Slide 49
Slide 49 text
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My hammer of course is pair programming. And a lot of these communication problems sure look like nails.
(deep breath)
Now I did SAY that I wasn’t going to rant.
But why is it...
why is it that some developers are so rabidly opposed to pair programming? I mean, leaving aside whether or not
it’s effective, since there are have been loads of studies confirming that. I mean, why is it that some developers
just don’t want to do it?
And what I think is that they don’t want to do it because they don’t know how to talk to people and they think it
will be awkward. And I think that because I thought that before I started doing it. But, I have some news for you:
you are a human being. And learning how to talk to other human beings is a skill that you should learn.
Easily talking to people is not a talent that you either have or do not have. It is not. It is a skill that you can learn,
and get better at. And I think you’ll find that spending your day talking to another developer is significantly easier
than spending that time talking to a normal person. But - the practice still counts!
About 3 months after I started at Pivotal, I went to an alumni event for my university where there were normal
people. And I was shocked to discover that I could make small talk with them, which I’d never really been able to
do before. And not only that - I was pretty good at it. I asked them questions about themselves, kept the
conversation going...I went home that night and I sat down and I said, what just happened? Am I becoming an
extrovert?
Now I won’t tell you it’s not difficult. It is exhausting at first to spend all your time talking. The first few months I
was at Pivotal, I was so exhausted that I really don’t have clear memories of that time. The only other time in my
life I’ve been like that is after I had a baby.
So, it is hard. But it is worth doing. No matter how awkward you are now, you can learn to talk to people. Because
that skill, that ability to connect with people, is what makes us human.
And that’s all I have to say about that. (breath) Ok, We’re back on script. So!