Chapter 3 - The Basic Tools

Every craftsman starts his or her journey with a basic set of good quality tools

Discussion: What are your tools?

Tools become conduits from the craftsman's brain to the finished product - they have become extensions of his or her hands

Always be on the lookout for better ways of doing things

Tip 20: Keep Knowledge in plain text

JP: plain text doesn't become obsolete - as opposed to binary. this seems obvious. this is mostly about readability

Tip 21: Use the power of command shells

JP: you can do everything in the shell that you do using the GUI: launch apps, browsers; search files; touch, mkdir, rm -rf. basically i need to get better at this. touch newfile.rb is faster than right click > new file > newfile.rb > carriage return

Tip 22: use a single editor well

JP: fuck IDE's, VIM all the way, baby!!! I no longer rely on auto complete and it's amazing. The editor is an extension to your hand

Tip 23: Always use source code control

JP: the front end devs at my job don't check their files into git and it blows my mind.

Tip 24: Fix the problem, not the blame

JP: "it doesn't really matter whether the bug is your fault or someone else's. it is still your problem". suck it up!

• John: There is no User Error - The design of everyday things. - Industrial deaths.

Tip 25: Don't panic when debugging

JP: don't waste energy denying that a bug is possible. clearly, it is. just breathe

Picks

• JP: Grit by Angela Duckworth & this Adam Cuppy Talk
• John: Swappa - Buy and sell used tech and refurb.me

Episode source