Chapter 3
I am finding it hard to get into this book. So far it seems
like a re-write of the Clean coder but with different wording. I hope I am
proven wrong as I progress further but so far I am kind of disappointed. Do we
need a chapter devoted to talking about whether the skill of programming is a
craft, trade, engineering, science, or an art and five definitions and
metaphors for software craftsmanship? I can’t believe there are debates over
this to be honest, I mean I was always taught that when you work you do your
job to the best of your ability and put in an honest day of work for your pay.
I think it should be common sense that no matter the profession, you should do
it with pride and professionalism. Does it matter what you label it? I agree
that there needs to be meetings like the Agile summit and all that to talk
about practices and techniques that can help to improve coding efficiency as
well as end product results as this happens with most trades and professions.
New strategies are implemented and such, but work ethic and professionalism
should be a given in my opinion. I guess there are folks out there that don’t
know about this or maybe don’t care how their code or work looks as long as the
paycheck keeps coming in, but I have found that these types usually don’t hold
jobs long. Maybe I am being over critical, I just think the chapter was a bit
much.
Chapter 4
This chapter is a bit better than the last, there are a lot
of good points here and I feel a bit bad about condemning the book previously,
but I am writing about my feeling on the book as I go and that is how I felt
about chapter three. I enjoyed how he opened in the first couple of pages about
the talk with his friend and his response to him after he told him how he hadn’t
been promoted and how the company hadn’t sent him to seminars and such. “Who is
in charge of your career?”, what a great comment and so true. I have met many
people who have this attitude that the company owes them and should see how
good they are and send them here and there. Well I got news for you, that is
not how the world works. I hear it here at school and I too am sometimes caught
up in the I wish we learned this or that and then come to my senses and realize
that I have the tools to learn this stuff myself and that is how you get
better.
There are many good points in this chapter. I am still in
awe at how much there is out there to learn and the tech changes it seems
daily. There is always something new to learn and a lot of this is new to me,
not the learning part but the technology. I would have never thought about
following blogs before coming back to school. I do have to work on who to
follow however as there are so many out there. I am slowly finding a niche. I
am slow to Twitter and social media and could use some work in that area. I am
not sure why, maybe an age thing or I just haven’t tapped into its full
potential yet.
The rest of the chapter is well done as well, but I am not
going to go on and on, but it is, in my mind one of the most important things
in this field, practice. If you aren’t practicing your craft, you lose a step.
I didn’t know about katas until I read the clean coder and will one day give
them a try. There is no excuse to not practice these days. The word though can
throw you off though as some folks despise practice as it reminds them of the
horrendous drills you had to do in sports and such. Coding practice though is
much more fun as there are so many ways you can hone your skill set. Open
source, katas, projects, etc. Choose something you like and it is a heck of a
lot better.
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