blog: Make it easy to try again

src/content/blog/2024-03-23-try-again.md

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+---
+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.