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Trisha Gee
Lead Developer Advocate, Gradle
Next Step: Play Time!
What do you do with what you just learned?
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● Lead Developer Advocate at Gradle
● Java Champion & JetBrains Community Contributor
● 20+ years development experience
● Author and Person With Opinions
Trisha Gee
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● Lead Developer Advocate at Gradle
● Java Champion & JetBrains Community Contributor
● 20+ years development experience
● Author and Person With Opinions
Trisha Gee
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Two days at a conference
learning interesting things!
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What are you going to do with
everything you’ve learnt?
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“In the modern office context, [knowledge workers] tend to
rely on stress as a default heuristic for moderation.”
Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
Cal Newport
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This means that you are, by
default, ALWAYS TOO BUSY
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This means that you are, by
default, ALWAYS TOO BUSY
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Your management is pretty
happy with this
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Your management is pretty
happy with this
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Your management is pretty
happy with this
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“Research indicates that when organizations overload
employees, base their incentives primarily on the amount of
time they work, and excessively monitor their activities,
productivity and efficiency actually drop.”
https://hbr
.org/2023/03/beware-a-culture-of-busyness
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By Amy (Trisha’s daughter)
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AND you’re too busy to make the
changes that will make you less busy
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“[Knowledge workers] exist at that point of… having too
much to do, but… just manageable enough to avoid reform.”
Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
Cal Newport
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If you want to make the most of what
you’ve learnt here, you will need to make
some changes
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The bald fact is that many companies provide developers
with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive
as to fill their days with frustration. That alone could explain
reduced efficiency as well as a tendency for good people to
migrate elsewhere.”
https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/attracted-to-the-desert-or-the-forest
Kent Beck
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Start Small
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Do not try to re-write the
whole application in Rust
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Culture of Continuous Learning
Brown Bags
Hack days and Hackathons
20% Time
Experimentation Sprints
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Culture of Continuous Learning
Brown Bags
Hack days and Hackathons
20% Time
Experimentation Sprints
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Culture of Continuous Learning
Brown Bags
Hack days and Hackathons
20% Time
Experimentation Sprints
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Culture of Continuous Learning
Brown Bags
Hack days and Hackathons
20% Time
Experimentation Sprints
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Culture of Continuous Learning
Brown Bags
Hack days and Hackathons
20% Time
Experimentation Sprints
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Choose where to spend your
energy
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I will make those work
requirements easier
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I will make the team more efficient
or more effective
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Everyone else has been going on
about how cool or interesting I am
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You think this is kinda cool or interesting
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You are an investment
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The second law of thermodynamics:
entropy always increases with time
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Entropy is a gradual decline into disorder
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If you aren’t improving something, things are
getting worse.
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Things might get worse before
they get better
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The bald fact is that many companies provide developers
with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive
as to fill their days with frustration. That alone could explain
reduced efficiency as well as a tendency for good people to
migrate elsewhere.”
https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-trough-of-despair
Kent Beck
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The bald fact is that many companies provide developers
with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive
as to fill their days with frustration. That alone could explain
reduced efficiency as well as a tendency for good people to
migrate elsewhere.”
https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-trough-of-despair
Kent Beck
You Are
Here
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The bald fact is that many companies provide developers
with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive
as to fill their days with frustration. That alone could explain
reduced efficiency as well as a tendency for good people to
migrate elsewhere.”
https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-trough-of-despair
Kent Beck
You Are
Here
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The bald fact is that many companies provide developers
with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive
as to fill their days with frustration. That alone could explain
reduced efficiency as well as a tendency for good people to
migrate elsewhere.”
https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-trough-of-despair
Kent Beck
You Are
Here
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The bald fact is that many companies provide developers
with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive
as to fill their days with frustration. That alone could explain
reduced efficiency as well as a tendency for good people to
migrate elsewhere.”
https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-trough-of-despair
Kent Beck
You Are
Here
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The bald fact is that many companies provide developers
with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive
as to fill their days with frustration. That alone could explain
reduced efficiency as well as a tendency for good people to
migrate elsewhere.”
https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-trough-of-despair
Kent Beck
You Are
Here
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The bald fact is that many companies provide developers
with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive
as to fill their days with frustration. That alone could explain
reduced efficiency as well as a tendency for good people to
migrate elsewhere.”
https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-trough-of-despair
Kent Beck
You Are
Here
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The bald fact is that many companies provide developers
with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive
as to fill their days with frustration. That alone could explain
reduced efficiency as well as a tendency for good people to
migrate elsewhere.”
https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-trough-of-despair
Kent Beck
You Are
Here
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Why are you doing this?
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More efficient team, faster
delivery, higher productivity
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More efficient team, faster
delivery, higher productivity
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Learning and trying new things
is FUN
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Wait, WORK should be fun?
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The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
Frederick Brooks Jr
.
“The Joys of the Craft”
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1. The sheer joy of making things
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
Frederick Brooks Jr
.
“The Joys of the Craft”
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1. The sheer joy of making things
2. The pleasure of making things that are useful to other people.
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
Frederick Brooks Jr
.
“The Joys of the Craft”
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1. The sheer joy of making things
2. The pleasure of making things that are useful to other people.
3. The fascination of fashioning complex puzzle-like objects… and
watching them work
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
Frederick Brooks Jr
.
“The Joys of the Craft”
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1. The sheer joy of making things
2. The pleasure of making things that are useful to other people.
3. The fascination of fashioning complex puzzle-like objects… and
watching them work
4. The joy of always learning
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
Frederick Brooks Jr
.
“The Joys of the Craft”
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1. The sheer joy of making things
2. The pleasure of making things that are useful to other people.
3. The fascination of fashioning complex puzzle-like objects… and
watching them work
4. The joy of always learning
5. The delight of working in such a tractable medium.”
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
Frederick Brooks Jr
.
“The Joys of the Craft”
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How can I sell THAT to the
boss??
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Fun is productive
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Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.”
Aristotle
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Research shows: Fun is good for business
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Research shows: Fun is good for business
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Play gives us energy
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Breaks and recess are not deviations from learning. They are part
of learning. Years of research show…. kids who have recess work
harder, fidget less… focus more intently…. earn better grades.…
develop better social skills, show greater empathy, and cause
fewer disruptions. They even eat healthier food. In short, if you
want kids to flourish, let them leave the classroom.”
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing
Daniel H. Pink
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Breaks and recess are not deviations from learning. They are part
of learning. Years of research show…. kids who have recess work
harder, fidget less… focus more intently…. earn better grades.…
develop better social skills, show greater empathy, and cause
fewer disruptions. They even eat healthier food. In short, if you
want kids to flourish, let them leave the classroom.”
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing
Daniel H. Pink
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Breaks and recess are not deviations from learning. They are part
of learning. Years of research show…. kids who have recess work
harder, fidget less… focus more intently…. earn better grades.…
develop better social skills, show greater empathy, and cause
fewer disruptions. They even eat healthier food. In short, if you
want kids to flourish, let them leave the classroom.”
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing
Daniel H. Pink
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Play safely
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Where to play?
Pet projects
Spikes or prototypes
Build system / deployment tools / CD pipeline
Automated tests
Internal tools
New project or service
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Where to play?
Pet projects
Spikes or prototypes
Build system / deployment tools / CD pipeline
Automated tests
Internal tools
New project or service
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Where to play?
Pet projects
Spikes or prototypes
Build system / deployment tools / CD pipeline
Automated tests
Internal tools
New project or service
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Where to play?
Pet projects
Spikes or prototypes
Build system / deployment tools / CD pipeline
Automated tests
Internal tools
New project or service
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Where to play?
Pet projects
Spikes or prototypes
Build system / deployment tools / CD pipeline
Automated tests
Internal tools
New project or service
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Where to play?
Pet projects
Spikes or prototypes
Build system / deployment tools / CD pipeline
Automated tests
Internal tools
New project or service
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Where to play?
Pet projects
Spikes or prototypes
Build system / deployment tools / CD pipeline
Automated tests
Internal tools
New project or service
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We need time to think
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We need time to think
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Default Mode Network
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There’s absolutely nothing you can do to motivate others.
People are already intrinsically motivated, engaged, and
interested.”
Organizational Physics: The Science of Growing a Business
Lex Sisney
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“We engineers automate so that we can focus on the fun
stuff — and the fun stuff is the work that uses most of your
brain”
The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change
Camille Fournier
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Engineers have a weird
definition of fun
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You might make a list of messes to tidy later (I call this
my Fun List, because I have an odd notion of ‘fun’). ”
Tidy First?: A Personal Exercise in Empirical Software Design
Kent Beck
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1. The sheer joy of making things
2. The pleasure of making things that are useful to other people.
3. The fascination of fashioning complex puzzle-like objects… and
watching them work
4. The joy of always learning
5. The delight of working in such a tractable medium.”
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
Frederick Brooks Jr
.
“The Joys of the Craft”
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Learning stuff makes you better
at learning stuff
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Adapting to an ever-accelerating sequence of new
technologies also trains the mind to explore and master
complex systems.”
Everything Bad is Good for You: How Popular Culture is Making Us Smarter
Steven Johnson
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Paying the cost of learning
speeds you up in the long run
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Learning drains cognitive resources, but after you’ve learned
it, using the now-automatic knowledge and skill is fast and
effortless. Knowledge in the head trades slower learning
time now for faster using time later.”
Badass: Making Users Awesome
Kathy Sierra
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Learning is not
just for developers
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One major weak spot for managers is losing touch with the
tools and processes for actually developing, testing,
deploying, and monitoring code.”
The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change
Camille Fournier
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Make time to play with new
things when you get back to work
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Measuring Developer Productivity
SATISFACTION & WELL-BEING
Performance
Activity
Communication & Collaboration
Ef
fi
ciency & Flow
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What if…
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You could “capitalise on the training
investment” of this conference…
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…spend time having fun at
work…
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AND “add business value”?
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Let’s Play
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Thank You!
bit.ly/tg-playtime
jfokus.se/rate/2531
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Sometimes I just don’t have the energy to tackle a new
feature, but I want to work. Picking an item off the Fun List…
brings me joy. Don’t underestimate how much better you
are as a programmer when you’re happy.”
Tidy First?: A Personal Exercise in Empirical Software Design
Kent Beck
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How is it that so many knowledge workers end up with
workloads calibrated to the exact edge of the overhead tax
tipping point?
Newport, Cal. Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without
Burnout (p. 61). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
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In knowledge work, when you agree to a new commitment,
be it a minor task or a large project, it brings with it a certain
amount of ongoing administrative overhead: back-and-forth
email threads needed to gather information, for example, or
meetings scheduled to synchronize with your collaborators.
This overhead tax activates as soon as you take on a new
responsibility.
Newport, Cal. Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without
Burnout (p. 56). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
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Most workers who are fortunate enough to exert some
control over their efforts—such as knowledge workers, small-
business entrepreneurs, or freelancers—tend to avoid taking
on so much work that they crash and burn, but also tend to
avoid working a reasonable amount.
Newport, Cal. Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without
Burnout (p. 61). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
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They exist at that point of maximum sustainable overhead
tax that seems to represent the worst of all configurations, as
it maintains the pain of having too much to do, but keeps this
pain just manageable enough to avoid reform.
Newport, Cal. Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without
Burnout (p. 61). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
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How do knowledge workers decide when to say no to the
constant bombardment of incoming requests? In the modern
office context, they tend to rely on stress as a default
heuristic for moderation.
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“…should be celebrating is not their mastery of a specific
platform… but rather their seemingly effortless ability to pick
up new platforms on the fly, without so much as a glimpse at a
manual. What they've learned is not just the specific rules
intrinsic to a particular system; they've learned abstract
principles that can be applied when approaching any
complicated system.”
Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad is Good for You: How Popular Culture is Making
Us Smarter (pp. 176-177). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
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“There’s absolutely nothing you can do to motivate others.
People are already intrinsically motivated, engaged, and
interested. In fact, when you try to motivate people by
offering incentives, threats, bribes, and rewards, you’re
actually creating a disincentive to work, lowering both job
satisfaction and productivity.”
Sisney, Lex. Organizational Physics: The Science of Growing a Business
(p. 295). Kindle Edition.
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https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/measuring-developer-productivity
#4: a software engineer who wants to grow at their craft.
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Why do you personally want to dive in and
learn more?
(FOMO is a poor driver)
You must be selective