When do you prefer to test?

• TDD
• Testing used to be an entry level position
• Testing has become a senior level activity
• Testing increases the understanding of the code
• Every bug in the code will eventually be found.  You want a tester or a test to find it rather than a customer.
• Tiny little testable steps
• Focu work on a small unit
• Always move forward
• Deliver features vs Deliver Quality
• You get what you measure.

Learning to talk while programming

• How do you learn to communicate
• Pair programming is experiental.  People get frustrated if it doesn’t pay off immediately.  (much like riding a bike)
• Can you pair with somebody you don’t like?
• “Code buddy”
• Must self-select your code buddy
• Conflicts can cause big trouble
• Mature developers have habits and skills which they have learned over time
• Stereotype of programmers: late nights/pizza
• working alone lets you conceal your weakness
• Egoless programming
• when you pair, problems that confuse both people are immediately visible as serious problems
• One participant can tune out

What makes a graph feel “live”?

• What does “live” mean in context?
• Drill in (nagios)
• Google street view
• Responsive UI vs live data
• Travel sites which take a while to search
• Convention in TV and movies: displays always have text which is updating (2001 screens, Terminator)
• As things get slower they get harder to think about
• Attention span
• latency
• Graphs that update
• Weather maps
• Interface vs data

Executable instructions

• Instead of documentation about how to do something, how about a script which is executable and readable?
• Need a language that is executable and robust for human to human communication
• Chef
• Avoid a “Wizard” – leads to no understanding of how things are done
• Smalltalk let you have “Run” as part of editing

New iPhone

• New UI
• Buttons were not present but came back in in later betas of iOS7
• Flat UI: Windows 8 phone
• Skeumorphism
• Change for change’s sake vs improvement

Presentation of one’s self (Facebook vs LinkedIn)

• Different venues, different expectations
• work/life balance
• How does Twitter fit in?
• Credibility/trust must be earned
• Context
• Not everybody has a FB acct

Resources for learning about agile software dev

• XP pocket guide
• Thin books aren’t intimidating
• Find books that you like, look for “people who bought this also bought” on Amazon
• Books leave out failures, sound like every project is successful
• c2.com wiki
• “less wrong” web site

What makes programming problems fun?

• like solving a puzzle
• Sudoku solvers can be more fun problems than sudoku puzzles
• Fun to not work within an existing codebase
• “That’s what I do for work”
• Demonstrate mastery
• setting own goals
• refactoring?

Best invite to LC

• Bring a great idea for people to explore
• Friendly people, coffee
• exercise for my brain
• light switch (or lens) for your thought process
• thinking about metacognition