coding for fun and
profit
srsly...

describe "Coding For Fun and Profit Speech" do
before do
@speech = mock_model(Speech, :title =>
"Coding For Fun and Profit", :awesome? => true)
end
it "should be awesome" do
@speech.should be_awesome
end
end

Plan
• Who I am
• Why this is useful
• What are we going to cover (and what we
aren’t)
• When does it get fun? (soon, I hope)

> whoami
• Jeff Schoolcraft
• The Queue Incorporated
• Software Process Consulting
• Custom Software Development
• code poet (have the shirt to prove it)
• entrepreneur
• ASP.NET MVP (x3)

teh inter t00bs
• ordered by uzefulnez
• http://twitter.com/jschoolcraft
• http://blog.thequeue.net
• http://www.facebook.com/JeffSchoolcraft
• http://www.linkedin.com/in/jschoolcraft

I can haz uzefulnez
• More better
• More Smarter
• ==
• More $$
• Less

Teh plan
• Use as many tech memes and cool kid
spellingz as possible

srsly?

srsly

What I won’t cover
• Long technical details about the research
• Dreyfus model of skill aquisition
• Deliberate Practice
• 10,000+ hours to expert
• etc

What I will cover
• Why you might want to try to have fun
coding
• Some research you might be interested in
• Ideas for having fun (sharing encouraged)
• Have fun (see note about sharing)
• Follow up

Why
• You’re in a rut
• Coding feels like a job
• You feel like you’re getting stupider
• information ad nauseum

research

Dreyfus Model

learning FAIL
• Ever heard there are three ways people are
inclined to learn?
• Visual
• Auditory
• Kinesthetic

ftl
• Trust someone to <thing>
• fire a weapon, throw a grenade, architect
a life support software system
• That had <learned_by>
• listening to a podcast
• watching a screencast
• apprenticed with a master

doing is teh best
• If that were the case then the majority of
my coworkers would all be experts...
• Still iterating over arrays instead of using
collections
• Still writing the same tired code
• But experts at copy & paste

i can haz phun?

the way
• masturba.... uh, fun for one
• code a trois (group fun, swinging optional)
• i pwn j00!

solo
• learn a new language every year
• problem sites
• scratch an itch

two or more
• hackfests
• coding dojo
• open coffee
• scratch an itch with a friend

let’s get it on

magic.happens.here
• Feedback
• Ego/geek cred/something

examples
• ALT.NET Boulders
• Rails Rumble
• ro sham bo
• rrobots