Coding Snake on an Apple ][
The Coding Train fires up a vintage Apple ][ and sets about writing a simple version of Snake. All done with the standard BASIC environment: no special editors, no syntax highlighting, no Intellisense or Co-Pilot.
Monday Links 17
The DORA 2022 State of DevOps Report suggests loosely coupled architecture can predicts burnout in developers, which is the opposite to previous editions of the report. In the same report, a generative organisational culture is found to predict better performance related to security.
Dave Farley: Did Microservices Break DORA?
While we’re looking at State of… reports, the 2022 State of AI Report was also published recently. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet but Jack Clark has a few notes.
The Mathematics of Weight Loss, a talk by Ruben Meerman
Understanding how your systems actually work is an important part of software engineering. More often than not when something goes wrong it’s due to an incorrect assumption about the software or the environment in which it runs. And, man, are there a lot of things people just believe to be true.
This talk isn’t about software engineering, but it’s a good illustration of how having an accurate understanding about how something actually works can change how you think about it.
In this TEDx talk Ruben Meerman poses the question: when you lose weight, where does the fat go? He proceeds to dispel some falsehoods about fat loss, and dives into the chemistry of the process. It’s a fascinating and entertaining watch.
Monday Links 16
Stuart Langridge: Don’t read off the screen
Nobody knows if you make a mistake. Carry on, and correct it when you can. But keep things simple. Someone drowning in information finds it hard to listen.
Record your practices and watch yourself back. It can be a humbling experience, but you are your own best teacher, if you’re willing to listen.
Some people script their talks, some people don’t. Whether you prefer bullet points or a soliloquy is up to you. Whichever you choose, remember: don’t just read out your notes. Your talk is a performance, not a recital.
Oliver Burkeman: Everyone is (still) winging it
That’s why I don’t much like the term “imposter syndrome” to describe what’s going on here. It makes it sound like an acute and debilitating psychological disorder, and maybe sometimes it is. But far more widespread, I think, is a sort of barely conscious background assumption that other people must have a better idea of what they’re doing than we do. This sort of assumption isn’t debilitating. But it does make life subtly worse. It leads to the belief that you need to go especially hard on yourself, in order to hold your own among your peers; and it makes you hold back from doing things that might add meaning to your life, on the grounds that you’re still waiting for a feeling of full authority to arrive.