I'm Back
It’s been a while since I’ve published a new entry. Not because I haven’t thought of things, but because I got sidetracked with life and work for a bit, then I got out of the habit of writing. Which is a great topic to write about. So here I go. Talking about writing. And habits. And personal lessons.
We all have free will. We get to decide what we want to do. Not in a vacuum of course. There is always an impact to our choices. You need to balance the costs and benefits of a choice. The better visibility you have into those costs and benefits, the better decision you can make. Just remember that making a good decision is different not the same as the outcome of the decision.
In my case, back in the middle of last year I got busy. Busy at work and busy outside work. As people familiar with Spoon Theory know, when you run out of spoons you need to stop, so you need to use your spoons thoughtfully. Looking at the things I needed to do, the things I wanted to do, and the things I could do, I decided to stop working on this blog.
And in retrospect, it was a good decision. The things that needed to be done got done. I was able to do the things I wanted to do that were most important to me, and I was able to put enough effort into them to do them well. I’m happy with the choice I made, and in the same situation, I’ll go through the same process.
However, in retrospect, one thing I missed in my decision was how much momentum and habit play into things. One of the reasons I was writing so much was that I was I the habit of writing. I had some momentum, and that kept me going. When I stopped, I got out of the habit and lost the momentum. Even worse, I got in the habit of saying “I’ll get back to it soon”. And that’s a dangerous habit to have.
What I should have done was extend my decision with some exit criteria. That would have helped me not get into the habit of not writing. Instead of realizing it’s been 9 months since I posted a new entry, I would have had both reminders and a reason to get back to it. Because I do like writing. And sharing. And hopefully others are getting something out of it as well. So here we are. I’m writing blog posts again, and working on building back that habit.
And to bring this back to helping you, my Friendgineers, it’s something that we need to remember as software developers. When we write, whether it’s emails, docs, blog posts, or code, we have habits. Generally, our habits help us by keeping us from having to decide every little detail. One space or two between sentences? (One) Oxford comma or not (Yes) Indent or blank line between paragraphs (Blank line). Those habits are useful.
But sometimes, when we make a decision, like deciding to move quickly to get something working right now, that should have exit criteria but doesn’t, we end up without an important habit, or possibly worse, with a new habit, that gets in our way later. Like the habit of not thinking about forward or backward compatibility, not worrying about separation of concerns, or not writing unit tests. Or maybe hard-coding configurations, or choices? Sometimes you do those things for speed, or expediency, but those are not things you want to make a habit of.
So when you do make those decisions, know your exit criteria, and follow them. If you don’t have them, create them. And above all, be careful what habits your pick up. Or lose.