More »

Kill Your Darlings

almost 3 years ago by Jay Fields on Jay Fields Thoughts.
When I worked with Zak Tamsen, one of his favorite (software development) sayings was: Kill Your Darlings. The idea was simple, don't get too attached to...

Retrospective Trust Level

almost 3 years ago by Jay Fields on Jay Fields Thoughts.
Retrospectives can be complicated meetings. Done correctly, they can provide immense value. Done poorly, they can be a show that provides negative value...

Continual Retrospective

almost 3 years ago by Jay Fields on Jay Fields Thoughts.
I'm a huge fan of retrospectives. When consulting I found retrospectives to be absolutely required. An enormous amount of value was derived from expressing...

Thoughts on Developer Testing

~3 years ago by Jay Fields on Jay Fields Thoughts.
This morning I read Joel: From Podcast 38 and it reminded me how immature developers are when it comes to testing. In the entry Joel says:a lot of people...

Questions To Ask an Interviewer

~3 years ago by Jay Fields on Jay Fields Thoughts.
If you've ever read tips on interviewing then you know it's a good idea to have questions ready to ask someone who's just interviewed you. If your not good...

The Fowler Effect

~3 years ago by Jay Fields on Jay Fields Thoughts.
ThoughtWorks does it's best to attract smart developers. It's no easy task. How do you convince the smartest developers in the world to join a company that...

Creating Objects in Java Unit Tests

~3 years ago by Jay Fields on Jay Fields Thoughts.
Most Java unit tests consist of a Class Under Test (CUT), and possibly dependencies or collaborators. The CUT, dependencies and collaborators need to be...

The Cost of Net Negative Producing Programmers

~3 years ago by Jay Fields on Jay Fields Thoughts.
It's common to compare ourselves to doctors, lawyers, and other highly-paid professionals. Unfortunately, almost every comparison breaks down dramatically...

Things to dislike about Java

~3 years ago by Jay Fields on Jay Fields Thoughts.
Back in August I started working with Java the majority of the time. I still do a bit of Ruby, but the vast majority of my work these days is in Java. Java...

Targeted Languages

~3 years ago by Jay Fields on Jay Fields Thoughts.
The vast majority of actively evolving business software is written in Java these days. Java has long enjoyed the title of One Language to Rule Them All...