notesfromsamstalk.txt

@samphippen
  Core maintainer of RSpec
  Senior software engineer at DO

I am open to being derailed
  includes coaches

I presume most of you are here because you want a job, not for giggles

How do we get better as software engineers?
  What does better actually mean
    Think about context in where we work
    its true generally that most businesses do not succeed on softwware alone
    IT is a cost site for all business
    software engineers are expensive

    We like to reason in an ivory tower as to what good code is
    Creating business value is the most important
      changing software
        creating change in software
        if you work for a small startup, you will have different changes than if you worked for google
    software engineering principles guide us in reducing cost of change
      a lot of them are focused on the very long term
        very useful if it is going to live forever, not so much if it lives for 18 months
      what principles of software engineering
        SRP
        TDD
          what does it mean in a larger context
            "red green refactor"
            "it doesnt exist"
              NOone has a consistent definition of it
                every developer defines it differently
            academic TDD is a good thing - it is good that it iis taught
            TDD made Sam feel like an imposter
              Just did not work when applied
              RSpec maintainers get upset by TDD
            the refactor step does not tell you what to refactor
              TDD doesnt tell you when to move up or down in abstraction
            It is used by some to call others "unprofessional"
              if you follow it to the letter every time you will write expensive and unnescessary tests
              It misses the point at times
            TDD can make your code better
            TDD can make your code worse
          It is ok to struggle at TDD
          It is not an absolute truth
            It is useful in times
          What is TDD for?
            it is a process to help you ensure your tests are useful
            Red/green forces you to see a test both pass and fail
              an empty test passes
              This is vital
              You can do them out of order
              or skip them entirely
            refactor forces you to consider whether a particular axis of change is easy to make
            Sam's flow is like Refactor, green, red
              refactor system, add working code, break code
            refactoring before implementing your change is often necessary
              you refactor until it is easy to make your change
              refactoring after a change can be impossible
                as it is trying to predict the future
                results in code that has high cost/never used
            underlying reasons are good, following prescriptive practice can be harmful
              understanding why we do each step is vital
                understanding when we skip each step
          Not saying "Don't stop doing testing"
          Dont stop doing TDD now
        DRY
          "dont repeat yourself"
          actual definition
            every piece of knowledge must have single unambiguous authoritative representation wihtin a system
          provides accessible guad rails
            but it is not perfect
          Prefer duplication over the wrong abstraction
            trying to reduce duplication via increasing complexity causes issues
          Abstraction is the key underlying idea
            providing generalisms to your code
              small units
                methods 5 lines
                classes 30 lines
          Not a bad thing
            religious dherence is

        A much bigger idea
          THere are no universally true principles in software engineering
            there is nothing that isnt a tradeoff
            there is no best way to write code
            the constraints and concepts will define the "best" ideas

          Use what you know to guide you
            listen, read, watch
            people arent smarter than you
        Biggest idea
          Learning by maximum contradiction
            being comfortable is the fastest way to stop learning
            comfort will kill your learning process
            That is how you win at being a software engineer

      RubyConf 2016
        Submit a talk to that track :)

Questions:
  Learn one lang or many?
    Learning is diff for everyone
    technologies have a lifespan
    RoR is a really good choice
      popular enough early on so it has now become stable
      never going away
    Do what interests you
  talk about internal app?
    Was built as fast as a rails app could ever been built
    Very high technical debt rails app
      replace with a 3rd party solution
      sunset plan is to build integrations into the 3rd party app
  Junior developer interviews
    PRactical answer
      I dont know
      I dont know what they interview for
      Implement a LL in java in 30 mins is impossible
      Interviews are broken
      work with instr on int prep
    Intellectual answer
      gives a set of tools to reason about the systems I work on
        for this feature I was thinking of doing this
          if we use this datastructure we can work it out
          this is universal
      consume those things as they are interesting to you
        learning guided by interests is very useful
          "What is processor" video
  mentioned how different techs come and go
      watch the internet
      follow people on twitter
      NEVER GO HN
      read stuff on reddit
      Redmonk language rankings
        Node happened
          OMG JS IS JESUS
        Ruby is never going to die
        Rust is cool
  Were I in your position would I start at a small comp or a large comp?
      Tricky q
        not normal entry path
        what level of risk are you willing to accept for your first job?
          hate doing job searches?
            dont work for a comp that could disappear in next few months
            but likely to be interesting
            Driving a car that is falling apart and trying to rebuild it
          It is nice to have things
        Is time or money your more important asset?
        If you getting ill represents a 33% cut to efficiency for department are you willing to accept?
        Find someone who you can learn from
          small companies sometimes cannot provide mentoring time
          Large comp usually have clear progression learning
    
  What is looked for In JD int
      it is more looking for learning potential than knowledge
      most JD interviews are nonsense
      if you hit an interview where they ask nonsense cs, think data structures
      I am sorry
        its all awful
  the way you code is morphed by the environment
    core of what he does is OOD and testing processes
    a lot of the code bases are v high Techdebt rails apps
    Move fast, break things comp
    do not bring same levels of disc as he did at previous workplaces
    be sligghtly sloppier to ship more now
      understand ramifications of this
      may have issues in future to make changes
    A lot of systems are being turned into microservices
      had to learn principles of building distributed systems so they dont chain fail
    A new lens to look at ruby with
  
  Journey to RSpec core team
    Was extremely bored on holiday with parents
    found a bug in RSpec
      realised it was really messy
      kept sending refactoring pull requests
        at #17/18 was just made at core team
      annoyed people on net with code until they let him just commit
    maintaining RSpec is one of the most interesting things they do
    disturbingly aware on how mortally dependent eveyones rails is on RSpec
    interesting to wake up to 160 emails about a simgle issue
  How much time do you spend on rspec and does it 
    evenings and weekends
    Rails 5 released recently
      80-100 hours making rspec compatible with Rails 5
        several issues reported after
      DO sponser a lot of OSS time
  Technical debt in rails
    user.rb and the thing your app does
      shopify has a user.rb that is 4500 lines of code
        shop.rb is about 7000
      spotify has 47 module includes in it
      Beware making large things
      Follow Sandi Metz's guidelines - make small things
    Prefer using a less powerful construct over a more powerful one
      vastly reduces number of behaviors that can be added
      Active Record Callbacks
        deeply weird metaprogramming
        dont use
  Reading list - take all with a grain of salt
    eveything by Katrina Owen/Sandi Metz/Sarah Mei
    MOst of Justin Searls/Noel
    Everything Kent Beck has written said is interesting
  SAM PHIPPEN IS JUSTIN SEARLS