Merge pull request #11 from 401matthall/post/why-am-i-struggling

Post - Why am I struggling?
401matthall · Feb 13, 2024 · c104911 · c104911
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diff --git a/docs/feed.json b/docs/feed.json
@@ -10,6 +10,12 @@
     "url": "https://401matthall.com"
   },
   "items": [{
+      "id": "https://401matthall.com/posts/why-am-i-struggling/",
+      "url": "https://401matthall.com/posts/why-am-i-struggling/",
+      "title": "Why am I struggling?",
+      "content_html": "<p>I've been really struggling to get into the right head space to complete a ticket at work. It's not a terribly complicated ask. It's just an export of a flat-file with very clear specs for 5 record types. It'll need to be connected to the front-end GUI so a user can trigger the export and select what records should populate the flat-file. I have been struggling for days to get into some kind of groove with this thing. What is it about <em>starting</em> that is so damn difficult?</p>\n<p>It finally hit me this evening. Like standing on a dark stage when the single follow light illuminates and it's pointed right at your face.</p>\n<p><em>ZAP</em></p>\n<p>Oh... I can't iterate on this.</p>\n<p>Why can't I iterate on this?</p>\n<p>I don't have a single meaningful test for this code.</p>\n<p>I don't even have a completed front-end to back-end loop that I could test manually.</p>\n<p>If I can't verify my progress how can I move onto the next piece, method, module, etc. with any confidence that all my previous work... Works? I know better than this. There's not a chance that I'm going to build the needed test scaffolding around this service and it's related views. Our application is written in such a way that makes meaningful testing <em>extremely</em> costly to do and maintain. So, for the most part, we don't do it. I'll wait a few minutes for those of you who've started to convulse or swear violently to work through that. It's a choice and we pay it's costs every day. At any rate, I <em>am</em> in a position to short-cycle the remaining smaller methods that'll do the majority of the work in this service. Then I can wire up this backend service to the GUI and start seeing a file be generated. Then I can finally start to validate the work I've done thus far.</p>\n<p>This probably would've been something I noticed <em>much</em> sooner if test-driven-development was how my current company worked. It's not and the upfront cost to change the pattern is more than is willing to be paid.</p>\n<p>Testing, in any form, is the crux of developing confidence in your work. The structure and focus that test-drive-development brings to your team and your code is extremely valuable. If it's not available to you all hope is not lost. You can write tests after the fact, with a known costs and skew because the test did not define the initial work. You can test manually in most cases. It's tedious and we're fallible but having confidence around the work you ship is worth it.</p>\n",
+      "date_published": "2024-02-12T00:00:00Z"
+    },{
       "id": "https://401matthall.com/posts/game-design-as-software-design/",
       "url": "https://401matthall.com/posts/game-design-as-software-design/",
       "title": "Game Design as it applies to Application Design",

diff --git a/docs/feed.xml b/docs/feed.xml
@@ -5,13 +5,31 @@
 
 	<link href="https://401matthall.com/feed.xml" rel="self"/>
 	<link href="https://401matthall.com/"/>
-	<updated>2024-02-11T00:00:00Z</updated>
+	<updated>2024-02-12T00:00:00Z</updated>
 	<id></id>
 	<author>
 		<name>Matt Hall</name>
 		<email>401matthall@gmail.com</email>
 	</author>
 
+	<entry>
+		<title>Why am I struggling?</title>
+		<link href="https://401matthall.com/posts/why-am-i-struggling/"/>
+		<updated>2024-02-12T00:00:00Z</updated>
+		<id>https://401matthall.com/posts/why-am-i-struggling/</id>
+		<content type="html">&lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve been really struggling to get into the right head space to complete a ticket at work. It&#39;s not a terribly complicated ask. It&#39;s just an export of a flat-file with very clear specs for 5 record types. It&#39;ll need to be connected to the front-end GUI so a user can trigger the export and select what records should populate the flat-file. I have been struggling for days to get into some kind of groove with this thing. What is it about &lt;em&gt;starting&lt;/em&gt; that is so damn difficult?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It finally hit me this evening. Like standing on a dark stage when the single follow light illuminates and it&#39;s pointed right at your face.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;ZAP&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Oh... I can&#39;t iterate on this.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Why can&#39;t I iterate on this?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I don&#39;t have a single meaningful test for this code.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I don&#39;t even have a completed front-end to back-end loop that I could test manually.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If I can&#39;t verify my progress how can I move onto the next piece, method, module, etc. with any confidence that all my previous work... Works? I know better than this. There&#39;s not a chance that I&#39;m going to build the needed test scaffolding around this service and it&#39;s related views. Our application is written in such a way that makes meaningful testing &lt;em&gt;extremely&lt;/em&gt; costly to do and maintain. So, for the most part, we don&#39;t do it. I&#39;ll wait a few minutes for those of you who&#39;ve started to convulse or swear violently to work through that. It&#39;s a choice and we pay it&#39;s costs every day. At any rate, I &lt;em&gt;am&lt;/em&gt; in a position to short-cycle the remaining smaller methods that&#39;ll do the majority of the work in this service. Then I can wire up this backend service to the GUI and start seeing a file be generated. Then I can finally start to validate the work I&#39;ve done thus far.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This probably would&#39;ve been something I noticed &lt;em&gt;much&lt;/em&gt; sooner if test-driven-development was how my current company worked. It&#39;s not and the upfront cost to change the pattern is more than is willing to be paid.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Testing, in any form, is the crux of developing confidence in your work. The structure and focus that test-drive-development brings to your team and your code is extremely valuable. If it&#39;s not available to you all hope is not lost. You can write tests after the fact, with a known costs and skew because the test did not define the initial work. You can test manually in most cases. It&#39;s tedious and we&#39;re fallible but having confidence around the work you ship is worth it.&lt;/p&gt;
+</content>
+	</entry>
+
 	<entry>
 		<title>Game Design as it applies to Application Design</title>
 		<link href="https://401matthall.com/posts/game-design-as-software-design/"/>

diff --git a/docs/index.html b/docs/index.html
@@ -88,7 +88,32 @@ <h2>A blerg</h2>
 <h2>Most Recent</h2>
 
 
-<div reversed class="row postlist" style="counter-reset: start-from 5">
+<div reversed class="row postlist" style="counter-reset: start-from 6">
+
+  <div class="col-md-4 p-3 p-md-3 mb-3 postlist-item">
+    <a href="/posts/why-am-i-struggling/" class="postlist-link">
+    <!--<img class="images img-fluid blur" width="360" height="200" src=""/>-->
+    <h4 class="mt-3">
+    Why am I struggling?</h3>
+    <time class="postlist-date" datetime="2024-02-12">12 Feb 2024</time><br/>
+    <p>Why is starting work so difficult?</p></a>
+
+
+      <a href="/tags/autism/" class="post-tag">#autism</a>
+
+
+      <a href="/tags/being-me/" class="post-tag">#being me</a>
+
+
+      <a href="/tags/code/" class="post-tag">#code</a>
+
+
+      <a href="/tags/coding/" class="post-tag">#coding</a>
+
+
+      <a href="/tags/thinky-thoughts/" class="post-tag">#thinky thoughts</a>
+
+  </div>
 
   <div class="col-md-4 p-3 p-md-3 mb-3 postlist-item">
     <a href="/posts/game-design-as-software-design/" class="postlist-link">
@@ -133,25 +158,6 @@ <h4 class="mt-3">
       <a href="/tags/problem-solving/" class="post-tag">#problem solving</a>
 
 
-      <a href="/tags/thinky-thoughts/" class="post-tag">#thinky thoughts</a>
-
-  </div>
-
-  <div class="col-md-4 p-3 p-md-3 mb-3 postlist-item">
-    <a href="/posts/its-the-cognition-stupid/" class="postlist-link">
-    <!--<img class="images img-fluid blur" width="360" height="200" src=""/>-->
-    <h4 class="mt-3">
-    It&#39;s the cognition, stupid.</h3>
-    <time class="postlist-date" datetime="2023-01-30">30 Jan 2023</time><br/>
-    <p>Why shortcuts and key-combos don&#39;t save me time.</p></a>
-
-
-      <a href="/tags/autism/" class="post-tag">#autism</a>
-
-
-      <a href="/tags/being-me/" class="post-tag">#being me</a>
-
-
       <a href="/tags/thinky-thoughts/" class="post-tag">#thinky thoughts</a>
 
   </div>

diff --git a/docs/page-list/index.html b/docs/page-list/index.html
@@ -93,21 +93,13 @@ <h3>Sitemap Mesin Kasir Online</h3>
     <td><a href="/posts/its-the-cognition-stupid/"><code>/posts/its-the-cognition-stupid/</code></a></td>
     <td>It&#39;s the cognition, stupid.</td>
   </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="/tags/first/"><code>/tags/first/</code></a></td>
-    <td>Tagged “first”</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td><a href="/tags/being-me/"><code>/tags/being-me/</code></a></td>
-    <td>Tagged “being me”</td>
-  </tr>
   <tr>
     <td><a href="/tags/code/"><code>/tags/code/</code></a></td>
     <td>Tagged “code”</td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
-    <td><a href="/tags/coding/"><code>/tags/coding/</code></a></td>
-    <td>Tagged “coding”</td>
+    <td><a href="/tags/design/"><code>/tags/design/</code></a></td>
+    <td>Tagged “design”</td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
     <td><a href="/tags/problem-solving/"><code>/tags/problem-solving/</code></a></td>
@@ -118,8 +110,16 @@ <h3>Sitemap Mesin Kasir Online</h3>
     <td>Tagged “thinky thoughts”</td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
-    <td><a href="/tags/design/"><code>/tags/design/</code></a></td>
-    <td>Tagged “design”</td>
+    <td><a href="/tags/first/"><code>/tags/first/</code></a></td>
+    <td>Tagged “first”</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="/tags/being-me/"><code>/tags/being-me/</code></a></td>
+    <td>Tagged “being me”</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="/tags/coding/"><code>/tags/coding/</code></a></td>
+    <td>Tagged “coding”</td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
     <td><a href="/tags/autism/"><code>/tags/autism/</code></a></td>
@@ -133,6 +133,10 @@ <h3>Sitemap Mesin Kasir Online</h3>
     <td><a href="/posts/game-design-as-software-design/"><code>/posts/game-design-as-software-design/</code></a></td>
     <td>Game Design as it applies to Application Design</td>
   </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="/posts/why-am-i-struggling/"><code>/posts/why-am-i-struggling/</code></a></td>
+    <td>Why am I struggling?</td>
+  </tr>
   <tr>
     <td><a href="/stories/"><code>/stories/</code></a></td>
     <td></td>

diff --git a/docs/posts/game-design-as-software-design/index.html b/docs/posts/game-design-as-software-design/index.html
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ <h3><a href="/posts/game-design-as-software-design/" class="text-light">What doe
 
 </div>
 <hr class="bg-light"/>
-<ul><li>Previous: <a href="/posts/i-dont-like-writing-code/">I don&#39;t like writing code...</a></li>
+<ul><li>Next: <a href="/posts/why-am-i-struggling/">Why am I struggling?</a></li><li>Previous: <a href="/posts/i-dont-like-writing-code/">I don&#39;t like writing code...</a></li>
 </ul>
 </div>
     </main>

diff --git a/docs/posts/index.html b/docs/posts/index.html
@@ -71,7 +71,32 @@ <h1 class="home"><a href="/">401matthall</a></h1>
 <h2 class="p-3">Archive</h2>
 
 
-<div reversed class="row postlist" style="counter-reset: start-from 5">
+<div reversed class="row postlist" style="counter-reset: start-from 6">
+
+  <div class="col-md-4 p-3 p-md-3 mb-3 postlist-item">
+    <a href="/posts/why-am-i-struggling/" class="postlist-link">
+    <!--<img class="images img-fluid blur" width="360" height="200" src=""/>-->
+    <h4 class="mt-3">
+    Why am I struggling?</h3>
+    <time class="postlist-date" datetime="2024-02-12">12 Feb 2024</time><br/>
+    <p>Why is starting work so difficult?</p></a>
+
+
+      <a href="/tags/autism/" class="post-tag">#autism</a>
+
+
+      <a href="/tags/being-me/" class="post-tag">#being me</a>
+
+
+      <a href="/tags/code/" class="post-tag">#code</a>
+
+
+      <a href="/tags/coding/" class="post-tag">#coding</a>
+
+
+      <a href="/tags/thinky-thoughts/" class="post-tag">#thinky thoughts</a>
+
+  </div>
 
   <div class="col-md-4 p-3 p-md-3 mb-3 postlist-item">
     <a href="/posts/game-design-as-software-design/" class="postlist-link">