Building Better Developers
The steady effort we put in to become a better developer can be redirected when needed. This surge effort can provide us the extra steam we need to get a project done. Likewise, it can provide a steady flow of effort that allows us to avoid the usual ebb and flow of IT work. All of that can lead to less exhaustion, more productivity, and a generally better mood. Happy and healthy are traits most of us prefer to have.... Read more
Welcome to the next episode in our new series “Integrating testing into your development flow”. Today we are going to be looking at “Selenium In TestNG: Taking Your Web Tests To The Next Level “. In our last presentation, we went over how to expand on the logging and reporting tools provided by testNG to generate more meaningful reports. In addition, we covered several examples on how to write your own custom logger and reporters. So that you can create... Read more
We have often looked at ways to provide content as part of a side-hustle. Thus, we will skip that topic this time around. Instead, let’s look at giving back and providing things for free. However, before you move to the next article, we will focus on how free to others does not mean it lacks value for you. We might even see situations where an altruistic approach is very beneficial to us and our brand. Start With Giving Back Before... Read more
There is a well-known book that describes mastery of skills as needing ten thousand hours. The ideas put forth in the book have many arguments for and against, but that is for another time. In this episode, we look at ways for mastering skills in under the ten thousand hours mentioned in the Outliers book. This theory is critical for our daily exercises in getting better because we do want to reach mastery at some point. Complementary Skills We can... Read more
Time is arguably our most valuable resource. We can not buy extra time. We can only spend it as wisely as possible. That means we need to be mindful of the cost of our daily tasks for getting better. Fortunately, that time is not a loss. We can plan out our daily steps to improve in ways that allow us to get more done with little or no additional time spent. One way is mixing side-hustle tasks with your regular... Read more
Our daily work to get better is not without positive side-effects. One of the most powerful of these is the ability for us to build on prior work. These tools can be a huge productivity boost. That is the case whether we are starting with an application baseline or working from a document template. Prior Work Is An Investment Our daily steps to improve and become a better developer will generate deliverables at some point. These may not be highly... Read more