Original post on Medium brought here for posterity. I’ve since moved to another company, and the DevBookClub started grew into a Louisville meetup - Dev Book Club by a fellow organizer.
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest your reap but by the seeds that you plant.” — Robert Louis Stevenson
The following is not a new story, but one that many people before have played out time after time. I’ve done my best to make it as a general as possible as this can apply to so many situations. Toward the end, I get into more of the specifics of this given context which is software development. Hope you enjoy. :) What’s left of this post before it’s no longer a draft?
What’s left of this post before it’s no longer a draft?
- The details of the actual context? https://github.com/cj-taylor/Demo-DesignPatterns
- How has the journey been after 10 weeks of functioning?
- What lessons have been learned?
- Address initial draft feedback and requests of those that are kind enough to provide it. If you’re reading this, then I greatly appreciate you and your feedback :)
The idea that created a hunger to explore
I have always been plagued with a curious mind, but it wasn’t until some time ago that I developed an interest in trying to share in that curiosity with others. I attribute that to the perspective gained by mentoring for an organization teaching others involving my given craft (CodeLouisville, a post to come about that soon).
What started with a giddy Facebook post (I’ve since deleted Facebook, but I made a similar tweet on Twitter) by a nerd about some books led into sidebar discussions among peers revealing an opportunity. An opportunity to create a community around learning with others. Quite the contrast from what many of us were accustomed to; learning in silos as individuals.
Taking inventory for the voyage
The initial chatter with my peers showed a variable amount of interest in certain areas, but we all seemed to agree on one thing; start simple. Having established our starting point, I wanted to ensure that whatever was done to grow the knowledge of our kindred minds wouldn’t have to be repeated from scratch; keep a history. Projecting the idea of the group further out in thought, we realized that it needed to be at least somewhat scheduled so others could rely on known dates and expectations; set a cadence and point of centralized updates. Lastly on our inventory was the final destination. Starting off slowly on the journey is safe, but the end destination is the larger goal; direct the group towards the end destination.
- Start Simple
- Keep a history
- Set a cadence and a point of centralized updates
- Direct the group toward the end destination
Mind you; these conversations spanned only a day online, it was the next day that I put our infrastructure into place and we were dipping our toes into the water to check the temperature. I was scared of losing fleeting interest in the adventure, so acting quick was a must.
Pausing story time here for now
After churning on this post for an hour, I need to get back to the grind on some code for other projects. However, I fully intend to continue with the above mentioned “What’s left of this post before it’s no longer a draft?” and what feedback I get from the start of this post I’ve already published. Sheesh, starting this I was all “This is going to be dreadful” however this has been quite an enjoyable outlet thus far. More to come!