What is this thing about telling & re-telling the story until it’s the story we want? There’s back-muses, check my timeline, but I’ll offer the relevant text: "I believe we have to re-tell the story. We have to tell the story again, and again, changing it each time, until it becomes the story of bringing […]
How Stories Change Things Read More »
Yesterday, I spoke about thin culture, insecurity, and a possible way forward: telling and re-telling the story of us. I don’t know what will thicken the software making trade’s culture. But I know (part of) what I’m trying to do: tell the story of us, re-tell it, and re-tell it again, as many times as
I believe the thinness of geek culture is a major player in many of the ills of the trade. It is sociotechnical in impact, simultaneously affecting areas as seemingly distant & distinct as the "social" gender diversity and the "technical" iterative design. Last night, I enjoyed Virginia doing a hilarious profane rant about an incoherent
Thin Culture and Stories Read More »
When facing especially weak code, it’s easy to feel daunted; there just seems so much wrong with it. To get my mojo on, I find the simplest infelicity to fix, I fix it. Then I do it again. Everyone encounters code from time to time that she does not understand. This is true for the noob and equally so for the olb. It is a fact of being a geek.
Easiest Nearest Owwie First (ENOF) Read More »
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What matters most when I’m collaborating on activity X isn’t activity X, it’s collaborating. I’ve given this MCE series a lot of thought, which is why the items appear so slowly. My take seems fundamentally different from what others seem to be saying. And it doesn’t feel like a tweak. It’s not one premise of
MCE #3: Mindful, Collaborative, Experimental Read More »
In our trade, a great deal depends on the distinction between two ideas, manifested as behaviors, cutlures, practice-sets, attitudes, approaches, whatever you call it. I call these ideas "endpointing" and "nextstepping". The central thesis of endpointing: "There’s a finish line, and it’s what matters most." The central thesis of next-stepping: "There’s no finish line, and
Endpointing & Nextstepping Read More »
TSD Development: First short TDD session pushed. I said I’d start yesterday, but instead I played a computer game most of the day. https://github.com/GeePawHill/tsd This was short and sweet, so there’s just three simple points of interest, one noticed infrastructure problem, then I’ll move on to the next part. POI #1: This was textbook TDD,
TSD #2: Short Session, Long Notes Read More »
TSD Development: The first thing to do is make a thing that accepts key-value pair assignments to make a tree. Since kotlin readily supports map-like assignments, the first minor-leage case looks like this: output["key"] = "value" That resembles a map, by design, but it isn’t one. Later cases will elaborate this, but the secret sauce
TSD #1: Early Thoughts, Tests, Code Read More »
My mindfulness works in large part by way of changing my identity, my sense of "who I am". Before I even inch into this, I just gotta remind you that you’re reading the words of someone who is an obnoxious wise-cracking irreligious unspiritual foul-mouthed dirty-minded unmystical hardcore computer geek. It’s important to say, because after
MCE #2: Mindful, Collaborative, Experimental Read More »
