Roundup: disenchantment, backs, naming things
Murray Steele
Sept. 28, 2018
Software Disenchantment - Elena T
http://tonsky.me/blog/disenchantment/
We've been moving fast for decades in terms of software development. We have a tendency to try the next exciting thing instead of looking inwardly to see what we can throw away. In a way, it's understandable. You can't really add "pruning code and deleting stuff" on your CV as a major skill. But maybe you should be able to.
The argument in this article is that our behaviour of hoarding code and complexity has become unmaintainable. We throw a blanket over what we've created and carry on inventing new abstraction layers. Meanwhile everything gets slower and more bloated. Updates take longer to download, apps are running at the same speed as they were a few years ago despite hardware performance increases.
The main takeaway for me was that we should be looking at starting some practices that focus on having a healthy ecosystem, some of which involve throwing stuff away so we can give ourselves space for real progress.
How to protect your back - Elena T
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/09/24/649169060/cant-get-comfortable-in-your-chair-heres-what-you-can-do
Office work means we sit at our desks without moving for prolonged periods of time. This weakens our lower back muscles and results in our spine turning into a "C" shape. No one wants that. Our neck can become displaced forward in this position and results in us getting more and more tired when we attempt to keep it upright. While it's important that we focus on taking breaks and move around from time to time, we can also make sure that our posture protects our back. This articles recommends some baby steps we can take to become more aware of how we're sitting and improve our posture.
Naming doesn't have to be hard - Murray S
https://www.sitepoint.com/whats-in-a-name-anti-patterns-to-a-hard-problem/
Choosing a good name for a variable or method really helps us express the intent of our code, but it's often the hardest thing to get right. This article has some useful tips to help you choose better names. I particularly liked the first tip about ignoring type information when considering a name, as my default approach is to use the type of the variable as a name (or part of a name).
Track of the Week - Crystal
A beautiful song that never fails to make chill me out or make me sleep.