Crafting Code Podcast

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Practice is key to learning and developing skills. It provides us fast feedback and allows us to fail in safe efforts which can be reversed or thrown away. Playing in code can motivate us and our teams to improve, creating outcomes that employers desire.

Timestamps

[00:00:00] Host introductions. What is practice and why should we do it? Improve yourself.

[00:07:50] Strength = aptitude + interest. You can't get by on aptitude alone.

[00:14:40] The lines between practice, play, and work are often blurred. Practice can help your team improve and provides a safe place to fail.

[00:21:45] Practice vs. performance. Musicians only get one shot at a performance; in software we get many opportunities.

[00:26:12] Practice helps you know a problem inside and out. Employers want the results of practice. Stop demotivating people; intrinsically motivated people exist.

[00:31:05] Have fun at work. Play with an idea until you find out where it is useful in your production code.

[00:33:59] PSA: Don't use crypto you wrote in production.

[00:34:23] Learning about code from household work. Reversibility. The amount of planning you do should depend on how difficult it is to reverse.

[00:46:15] Practicing production alert procedures. Practicing yields fast feedback.

[00:50:10] Our friend Jon is a master of practice and play.

[00:52:01] Outro

Books mentioned during this episode:

The Software Craftsman by Sandro Mancuso
The Clean Coder by Robert C. Martin

External sites referenced: