Guest:
Scott Ford
@mscottford
M. Scott Ford talks with Dave Rael about making something better, the toll of harsh criticism, technical focus, and identifying needs
Leading the Corgibytes technical team is Scott, who has been called the “Bob Vila of the internet.” Scott is a polyglot developer who, at last count, is fluent in over twenty programming languages. Scott’s love of software restoration and remodeling began in college where he and his team were responsible for retrofitting the testing tools for the X-31 jet fighter. Since then, Scott has maintained a test-focused approach to his work and found the most joy in projects where an existing codebase needed to be improved. Scott is currently working on his first book Software Remodeling: A DIY Approach to Transforming Your Legacy Code.
Chapters:
1:32 - Dave introduces the show and Scott Ford4:47 - The nature of CorgiBytes and reasons for the focus on legacy code6:47 - Multiple roles in a relationship - both business partners and a wife/husband team7:58 - The appeal of starting with something undesirable and making it better12:11 - Being a business owner in addition to a technical wizard16:06 - An organization of "code whisperers," identifying what a project needs and driving improvement20:22 - Both technical and nontechnical - good with machines, not with humans22:11 - Scott's approach to social interactions and becoming a conference speaker26:03 - How Scott got started in software27:45 - Scott, the polyglot - why and how29:27 - Choosing new tools, even on legacy projects31:13 - Scott's story of failure - realizing completion of a project would not be worth the time and effort35:05 - Scott's story of success - continual, incremental improvement37:11 - How Scott stays current with what he needs to know38:20 - Scott's book recommendation39:55 - The things about which Scott likes to geek out40:38 - Scott's top 3 tips for delivering more value43:04 - Keeping up with Scott
Resources:
CorgiBytes - Scott's Business
Legacy Code Rocks!
Andrea Goulet on Developer On Fire
Eric Lawrence on Developer On Fire
Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software - Erich Gamma
Becoming Technical - Andrea Goulet, Jocelyne Morin-Nurse
Code Climate
Scott's book recommendation:
Refactoring to Patterns - Joshua Kerievsky
Scott's top 3 tips for delivering more value:
Commit to get better at something - be honest about where you are, then measure where you are and measure as you improve
Experiment more
Try to stay positive
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