Be the Worst

The pattern of Unleashing Your Enthusiasm is a very interesting pattern in that it teaches you how to deal with plateauing skills and what to do next. Becoming better at something is something that most people who are looking to improve try to accomplish. The difficult part is getting to that point. Often times we reach a point where nothing else seems achievable and all that was there to offer has been taken or learned. However, this is usually never the case. In fact, there can always be things to improve on – no matter what it is you do. One thing that you should teach yourself is that it is okay to be bad at something. If you compare yourself to others, that’s one thing. But if you compare yourself to others as a means to improve, that’s the important part. In order to get better at something, you need to find people that are better than you at it. This is just a basic fundamental of not only programming, but even sports. Boxers don’t just beat the best of the best in their first, second, or even third try. It takes them months or years to even try. But the more times they get knocked down, the more they learn. This is especially important in teamwork. By working with people who are better than you at something, you will naturally be obligated to perform better just because you don’t want to be the worst one. No one does.

I really enjoy this pattern because I have personal experience with this pattern. Whenever I am struggling with something, whether it’s programming, mathematics, or something else, I try to surround myself with people who better understand the content. By hearing them talk about certain things and by watching them do certain actions, that really helps me grasps topics better than anything else. Sometimes it’s hard to learn things on our own, but that’s okay. That’s because anyone can learn the content, it’s just a matter of HOW we learn. It’s a matter of HOW we perform certain actions that really push ourselves to our limits.

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A Different Road

An important part of learning programming is the ability to keep learning and practice. By using ongoing practicing and learning, you will hone in on your skills as a developer and be able to solve a lot more problems that you may have thought differently about in the past. The Pattern of “A Different Road” says that you should find another path that has similar values with what you really are striving for. For example, if your family is important, you should choose some sort of path that follows that. Or if you value money or something else, you should reevaluate what exactly it is you are doing and ask yourself if it is something you truly want to do. Sometimes you may want to do one type of job but later find out that it is not as fulfilling as you once thought it was. This can lead to discouragement because it can get difficult. An example that the article used was how getting back into something can be difficult after leaving the first time. This is an important aspect tot he article because of it’s real world application. If you like to do something, you should really consider what exactly it is that you want to work for or work towards.

I found a lot of things that were interesting in this pattern. One thing that I would was very important was be able to know when something should change. If something seems like it would be unsatisfying to me, I should change it because it could hinder my ability in that field if I keep trying. This really made me think about my intended profession in ways that can potentially effect the places I choose to work at in the future. I definitely agree that although sometimes something may seem like a good profession, it may not always be stimulating to what you can truly apply yourself to. Trying different things is going to be very important and can be difficult, but it is that first step to make a change that will create all of the difference in the future.

 

Round Earth Test Strategy

This article is very interesting in that it offers a new perspective on the importance of a front-end user perspective first type of testing scheme. It starts off by explaining to us the normal pyramid testing scheme and how at the tip of the pyramid is where the user perspective and UI is. This article is contrary to all of those other testing pyramids because, by how this article explains it, the top of the pyramid is just as, if not MORE important than the lower levels. Typically in a Test Automation Pyramid you have Unit or unit tests at the bottom (long base), then you have your service tests (integration, component, and api tests: middle slice), and finally at the top you have your user interface and ideally what the user sees. Knowing that, this article explains how the pyramid should actually be flipped upside-down, having the user perspective be of larger importance. You would still have your unit tests and integration on the bottom and middle, it just wouldn’t be as large. This is the point the article is trying to make, “Just as a triangle has more area in its lower part than its upper part, so you should make more automated tests on lower levels than higher levels.” This is not an argument; this is not reasoning. Nothing in the nature of a triangle tells us how it relates to technology problems. It’s simply a shape that matches an assertion that the authors wanted to make. It’s semiotics with weak semantics.” Pretty much, the article is saying that the shape of the triangle in which these schemes are based on don’t really carry that much weight into technological problems.

My reaction to this article is that I agree with what they are describing here. Similarly to the article, I also think that when you have a project, each layer above the next can often be a lot more complex than compared to the lower levels. This in turn can also even carry a higher risk. The model the author is talking about is the Round Earth model. The round Earth model states that you should think of technology as concentric spheres and that each layer can increase dramatically. This article made me open my eyes and made a lot more sense of how certain models don’t really understand what they even stand for.

 

Article: http://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/4947