Finding Beauty in the Mundane - RubyConf

Amongst the exciting challenges of making software, there are some tasks we go out of our way to avoid: linting files, updating dependencies, writing documentation. But even the "boring" parts of the job are opportunities to make big changes for the better, little by little. In this talk, you'll learn how to make even the most mundane development tasks exciting in order to better your applications and become your team's hero in the process.

Presented at RubyConf on November 15th, 2017

Transcript

1. Finding Beauty in the Mundane Megan Tiu RubyConf - November 15, 2017
2. Hi there my name is Megan Tiu I am: Senior Software Engineer at CallRail Co-organizer of Rails Girls Atlanta @megantiu on Twitter megantiu on GitHub
3. Finding Beauty in the Mundane Megan Tiu RubyConf - November 15, 2017
4. We can’t love every part of our jobs
5. Some tasks are less fun than others
6. How can we love our jobs more?
7. We must understand and change to make good
8. Empathy
9. All computer problems are people problems.
11. Technical debt
13. I know we can do better
14. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
15. – Apprenticeship Patterns, David Hoover and Adewale Oshineye “What’s the grungiest task that your team has been putting off for months?”
16. – Apprenticeship Patterns, David Hoover and Adewale Oshineye “See if you can creatively resolve the problem in a way that exceeds people’s expectations and makes it fun for you.”
17. What we do is so much more than code
18. What we do is so much more than best practices
19. What we do is so much more than prestige
20. It’s about respect for our teammates
21. It’s about respect for our users
22. It’s about respect for ourselves
24. How can we change our perspective?
25. Updating dependencies
27. • more secure applications
28. • exposure to the open source community
29. • more debugging experience
30. • use of supported versions
31. Rails 4.2.x only receives severe security patches yeah, not even "moderate" securty patches
32. Only Rails 5.1.x receives bug fixes
35. Writing Documentation
37. Docs help spread knowledge
38. Docs help prevent silos
39. Docs help make onboarding easy
40. Documentation helps:
41. Documentation helps: • New developers
42. Documentation helps: • New developers • Current developers
43. Documentation helps: • New developers • Current developers • Future developers
44. Documentation helps: • New developers • Current developers • Future developers • Support team members
45. Documentation helps: • New developers • Current developers • Future developers • Support team members • You, later
46. Writing documentation is a concrete way to help others
47. How can you start?
48. Make a glossary of common terms
49. Comment your code as you write it
51. Testing
54. • more reliable software
55. • allows refactoring with peace of mind
56. • an all-green test suite!!!
59. Linting
62. • opportunity for a quick win
63. • learn best practices
64. • more consistent codebase
66. Establish a style guide
69. Refactoring
71. Sometimes it’s necessary
72. We all want readable code
73. Refactoring is the closest we have to visual art
74. $==%
77. Refactoring is beautiful ✨
79. Code is beautiful
80. Software is beautiful
81. Wrapping up
82. How can we love our jobs more?
83. • Updating dependencies • Writing documentation • Testing • Linting • Refactoring
84. Change takes time
85. Gradually build habits
86. Empathy
87. Better software through empathy
88. Positivity
89. Through good development practices, we can make good change together
91. Spread this mindset to your team!
93. Senior Software Engineer at CallRail Co-organizer of Rails Girls Atlanta @megantiu on Twitter megantiu on GitHub Again, my name is Megan Tiu I am: Thank you!
94. References • Apprenticeship Patterns, David Hoover and Adewale Oshineye
95. Senior Software Engineer at CallRail Co-organizer of Rails Girls Atlanta @megantiu on Twitter megantiu on GitHub Again, my name is Megan Tiu I am: Thank you!