sustain the constant sales cycle and discovered management and operations is a recipe for burnout for me. My constant anxiety over payroll, bookkeeping and cash flow was/is debilitating.
Effective Code Critique
Code review gets a bad rap. People worry that code reviews slow teams down, create conflict between team members, or disempower team members by taking away decision making authority.
Posted on July 26, 2015 - about software-as-craft, mastery, culture
A Pattern For Distributed Retrospectives
Well-facilitated, compassionate retrospectives (the practice of taking time to discuss how to improve the effectiveness of a team) are, in my experience, the core differentiator between a gelling, high-performing team and a team that struggles to get things done.
Posted on February 15, 2015 - about leadership, mastery, business
The Rationale Behind Testing
Tests are use cases. They illustrate how to use the code, how the code behaves, how it works in a given context, highlight pain, and expose complexity.
When they notify us the code does not behave as specified? That's a bonus. Not the goal.
When we don't write tests, we miss out on design feedback.
Posted on February 12, 2015 - about software-as-craft, testing, mastery, business
When To Hire Apprentices And Junior Developers
As bootcamp-esque educational programs train more people on the baseline skills to contribute to a software project, companies are learning how (and how not) to integrate these lower-cost, less experienced developers with their teams. Frequently, these companies hire these less-experienced, single-skilled individuals as "Junior Developers" and throw them at a project. While this has some level of success, savvy companies are turning to apprenticeship.
Posted on February 2, 2015 - about leadership, beginner, mastery
Branding Inception: $2,000 - CLOSED
ZincMade is a recently incorporated business focused on technical team training, end-to-end product development, and technical management consulting. We are investing in a solid foundation for our branding. To do so, we are looking for a designer to provide logo design, typography choices, and color selection services.
Posted on January 26, 2015 - about remote, design, short-term, part-time
Effectively Onboarding Junior Team Members
It's no secret there is a growing demand for technical and creative skills and that our educational system is struggling to provide the skills to deliver useful, working, modern products and services. This is further exacerbated by our industries unwillingness to look beyond a certain archetype.
Posted on January 13, 2015 - about culture, leadership, beginner, mastery
Running Tests Across Multiple Ruby Versions With Rbenv And Make
When writing gems, we frequently want to verify behavior across a variety of ruby versions. While this is quite easy with travis ci, running microtests before pushing shrinks the likelihood of breaking the build.
Posted on January 6, 2015 - about software, testing, ruby, devenvironment
Migitating Anxiety On Software Teams
Software development is a creative pursuit. It takes intense focus as well as time away from a problem to for subconscious work. Both of these cognitive modes are debilitated by stress and anxiety.
Posted on December 7, 2014 - about software, leadership, culture
Walking Desks - A Year in Review
For the past year, I've been doing most of my computing at a walking desk. Learn how to assemble your own walking office, as well as what habits to build and which tendencies to avoid.Posted on November 30, 2014 - about devenvironment
Getting Past Junior
Junior developers have a unique struggle. How can they know when they're "good enough" to be a non-junior developer? How can they move quickly from the novice or advanced beginner level and into competent?Posted on June 27, 2014 - about learning, software, software-as-craft
The Chef's Tale
Once upon a time there was a Chef. This Chef was sought by all of the rulers in the land to cater their feasts. The Chef was ferried from castle to castle; delighting all for whom they cooked.
The Vim Lovers Guide to Editing Clojure
I've recently started a Clojure gig, which has a pretty emacs-oriented language ecosystem. Emacs uses Cider and Paredit to make it super easy to:
Posted on December 5, 2013 - about clojure, devenvironment, vim, software
Designing A Personal Learning Plan
Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. Dwight D. Eisenhower
Teach Yourself Programming in 10,000 Hours
Becoming an excellent programmer is hard. It takes deliberate practice, mentorship, and availability of quality resources.
Posted on November 13, 2013 - about mastery, software, learning
Fear Not Your Ignorance
Ignorance is a blessing. An opportunity.
Ignorance is where possibilities are boundless.
Don't fear it. Embrace it.
Explore the unknown.
Posted on November 12, 2013 - about mastery
Structure and Space
First we shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us.
Intro to JavaScript - TDD a Palindrome Checker
I was hanging out at the Software Craftsmanship Guild today, and after a short conversation about managing complexity and the four rules of simple design; they asked for an introduction to JavaScript.
Posted on November 5, 2013 - about javascript, video, software, testing, beginner
Agency, Society, and Invention
I've become convinced a life well lived requires a high level of personal agency.
Back to Codin'
The last 9 months have been some of the most amazing, fullfilling, enjoyable months I've ever had.
Splitting codebases
As programmers, we split our code along what job those bits of code do for us. We pontificate about whether MVVM or MVC or another pattern is the appropriate way to build an app for the given language, environment, or problem domain.
The Learn Startup
A long time ago, in an industry far far away, there were two competing production models: the assembly line and the master craftsmen.
Begin Again
Professions are complex. From outside it looks solid.
The Windsurfer
She chrouches, alert and ready.
Waves crash across the bow.
She clenches the mast tightly
She furrows up her brow.
Winds roar with fury
Waves whip to foam
All other beach-goers
Turn their faces home.
Posted on April 13, 2013 - about poetry, parables, opportunity
Introducing jekyll-cdn
I extracted my jekyll plugin for cache-busting from my blog into a gem,
jekyll-cdn! The main feature is a set
of Liquid filters for getting the right asset_path, stylesheet_path, and
javascript_path for the environment you're building.
Choosing Kindness over Condemnation
It's easy when hurt to lash out.
To crush those who caused me pain.
Gertrude the Giraffe
I have a small menagerie I take wherever I go. One who has accompanied me since I was a child is Gertrude. Gertrude is a giraffe with a long, beautiful neck with spots which spell four words: Guess, Google, Grab, Go.
Posted on March 12, 2013 - about makermenagerie
A Caveat When Hosting a Static Site on CloudFront
I recently experimented with hosting my blog on CloudFront. While this was great for performance it caused a few issues.
Onward
Last year was fantastic. I started my own business, helped three startups get off the ground, learned a ton about working with distributed teams, and fell in love.
Grind Young
I hear your heart beat from all that caffeine
Oh, what a shame there's not more in your bloodstream
So while you're here in my cafe
Let's make the most of the beans that we're gonna grind young
Using Nil Effectively
We seem to use nils in place of a default return value in a function. Say you
wanted to write a function that splits a string on its commas:
Now I Know That Love Is Blind
Now I know that love is blind
In the dark your smile shines.
My heart is stolen and I feel fine!
Why is organ harvesting a crime?
Two Lumps of Clay
Two lumps of clay were bought by a potter and set on her windowsill to soften in the sun. The first was terrified of being prodded, poked, and shaped. "I don't want any part of this!" He said, "I'm a good piece of clay! I don't want to be a pot!" and he hardened himself in the noon day sun.
Point Victor
There was a young lad named Rictor
Who gloated he was the Point Victor
But the cards he'd "completed"
Had bugs left untreated
And rejection befell poor young Rictor
Posted on February 10, 2013 - about business, software, mastery, poetry
Ambiguity In Code Is an Opportunity to Refactor
There's a common design principle that states "Design the system to prevent errors from occuring." Lean manufacturing calls this Poka-yoke. Interaction design calls these forcing functions.
Posted on February 1, 2013 - about software, ruby, tapas, design
What Mom and Dad Need to Know About the Rails Security Exploit
Dear Mom, Dad, Gramma, Brothers, Aunts and Uncles
Posted on January 31, 2013 - about ruby, software, rails, security
I sense a pattern
From curiosities, interest.
The Ruby & Symbol
& is a powerful ruby operator, when you use it as a unary operator it has two main use cases:
Build a Command Line Remote Pairing Setup
Over the past couple years I've done a bit of remote pairing. When I need a GUI everything is pretty straightforward: Join.me for screen/keyboard sharing and iPad with Skype or Google Hangout for video calls. This is pretty bandwidth intensive and can be slow, so I'd rather keep as much as I can in a terminal.
Posted on January 29, 2013 - about pairing, software-as-craft, devenvironment
Thank You Heather, Steve, and Corey
Recently I saw a few highly critical tweets go by my stream about a package written by Heather Arthur. They were by Corey Haines and Steve Klabnik, a couple of my friends.
Building Communities of Empowerment
Recently I sat in on a conversation between two people I respect. One declared empowerment is an individuals choice. We choose how to respond to situations and we can choose to remove ourselves from unacceptable situations.
How Do You Find Mentors Outside Your Core Skills?
To ring in the new year, I want to expose some of my ignorance.
Posted on January 8, 2013 - about questions, mastery, mentors
We Are Better Than This
Let me start this off by saying I'm furious. I'm furious at my gender, and my 'professional' community.
Keeping Space
While at Devbootcamp last week I was introduced to a new phrase by an instructor. I asked how intensely draining his job must be, and he remarked that his wife is amazingly good at "keeping space" for him. I didn't grasp what he meant, so I asked him to clarify.
In Pursuit of Excellence
Excellence is not only about the task at hand.
Simplicity Wins
Occam's Razor applies to your business plan.
Posted on November 29, 2012 - about software, design, mastery
Ignorance and Realism in Testing
I was talking through some of my thoughts on applying visual and interaction design critique principles to code with Enrique Comba. At the time, I was in the middle of analyzing the differences between directly calling the method under test, nested describes and lets, and using a custom assertion.
Posted on November 24, 2012 - about software, software-as-craft
The Proud Ants
Once upon a time there was an ant colony. It wasn't a very big colony, but it had the best hunters, builders, and nurses for miles around. For many seasons, the colony prospered.
Posted on November 23, 2012 - about parables, community, empathy
Why I Don't Use Aliases
The difference between an amateur and a professional is their capability to execute consistently in a variety of situations.
Posted on June 20, 2012 - about mastery
Saul Kaplan's Business Model Innovation Factory
TL/DR: BMIF is a thought provoking look at what a business model is and how they impact society. While it's content is exceptional, It has stylistic issues that sometimes detract.
Posted on May 6, 2012 - about business, book-review
When to Reject and Accept Work
No matter how well you define what should be done you will always wind up with work that isn't quite right. In these situations you have three courses of action: 1. Reject the work and provide feedback. 2. Accept the work and add new work items. 3. Accept the work and ignore its imperfections.
Coding the Distance
Reluctantly Crouched at the command line, Keyboards clicking and clacking in time...Breaking Up With Backbone
Dear Backbone,
Finding Flow in Practice
I spent 5 hours practicing visual design.
Talking is Hard
I am an external thinker.
Confessions of a Shitty Pianist
Once I practiced daily, studied theory, explored composers and genres, and wrote my own music.
Three Reasons For Testers Not To Learn To Code
Michael Bolton wrote an exceptional article listing three reasons for software testers to learn to write code. Here's three reasons why a tester shouldn't learn to code.
Judging Code Simplicity Fit It Through The Tube
We coders have all kinds of definitions of simple code. To some, simple code is code they understand and read easily. Others believe simple code follows the coolest, most appropriate design pattern. Some say simple code has the fewest characters.
Posted on April 25, 2010 - about software, design, software-as-craft
The Trouble With Triangles
The iron triangle has been redefined several times in the past few years.
Posted on February 1, 2010 - about project-management, business, leadership