Manage Your Development Environment and Never Burn another Hamburger

The key to being an expert developer is being able to focus your attention and memory on the most important parts of the problem. The hard part of being an expert developer is there are so many different things clamoring for your attention and memory. The problem can be drowned out by the remembering which window has the file you want to look at, what the right git command is, how to start the server, dealing with email... You get the idea. Expert chefs and short order cooks set up their environment in advance so that repetitive items that can be done in advance are done and easily available, and so that their environment tells them important information without the chef having to spend precious time and attention remembering the state of every item in the world. You want to be more like a master chef. You want your environment to be smart enough to tell you important information at a glance. You want to get some practical advice on how to set up your development environment and tools so that more your time and attention can be spent on interesting problems.

Transcript

1. What separates novice and expert developers?
2. Dealing with the environment
3. Not just your editor
4. Some rights reserved by Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bike/4068859839/) Cognitive Load
5. Intrinsic Load Extrinsic Load
6. 7 ± 2 = 4
7. Lower your extrinsic load
8. Switching gears
9. Some rights reserved by Seattle Municipal Archives (http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlemunicipalarchives/2692476103/) Chef environments
10. Some rights reserved by rethought (http://www.flickr.com/photos/71654172@N00/4568624293/) Mise en place
11. Some Rights Reserved by atmtx (http://www.flickr.com/photos/atmtx/4250159996/) Short Order Cook
12. Some Rights Reserved by Skyco (http://www.flickr.com/photos/skyco/138780413/) Organized Grill
13. Where's my griddle?
14. Show, don't tell
15. Geoffrey Grossenbach (http://peepcode.com/blog/2012/my-command-line-prompt) Prompts
16. Tools know commands for you
17. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/meyer769/section16&17/2011/10/grouping-and-chunking.html Chunking
18. Understand what your tools do
19. Be self-aware
20. Focus