Getting to a Deep Understanding

In a little over a week, my Real World OO class starts. I always enjoy teaching, but I'm particularly excited about this class. That's true for a number of reasons.

First, I'll be working with Clark Valberg and Ben Nadel, two people for whom I have great respect. As I wrote yesterday, getting to work with smart people is just a lot of fun and I learn a great deal through my interactions with them.

Second, I'll be teaching some new techniques and technologies in order to help people overcome the problems of maintaining applications. It's been well-established that between 70-90% of code cost over the code's lifecycle is spent in maintenance. Given that, frameworks (IMHO) should concentrate on making maintenance easier, but it seems that maintenance is usually an afterthought.

Third, we're going to have some fun! The training starts with a Sunday evening reception, where I'm looking forward to getting to know the students. Each evening, we have a bit of a happy hour before resuming for the day's recap and a Q&A session. And my wife has a little excursion planned for the students, but I'll save that as a surprise.

At the risk of sounding like Steve Ballmer -- he of "Developers! Developers! Developers!" fame -- I really like working with developers. It's almost universally true that they are eager for knowledge and want to do an excellent job. There's one big roadblock to this, however: buzzwords.

To gain a deep understanding of a subject, you must approach it with what is popularly referred to as a "beginner's mind". You must take it on its own terms and learn, as much as possible, without preconception, without trying to shoehorn it into existing categories. Buzzwords, of course, are the antithesis of this. They pretend to offer knowledge while offering nothing more noisy opinion. I won't get off on any more of a rant, but I've decided to do something about this.

To make sure I don't fall prey to substituting buzzwords for actual, supportable thoughts, I'm creating my own version of a "swear jar". Any time I use a buzzword -- even a legitimate one, like "encapsulation" or "polymorphism" -- I'm going to contribute a dollar to the Buzzword Kitty. I want to make sure that we discover things for ourselves rather than rely on pre-fab answers.

I understand from our official Training Coordinator that we have room for exactly one more student. If you're willing to share a room with someone and really want to come but just can't afford the full price, email me at training[at]halhelms.com and I'll tell you about a special offer.

Now, I better go stock up on dollar bills...