10 Years Later

Back in a day I used to think that 10 years of experience is a lot. Today it feels like just a number. I’ll talk about how my perspective on writing code, working in teams, talking to users, etc. has changed over time. If you’re still at the start of your career that may be my advice for you, if you’re in the 10+ club let’s compare the notes.

Transcript

1. 10 years later
   

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2. @listochkin
   

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3. I <3 Ruby
   

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4. ICFP Contest
   Teams
   3 days
   1 problem
   Very interesting
   2011 2012
   

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5. RubyC talk
   2015
   

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6. <10 days!
   

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7. Offered:
   Software Architect
   at a RoR project
   <10 days of Ruby
   

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8. Go beats Ruby
   

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9. Offered:
   Software Architect
   ZERO days of Go
   

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10. <3
    Ruby
    Ruby Community
    RobyMeditation
    

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12. 10+
    

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13. 1 day of Ruby per year?
    

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14. 10 years
    Long?
    Short?
    

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15. 2007
    iPhone
    IE, Opera, Firefox
    PHP, ASP.NET
    

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16. Framework wars
    Struts vs Tapestry vs Stripes vs Wicket
    Django vs Pylons vs TurboGears
    Rails vs Camping vs Merb vs Ramaze
    Prototype vs Dojo vs jQuery
    

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17. 10 years later
    we still have framework wars
    Rails vs Hanami vs dry-rb
    React won … but Vue, Svetle
    

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18. Young
    Impressionable
    

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19. Sponge
    

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20. Before internet
    

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21. All paper books I could find
    All Turbo Pascal Docs
    All Delphy Docs
    Borland jBuilder + JDK + J2EE
    Mandrake man pages and Books
    (Picaxe 1st ed)
    

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22. Just for Fun
    The Cathedral and the Bazaar
    Burroughs B5000 Oral History
    The Mythical Man Month
    

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23. 2007 - my first internet year
    

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24. 1st Google rejection
    

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25. Blogs
    

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26. Steve Yegge
    Joel Spolsky
    Kenneth Downs
    Patrick McKenzie
    Bill Venners
    Why the Lucky Stiff
    

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27. So much to learn
    So little time
    

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28. 2-3 hours to close JIRA
    tickets
    10+ hours of reading
    

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29. Programming
    Architecture
    Engineering practices
    

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30. Blogs
    

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31. Joel
    Interviews
    

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32. Kenneth
    Software lives and dies
    Databases stay forever
    

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33. Steve
    Languages matter
    JavaScript is the future
    

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34. Patrick
    Charge more
    Ask for more
    

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35. “Middle”
    

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36. 800+ engineers
    

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37. “Priorities”
    

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38. Sell your idea
    

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39. Fight for mindshare
    

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40. “Convince your boss”
    

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41. “Soft skills”
    

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42. 2007-2008
    Bank
    Users next door
    Instant gratification
    

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43. 2008-2010
    Opera
    Hundreds of Engineers
    2+ years
    3 days of press
    

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44. 100m+ users of my code
    People on the street
    using my app
    

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45. I want to talk to users
    

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46. Since 2008
    Server-side is DONE
    

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47. Router + Middleware
    DTO
    Controllers
    Repositories
    Entities
    R+E ≈ ActiveRecord
    

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48. UI turmoil
    

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49. Flex
    Silverlight
    HTML5
    

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50. Dojo Extjs YUI GCL GWT
    Air RIA Backbone Spine Batman
    SproutCore Cappuccino
    Angular Knockout Canjs
    jQuery UI & Mobile
    Titanium RubyMotion Xamarin
    

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51. Users speak UI
    Customers speak UI
    Business speaks UI
    

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52. $€ UI ¥£
    

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53. Leadership
    Mentoring
    

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54. Conference talks
    Workshops
    Community work
    

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55. I used to hear “NO”
    

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56. Now I’m telling “NO”
    

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57. My
    “learning how to lead”
    strategy
    

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58. Watch what others do
    

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59. Do the opposite
    

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60. Give the hardest tasks to
    least experienced people
    

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61. Give them ownership
    

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62. Give them freedom
    

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63. Sense of
    Pride & Accomplishment
    

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64. Boring Moot tasks go to me
    

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65. Team Motivation
    =
    My Motivation
    

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66. Some of my junior people hated me
    

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67. They got over it :)
    

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68. Following
    Loyalty
    Commitment
    Cohesion
    

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69. Years later:
    “Good Tech Lead Bad Tech Lead”
    

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70. Seniority?
    2011
    2012
    

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71. 3rd Google email
    I haven’t replied
    

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72. Full cycle:
    Specify
    Implement
    Launch
    Measure impact
    Measure revenue
    

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73. I made it
    With it we earned $X
    

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74. Architecture?
    Engineering Practices?
    

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75. Optimize for Change
    

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76. 3 month of IE8 profiling
    

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77. I’ve seen some
    

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80. Code can rot
    Developers may suffer
    

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81. Making the impossible possible
    

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83. Not something people expect of
    me
    

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84. Older lessons come back to me
    

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85. Data > Code
    

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86. Survivability bias in tech
    

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87. The older the tech that is
    still in use
    the more likely it will be
    used
    50 years from now
    

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88. Shell
    SQL
    C
    Vim
    PCRE
    

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89. Company Platforms
    

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90. IBM
    Sun
    Oracle
    Microsoft
    Apple
    SalesForce
    Automatic
    Google
    

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91. Most developers are
    Developers
    

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92. Some companies are very good
    at maintaining their platform
    

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93. Apple
    40+ years
    Transitions: few, smooth
    

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94. Microsoft / Google
    Internal conflicts bleed
    through
    Too many half baked
    revolutions
    

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95. Hard to stay independent
    <10%
    

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96. Unix
    Ruby / Perl / Python G
    C/C++ MS
    JavaScript FB & G
    

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97. Violent Independence
    

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98. Java => JS
    IJ => Sublime / Vim
    YUI => Ember
    

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99. 10X Developer
    

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100. 10+ / 20+ Experienced
     Few hours
     ≈
     10 people in a week
     

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101. I make fewer bugs
     I use more tools to catch bugs
     earlier
     I can predict bugs
     I can predict features
     My code is ugly yet extendible
     

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102. Software
     X% code
     Y% communication
     

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103. X↓ Y↑
     

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104. I talk
     

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105. Requirements
     Scenarios
     Context
     Roadmaps
     

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106. “Why?”
     

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107. I talk
     And people listen to me
     

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108. My features
     My ideas
     My product direction
     My accomplishments
     My pride
     

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109. Patrick
     Don't Call Yourself A
     Programmer
     

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110. MVP
     

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111. A good lawyer
     A good doctor
     A good financial advisor
     

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112. Junior
     Mid
     Senior
     

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113. Junior
     Ideas
     Reading a lot
     Apply very few lessons
     

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114. Paradox
     

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115. As a junior I learned all
     things I’ve talked about today
     

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116. Yet I was able to apply
     only a handful of them
     

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117. Mid
     Making choices
     Opportunities
     

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118. Different people
     Choose different paths
     

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119. Early soft skills
     vs
     No soft skills
     

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120. Fascinating
     Same background
     Different outcomes
     

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121. Senior
     Solidifying beliefs
     Making a difference
     

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122. Next 10 years?
     

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123. 20+
     

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124. Jobs => Topics
     Stories => Sagas
     Experience => Wisdom
     

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125. Programming is never boring
     

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126. I’m looking forward
     to my next 10 years
     

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