I’ve got more to say about interactions between humans at that level just above behavior and just below openings, lots more. But I’m going to jump ahead, then circle back. I want to list a bunch of things I do during my coaching days. It’s likely only a partial list, and as always, I reserve […]
Coaching is X-ing: Things I Do When I Coach Read More »
I spoze today is as good a day as any for me to start talking about what coaching is, about what I do and how and why. Tho I have these conversations in private, I have put off doing it here. I think it’s a mix of factors. Two amusing ones: i’m not very sure
Coaching: What I Actually Do Read More »
We spoke of always-small-always-improve (ASAI), arguing for it as strategy against big-bang-change (BBC). In another part of the forest, someone has asked the question, "what if the cost of delay for starting small instead of going big is extreme?" A situation where a BBC is better because the cost of delay implementing ASAI is extreme
ASAI: What If That Takes A Long Time? Read More »
A little coaching theory today, eh? Coaches seek to change how things go. They see what is here and they think it could be better. In fact, they usually think it could be rather dramatically better — not worth the trouble of being a coach if not. And our clients want us to make things
Always-Small-Always-Improve: A Coaching Vision Read More »
Take for granted for a minute that professional software development is a complex problem, in the sense of complexity theory. I have in recent months been fretting, then, at how to optimize for s/d given that fundamental complexity. Problems that are merely intricate have the property that when you strike them sharply they break into
Drive, Sustenance, Collaboration, Stepping, And Narrative Read More »
This branching thing. The idea behind branching is that it provides advantages in situations where a code change is large. The idea behind non-branching is not to enter those situations. These two views seem very difficult to reconcile. I am a non-brancher. I push to head, I pull from head, I test on head, I
The Baseless Critique Of Living Branchlessly Read More »
I mentioned endpointing yesterday. I’m always using geepaw-isms & expecting people to know what I mean. Endpointing is over-focus on eventual destination. In s/w, it’s seeing development as a long trip to a known destination on a known map. John Winthrop, a few centuries back, used "the city on the hill" to describe an endpoint,
Endpointing vs. Next-Stepping Read More »
Of all the bad advice the geek trades inherit from over-simplified manufacturing & engineering, perhaps the worst: "avoid changing code". Take a minute, and think of all the things the trade does to avoid changing code. Virtually every element of "big design up front" policy is based in this view. Long stretches for analysis, longer
“Avoid Changing Code” Should Be Avoided Read More »
In IT work — "it puts the database on its browser skin" — we often face sooner or later the problem of the gigantic object. Some systems, especially "global monolith reboots", just start there. Others just grow and grow and insensibly slide into it over time. The problem is that there are one or a
Using Strategy & Function-Specific To Attack Large Classes Read More »
The ‘idols of the schema’ is a geepaw-ism, and deserves some background & explanation. When we value the simplicity & clarity of an idea over the complexity & muddiness of its referent, we’re caught in an idol of the schema. Sir Francis Bacon was an english noble, a famous lawyer, and author of the Novum
Idols of the Schema: Ignoring Data While Overvaluing Ideas Read More »
