200: "Bad Code" with Damien Burke
September 16th, 2020 · 1 hr 3 mins
About this Episode
02:58 - Damien’s Superpower: Being able to hold contradictory beliefs at the same time.
- Working in VERY Local Government (for the City of Los Angeles)
07:05 - What is “Bad Code”?
- Episode 188: Going Off the Rails with Damien Burke (Damien’s Previous GTC Episode)
- Objectivity vs Subjectivity: Why does code lie on that spectrum?
- Metrics to Measure Beautiful Code:
- Does it make the world a better place?
- Is it clear?
16:38 - What should you do with “Bad Code”?
- Nothing? (I know it’s bad but it’s okay!)
- Do it later? (If you can put it off and make it better later, put it off!)
19:12 - Working With Others: Agreeing on “Good Code”
- Go-to Values
- Can we understand this? Does it convey the meaning we want it to convey?
- What is most communicative?
24:34 - Damien’s Background in Hypnosis
- Speaking to the Subconscious
- Prescriptivity: Judgement & Punishment
34:14 - Doing Things The Easy Way
- Easy Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Fast
41:07 - Distinctions Between Teaching and Learning
- Learning is Goal-Driven
- Perfection
- Numbers tell a story. Numbers can’t give you wisdom.
54:02 - Creating Shared Understanding (in code)
Reflections:
Jamey: 1) Doing things yourself. 2) I want code to be beautiful because I like things that are beautiful.
Rein: The importance of small changes.
Damien: The power of language and story and its’ application in the engineering world in a team and in the code you write.
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