henko.net

In the last few years, especially in the agile corners of the web, there’s been quite a lot written about the 40 hour workweek, sustainable pace, no overtime, and so on. I agree with most of this stuff and think exhausted developers in the long run do more harm than good. I can’t help to wonder, however, what’s so magical about 40 the hour workweek? Why not 35, 45, or even 55? Just playing safe on 40 seems a waste, if my team can do better.

Test-Driven Development has gone from being a new idea, considered slightly crazy, to a serious development style used by many professional developers in their everyday life. However, it is a style of development which requires much discipline, or you will not realize it’s potential. In fact, you might end up doing more harm than good.

Sometimes when I’m trying to get my head around something complex, I suddenly feel overwhelmed and my head starts to feel like its about to explode. I realize that there are at least a dozen cases which I’ve failed to consider so far. All the thoughts I was trying to keep track of just runs off in every possible direction and I can’t chase them all. Dispair overwhelmes me. Then I have to close my eyes, take a deep breath, hold it for a second, and let it go slowly. Then start over, think it through one more time.