From ad54f143ab4f58b35e041a36c8e749c3708faf2e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Craig Maloney Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2018 07:54:22 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Adding section on talking to other programmers --- chapter02.md | 6 ++++-- 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/chapter02.md b/chapter02.md index 7241077..ba37d42 100644 --- a/chapter02.md +++ b/chapter02.md @@ -36,6 +36,8 @@ Unfortunately commits and lines of code are the most visible measurement of codi Measuring ourselves on the quantity of others output is easy and seductive but it isn't useful for figuring out how to improve ourselves in relation to the other programmer (other than "generate more commits". That line of thinking can lea us to thinking that we're not spending enough time doing "actual programming" and lead to overwork, stress, and burn-out. -## Ways to improve (needs better title) +## Traveling Companions -(How to be more mindful about comparing ourselves to others) +There can be times when it is useful to compare ourselves with other coders. Sometimes we can learn about new technologies or new methodologies by looking at the work of others. But it's very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that because we're not at the level of other coders that we're somehow inferior to them. Rather than looking at other coders as competition we should look at them as companions. We're all in this profession working to make our respective projects better. With Open Source / Free Software we have a unique opportunity to be able to look at how other folks do their work in public. We can learn from the code of others much in the same way that scientists can look at the papers of other scientists to see what worked (by replication and repetition). No coder is completely isolated from the work of others. Rare is the programmer that achieved everything they achieved without looking at the work of others to help their own coding efforts. We all learn from each other. But rather than be intimidated by the work of others we can instead take it apart and learn from it. And if we're lucky we can have the opportunity to ask others about how the code works and why they chose to do it that way. + +There's value in being able to ask questions of our fellow coders. We tend to overlook asking questions for feeling like we're going to ask something obvious or ask a question that will make us feel inadequate for asking. Asking questions is very useful when we don't understand what is going on with a particular piece of code. Finding other programmers who don't mind answering questions is valuable to our learning process. -- 2.31.1