SCNA 2009 - Test-Driven Learning: Bobby Norton

Code Culture (blog)

Getting out of the Shu box

• Learning Tests (exploratory tests)
• Q. How long will it take me to master Aikido?
  A. How long do you expect to live?
• Practice. Accumulates over the years.
• The master and the master's path are one.
• Force yourself to move to a new context. Move past plateaus.
• Shu - Ha - Ri
  • "Career novices" never progress past Shu
  • Ri
    • Continually looks for better ways of doing things
    • Advances the state of the practice
• Repeated study is not enough; you need repeated testing.
  Repeated testing (being tested) helps recall/memory. Don't just read/study.
• How much code can you write from memory?

Tools

• shubox (for learning Ruby or Java)

Techniques

• Start with empty unit test declarations - goals
• Test your assumptions
• Becomes your knowledge repository
• Revisit it; see if you can redo it from memory

Books

• Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment by George Leonard
• Pragmatic Thinking and Learning