Developer on Fire
Developer on Fire
Episode 319 | John Best - How You Respond
Guest:
John Best talks with Dave Rael about limitations, philosophy, DevOps, empathy, and choosing your responses
John Best is a .NET Framework specialist for TrackOFF inc, in Baltimore,MD. Prior to TrackOFF, he was a web developer for a number of private companies and government firms across various states, specializing in ASP.NET, MVC, and Angular. Having started programming at 14 in C++, programming and software design have always held a passion for him. John studied Computer Science and Psychology at Kent State University in Ohio and enjoys studying French and Buddhist philosphy in his free time.
Chapters:
- - Dave introduces the show and John Best
- - John's interest in philosophy, French, and Buddhism
- - John's physical limitations and choices on how to respond
- - How John got started in software
- - The things that "light John up"
- - John's failure story - getting in over his head early on
- - Humility for software developers
- - John's success story - Improving the lives of the people in his operation
- - How John stays current with what he needs to know
- - John's book recommendations
- - Having a beginner's mind
- - Psychology for developers - using metaphors, balancing what we know with the virtue of the beginner's mind, stress, and empathy
- - The things that have John most excited
- - John's top 3 tips for delivering more value
- - Keeping up with John
Resources:
- Pablo Rivera on Developer On Fire
- Existentialism
- Postmodernism
- Jean-Paul Sartre
- Albert Camus
- Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl
- Cerebral Palsy
- Larry Wall
- "I know that I know nothing" - Socrates
- Neuromancer - William Gibson
- Dan Coyle on Mixed Mental Arts (where Bryan Callen shares story of Laurence Fishburn and fixing a broken script)
John's book recommendation:
John's top 3 tips for delivering more value:
- If you don't have a system for doing iterative development and releasing quickly, build one
- Try to find whatever blockers exist in your team and try to resolve them
- Try to learn as much as you can and try to incorporate that into your workflow
