I love SQL, despite its many flaws. Much is argued about functional programming vs object oriented. Different ways of instructing computers. SQL is different. SQL is a language where I can ask the computer a question and it will figure out how to answer it for me. Fluency in SQL is a very practical skill…. Read more »
Growing up, an influential television character for me was Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek the Next Generation. Picard was a portrayal of a different sort of leader to most. Picard didn’t order people about. He didn’t assume he knew best. He wasn’t seeking glory. In his words: “we work to better ourselves, and the… Read more »
Java 16 brings Pattern Matching for instanceof. It’s a feature with exciting possibilities, though quite limited in its initial incarnation. Basic Pattern Matching We can now do things like Object o = "hello"; if (o instanceof String s) { System.out.println(s.toUpperCase()); }Object o = "hello"; if (o instanceof String s) { System.out.println(s.toUpperCase()); } Note the variable… Read more »
“We got lucky”—it’s one of those phrases I listen out for during post incident or near-miss reviews. It’s an invitation to dig deeper; to understand what led to our luck. Was it pure happenstance? …or have we been doing things that increased or decreased our luck? There’s a saying of apparently disputed origin: “Luck is… Read more »
Some time ago I wrote a post about creating an embedded dsl for Html in Java. Sadly, it was based on an abuse of lambda name reflection that was later removed from Java. I thought I should do a followup because a lot of people still visit the old article. While it’s no longer possible… Read more »
“How was your day?” “Ugh, I spent all day in meetings, didn’t get any work done!” How often have you heard this exchange? It makes me sad because someone’s day has not been joyful; work can be fun. I love a whinge as much as the next Brit; maybe if we said what we mean… Read more »
Here’s some important feedback loops for a team, with feasible delays. I’d consider these delays tolerable by a team doing their best work (in contexts I’ve worked in). Some teams can do better, lots do worse.
Extreme Programming describes five values: communication, feedback, simplicity, courage, and respect. I think that humility might be more important than all of these. Humility enables compassion. Compassion both provides motivation for and maximises the return on technical practices. Humility pairs well with courage, helps us keep things simple, and makes feedback valuable. Humility enables Compassion … Read more »
A few years back I posted about how to implement state machines that only permit valid transitions at compile time in Java. This used interfaces instead of enums, which had a big drawback—you can’t guarantee that you know all the states involved. Java 15 brings a preview feature of sealed classes, solving this downside.
It’s become less common to hear people referred to as “resources” in recent times. There’s more trendy “official vocab guidelines”, but what’s really changed? There’s still phrases in common use that sound good but betray the same mindset. I often hear people striving to “hire and retain the best talent“ as if that is a… Read more »