diff --git a/src/content/blog/2024-03-23-try-again.md b/src/content/blog/2024-03-23-try-again.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d7f6f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/blog/2024-03-23-try-again.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: Make it easy to just try again +date: 2024-03-23T07:39:22.173Z +slug: 2024-03-23-try-again +author: Thomas Wilson + +--- +Something I know about myself is that I learn best when I make lots of quick +attempts at something. This works better for me than spending longer on each +individual step. Like when I learned to make clothes: I had an _awful_ lot of +unwearable garments. + +I think it's fun that other people (including my partner) learn best by paying +monumental attention each (sub-)step of their first attempt, wanting to get it +perfect. + +You learn how you learn, in more ways than one. + +Something that John Ousterhout recommends in [their books on software +design](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophy-Software-Design-John-Ousterhout/dp/1732102201) +is designing something twice, because you probably won't get it right the first +time, even if think you _definitely should get it right the first time_. + +This past week I've made lots of little tweaks to software. A few "oh, when +you do X, could we make sure Y happens" or "oh, wouldn't it be nice if B was +automatically calculated when you put in A?". + +I have found myself, more than ever, relying on the ability to completely undo +all changes to file(s), and take another run at it. + +Sometimes it's because the footprint of a "simple" change spirals, other times +it just "feels" wrong, other times it just breaks. + +If I was a clever man, maybe I'd be able to foresee which approaches are likely +to be chaotic and messy. But, too often, something doesn't work the way you'd +expect, or some of your own code isn't quite flexible enough yet (and now isn't +the time to make it flex). + +Making it easy to hit the eject button, and feeling happy doing it, feels like +a close second - and something that I think lets me ship higher quality +software quicker.