Coding Philosophy

A collection of 115 posts

Coding Philosophy

Counterindications

What is helpful in some situations can be harmful in others. Context matters.

Coding Philosophy , Software Engineering

Non-Negotiables For Software Development Process

What absolutely has to be in place for a software project to be successful? What are your non-negotiables?

Book Reviews , Coding Philosophy , Design Patterns

Domain-Driven Design Quickly

If you are likely for a primer to get started learning DDD, Domain Driven Design Quickly is a good starting point.

Coding Philosophy

It's harder to downclimb

Writing code is much easier than reading it. If you write code at your maximum level of cleverness, then by definition you are not smart enough to read and understand it. The trick is to make sure that you leave yourself some margin.

Book Reviews , Coding Philosophy

Technical Agile Coaching With The Samman Method

I recently read a very interesting book on coaching by Emily Bache. She has a unique perspective that is very interesting.

Coding Philosophy , Design Patterns , OOP , Legacy Code

Can Your Code Be Too SOLID?

You can have too much of a good thing. Lots of code is hard to read because it uses too many unnecessary abstractions.

Coding Philosophy , Legacy Code

Don't rewrite, reimagine

If you are going to go down the path of a rewrite, don't just recreate what is there. Reimagine what is possible given what you know now.

Coding Philosophy , Business

Joy Inc

Life is too short. Don't spend most of your life working in a job you hate. It doesn't have to be that way. This book will show you how to introduce joy at work.

Coding Philosophy

The Programmer's Brain

Ultimately all problems are human problems and all humans have brains. Understanding how our brains work can be very useful.

Coding Philosophy

Generosity

By making your tool Open Source you are not losing out. You are actually gaining because you are allowing the community to contribute.

Coding Philosophy

Metrics

Metrics are always an interesting topic. What do you measure and why? And how do you keep people from gaming it?

Coding Philosophy

The Need For Speed

When making decisions you need a true north. You need a litmus test. Here is a case for why speed should be that litmus test.

Legacy Code , Coding Philosophy

Thoughts On Technical Debt

What does the phrase "technical debt" mean to you? How do you deal with it?

Coding Philosophy

Normalize Paying For Open Source Tools

If we want our favorite Open Source tools to continue to be maintained we need to start supporting the maintainers.

Coding Philosophy

The LabVIEW Experiment

You may have heard rumors that I started a podcast. "The LabVIEW Experiment" is a place to discuss how to improve our craft and make coding fun again.

Coding Philosophy

Be The Developer Everyone Wants On Their Team

How can you become the developer that everyone wants on their team? Here are a couple ideas.

Coding Philosophy , Legacy Code

Thoughts On Rewrite Vs Refactor

Rewrite or Refactor? Every developer has faced that choice. What should you consider in making your decision?

Coding Philosophy

Maxims to Code By

Maxims are little phrases that we use to remind ourselves of what is important. Here are some that I use when writing code.

Coding Philosophy

Effective Time Management

As coders, we often like to work in large blocks of time, but that's not the only way. Here are some other techniques that can help.

Coding Philosophy

What does being a software architect mean?

I was recently asked: "What does being a software architect mean?" Here is my answer.

Coding Philosophy , Conferences

Improving the Human Experience

We don't write code for the compiler or the CPU. We write it for other human beings. Both user and developer experience are crucial.

Coding Philosophy

Tackling Problems From Both Ends

The best way of tackling a problem is often from both ends, ie top-down and bottom-up.

Book Reviews , Coding Philosophy , DevOps

Thinking in Systems

This book is a recipe for social and organizational change. It is about predicting and influencing the complex systems we've built.

Coding Philosophy

The importance of common language

In order to see things, it is important to have words to describe them. Words are how our brains categorize and store knowledge.

Book Reviews , Coding Philosophy , DevOps

The Phoenix Project

The Phoenix Project is a must-read book for anyone who works in technology. If you have ever worked in a larger company you will immediately identify with the situation described at the beginning of the book. You have an overworked IT department that seems disorganized and is always behind on