In episode 29 of Does Not Compute, Sean and Paul talk about the importance of introspection and project postmortems as a tool for learning, as well as lay out a few tips for dealing with client questions that require you to research before answering
Special thanks to Digital Ocean for sponsoring this week's episode!
Head on over to http://digitalocean.com/doesnotcompute and you'll get a 1gb droplet for free for an entire month. Again, that's a free ssd backed server with a dozen one click installs available for free.
- Sean's (current) Favorite Tools
- Linting
- Gitlab
- Gitlab CI
- Drone
- Circle CI
- Why you should enforce Dangling Commas for Multiline Statements
I'd like to know how developers can better provide input into a job spec/set expectations. When a client says "We need x, y and z" is there a way to say "yes, no or maybe" without spending an hour diving into docs or building a prototype. - @kidqueb
Paul: first off, if doing that is part of your job, you should absolutely have the time to spend as much time as needed figuring out actual requirements and deliverables. Too much pressure on people in this way would make me look at company culture problems, not at individual devs.
- Make sure that projects are scoped out as much as possible up front - If you have any questions, ask them.
- Project postmortems - It's beneficial to take some time after each project to analyze what went well, what what didn't, and why. If you don't have whys, it's harder to get the how's.
- Time - It just takes time to gain experience. Soak up everything you can from others around you, and seek knowledge.
- Learn how to read documentation efficiently - this will make getting the gist of something much easier.
- Search support forums. For example, if you're needing to learn something about Shopify, check out the support forum. You'll find out the real details that the marketing pages don't spill.
If you're looking for a link we've mentioned in the past, head on over to the Does Not Compute Show Notes repo and use GitHub's excellent search tool!
If you've enjoyed the show so far, reach out to us on twitter at @seanwashbot and @paulstraw, or join us in the Spec.fm slack community at http://spec.fm/slack!
Last but not least, if you haven't rated or reviewed the show yet and you'd like to do us a huge favor, you can do so by clicking here!