Comments on: What are you doing for the next 6 months to be a better developer? http://damieng.com/blog/2007/07/19/what-are-you-doing-for-the-next-6-months-to?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-are-you-doing-for-the-next-6-months-to A .NET developer in silicon valley Fri, 18 May 2012 15:31:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: efile http://damieng.com/blog/2007/07/19/what-are-you-doing-for-the-next-6-months-to#comment-10693 efile Thu, 25 Dec 2008 15:19:38 +0000 http://damieng.com/blog/archive/2007/07/19/what-are-you-doing-for-the-next-6-months-to.aspx#comment-10693 To be honest, I don't have a formal plan like this, though I do tend to get itchy once a year and try to learn a new language. More often than not, a quick foray into one computer based hobby ends out in playing more with the programming languages behind it (WoW/Lua, Blender3d/Python, Processing/java). The Dvorak thing is really interesting though and was something I was keen to look into. I've heard a good technique for learning it was not to remap your keys, but to simply print out the keyboard mapping and stick it to your screen -- you're not meant to be looking at your keys anyway :) For all of these tasks you've set yourself though, you need to think about measurement. How else can you tell if they're making an improvement or not? To be honest, I don’t have a formal plan like this, though I do tend to get itchy once a year and try to learn a new language.

More often than not, a quick foray into one computer based hobby ends out in playing more with the programming languages behind it (WoW/Lua, Blender3d/Python, Processing/java).

The Dvorak thing is really interesting though and was something I was keen to look into. I’ve heard a good technique for learning it was not to remap your keys, but to simply print out the keyboard mapping and stick it to your screen — you’re not meant to be looking at your keys anyway :)

For all of these tasks you’ve set yourself though, you need to think about measurement. How else can you tell if they’re making an improvement or not?

]]> By: Goldsacs http://damieng.com/blog/2007/07/19/what-are-you-doing-for-the-next-6-months-to#comment-1949 Goldsacs Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:53:20 +0000 http://damieng.com/blog/archive/2007/07/19/what-are-you-doing-for-the-next-6-months-to.aspx#comment-1949 Well here's what I am going to do... damn you and your making me think ;-)<br />So much so that it got me to update my blog Well here’s what I am going to do… damn you and your making me think ;-)
So much so that it got me to update my blog

]]> By: Lee Wallace http://damieng.com/blog/2007/07/19/what-are-you-doing-for-the-next-6-months-to#comment-1948 Lee Wallace Fri, 20 Jul 2007 18:55:33 +0000 http://damieng.com/blog/archive/2007/07/19/what-are-you-doing-for-the-next-6-months-to.aspx#comment-1948 When it comes to GTD based Mac software don't forget the free <a href="http://bargiel.home.pl/iGTD/">iGTD</a>.<br /><br />Kudos When it comes to GTD based Mac software don’t forget the free iGTD.

Kudos

]]> By: Andrew Donaldson http://damieng.com/blog/2007/07/19/what-are-you-doing-for-the-next-6-months-to#comment-1947 Andrew Donaldson Thu, 19 Jul 2007 23:35:18 +0000 http://damieng.com/blog/archive/2007/07/19/what-are-you-doing-for-the-next-6-months-to.aspx#comment-1947 Cool Damien.<br /><br />To be honest, I don't have a formal plan like this, though I do tend to get itchy once a year and try to learn a new language.<br /><br />More often than not, a quick foray into one computer based hobby ends out in playing more with the programming languages behind it (WoW/Lua, Blender3d/Python, Processing/java).<br /><br />The Dvorak thing is really interesting though and was something I was keen to look into. I've heard a good technique for learning it was not to remap your keys, but to simply print out the keyboard mapping and stick it to your screen -- you're not meant to be looking at your keys anyway :)<br /><br />For all of these tasks you've set yourself though, you need to think about measurement. How else can you tell if they're making an improvement or not? Cool Damien.

To be honest, I don’t have a formal plan like this, though I do tend to get itchy once a year and try to learn a new language.

More often than not, a quick foray into one computer based hobby ends out in playing more with the programming languages behind it (WoW/Lua, Blender3d/Python, Processing/java).

The Dvorak thing is really interesting though and was something I was keen to look into. I’ve heard a good technique for learning it was not to remap your keys, but to simply print out the keyboard mapping and stick it to your screen — you’re not meant to be looking at your keys anyway :)

For all of these tasks you’ve set yourself though, you need to think about measurement. How else can you tell if they’re making an improvement or not?

]]> By: Damien Guard http://damieng.com/blog/2007/07/19/what-are-you-doing-for-the-next-6-months-to#comment-1946 Damien Guard Thu, 19 Jul 2007 23:01:02 +0000 http://damieng.com/blog/archive/2007/07/19/what-are-you-doing-for-the-next-6-months-to.aspx#comment-1946 Updated the post just to clarify I have a new job and am putting all these practices into place based on my experience contracting over the last 7 years.<br /><br />Hope I still get something out of Code Complete.<br /><br />[)amien Updated the post just to clarify I have a new job and am putting all these practices into place based on my experience contracting over the last 7 years.

Hope I still get something out of Code Complete.

[)amien

]]> By: Rik Hemsley http://damieng.com/blog/2007/07/19/what-are-you-doing-for-the-next-6-months-to#comment-1945 Rik Hemsley Thu, 19 Jul 2007 22:39:55 +0000 http://damieng.com/blog/archive/2007/07/19/what-are-you-doing-for-the-next-6-months-to.aspx#comment-1945 Yes, the requests-per-second performance of Ruby on Rails is low compared to other available platforms, but, as you probably already guessed, this isn't necessarily important or even noticeable for many applications.<br /><br />Looking forward to hearing how your switch to ORM goes!<br /><br /><br /><br /> Yes, the requests-per-second performance of Ruby on Rails is low compared to other available platforms, but, as you probably already guessed, this isn’t necessarily important or even noticeable for many applications.

Looking forward to hearing how your switch to ORM goes!

]]> By: steve http://damieng.com/blog/2007/07/19/what-are-you-doing-for-the-next-6-months-to#comment-1944 steve Thu, 19 Jul 2007 22:33:49 +0000 http://damieng.com/blog/archive/2007/07/19/what-are-you-doing-for-the-next-6-months-to.aspx#comment-1944 I totally agree on the IRC side. It's nice sometimes to have immediate feedback, but forums and wikis are so much better as a support mechanism by nature of them being persistent, searchable and refineable.<br /><br />Code Complete is a great book - it's the book I referred all my less experienced trainees at work to. You'll find a lot in there you already know since you've been around a while, but it's nice to have it all condensed into a best-practice volume.<br /><br />It's funny hearing you talk about tools and procedures, when I was at SSD I found people in the private sector tended to look down on government IT by nature, but we had source control, change management procedures and systems to track deployment right back on the old mainframes when I first started in the early 90's (although I did write a few extra tools to help automate some processes), and I'm constantly shocked and horrified how many commercial outfits don't have such basic things in place. I remember losing my rag at a meeting with a local software provider (who shall remain nameless) who were bidding for work when it became clear just how disorganised and shambolic their organisation was. I totally agree on the IRC side. It’s nice sometimes to have immediate feedback, but forums and wikis are so much better as a support mechanism by nature of them being persistent, searchable and refineable.

Code Complete is a great book – it’s the book I referred all my less experienced trainees at work to. You’ll find a lot in there you already know since you’ve been around a while, but it’s nice to have it all condensed into a best-practice volume.

It’s funny hearing you talk about tools and procedures, when I was at SSD I found people in the private sector tended to look down on government IT by nature, but we had source control, change management procedures and systems to track deployment right back on the old mainframes when I first started in the early 90′s (although I did write a few extra tools to help automate some processes), and I’m constantly shocked and horrified how many commercial outfits don’t have such basic things in place. I remember losing my rag at a meeting with a local software provider (who shall remain nameless) who were bidding for work when it became clear just how disorganised and shambolic their organisation was.

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