0:00:16.890,0:00:18.439
SARON YITBAREK: So, hello. My name is Saron.

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Thank you guys so much for coming to my talk.

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I'm really, really excited to be here.

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And as you can tell from the title of this[br]talk,

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grammar is very important to me.

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So, before we begin, I want to start off

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by telling you a story. A year ago today,

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I was not a programmer. This is a, a

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really big confession that I'm sharing with[br]you. A

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year ago today, I was this chick. I worked

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at tech startups. I did business development,[br]sales, marketing.

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All of those non-technical roles. And I loved[br]it.

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If you've ever worked at a tech start up,

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the best part is telling other people that[br]you

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work at a tech start up, because they instantly

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think you're awesome and cool because you[br]are.

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But I realized, over time, after that honeymoon[br]phase

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was over, that my biggest skill, the best[br]thing

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I had to offer my company, was being able

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to talk. And that didn't seem very valuable.[br]And

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I was always surrounded by programmers. By[br]these tech

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people who could build beautiful, powerful[br]things. And so

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I found myself always creeping on them and[br]looking

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at what they did and feeling like what they

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did was so much cooler and so much more

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interesting than anything I could ever do.

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So, I quit my job, I started learning how

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to code. I applied and got accepted to the

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Flat Iron school, which is a three month programming

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boot camp. And when we graduated, I was so

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excited. I could finally build stuff. I could[br]make

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stuff. I was valuable. I could be a contributing

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member to society, as my mother tells me.

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And this is actually very important. One thing[br]they

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don't tell you when you graduate from a programming

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boot camp is that you have to click your

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heels and hold up a keyboard, otherwise it's[br]not

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official.

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So I was so proud. I was so excited.

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I learned all this stuff. I worked really,[br]really

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hard. I'm apparently standing on a rock of[br]code

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stuff that I conquered. But I was also painfully

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aware of all the other stuff left to learn.

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So there's the stuff I didn't know. There's[br]the

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stuff I didn't know I didn't know. There was

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the stuff that I thought I knew, but I

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forgot, but I didn't know I'd forgotten it[br]yet.

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So that's gonna be a nice surprise in the

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future. And then, by the way, all the stuff

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changes all the time. So welcome to programming.

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And I was painfully aware of how much of

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a novice I was. And this is the novice

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track, so hopefully this applies to you too.[br]And

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this actually describes Dreyfus, or Dreyfus's[br]Model of Skill

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Acquisition, that says that when you start[br]at zero,

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when you start a new skill, you start at

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the novice level. You move up over time to

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an advanced beginner. Then you go on to confident,

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proficient, and hopefully an expert.

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And so, I don't want to be a novice.

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I don't think anyone here wants to be a

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novice. That's not fun. I want to be an

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expert. And I want that cape. That's who I

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want to be. So I started asking people and

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did some research on, how can I become an

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expert? How can I go from this poor novice

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person who kind of sort of thinks she knows

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what she's doing to, like, that cape-wearing[br]expert. How

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do I do that?

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And the most popular answer I got was reading

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code. Which is both really helpful but also[br]not

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very helpful. Because that leads to all these[br]other

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questions, like, what code do I read? How[br]often

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do I read it? And the best way to

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start an adventure is to start it with friends.

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So these are my friends. I think I drew

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them very flatteringly. And so these are some[br]of

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my programming buddies from the Flat Iron[br]school, and

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I got them together and I said, yo. If

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you get programming people together to start[br]a code

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reading club, you have to start the conversation[br]with

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yo. Otherwise it just won't work.

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So I said, yo, we should read code together.

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And so we decided that we were gonna dedicate

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one hour every single Sunday at 11 AM. By

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the way, this is a huge deal for me.

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I don't wake up before two on a weekend.

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So I'm, I'm already winning just by declaring[br]that

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this might happen.

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And so we decided that we're gonna make this

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a regular thing. And we decided to call it

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Code Club. Because we are creative geniuses.

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So the first question was what code should[br]we

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read? And we did some research. We asked,[br]you

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know, the mentors and senior developers that[br]we knew.

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We said, what would be a great starting point

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for a novice to start reading code? And they

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said, you should read anything.

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This is not helpful. Please do not answer[br]in

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this way if someone asks you, where do you

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start? And so we came up with our own

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rules. We decided that the point of reading[br]code

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was to find code that we thought was inspirational

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and would be great examples. So we decided[br]that

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whatever we read, it was gonna be exemplary[br]code.

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And we defined exemplary as having four attributes.[br]We

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said that one, it had to be somewhat popular.

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Something that was well-used. Something that[br]was endorsed by

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the, the developer community. Something that[br]hopefully was well-documented,

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so that if we got stuck we wanted somewhere

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to go to.

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Third, it should be well-written, and four[br]it should

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be well-maintained. So knowing that it had,[br]you know,

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recent commits and people were still keeping,[br]you know,

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maintaining it was really important to us.

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And we thought that if we did this, we

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studied our exemplary code and read every[br]Sunday, we

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were gonna go from novice programmers to bad[br]ass

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experts. So, the one suggestion that I actually[br]did

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get from a much more senior person than I,

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said, why don't you start with Sinatra? You've[br]done

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Sinatra. You know it. You're kind of familiar[br]with

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it. So we said, great. We'll start with the

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get method, which is something that I never[br]really

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understood.

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And so we gathered on the Google, and we

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got together and we said, we're gonna get[br]through

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the get method. The get method in one hour?

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Totally doable. If you've seen the get method[br]in

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Sinatra, I think it's like seven lines of[br]code,

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which sounds perfectly doable. No. This is[br]a trick.

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This is a huge lie.

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Because every single line is completely abstracted[br]code, and

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you have to go through all these other files

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to find out what they're doing, and then they

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have more abstracted code. Then you go to[br]other

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files, and it became just one rabbit hole[br]after

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another. And we found that we really got nowhere

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with it. And so we went from being really

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excited to completely overwhelmed.

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So, I'm a really, really big believer in retros.

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I like taking the opportunity to reflect on[br]what

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I just did, especially if it's something that[br]I'm

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doing for the very first time. So, at the

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end of the very first Code Club session, we

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paused and we said, how was this experience,[br]on

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an individual level? How did each person feel?

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What did we learn? And most importantly, how[br]can

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we improve? The idea was to keep this going

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every week, so what can we do to make

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sure that the next time we do this, we

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learn a ton?

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And the first and most important part about[br]the

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code-reading experience, is to pick a manageable[br]code base.

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It was very, very disappointing, and a huge[br]hit

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to our ego, to know that we couldn't even

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figure out a get method, that started out[br]looking

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like just seven lines of code.

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And so, picking something that is manageable,[br]that is

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digestible, that you can actually get through[br]and understand

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is really, really important. This is the first[br]guideline

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of having your own code club, and definitely[br]the

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most important.

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So we decided that, for us, one hundred lines

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of code was the great limit. And it was

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a pretty arbitrary number, but it ended up[br]being

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perfect. Because what happened was, in that[br]hundred lines

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of code, you have just enough that you can

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complete a full gem or library. And that's[br]a

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great accomplishment. Being able to say, hey,[br]I read

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through this whole thing and I finished it?[br]Even

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if you didn't understand it, you feel really[br]good

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about yourself.

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Second, it gives you the amount of time and

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flexibility to stop and comfortably ask questions.[br]So if

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there's something you haven't seen before,[br]you can say,

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hey, can we slow down? Cause I, I don't

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really get this. Can someone explain it to[br]me?

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And you don't feel like you're slowing anyone[br]else

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down.

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Second, you have the opportunity to try things.[br]One

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of my favorite parts about reading code is[br]finding

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new methods that I haven't seen before, or[br]maybe

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finding methods that I haven't seen in a long

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time. And so being able to stop the session

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and say, can we open up IRB and just

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play with this and see how this works is

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really, really valuable.

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And the third thing was research topics. So[br]there

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were always patterns that we've seen that[br]look kind

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of familiar, that we've seen in other places.[br]Being

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able to stop and look things up on StackOverflow

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or just Google was a really great opportunity.[br]And

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so with that limit, limited code base, we're[br]able

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to do these things while also getting through[br]code.

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Which brings me to the second really, really[br]important

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part about reading code. It's not really about[br]reading

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the code. Reading the code is just the starting

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point. All these other things that I mentioned,[br]the

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parts where you kind of get off track and

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you kind of digress and you have conversations.[br]Those

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are the things that matter. That's the real[br]value

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in reading code.

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So, the learning happens in these digressions.[br]In these

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conversations. I am very, very sensitive to[br]getting off

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track and making sure that everything I do[br]is

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very focused, so this is a little bit difficult

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for me. But over time, I got to see

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a lot of value in it.

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The third thing is that it's a team effort.

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Do not go at this alone. It will be

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very painful and you will not have a good

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time. So knowing that I had other people that

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were about my same level and that, you know,

0:09:01.700,0:09:03.330
we knew what we knew and we knew what

0:09:03.330,0:09:06.200
we didn't know, made it really, really easy[br]to

0:09:06.200,0:09:08.430
start on this journey and to keep going.

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It's really important to make sure that everyone[br]you

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do this with feels comfortable enough to raise[br]their

0:09:12.650,0:09:14.250
hand and say, can we stop here? I don't

0:09:14.250,0:09:16.110
quite get that. Or, I know you just said

0:09:16.110,0:09:17.370
that, but can you say it a different way,

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because it didn't make sense to me the first

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time.

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So it's really important that everyone is[br]comfortable, that

0:09:21.550,0:09:25.590
everyone is engaged, and in order to do that,

0:09:25.590,0:09:27.440
we find it very helpful to have a tour

0:09:27.440,0:09:29.890
guide. So every week we trade off, and we

0:09:29.890,0:09:32.310
have one person lead the conversation. This[br]is just

0:09:32.310,0:09:34.130
one person to say, hey, we're gonna start[br]on

0:09:34.130,0:09:36.700
line two. We're gonna keep going. Stephanie[br]do you

0:09:36.700,0:09:38.330
have a question? Dan, what do you think about

0:09:38.330,0:09:40.320
this? Ian, have you seen this before? And[br]having

0:09:40.320,0:09:42.510
someone stop at all the right places, make[br]sure

0:09:42.510,0:09:45.540
everyone is engaged and excited is a really[br]important

0:09:45.540,0:09:48.450
part of this journey.

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So we found, very quickly, that finding exemplary[br]code

0:09:51.480,0:09:54.160
that's only a hundred lines is very, very[br]difficult.

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I think we ran out after a couple of

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weeks. And so, out of necessity, we had to

0:09:58.510,0:10:00.560
kind of lower our standards. We had to say,

0:10:00.560,0:10:02.740
the most important part is really that we[br]finish

0:10:02.740,0:10:05.300
getting through the code base, so we're gonna,[br]you

0:10:05.300,0:10:07.800
know, not worry about whether it's well-maintained[br]or well-written.

0:10:07.800,0:10:10.600
We're just gonna find code that's a hundred[br]lines.

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And this ended up being a really great thing.

0:10:13.540,0:10:16.270
So one day, the very first week that we

0:10:16.270,0:10:18.960
decided to lower our standards, we were looking[br]at

0:10:18.960,0:10:21.470
a method that we didn't really think was very

0:10:21.470,0:10:26.110
well-written. And Dan said, this method sucks.[br]How would

0:10:26.110,0:10:27.360
we write it?

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And he gave us our very first point of

0:10:29.450,0:10:31.770
interaction. And that's the fifth guide line,[br]is to

0:10:31.770,0:10:34.750
find these opportunities to interact with[br]the code. Because

0:10:34.750,0:10:37.270
in him asking that one question, it lead to

0:10:37.270,0:10:41.430
a very interesting conversation. One, about[br]what the intent

0:10:41.430,0:10:43.220
was. What was the point of that method? What

0:10:43.220,0:10:43.930
was it doing?

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Two, why was it written that way? Was it

0:10:46.560,0:10:48.710
because the developer had a certain style?[br]Was it

0:10:48.710,0:10:50.940
because it was a fork from a different gem

0:10:50.940,0:10:52.920
and they were just kind of, you know, maintaining

0:10:52.920,0:10:55.900
that, that writing style stylistically? And[br]how does it

0:10:55.900,0:10:58.070
fit in to the overall design and architecture[br]of

0:10:58.070,0:11:00.080
the entire code base? Did this one stand out

0:11:00.080,0:11:01.530
as being worse than the other ones? Or did

0:11:01.530,0:11:04.740
it just kind of follow the general pattern?

0:11:04.740,0:11:07.590
And so, these questions were awesome, because[br]now it's

0:11:07.590,0:11:10.030
not just about reading code, it's about going[br]on

0:11:10.030,0:11:12.050
a little adventure. We got to pretend that[br]we

0:11:12.050,0:11:14.710
were the developer, and we were the ones that,

0:11:14.710,0:11:17.080
that were building this code and connecting[br]what we

0:11:17.080,0:11:20.000
knew, in our world and in our workplace, to

0:11:20.000,0:11:23.030
this specific situation. So having that moment[br]of interaction

0:11:23.030,0:11:26.130
really changed the game for us.

0:11:26.130,0:11:28.550
So, this leads to the sixth point, which is,

0:11:28.550,0:11:31.010
it doesn't have to be exemplary. Actually,[br]reading bad

0:11:31.010,0:11:33.340
code is awesome. Because the fact that you[br]get

0:11:33.340,0:11:35.130
to say, as a novice, that this is bad

0:11:35.130,0:11:37.200
code, and you get to, like, you know, have

0:11:37.200,0:11:39.310
an opinion on someone else's work, you feel[br]really

0:11:39.310,0:11:43.090
good about that. It makes you feel fairly[br]adequate.

0:11:43.090,0:11:44.540
And so it doesn't have to be exemplary. It

0:11:44.540,0:11:45.980
can be really bad, and you can learn a

0:11:45.980,0:11:48.710
lot from that as well.

0:11:48.710,0:11:52.710
So, everything was going swimmingly. It was[br]going awesome.

0:11:52.710,0:11:54.530
And then one day, we encountered a gem that

0:11:54.530,0:11:58.440
talked about rack middleware. And in that[br]conversation, Dan,

0:11:58.440,0:12:01.070
who comes up with awesome things to say, says,

0:12:01.070,0:12:03.330
guys, I don't think I really understand how[br]rack

0:12:03.330,0:12:06.070
middleware works. And we said, Dan, it's,[br]it's obvious.

0:12:06.070,0:12:07.860
This is how it works. And then we realized

0:12:07.860,0:12:10.529
that none of us really knew how it worked.

0:12:10.529,0:12:13.920
And in that conversation, we found a knowledge[br]gap.

0:12:13.920,0:12:15.860
We found this, this thing that we thought[br]we

0:12:15.860,0:12:17.840
understood, that at one point we did understand,[br]but

0:12:17.840,0:12:21.160
we'd just forgotten about. So the following[br]week, instead

0:12:21.160,0:12:24.200
of doing our regular code review session where[br]we

0:12:24.200,0:12:26.860
just read through the code, we, instead, took[br]a

0:12:26.860,0:12:28.940
break. We did some research on what rack middleware

0:12:28.940,0:12:30.970
was, how it worked, when you'd modify it,[br]what

0:12:30.970,0:12:33.450
you do with it. We watched a few RailsCast

0:12:33.450,0:12:35.270
videos, did some, you know, looked at some[br]blog

0:12:35.270,0:12:37.800
posts. And the following week, we shared that[br]knowledge

0:12:37.800,0:12:38.520
together.

0:12:38.520,0:12:40.950
So we had a much higher-level conversation,[br]but it

0:12:40.950,0:12:43.660
just emphasizes the fact that it's not really[br]about

0:12:43.660,0:12:46.230
reading code. It's about reading code that's[br]a launching

0:12:46.230,0:12:50.510
point for more interesting conversation.

0:12:50.510,0:12:52.300
The eighth thing is you gotta keep at it.

0:12:52.300,0:12:54.420
So, I've never told my code club this, and

0:12:54.420,0:12:57.170
they're gonna find out, which is awesome.[br]But I

0:12:57.170,0:12:58.420
thought it was kind of a chore. It really

0:12:58.420,0:13:00.880
wasn't fun at first. It wasn't that exciting.[br]It

0:13:00.880,0:13:02.250
was something that I felt like I had to

0:13:02.250,0:13:03.690
do. I don't like waking up in the morning

0:13:03.690,0:13:06.000
on a Sunday. So it was really something that

0:13:06.000,0:13:07.800
I had to force myself to do. But over

0:13:07.800,0:13:10.220
time is when I saw the value. I was

0:13:10.220,0:13:12.260
really looking forward to that first code[br]reading session,

0:13:12.260,0:13:14.510
when it ended and I said, yeah, I'm now,

0:13:14.510,0:13:16.480
like, ten steps closer to being an expert.

0:13:16.480,0:13:18.240
But that's not how it works. It really takes

0:13:18.240,0:13:20.460
time to get the value from it. So keep

0:13:20.460,0:13:22.290
at it long enough and hopefully you'll see[br]the

0:13:22.290,0:13:25.300
value as well.

0:13:25.300,0:13:28.800
So everything was going swimmingly again,[br]and then we

0:13:28.800,0:13:31.310
read the omniauth-meetup gem. So right now[br]I'm a

0:13:31.310,0:13:33.700
developer for the New York tech meetup. Yes,[br]it's

0:13:33.700,0:13:36.340
a meetup group. Yes. This is a real job.

0:13:36.340,0:13:38.910
And there we use the omniauth-meetup gem to[br]authenticate

0:13:38.910,0:13:42.529
our members. And this is something that was[br]very

0:13:42.529,0:13:44.930
interesting, because it was very unexpected[br]for me.

0:13:44.930,0:13:46.660
For me, I read code because I felt like

0:13:46.660,0:13:48.050
that's what I had to do to be a

0:13:48.050,0:13:51.100
better programmer. That's what everyone told[br]me to do.

0:13:51.100,0:13:52.980
But when I looked at a gem that I

0:13:52.980,0:13:56.339
found personally interesting and personally[br]relevant, it made the

0:13:56.339,0:13:58.800
whole thing so much more exciting. Cause I[br]use

0:13:58.800,0:14:00.380
that gem. I used it all the time. I

0:14:00.380,0:14:01.529
knew what it was supposed to do. I knew

0:14:01.529,0:14:03.720
it wasn't, what it wasn't supposed to do,[br]and

0:14:03.720,0:14:05.339
having the opportunity to look under the hood[br]and

0:14:05.339,0:14:07.650
see how it did it got me really, really

0:14:07.650,0:14:09.180
excited.

0:14:09.180,0:14:11.400
And so the ninth guideline is to find interesting

0:14:11.400,0:14:13.970
code bases. Things on topics or problems that[br]maybe

0:14:13.970,0:14:16.589
you've had. Things that you've worked on before.[br]That

0:14:16.589,0:14:20.400
makes it a whole lot more interesting.

0:14:20.400,0:14:22.210
And then there are the unexpected benefits.[br]Things that

0:14:22.210,0:14:26.029
I really didn't consider at all. The first[br]is

0:14:26.029,0:14:27.830
that, you get to explore the organization[br]of the

0:14:27.830,0:14:30.690
code base. So we really focused on reading,[br]literally,

0:14:30.690,0:14:32.870
the lines of code. But just as interesting[br]was

0:14:32.870,0:14:35.310
the file structure, was, what are the folders[br]called?

0:14:35.310,0:14:36.920
And what are the files named? And how do

0:14:36.920,0:14:37.690
we work together?

0:14:37.690,0:14:40.240
And we got the opportunity to see that and

0:14:40.240,0:14:41.800
get exposed to that from all different types[br]of

0:14:41.800,0:14:45.430
gems and libraries. The second was, you get[br]to

0:14:45.430,0:14:48.560
really see how collaborative code is. When[br]you start

0:14:48.560,0:14:50.560
as a programmer, people tell you that open[br]source

0:14:50.560,0:14:52.750
is amazing and this beautiful thing, where[br]people from

0:14:52.750,0:14:55.820
all over the world collaborate and build great[br]things

0:14:55.820,0:14:58.390
together. But when you actually see it for[br]yourself

0:14:58.390,0:14:59.940
and you see that that gem that you love

0:14:59.940,0:15:01.970
is really just a fork from this other gem

0:15:01.970,0:15:03.940
and really this gem is dependent on all these

0:15:03.940,0:15:05.970
other things that you didn't think would ever[br]have

0:15:05.970,0:15:08.310
a connection, that's really powerful. And[br]it makes the

0:15:08.310,0:15:12.080
whole thing so much more beautiful.

0:15:12.080,0:15:13.890
And the third, and honestly the most important[br]one,

0:15:13.890,0:15:16.220
especially as a novice, is it's a great opportunity

0:15:16.220,0:15:19.040
to build your confidence. I didn't fully appreciate[br]how

0:15:19.040,0:15:22.310
intimidating it was to open up source code[br]until

0:15:22.310,0:15:24.089
I had to do it for Code Club. Cause

0:15:24.089,0:15:26.020
that first day, when I said, guys we're really

0:15:26.020,0:15:28.120
gonna open up this gem and try to understand

0:15:28.120,0:15:30.410
what's going on. And I think it was maybe

0:15:30.410,0:15:32.220
a month and a half into doing this, so

0:15:32.220,0:15:33.960
it's been about, like, six code clubs at this

0:15:33.960,0:15:36.550
point, or at that point, when I was at

0:15:36.550,0:15:38.130
work and I wanted to know how this gem

0:15:38.130,0:15:39.990
worked, I just opened it up. I didn't even

0:15:39.990,0:15:42.380
think twice about it. Because by that point,[br]it'd

0:15:42.380,0:15:44.470
become such a habit. It had become so normal

0:15:44.470,0:15:47.279
to look into how things worked. And having[br]that

0:15:47.279,0:15:49.670
frame of mind and that mindset is really,[br]really

0:15:49.670,0:15:51.649
important. It really makes you feel a lot[br]more

0:15:51.649,0:15:52.670
competent.

0:15:52.670,0:15:56.260
So, obviously by now, I have fully convinced[br]you

0:15:56.260,0:15:57.830
that you do want to start your own code

0:15:57.830,0:15:59.210
club. But you can't call it code club cause

0:15:59.210,0:16:00.660
I called that. So you have to find out

0:16:00.660,0:16:03.000
your own name. But I wanted to review the

0:16:03.000,0:16:03.980
guidelines.

0:16:03.980,0:16:06.399
So the first is, manageable code base. For[br]us,

0:16:06.399,0:16:08.230
it was a hundred lines of code. If you

0:16:08.230,0:16:10.950
feel like that's too low for you, definitely[br]raise

0:16:10.950,0:16:12.520
the stakes, but I think having a limit is

0:16:12.520,0:16:14.360
very important.

0:16:14.360,0:16:17.920
Two. Understanding that the learning really[br]does happen in

0:16:17.920,0:16:20.610
the digressions and in the conversations.

0:16:20.610,0:16:22.740
Three, that it's a team effort. Make sure[br]you

0:16:22.740,0:16:24.640
go at it with other people, and make sure

0:16:24.640,0:16:26.839
that you check in and see that everyone is

0:16:26.839,0:16:30.790
engaged and just as excited and hopefully[br]you are.

0:16:30.790,0:16:33.130
Four, to pick a tour guide, to take turns

0:16:33.130,0:16:35.330
and have someone lead the conversations. It's[br]also a

0:16:35.330,0:16:37.710
great opportunity for people to lead and kind[br]of

0:16:37.710,0:16:39.320
feel like they're, they're taking charge as[br]well. It's

0:16:39.320,0:16:42.690
a different type of confidence booster.

0:16:42.690,0:16:45.380
Five, to find those moments when you can interact

0:16:45.380,0:16:46.740
with the code, where you can say, how would

0:16:46.740,0:16:48.710
I do that? How do I feel about that?

0:16:48.710,0:16:51.010
Even asking that question of, what do you[br]think

0:16:51.010,0:16:52.550
of this code and having an opinion is very,

0:16:52.550,0:16:53.960
very powerful.

0:16:53.960,0:16:57.270
Six, it doesn't have to be good. You can

0:16:57.270,0:16:59.140
learn just as much from bad code as you

0:16:59.140,0:17:00.870
can from good code.

0:17:00.870,0:17:03.740
Seven, find those knowledge gaps and find[br]a way

0:17:03.740,0:17:06.039
to fill them. And hopefully fill them together.

0:17:06.039,0:17:08.740
Finally, to, to keep at it and make sure

0:17:08.740,0:17:09.959
that this is a habit, it's something you do

0:17:09.959,0:17:12.398
on a weekly basis or a monthly basis.

0:17:12.398,0:17:14.380
And finally to find interesting code bases.[br]You're gonna

0:17:14.380,0:17:17.398
find the experience much more enjoyable.

0:17:17.398,0:17:21.079
So, the question that I had, every single[br]week,

0:17:21.079,0:17:23.439
was, how does this get me to an expert?

0:17:23.439,0:17:25.160
I wanted to feel that moment where I said,

0:17:25.160,0:17:27.540
yes, now I am so much closer, and I

0:17:27.540,0:17:31.540
can feel myself growing and getting that cape,[br]finally.

0:17:31.540,0:17:33.860
And it didn't really happen quite that way.[br]That

0:17:33.860,0:17:37.130
transformation wasn't quite as visible and[br]as tangible as

0:17:37.130,0:17:39.250
I would have liked it to be. And so,

0:17:39.250,0:17:40.640
I thought a lot about why. I thought a

0:17:40.640,0:17:42.890
lot about, if I can't feel the change in

0:17:42.890,0:17:46.130
a very tangible, physical way, how do I know

0:17:46.130,0:17:47.860
that I'm becoming an expert?

0:17:47.860,0:17:51.440
And I found this really great infographic[br]on Twitter

0:17:51.440,0:17:53.809
a couple months ago that I repurposed for[br]my

0:17:53.809,0:17:57.559
own agenda, that I think really explains the[br]process

0:17:57.559,0:17:59.770
and the result.

0:17:59.770,0:18:02.420
So this is what information looks like. It[br]looks

0:18:02.420,0:18:05.220
like Skittles. And information is just all[br]these little

0:18:05.220,0:18:08.650
data points that are separate and isolated,[br]that happen

0:18:08.650,0:18:10.750
to kind of relate and, just by being in

0:18:10.750,0:18:12.900
the same bucket.

0:18:12.900,0:18:15.440
And then eventually, you're able to connect[br]these little

0:18:15.440,0:18:18.390
dots, and you're able to have knowledge. And[br]knowledge

0:18:18.390,0:18:20.610
is being able to tell a story. Being able

0:18:20.610,0:18:23.470
to say, I can start from that yellow skittle

0:18:23.470,0:18:25.280
in the corner, and if I go right, I

0:18:25.280,0:18:26.470
can get to that green one, and then I

0:18:26.470,0:18:28.630
go, shoom, go all the way down to orange,

0:18:28.630,0:18:30.400
and then if I make a left, or, a

0:18:30.400,0:18:32.640
right I'm at green. And then if I make

0:18:32.640,0:18:34.230
a right again, I'm at red. And that's how

0:18:34.230,0:18:35.630
I get from yellow to red.

0:18:35.630,0:18:39.730
It's understanding that, that path.

0:18:39.730,0:18:41.530
And then wisdom is saying, you know what,[br]I

0:18:41.530,0:18:43.140
don't need to go through all those skittles.[br]I

0:18:43.140,0:18:44.700
can just go straight from yellow to red if

0:18:44.700,0:18:46.390
I make my own path. And you know, I

0:18:46.390,0:18:47.760
don't even need that path to be straight.[br]It's

0:18:47.760,0:18:49.940
gonna be all straight, cause I'm a rebel.

0:18:49.940,0:18:51.900
And so, this was kind of the journey of

0:18:51.900,0:18:54.670
reading code together. The information and[br]all those little

0:18:54.670,0:18:56.740
data points come from all the code bases that

0:18:56.740,0:18:58.309
you get to read, from all the things that

0:18:58.309,0:19:01.020
you're exposed to that you've never seen before.

0:19:01.020,0:19:03.350
Those points where things connect and you[br]have knowledge

0:19:03.350,0:19:05.910
and you have these stories and these paths,[br]that

0:19:05.910,0:19:08.850
comes from having really good code reading[br]sessions. That

0:19:08.850,0:19:11.290
comes from working with other people who give[br]you

0:19:11.290,0:19:14.020
their input, from asking those questions that[br]you're gonna

0:19:14.020,0:19:16.660
ask that are very insightful, and it also[br]comes

0:19:16.660,0:19:20.300
from leveraging everyone else's experiences.[br]So when I go

0:19:20.300,0:19:21.570
to work and I use a gem, I can

0:19:21.570,0:19:23.110
say, hey, I've seen this before.

0:19:23.110,0:19:25.050
When Dan goes to work and, and uses a

0:19:25.050,0:19:27.030
specific method, he can say, I've done that[br]before.

0:19:27.030,0:19:29.700
And, in doing that, we're finding all these[br]connections

0:19:29.700,0:19:31.970
that would have been way harder to find on

0:19:31.970,0:19:33.290
our own.

0:19:33.290,0:19:35.250
And then, finally, we'll be able to see that,

0:19:35.250,0:19:37.800
of all that noise, of all those patterns and

0:19:37.800,0:19:40.700
designs and concepts and all those lines of[br]code,

0:19:40.700,0:19:42.260
the ones that we really care about are just

0:19:42.260,0:19:43.840
yellow and red. And those are the ones that

0:19:43.840,0:19:45.920
keep popping out, over and over again, over[br]time.

0:19:45.920,0:19:48.170
And eventually we have wisdom and we're much[br]closer

0:19:48.170,0:19:51.480
to being experts.

0:19:51.480,0:19:54.470
So, these are just a handful of the code

0:19:54.470,0:19:56.580
bases that we've read. If you're interested[br]in looking

0:19:56.580,0:19:58.020
at them. I think most of them are about

0:19:58.020,0:19:59.550
a hundred lines. I think one or two may

0:19:59.550,0:20:02.240
be a little bit bigger. But take a look,

0:20:02.240,0:20:04.140
and I'd love to hear kind of your stories

0:20:04.140,0:20:06.240
and see what you get from that.

0:20:06.240,0:20:09.260
That is my website, bloggytoons dot com slash[br]code-club.

0:20:09.260,0:20:10.800
There's a page that has links to all of

0:20:10.800,0:20:14.760
these gems and a few other ones as well.

0:20:14.760,0:20:16.650
That's the end. That's my handle. I pretty[br]much

0:20:16.650,0:20:19.400
Tweet, like, mostly about programming and,[br]like, cake. So

0:20:19.400,0:20:22.770
you've been warned. But, and that's the website[br]again.

0:20:22.770,0:20:25.159
So I think that's pretty much it. Any questions?