The Calendar Gadget (repo) from the last live stream is now in production use on my desk.

I'm cancelling today's livestream due to a serious case of head-cold. It would be a stream full of snot, coughs and me on very low energy and I don't want to do that.

On the latest BEAM Radio episode we had a guest from Changelog.com, Jerod Santo, talk to us about his experience living with Elixir. Jerod has been casting pod for a long time and it was a pleasure to have him on. Hope you enjoy.

Taking a Novice Stance

I've been asking a lot of questions lately. I do it more and more. It didn't start now, it started a good while back. First on topics where I know little and have people around me that know more. DevOps is a good example, I have a freelancer buddy who is deep into that stuff. I know my way around using that stuff but he lives, breathes it and has hard-earned thoughts on it. It's his jam. Asking him came naturally because I was aware that it wasn't a strong suit of mine and he was clearly knowledgeable.

What I've done recently is take that stance in more situations. I know a bunch of stuff around Agile and how to do that kind of software work. But as part of some client work I have had reason to look closer at the different options. Partly because I'm running a team but more importantly because we're building software in the Agile & methods space. If I assumed I knew enough I would have just gone with my gut, maybe searched around a bit and found some things.

Instead I assumed I wasn't up to date since I don't track that space. So I took on a fairly novice mindset and I asked, I asked my DevOps buddy, I asked Gerhard Lazu (Ship It! podcast), I asked on Twitter. I don't take all the responses as truth but they've painted a very good picture about what is out there. Compared to what I have. This is most effective if you've already established a bit of a network.

The neat thing about questions like these is that you are practicing some humility, placing yourself, even if you are experienced and know things, in a position of trying to learn, not knowing. And you are letting people in your surroundings try their hand at advice. This helps them coalesce their thoughts. When done in public it allows those thoughts to be seen more widely. And when you take in their thoughts, reflect and discuss you are lending them authority.

There is such a thing as asking greedily or too readily, at least when you are asking specific knowledgeable people. I've seen the most success with these types of questions when I can also indicate that "yes, I know some, we don't need to start from zero".

I've also recently had some fun with Twitter polls which is a variant of this which doesn't require discussion. This one on clustering is just finishing up as I write this. This one on commit hooks and testing had some good responses.

I don't have to be lost to ask questions. I typically use them to build a more complete picture, figure out if my understanding is shared or give me a seed to start from. In a lot of the work I do there is some merit to sounding like you know what you are doing. A tone of confidence goes a long way. Toning back your certainty seems to be a good practice for asking questions. Don't make the question rhetorical, ask what you are actually curious about.

Feel free to ask me a question or two at lars@underjord.io or on Twitter where I'm @lawik. I'll respond when my brain unfogs.

Thanks for reading, I appreciate your time.

- Lars Wikman