Miki Rezentes

Christian, woman, wife, homeschool mom, grandmother, software engineer, skater. The views are express my own and not those of my employer.

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

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[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

I’m noticing an uptick in expert beginners. It appears to be directly related to using AI.

https://t.co/iJPeSg4l43

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

I just showed my husband how to use Pythagorean triples to check for square. Made me think of you @JEG2

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

For anyone who happened to see Kate give a lightning talk at #elixirconf here’s a throwback to her first lightning talk from when she was a teenager.

https://t.co/fwrTsTqNPx

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

If you were a car, would you be a stick or an automatic?

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

How many nits could a nitpick pick if a nitpick could pick nits?

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

@rwdaigle Seems extreme, yet definitive

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

If you lose 20 pounds, how long do you wait before you throw out your fat clothes?

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

I'm watching a tv show where some dude is trying to exert force during a handshake with another dude.

Just an FYI, a candidate I once interviewed dislocated a bone in my hand doing that.

And yes, that pretty much guarantees you won't pass the interview.

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

Just because you're solving a problem doesn't mean you're solving the right problem.

If you found that you aren't solving the right problem, take heed. You've likely replaced a problem that is "new to you" with a problem you know how to solve. It happens subconsciously.

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

Many people talk a good game about incremental improvement and delivery yet it seems to cause discomfort when the increments are indeed increments and not polished.
Don't polish the incremental, it's like polishing a turd.

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

And this isn't just about data, moving logic around can cause the same issues. It's quite often that a few small steps get you to your destination with zero drama. The harder part with this approach is getting approvals on your prs.

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

A big hurdle with the messy middle is that devs can clearly see the full work isn't done. They see loose ends and they know something should be done about them. This is where leaning into the difference between "no" and "not yet" and can be very helpful.

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

Having imagination is key. You have to be able to imagine the distinct states the data and abstractions will go through. Many people have a hard time imagining the stepping stones. It's much easy to imagine the final state and try to jump there.

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

The messy middle tends to have data that isn't in well defined objects yet. It's as if you're teasing apart the data from the old abstraction and just using the data raw without any abstraction over it.

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

Then you're trying to push that data into the new abstraction/pattern. Dealing with 2 different abstractions at the same time in the code can be challenging. If you can move from abstraction to data to new abstraction, it can make thinking about the start, middle and end easier.

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

Managing the transition from an old pattern to a new pattern is greatly helped by having a good grasp of your stable stepping stones.
I often see devs struggle with how to manage that messy middle. It's almost an art to pick the right time to lean into the new pattern.

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

Fear of the messy middle often causes prs that are too ambitious and risky.
Don't hope. Plan.

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

@sprsmpl @doktoroktober I find it a blessing to not be able to see the wrinkles.

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

There were nuts hidden all over the place inside. Removing all the nuts fixed the problem. The only other memory of that trip was that Florida had a ton of spiders, alligators were a threat and I hated swimming with the water snakes.

[Miki Rezentes @mikirez]

When I was very small, we had friends who had rescued a baby chipmunk. It lived with them its whole life. When the husband passed (the chipmunk had passed much before) we went down to help take care of the house. My dad needed to fix the washer. When he opened it up…