Episode 179 | Eric Torreborre - Effects, Specs

Guest: Eric Torreborre @etorreborre Eric Torreborre talks with Dave Rael about the world, family, functional programming, and understanding Eric Torreborre is a backend Scala developer working for Zalando, in Germany. After having been a long-time follower of the OO cult he has now become a FP devotee. His main open-source project, specs2, is a testing library for Scala and has been an incredible learning ground for him. When he finally learns something, he tries to spread the knowledge around at conferences or meetups. He will be talking about using the Eff monad for structuring micro-services at Scala eXchange in London in December 2016. Chapters: 0:57 - Dave introduces the show and Eric Torreborre4:52 - Leadership roles and preferences5:55 - Motivated to learn Scala and the beginning of specs210:50 - specs2 - why Eric created it and what it is13:35 - The things that "light Eric up"15:04 - How Eric got started in software17:35 - Eric's path to functional programming21:54 - Advice for getting exposed to functional programming23:30 - Eric's story of failure - Designing a systems with layers of complexity that couldn't scale - combining reads and writes26:45 - Eric's success story - specs2, creating something useful and getting a lot of feedback - meeting people27:43 - Negative feedback, building for yourself, and questioning the motives and intentions of others29:35 - Eric's family and having kids living in very different places31:17 - How Eric stays current with what he needs to know33:15 - The value of books34:18 - Eric's book recommendation36:41 - The things that have Eric most excited38:05 - Eric's sources of pain and suffering39:46 - The things about which Eric likes to geek out41:26 - Eric's top 3 tips for delivering more value42:48 - Keeping up with Eric Resources: specs2 The Essence of the Iterator Pattern - Jeremy Gibbons and Bruno C. d. S. Oliveira Eric's Blog Post on The Essence of the Iterator Pattern Dave Thomas on Developer On Fire Andy Hunt on Developer On Fire Eric's Talk - The Eff Monad - One Monad to Rule Them All Embedding effect systems in Haskell John De Goes on Developer On Fire Scott Hanselman on Developer On Fire Eric's Practical Eff Monad for Microservices Talk at Scala eXchange 2016 Eric's book recommendation: The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master - Andrew Hunt Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams (3rd Edition) - Tom DeMarco The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition) - Frederick P. Brooks Jr. The Leprechauns of Software Engineering Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity - David Allen Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers (Collins Business Essentials) - Geoffrey A. Moore Eric's top 3 tips for delivering more value: Take care of your body Stay curious and try things Find people that compliment you and your abilities