Music

8th Light Apprenticeship - Day 7

We have a special guest in the office this week, Paul Pagel, CEO of 8th Light. This morning he did a key note talk, and started by getting each person to look five years ahead, and imagine a blog post was published, in 2020 somewhere by someone. We had to each dream up what the post was about and by whom it was written. It was exciting to share everyone’s hope’s and dream’s for the company, some funny, some serious, some achievable, some not so (is Mars really ready for an 8th Light office?). A nice way to start the day.

It was back to business after that, and I prepared materials to demo at my IPM meeting. It was the first time my work had been formally reviewed by my mentors so I was keen to get some feedback. Key take aways were to keep the same level of abstractions in methods, rather than switching between pro’s and algorithm. Improve the user experience - only programmers start counting at 0, and importantly, don’t refactor too early. Only write production code when a test is red. I also learnt that I need to use the mouse less. I was reaching for it, even when it wasn’t there.

I also have to perform the Roman Numerals kata. To music. Yes, music. Something that I have not listened to in a while. Music. A lyrical selection of notes. To listen is effortless, yet musicians practise for years, over and over again, dedicating their time to scales, studies, concertos. In a change to practising code, this evening I decided to practise violin, a hobby that has been lying dormant since July. I think I’ll perform my kata to a violin recording.