Better Living Through Open Source

How can we improve as developers while living our values?

Transcript

1. Better Living Through Open Source Corey Ehmke June 2013
2. Who am I?
3. A developer with a long memory. (And a longer history.)
4. An active Open Source contributor.
5. A lead developer at Apartments.com.
6. A lifelong learner.
7. One day I asked myself...
8. What matters most to me as a developer? “ ”
9. #1 Getting better at what I do.
10. Building cool and useful stuff. #2
11. Finding learning & teaching moments. #3
12. Practicing good citizenship. #4
13. Then I asked myself...
14. “That’s great, but how do you actually practice these values?”
15. Hmm. Good question, self. Let’s see.
16. #1
17. #1 Getting better at what I do.
18. Studies have shown* that getting better at what you do involves three kinds of “stuff”.
19. Studies have shown* that getting better at what you do involves three kinds of “stuff”. * I totally made this up actually.
20. The Three Kinds of Stuff
21. The Three Kinds of Stuff Stuff I've Done
22. Stuff I Do Every Day The Three Kinds of Stuff Stuff I've Done
23. Stuff I Do Every Day The Three Kinds of Stuff Stuff I've Done Stuff I Want to Do
24. Stuff you’ve done is the problem-solving vocabulary you have to work with.
25. Stuff you do every day reinforces that vocabulary.
26. Stuff you’re interested in motivates you to expand your vocabulary.
27. So getting better at what you do requires both practice and making time for things that interest you.
28. Interlude #1: Advice from an English Major
29. I used to read a lot of crap.
30. I used to read a lot of crap.
31. I used to read a lot of crap.
32. I used to read a lot of crap.
33. In school I practiced reading more crap.
34. In school I practiced reading more crap.
35. In school I practiced reading more crap.
36. In school I practiced reading more crap.
37. Then I discovered books that hurt my brain. (In a good way.)
38. Then I discovered books that hurt my brain. (In a good way.)
39. Then I discovered books that hurt my brain. (In a good way.)
40. Then I discovered books that hurt my brain. (In a good way.)
41. Reading these books expanded my mental vocabulary.
42. Reading code can have the same effect...
43. ...but only if it’s really good code.
44. Open Source gives you access to the best code ever written.
46. Welcome to the library.
47. Welcome to the library.
48. #2
49. #2 Building cool and useful stuff.
50. If you’re lucky, your work involves creating and delivering useful stuff.
51. Most of it will be good. Some of it will be great. (And some of it will come back to haunt you.)
52. Business software has a finite number of users & stakeholders.
53. Fewer stakeholders means that fewer voices shape the solution.
54. Edge cases and client-specific code will eventually outweigh core functionality.
55. In short, closed-source code loses focus over time.
56. In open source software, users == stakeholders.
57. Open source code gains focus and utility over time. (Until it stops being useful, at which point something quickly comes along to replace it.)
58. Open sourcing your cool and useful stuff makes it cooler and even more useful.
59. #3
60. #3 Finding learning & teaching moments.
61. Seer: My First Gem
62. Simple, declarative DSL for graphing in RoR.
63. Elegant design, clean code, plenty of tests, & even a sample project.
64. At the time, my best work to date.
67. My beautiful code was... not perfect.
68. My test suite sucked.
69. But the design was good and communicated intent.
70. The open source community took what I designed and ran with it.
71. Humbling and encouraging.
73. `
74. #4
75. #4 Practicing good citizenship.
76. I faced a challenge.
77. I found a solution.
78. Other people may have the same challenge.
79. I should share the solution.
80. Open source software is the new commons.
81. If it weren’t for open source, most of us would not have the jobs we do.
83. Don’t be that guy.
84. Contributing Effectively
85. Be a fixer. DO
86. Be a scribe. DO
87. DO Take bite-sized pieces.
88. DO Get the maintainers familiar with your name.
89. DON’T Change too much at once.
90. DON’T Overcommit or over commit.
91. DON’T Be a jerk.
92. DON’T Be anonymous.
93. Getting Started
97. Questions?
98. Corey Ehmke bantik.github.com @Bantik