Adding Newbies

Adding_newbies

Why you want beginners
  funtional diversity - background
  randomness is good - when solving tough problems
  designing an application is more than just writing the code
  perspectives vs huristic (where you come from and how you view things) 
    one person has one perspective
    a group of people with the same training will have a similar perspective
    a group of people with differing training with come up with different solutions to the same problem

  Why beginners?
    you want novel problem solvers from different areas of expertise
    they are unencumbered by expert opinions
  
  How can you find them?
    selection bias - 
      * similarity(someone like you)
      * availablity(people closest to me are the easiest to get)
      * appearance(teachers like students that look smart, juries prefer ppl that look truthful)
    Well rounded team not an expert team

Hungry Academy
  Cant truly understand something until you can teach it.
  tutorials.jumpstartlabs.com/academy

  differentiated instruction
    * choose your own adventure programs - no cirriculum can apply to everyone
    * know where your newbie will fit
    * sometimes force them to do something they're bad at
    * the worse thing that can happen is they don't want to pay attention to you

  Don't abandon people that are doing poorly
  What do I want them to learn? -> How do I teach them that?
   similar to What should I build? -> How should I build it?
  
  Work in small modules
    * Not a 9 week plan, 9 1-week plans

  6 facets of understanding http://pixel.fhda.edu/id/six_facets.html
  gschool

In practice
  Autonomy - let them have ownership over the projects they're working on
  Mastery - incentivize by challenge - you want to see and track growth
  Purpose - make it meaningful 
  Don't let your jr. devs become miltons
    Take the extra time to teach them and not just doing it themselves
  you'll work better together if you like eachother
  have a common goal but have individual autonomy
  Consistency- don't bring on jr devs if you don't have someone available to train them 
    (have sr devs volunteer at local teaching events)
  
Take Aways
  Each novice needs to have a mentor
  Take nothing for granted - set expectations early
  Design a pairing schedule
  All code should be reviewed via pull requests (positive and negative feedback)
  Set dedicated learning time with self-chosen objectives during the work day