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Code Camp Wellington 2023

On Saturday I attended the very excellent Code Camp Wellington. Here are some of my sketchnotes from the talks I went to.

The talks

Sketchnotes page 1. Text version immediately follows this image.

Text version of sketchnotes for “Success suits you! / Embrace greatness – Shiffy Lal”
  • Write down stuff to get in out of your head.
  • Are you afraid of failure? Success?
Six bits of advice
  1. Know your why
  2. Define your values
  3. Use what is in your hand
  4. Back yourself
  5. Pace yourself
  6. Be an opportunist
Text version of sketchnotes for “Staff Engineering: A technical alternative to management – Annie Vella”
  • Careers are long
  • Junior to Intermediate to Senior
    • to Manager to Director to VP
    • (or) to Staff to Principal to Distinguished.
      • This is a new, recent, alternative path.
      • It means increase scope: other teams, the organisation.
  • You can pendulum between Engineer and Manager tracks. It’s more side-to-side than back-and-forth.
  • Choose a path that gives you energy.
  • The Dreyfus model: novice to expert. About 10 years of difficult, varied, experience.

Sketchnotes page 2. Text version immediately follows this image.

Text version of sketchnotes for “Build confidence with tests – Helen Kyryliuk”
  • Tests
    • Make sure code works
    • Reduce anxiety about changes
    • are an investment in good code
  • The testing trophy
  • The more out test are like user behaviour
    • the more confidence we can have
    • the less frequently the tests change (because they aren’t tied to implementation)
Text version of sketchnotes for “Building a culture of experimentation – Gareth Bradley”
  • Why experiment?
    • The path forward isn’t clear
    • To improve or optimise
    • Time is expensive
  • Why have a culture of experimentation?
    • It’s part of a high-performing team
    • It’s fun to be scrapped sometimes
  • Look at what got better and what got worse.
Text version of sketchnotes for “Roadblocks in the early career of a developer – Dev Academy Panel”
  • Thoughts
    • I need to be good at maths
    • I’m not smart enough
    • I’m not fast enough
    • Am I a “real” developer?
  • The problems are often (inter)personal, not tech
  • A sense of belonging is very important.

My talk

Also! I did a tiny ten minute lightning talk: “D&D and Accessibility”.