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How to Jump on a Moving Project

How To Jump On A Moving Project

or, act like a senior developer in nine easy steps

Somewhere along the way, I seem to have become a senior developer.  I'm not much faster at coding than I used to be, and I definitely have forgotten more language-specific syntax than I remember.  The difference, if there in fact is any, seems to be in knowing the patterns and the norms, having a sense of what paths to use to solve problems and how to find one's bearings in a new environment.  

None of this is particularly complicated.  So, since our community-building startup What's Cookin' welcomes new developers who want to get their feet wet in a real team, I thought it might be useful to write a bit of it down, as a guide for new developers on how to find their balance while jumping on board.

If you are already an experienced developer, this probably is not the essay for you - though if you want to kibbitz and add your two cents, have at it - comments welcome.

1) Make noise usefully.

You will get stuck.  Despite reading whatever docs are available, googling the errors you run into, and doing your best to read the source and solve your own problems, you will at some point not see a clear path to moving forward in a reasonable amount of time.   

(Caveat - you are never really completely stuck; but if you are having to disassemble the operating system to debug the problem, well, you may not come out of your rabbit hole in this lifetime.)

At this point, you want help.  There is a right way to get help.  Two key things to keep in mind are:

     A) senior dev time is extremely valuable

     B) whatever issue you ran into, someone else likely has - or will - too

Therefore, you want to communicate your problem in a way that peers on the team can see as well - especially other junior developers.  Possibly one of them knows the solution, and if not, at least when someone helps, the answer will be visible in the shared space (most likely a slack channel).  

Always include the exact error message string (so others can search on the same error), and if any URL is involved include the exact link. Summarize what you already tried.  Use ``` ``` or ` ` quotes in slack. Do share in a channel, do not ping the channel.  Wait some amount of time and then ping an individual developer if you did not get a response.

Rule of thumb: Asking the question should be more work than answering it.  A lazy question will get a lazy answer.

Do not be afraid to admit if you are clueless - just make it clear you need only a clue as to how to proceed.

2)

6 min read

stray bits...

Beware the Narrative

"Don't get sucked into the Narrative" is the tagline of Redshirts, John Scalzi's novel named for the Star Trek side characters, identifiable by shirt color and doomed to die for the sake of drama, sacrificed to the storyline.

As someone who grew up hearing the narrative about Israel as the heroic victim, and then, before the horrors we are now facing, talking to Palestinian friends exhausted from the pressure of living trapped as symbols for generations, this resonated strongly with me. 

Now, with the horrific daily killings, bombings and needless suffering being perpetrated by the Netanyahu government the need to center real humans is paramount.

Can we simply be human, first, before being part of any story?  Diverse, opinionated, sad, angry, joyful, hopeful, grieving humans who want to live, first and foremost, with dignity and safety.   Humans with fundamental rights to not be harmed for some story in someone's head. 

1 min read

Open to (or: sticky ends)

DNA fragments may have single-stranded bits at the end, hungry to pair and bond with any complementary strands they encounter.  

These ideas are sticky in that sense, for me - despite my overcommitted state, I would eagerly connect over them, and find some way to align efforts:

* small-d democracy in schools, workplaces, corporations.  I have some models in place...
* accountability mechanisms especially permissionlessly verifiable ones
* earned governance; agency to the beneficiaries of impact or philanthropy to rate it
* children and civilians are people, criminal mafias do not "own" the people around them, and children must always be protected.  international legal efforts to provide teeth to this, and stop recognizing criminals just because they have guns, or excusing the killing of children because 'war' or 'terrorism'.
* if an innocent person is harmed, *someone* should pay for it.  it can't just be a thing that happens
* ways to harness efforts and collaborate that don't rely on anonymous money only, but do recognize effort and choice of who to associate with
* if you have a great idea to help people in general, make sure it *actually* helps *some* people right now in the process of building it

ha several of those may be

1 min read

agreements (and attention)

agreements create the structure that makes us more than slime molds
agreements with ourselves, what we call integrity, keeping one's word, character

they allow us to plan ahead, and follow through; make a promise, and mean it

but too many agreements can tie a life into knots that can no longer follow its muse

the honesty to say no, to make changes, to include escape clauses

but also to stay up and follow them through

for cognition, perhaps attention is all you need

but agreements determine where attention can be paid
(at least, if you want your past self to have a vote, or to trust your future one)

1 min read

Wanderings along the way...

starting some daily journal entries - these will mainly not show up on the front page, but still saved and findable.  I want to pin and record more things.  Today, Vancouver, taking the long way around to the AAAI conference...glad i did.

Seen and heard on the way
   a woman walking on the rocky shore, i said hello, lovely shells.  She answered yes, and every rock is a painting, art is everywhere.  well put.

a 'people's castle' but the stairway blocked, it seems a fight with city council brews

later, two Bald Eagles and a nest that a local said they come to every year.  last year at eth denver i saw one, flying low over the river there.  



Wandered and walked about 5 miles, took a seabus and a rented bike, then finally the venue.  The views from the Vancouver Convention Centre are breathtaking.  Don't know when i used that word before, but it fits here. The conference itself wasn't bad either...

installed neogpt between sessions, so i could feel legit, and worked on a little wrapper to have it represent a did.  quite simple and hacky but its for a short workshop so, about right.  a good

2 min read

A Logical Conclusion...

this piece makes me happy every time i reread it.  it was born out of frustration with fintech bros

A Darwinian Argument

“You must die.” The woman spoke dispassionately, her face blank.

The jowly man chained at the ankle squinted across the room at her. His glasses had broken in the struggle, so were there subtle clues to read he might have missed them anyway. His face betrayed a racing chain of emotions, flickering from fear to contempt to calculation. Which of his enemies sent her?

continued...

1 min read

floating snips

if writing is the search for shape and meaning in life

is must be a selective one

the truth is full of distraction and laziness, napping in the face of urgency
forgetting oneself and remembering again and hiding from that truth

accepting maybe but celebrating nonsense?  what is self anyway these ais have me questioning
if i am a self or just generating text
there is some inner thing
but it varies 'i contain multitudes' indeed but many are quite prosaic and merely hungry

luckily friends remember
perhaps its why we want to be seen

1 min read

A Language of Meaning and Action

There is really only one question, ever.

Given the state of the world to my knowledge, what should I do next?

Answered shallowly, the answer may be

   order pizza for dinner
   drink a beer
   finish a task on my list
   continue or start a conversation with a friend
   post on social media
   edit a plan or a poem
   shoot a gun, make love, spend money

The attraction of the shallow answers lies in how do-able they are.  

Social media beckons, a feed as linear as time and digestible as sugar.  Familiar routine offers a menu of known actions. Work, as defined by others, is also chunked into digestiible slices and returning a liquid reward, feels perhaps healthier.  And expression - artistic, conversational, musical, or the written word feels like a missing mineral, that we didn't realize we craved until we taste it.

How to weave these small next steps into the pattern we want - and what does that even mean when one moment we want to remake society and the next we want an ice cream sundae?

In our professional lives most of us have known patterns, best practices, colleagues to guide us, and a mission prescribed by our

2 min read

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