Reinventing Yourself

(Re)Inventing Yourself
Michael Denomy
Boston Ruby
November 12, 2013
@mdenomy
Wednesday, November 13, 13

Continuously
Michael Denomy
Boston Ruby
November 12, 2013
@mdenomy

What Is This Talk About, Anyway?

• Based on my experiences as:
-

Developer
Manager
Director

• I needed to be writing software
• Change is hard
-


Dealing with fear, uncertainty, & doubt

How Did I Get Here?

• Ten years ago....
• I was feeling pretty good
-


Senior developer
OOD
Learning new languages

How Did I Get Here?

• Ten years ago....
• I was feeling pretty good
-

Senior developer
OOD
Learning new languages

• Truth was, I had a lot to learn

Water-Fail


Failure Can Be Good

• Kicked off a long and still ongoing
learning journey

• Immersion into Agile and XP
-

Pairing, TDD, Continuous Integration
Incremental Requirements and Design
Led to more successful projects

• Got Out In The Community
-


Gave my first public talk

-

Introduction to TDD at Nashua Scrum Club

How Does This Get Me To Ruby?

• Growing dissatisfied in .NET world
-

No love for XP/Agile

• Listening to podcasts, reading blogs
-

.NET developers defecting to Ruby...
What was that all about?

• Moving away from code and into
management


Why Were People Moving To Ruby?

• Focus on Quality and Testing
• Good use of Design Patterns
• Rich, Open Source Community
• Well-suited to Agile and XP


Why Were People Moving To Ruby?

• Focus on Quality and Testing
• Good use of Design Patterns
• Rich, Open Source Community
• Well-suited to Agile and XP
These all sang to me, I had to be part of this

What About You?

• What brings you to Ruby?


Decided To Learn Ruby “In Anger”

• -Declared a Season of Ruby

http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/category/season-of-ruby/

• 3 months intensive study

~12 hours/week on top of my real job

-

Treated like an agile project

Ruby Koans
Michael Hartl Tutorial
Pickaxe Book
Ruby Rogues
Courses at thoughtbot

It’s Good To Have a Support System


Left My Cushy Job

• OK, it wasn’t all that cushy, but I
had to give this a try

• Scared S**tless
-

Leaving a space I was established and
successful in for an uncertain future
Did I still have my developer chops
Would my “experience” work against me

• Got lucky in finding a company
that saw my full body of work


Agile background helped pave the way

Getting Started in Boston Ruby

• What’s the big deal, can’t you just
show up?

• Had no idea what to expect
• Had no contacts in the Ruby world
• Had some catching up to do!


Gaining a Toe Hold - Community

• Get involved
-

I volunteered to run Google Hangouts

• Improve the community
-

What would make Boston Ruby better?

• Grow your network
-


Meet people
Ask questions
Build relationships...

Gaining a Toe Hold - Community

• Building Relationships


Gaining a Toe Hold - Open Source

• Where To Start???
• Ruby Documentation Project
-

http://documenting-ruby.org/
Zach Scott’s “Contributing To Ruby”
presentation at Boston Ruby got me started

• Where can you start?

Talk to fellow rubyists about projects they
know or maintain
The Boston Ruby website

Gaining a Toe Hold - Speaking

• Speak at a meetup or project night
-

Get your name out there
Become an expert
Tame your fear
Use your fear

• Project Night workshops
-


Getting Started With Rails Testing
Debugging With Pry

First time speakers in 2013*
Kevin Incorvia
Myke Cameron
Johnny Boursiquot
Alex Jarvis
Alex Wheeler
Bob Gilmore
Mike Munro
Peter Degen-Portynoy
Ken Mazaika
Chris Lee

Matt Daubert
Luke Bergen
Dave Jachimiak
Octavian Neamtu
Thijs de Vries
Liana Leahy
Rob Park
Quinn Lee
Matt Mongeau
Daniel Grippi
Michael Denomy

*Apologies if I missed anyone


• What could you possibly have to
talk about

http://thisisindexed.com/2012/05/two-annoying-problems/



• What could you possibly have to
talk about

•

Beginners

-

http://thisisindexed.com/2012/05/two-annoying-problems/

Gems you’ve used, or your “breakable toy”

• Intermediate and Advanced
-


Something from a project you’ve worked on

Will This Really Work For You?


Will This Really Work For You?

• No guarantees
• Skill-set, network, past experience,
and luck all come in to play

• What can you do to put yourself in
the best position


Closing Thoughts - Take Risks

• Put yourself out there

http://thisisindexed.com/2010/11/stretching-is-good-stuff/


Closing Thoughts - Open Source

• Try your hand at open source
• Check out Zach Scott’s
“Contributing To Ruby”

-


http://bostonrb.org/presentations/
contributing-to-ruby

Closing Thoughts - Build Skills

• Keep Your Skills Current
• Study good design practices
-

SOLID
Design patterns

• Learn TDD and Pairing
-


Try them out at project night
http://www.jamesshore.com/Agile-Book/

Closing Thoughts - Community

• Be Involved
• What do you think will improve
the community

• Meet new people
• Build relationships


Closing Thoughts - Community

• Be Involved
• What do you think will improve
the community

• Meet new people
• Build relationships
This


is not a network

@mdenomy


Reinventing Yourself

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