Yareev's schmonz.com

PSL Last week I and 23 others made a pilgrimage to Albuquerque to participate in the Problem Solving Leadership workshop.

I’m not smart enough to have ideas before I need them Last week an attentive colleague heard something potentially self-contradictory in my reasoning and reflected it back to me.

Feel sorry for me It’s been a tough week to keep up with Twitter.

Previously This is the last in a series about TDD’s value to humans, following Keeping my job, in which I lost my manager’s trust, A last-minute feature, in which I regained some, Deadline pressure, in which I earned quite a bit more than I’d started with,

Previously This is the ninth in a series about TDD’s value to humans, following Keeping my job, in which I lost my manager’s trust, A last-minute feature, in which I regained some, Deadline pressure, in which I earned quite a bit more than I’d started wit…

Previously This is the eighth in a series about TDD’s value to humans, following Keeping my job, in which I lost my manager’s trust, A last-minute feature, in which I regained some, Deadline pressure, in which I earned quite a bit more than I’d started wi…

What I did On Friday I attended Self.conference just long enough to take in Justin Searls’ opening keynote, give my talk (sorry, intentionally no slides or recording), have an assumption-questioning lunchtime conversation with my friend David, and get to…

Previously This is the seventh in a series about TDD’s value to humans, following Keeping my job, in which I lost my manager’s trust, A last-minute feature, in which I regained some, Deadline pressure, in which I earned quite a bit more than I’d started w…

Previously This is the sixth in a series about TDD’s value to humans, following Keeping my job, in which I lost my manager’s trust, A last-minute feature, in which I regained some, Deadline pressure, in which I earned quite a bit more than I’d started wit…

Previously This is the fifth in a series about TDD’s value to humans, following Keeping my job, in which I lost my manager’s trust, A last-minute feature, in which I regained some, Deadline pressure, in which I earned quite a bit more than I’d started wit…

Previously This is the fourth in a series about TDD’s value to humans, following Keeping my job, in which I lost my manager’s trust, A last-minute feature, in which I regained some, and Deadline pressure, in which I earned quite a bit more than I’d started

Previously This is the third in a series about TDD’s value to humans, following Keeping my job, in which I lost my manager’s trust, and A last-minute feature, in which I regained some Learning the domain The software I was hired to develop acted as user-f…

In TDD in context #1: Keeping my job, I… Started a job as a software developer after 5+ years away from programming Implemented my first simple new feature in an unfamiliar domain and a legacy codebase Passed code review by one of the software’s original…

I needed some practice with Java and Eclipse, and I love untangling legacy code, so a coworker recommended me the Gilded Rose Kata.

Schmonzcast #17: I'm proud to have been a speaker at this year's Pittsburgh Perl Workshop, a two-day conference for fellow practical-minded Perl programmers.

[Performed on my behalf by Chris Travis] Author’s note: This really happened.

In When I might not TDD, I posed myself the following question: If I'm trying to be effective and efficient, when wouldn't I practice TDD?

I've lost over 30 pounds since this project began in early 2013.

To develop working, valuable software, we expend time and decisions.

Our hearts do in dark forests dwell.

At pkgsrcCon 2014 in London, I presented a talk called “pkgsrc Design Goals”.

For a couple months now, I've been spoiling myself by spending the bulk of my time reducing my world's entropy in three main ways: 1.

Given a software project whose outcome and schedule truly matter, all other things being equal, I'd choose… A capable team of TDD practitioners over another capable team To have the team practice TDD Of course, there are always a great many other things,…

Illustration by Jason Crane.

People who haven't been programmers have no way of knowing the extent to which programming consists of making decisions.

There are many ways to develop software.

Abstract Slides

That was quick.

For the last two and a half years, ever since Bekki started her Ph.D. program, I've been splitting my time between New York and Indiana.

I first learned of the existence of a composer named Nikolai Medtner fourteen years ago, when overworked Amazon robots advised me, having peered deeply into my purchase history, that the missing je ne sais quoi in my Shopping Cart was a $60 box set of his…

Some commonly held ideas about what a programmer needs in order to learn another programming language: Your motivation: have a real problem you need to solve Your patience: tolerate solving it slowly The language's design and basic use: read a book The la…

Schmonzcast #16: Like last year, I gave a lightning talk at this year's CodeMash.

BSD Now (2013/11/20) BSD Now has been podcasting weekly since its inception in September.

Last month in Chicago, the day before Software Craftsmanship North America, 8th Light held a “Code Retreat”.

Schmonzcast #15: Last night was the 28th Annual Alfred Joyce Kilmer Memorial Bad Poetry Contest.

Some offices I know When I'm at the corporate office in midtown Manhattan, I have what I need to do my job effectively.

Of the 45 pounds to be shed, 26 have left me.

I like people.

In my previous post I gave an example of the benefits of fixing a bug by first writing a test.

I've written of my love for Test-Driven Development and for ikiwiki.

When George Dinwiddie wrote recently about why he practices TDD, it made me think anew about why I do it.

I claimed I would (maybe) lose 45 pounds this year.

As a computer programmer and user, my productivity depends primarily on my fluency with a handful of complex, powerful tools that flexibly suit many contexts alone or in combination: a family of operating systems, a package manager, a revision control sys…

As a person who makes and uses software, on this Memorial Day I want to commemorate the software that brings you these words, for I shall soon retire it from service.

My first recorded weigh-in was four months ago yesterday.

I noticed that my progress, as measured by the weights I'm controlling for between 4 and 7 super-slow repetitions, had slowed.

Schmonzcast #14: Last week I returned from Berlin, where I gave a talk at pkgsrcCon 2013.

As mentioned in my 2013 health manifesto, my exercise regimen thus far consists solely of going to the gym for half an hour twice a week.

I'm giving a talk called “Rehabilitating pkglint” later this month at pkgsrcCon, which means I need to do some work worth talking about. pkglint is a tool for pkgsrc developers to find common errors in packages.

Summary Look at the evidence and decide that I'm tired of being fat.