Niko Heikkilä @nikoheikkila@mastodon.technology

🔥 Two Git commands that have made me a better developer:

– `git commit` without the `-m` option
– `git add -p`

The former forces me to write a good multi-line commit message, and the latter allows to stage changes partially in an interactive mode.

Craftsman's Log – 2021.03.31

In this issue: Little's Law, Backblaze as an S3 replacement, pull requests, entropy in software projects, walk in the Golang ecosystem.

https://world.hey.com/niko.heikkila/craftsman-s-log-2021-03-31-45b70185

Asking this for a friend, how to become a vaxhole? Where's the queue?

In truth, these things often look simpler than they are, so I blogged some practical and shareable tips on how to implement Little's Law in your delivery process.

https://nikoheikkila.fi/blog/reducing-the-lead-times-with-littles-law/

Lean / Agile has a term for involving oneself more closely with the customer: going to the gemba.

Working closely with the customer helps shorten one type of feedback loop and, as such, boosts motivation, productivity, and empathy.

Arguably, it's a missing aspect in the COVID era, so ensure you build up a "gemba" culture with the tools you possess.

Technical debt is not always a bad thing. It's effectively a tool for getting a short-term gain. Be warned that it causes addiction and needs to be managed.

Instead of accumulating technical debt recklessly, be prudent.

Don't say:

"We don't have time for ___, forget it!"

Instead, say:

"We should ship this now and deal with the consequences later".

Little's Law dictates that:

lead time = work in progress / throughput

To decrease lead times, you should limit the work in progress (ideally to 1 task at a time) and/or increase your throughput.

Secret: when you limit the amount of work in progress, your throughput will also increase thanks to reduced context switching. It's a win-win situation.

I began journaling my activities in HEY. No bullshit, no tracking, no excessive advertising, nor spammy content. Only 1-2 entries per week. You can't react to these with emojis, and you don't even have to subscribe (but you can!). Oh, and there's an RSS feed because it rocks.

Captain's Log - 2021.03.24. Keywords: Gatsby, CSS Modules, legacy code, GitHub on iOS, programming languages, Instagram.

https://world.hey.com/niko.heikkila/captain-s-log-2021-03-24-2bdb9cb9

Some time ago, in a developer community, I came across the concept of time blocking. I started to adapt it into my daily work using Toggl Track, and the results have been nice.

With it, I can get into focus mode faster in the morning and also recall what I was doing on a particular day for standups and reports.

https://nikoheikkila.fi/blog/blocking-time-for-tasks-with-toggl/

Fun ensues when developers are hell-bent on using abbreviations in function signatures and variables.

Would you say this function compares two rather large rodents and returns whether they are equal in size?