Does your code tell a story?

Software developers are writers. Our medium is text. What can we learn about how to write better code by studying the practices of prose authors? Frequently in software development, we solve a problem, check in the code and release it. Unfortunately, this means that we release the first draft of our solution. One of the main lessons of writing workshops and classes is to write in small chunks .and revise ruthlessly. By releasing our first drafts, we increase the maintenance cost of our application by making it harder for the next developer to understand the initial intent of the our solution. In this session, we will explore concepts from the craft of writing such as small assignments, shitty first drafts, where ideas come from and the three types of drafts as they apply to the practice of software development.

Transcript

1. Does Your Code Tell A Story? Alan Stevens A Desultory Philippic On Code Clarity
2. Contact Me Email/IM: alanstevens@gmail.com Blog: http://halanstevens.com Twitter: @alanstevens
3. David Gelernter Machine Beauty: Elegance and the Heart of Technology Beauty is more important in computing than anywhere else in technology because software is so complicated. Beauty is the ultimate defense against complexity.
4. Beauty is the ultimate defense against complexity
6. Be bold Be free Be truthful Brenda Ueland
7. TRUTH! the Tell
8. Good ideas come slowly
9. Busyness leads to little sharp staccato ideas instead of big slow ideas Brenda Ueland
10. Writing is: • Telepathy • Refined Thinking • Seduction
11. You must freely and recklessly make new mistakes
12. You need a tolerance for having no idea where your thing is going. Merlin Mann
13. When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a pen in his mouth. Kurt Vonnegut
14. E. L. Doctorow Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
15. Stories are found things. Stephen King
16. You won't see how to do it until you see yourself doing it. David Allen
17. Read a lot. Write a lot. Stephen King
18. It’s not the writing part that’s hard. It’s the sitting down to write. Stephen Pressfield
19. Give Yourself Short Assignments
20. “All I’m gonna’ do is…”
22. “Write shitty first drafts” Annie Lamont
23. The first draft is the child’s draft.
24. Begin to write in the dumb, awkward way that an animal cries out in pain. Natalie Goldberg
25. You must feel that you have permission to write the worst junk in the world and it would be okay. Natalie Goldberg
26. The secret of getting ahead is getting started. Mark Twain
27. 1. breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks 2. then starting on the first one Mark Twain The secret of getting started is
28. Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It is the main obstacle to your shitty first draft. Annie Lamont
29. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self confident. The real one is scared to death. Stephen Pressfield
30. Three Kinds Of Drafts • The first draft is the “down draft” just get it down. • The second draft is the “up draft” clean it up. • The third draft is the “dental draft” where you carefully inspect each tooth.
31. When you write a story, you're telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story. Stephen King
32. Write with the door closed. Rewrite with the door open. Stephen King
33. The danger is greatest when the finish line is in sight. Stephen Pressfield
34. Your stuff starts out being just for you, but then it goes out! Stephen King
35. Once you know what the story is and get it right, as right as you can anyway, it belongs to anyone who wants to read it. Stephen King !
36. When you finally realize what your program is doing, you have to go back and make it look like you knew that all along. Make it look like it was easy to write this program, even if it wasn’t. Ward Cunningham “Mastering the Craft of Programming” http://railslab.newrelic.com/2009/09/15/ward-cunningham-aboutus-org
37. Resources
43. Beauty is the ultimate defense against complexity
44. Thanks For Listening! Email/IM: alanstevens@gmail.com Blog: http://halanstevens.com Twitter: @alanstevens