Articles for category: Drive

August 4, 2020

Greg Thomas

Why I never got into Pair Programming

Because I don’t like people looking over my shoulder. For me, I need to run look at my code, stare at it, change the variable names a few different times, decide what case I’m doing today, refactor a bit here, do an F5 on the simplest of changes and then when I think it’s all done. I’ll stare at it some more and wonder what I should do next. In short, I would drive the person beside me crazy. And that’s before I’d have to give you control of the keyboard. But that doesn’t mean that it won’t work for

July 31, 2020

Greg Thomas

Learning by Doing

There is a reason why coop programs are so valuable to our learning, growth and development. It’s because in addition to learning the academics, you are applying the theory and what you’ve learned to the practical and seeing what works for you. Junior developers spend their formative years putting what they’ve learned to the test. They don’t have time to focus on team leadership, project planning or delivery schedules – what they need to focus on is delivery and drive – learning platforms, understanding code, building unit tests. All that knowledge that when they are leading a team and the

July 21, 2020

Greg Thomas

Getting Punted from RDP

When you’re working on a problem with someone, trying to figure out what is going, what is happening, who is going to do what, what’s next, etc, etc. Whatever it is, whenever there is someone else working on the problem with me, when I see that prompt that I’m about to get punted from a Remote Desktop Session… I feel a wave of relief knowing I’m not alone and there is a team working with me to get the problem done. From there, we’ll figure it out. But you need a team, that has that trust in each other, to

July 20, 2020

Greg Thomas

Your Next Great App

If you want the next app you write to be the greatest thing since slice bread there are two things you need to build into it. One solve a problem, this is key, if you’re not solving a problem, you’re building a game, that’s okay, but we’re in it to solve problems. Next once you solve that problem, create a way for them to bring their team into the mix. Not their friends, but their team. This isn’t a social app you are creating (unless it is), it’s a killer app. Solving a problem, knowing that the problem belongs to

July 17, 2020

Greg Thomas

Always Make a Mess

We worry too much about messing things up. When we should be worrying about holding back and not messing it up in the first place. It’s the mess that shows us how best to clean things up and make them better then they were before. Want more? Check out my book Code Your Way Up – available as an eBook or Paperback on Amazon (CAN and US).  I’m also the co-host of the Remotely Prepared podcast.