Anthony Eden

A question to my friends, colleagues, and Linked-In associations that are full TDD developers. Folks who consider themselves proficient or have mastered TDD. 1. How long did it take you to to become very proficient (e.g. to start thinking fully test first)? 2. Did you have a mentor or some aid that helped you along the way? 3. What kept you going down the proficiency/mastery path? I'll start: 1. It took me about 3 years to make it a habit and for me to truly embrace TDD and find that it could replace "test after" development. 2. I did not have a mentor. I did not have YouTube or trainings. I had constraints about creating automated tests. I had teammates that were similarly inclined (constrained). 3. I immediately saw the value of automated tests. I struggled with test first getting in the way of me feeling productive (because I was not proficient and in the learning/gaining proficiency phase) with test first. I'd start every day test first and quickly transition to test after, because it was getting in the way of my "productivity and programming...damn it I just want to write the implementation!" At the end of the day I'd reflect and most days realize that writing tests after was so much slower. Slowly, my time spent test first increased. At some point I transitioned to pseudo coding my intended implementation (to satiate my need to "just write the damn code and not be bothered with tests"). More time passed and I realized that my pseudo code was an inaccurate crutch, I ditched that too and would start with a test. There was a period of time where I'd start with a test and get lost in implementing more than just making the test pass (cycles of sunk cost fallacy here, until I learned it's ok to delete and write it later - faster, better, stronger). There were periods of time where I'd forget to run the test first to see it red before making it green. Too many years messing around with mocking frameworks before learning better design. Struggles with testing internal implementation details instead of external behavior. A whole bunch of stuff I can't think of now and am probably blocking out. I stuck with it though and yikes, does it pay off. I can't imagine not doing TDD now. Coding w/o it is like running through a vat of molasses. So much time wasted in the debugger and writing things that my evil programmer monkey brain distracts me with that YAGNI. I'm writing and asking about this because last week I attended a conference where I talked with a fellow TDDer who'd heard me mention that it took me 3 years to become fully TDD proficient and he shared a similar story even though he was much younger than myself (I attribute my slow adoption due to lack of a mentor/coach and training aids like Pluralsite, YouTube, Jon Reid live coding sessions). I'm curious about others mileage on this. I'll add that I am currently 100% on board with TDD. I am also 100% always on the lookout for a new and better way to replace it. That's off topic though.

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Hitting $1.5M Rev in 3 years is impressive... but should he have sold the firm? Was reflecting on this recent podcast with Jordan Sublette, CPA. Clearly he had rapid success both in growing (and then selling to his successor). Can't help but wonder ... with a firm growing so quickly, did he sell too early? On the other side of it, the future is unpredictable and now he has some financial security... What do you think? 🤔 https://lnkd.in/gCnRh8MV #accountingfirm #acquisition #sale #CPAfirm

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🏎️💨 Making of a Ridiculously Fast™ API client in R. Why my package is **~17x faster** than the community alternatives that call the **exact same API endpoints**. 👇🏽**design choices matter** ✨ https://lnkd.in/ggi_2XyQ

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This was an "all JavaScript" episode if ever there was one. Lots of good stuff happening in the web dev world! We covered a new build tool claiming to be 10x faster than Webpack, handling JS dates with ease, and SSR benchmark wars - which framework is the best?? Listen up and let us know what you think!

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Should the entire development team attend all of the sprint events? No, because it’s inefficient and a waste of time. Right? Years ago I battled a tough client who didn't want the developers to attend the Sprint Review. He wanted them to, in his words, “just keep coding”. I argued…how will the team learn about what the customer and the business needs? His predictable answer was “better requirements documentation”. Software engineers are professionals who need to deeply understand the problems to be solve. The intent of sprint events is to provide context for these problems and enable collaboration. Ask your developers if they are receiving value from sprint events. If not, don't exclude them. Fix the events so they enable the development team. #scrum #agile #collaboration

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Will Devin AI replace developers? 😱 Maybe 🤷🏻‍♂️ To me personally, Devin is a development tool and not a replacement...YET 🌚 I am not denying that Devin can code really well if all the claims are accurate. Eventually, it may replace developers. But developers don’t code just to code. We build products ✅ We build solutions ✅ And these happen to be made of code. Can companies ditch all developers today and expect products to still get built and maintained to the same standard as an enterprise-level solution? Nope 🙅🏻‍♂️ The quality of a product refers to how well it solves user problems. And those gaps between code, user, and solution? That’s where good developers provide values 👨🏻‍💻✨

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Building an MVP shouldn’t take months or millions of dollars. As “The Business CTO,” I’ve built 15 MVPs in record time—often in less than 2 weeks. I’ve even developed a working version of a software in 1.5 months that someone spent 15 years and 19 companies trying to create. I’m getting a lot of DMs from entrepreneurs who want to build faster without sacrificing quality. So, I’ve opened up 5 exclusive 1:1 mentorship slots on Intro. What can we cover together? ✔️ Rapid MVP creation ✔️ Scaling your business with automation ✔️ How to sell tech without getting your development team angry at you ✔️ Product validation and scope optimization Disclaimer – only sign up if you’re serious about building fast. Comment “interested” and secure your spot now: intro.co/jeffzigman

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One common question I get is, "What do you do as a Developer Advocate?" or "What does the Developer Experience team do?" (Even within Sendbird, haha 😂) The answer varies because the role of a Developer Advocate differs across companies. But I can clearly share what we do at Sendbird! And one great way to show this is by highlighting what we've accomplished!! Here's a recap of what we've done over the last three months. Huge thanks to the team! 🙌 (Jane Lee Katherine Na Yeon Kim Mansoo Kim Sunghyuk Kim Mickey C.) ======= 🚀 Dogfooding Session: We conducted an internal session for Sendbird Business Messaging, simulating a customer use case to improve our onboarding experience. 🎥 YouTube Videos: Released 5 videos covering AI Chatbot features to help users get started quickly. 📝 Feedback Channel: Actively collected and addressed feedback to enhance our documentation. 🤖 Interactive Demos: Built targeted demos for AI Chatbot in E-commerce, Healthcare, and Online Banking. 📚 Documentation Revamp: Improved our "Getting Started" guides, resulting in increased user engagement. For the full story, check out my Medium post: https://lnkd.in/gt-HGnER Looking forward to what we'll achieve next! 🙌 And one thing more, we're hiring a Technical Writer(https://lnkd.in/gFM4R9Wh), Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in this role! Also, if you're interested in becoming a Developer Advocate, don't hesitate to reach out!

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Anybody who is going through code interviews knows to manually test and find bugs. The fundamental problem is to KEEP YOUR SH*T TOGETHER when you find a bug. Don't overindex on the exciting joy/embarrassment of finding the bug. In fact, if you've found one, there are likely more. Keep a cool head, reset yourself emotionally, and start your testing FROM SCRATCH and find them. And most importantly... keep it cool. #codinginterviews #coding #crackTheCodingInterview

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Part of the problem is legacy code. Even if we wrote perfectly testable code from here on out, we often still have to deal with legacy code. If you need help with that in LabVIEW I’ve got a bunch of effective tools and techniques. I’m working on a refactoring workshop among other things. If that sounds interesting let me know and I’ll add you to the waiting list.

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Wow, it's time for that big decision again. Should we create the software ourselves or buy it from a provider? This is a frequent concern. Every project, every new feature like adding live collaborative components, needs vetting. You'll likely hit up Google, type in "WebSockets" and start figuring out how you can integrate this into your software. You'll do some homework first, of course. You'll check available open-source software options and contemplate whether to host it yourself. Or, you'll mull over the many vendors out there. Picking and choosing from them based on what they offer can feel daunting. Let's say you want your app to have a chat feature. It's crucial to keep users engrossed and coming back for more. By having a chat feature, your app engagement, and consequently your business, could see growth. So, what to consider when deciding? You could either pick a vendor that can provide such an API or install some open-source software. You'll need to keep maintenance, growth potential, and scalability in mind. Let me use PubNub as an example. Weighing the build versus buy decision? PubNub offers two clear choices. In-house is not always the win-win situation. It drains developer time. Plus, building a solution that a vendor can provide you at a lower price just doesn't make financial sense. You pay less for both the initial cost and following maintenance with PubNub as your vendor. That's why most software is bought from vendors. It's either via an API or as a web portal front end. All are available, from HR to finance to team management. The majority bought is from vendors. Often, the need for extra resources for this kind of project is overlooked. If working in-house, you'll need six developers on a full-time basis for six months. If you have fewer, the timeline to market stretches. The DIY option might lead to a loss of potential revenue and business growth. This lost opportunity cost comes with the in-house terrain. On the other hand, reaching the market quickly increases business growth trajectory. So, decide wisely. #softwaredevelopment #buildvsbuy #businessefficiency

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"The primary goal should be 'our developers write tests for any code that goes into production.' Anything less than that is an opportunity for those folks with a little less discipline or more anxiety about delivery times to backslide and abandon the primary goal of having tests for all your code. There are two major forces that lead applications towards not having any tests:  * The first is that it's hard to teach beginners in a language how to use testing tools; they are still just learning the language itself! * The second force is the work-culture pressure that says you don't have time to write tests." - Chris Hartjes #tdd #testdrivendevelopment #testing

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Ghost (OSS blogging platform) has a great set of developer docs justifying the 💵 for their platform - lots of lessons for OSS products 𝟭. 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀 Ghost clearly calls out additional costs that you're going to have in the table below. Not hiding anything. 𝟮. 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗮𝗹 "𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁" They show how it's built (or rather, what goes into it). essentially saying "you can do this, but ..." 𝟯. 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗶𝘀 They're clearly demonstrating value in the platform. This is a combo of 1 and 2 but it's so clearly a good value if you're getting started. 𝟰. 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗵𝗶𝗱𝗲 - 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 You can scroll and get the instructions, they're not hiding (and they seem to be high quality). It's just that it's clera that it's not going to be worth your time.

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Progress = your QA release process growing from 15 minutes to 5 hours. A stat that’s both invigorating & frustrating at the same time. But I think the single best thing you can do to delight your customers is to personally guarantee “it just works”.

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I get emails like this all the time, and my only thought is: good software engineers are never available immediately. This isn't just true for top talent; even mediocre software engineers are in demand. My career has spanned various economic conditions—the DotCom bust, the housing crisis, and of course the current downturn—and I have never seen a lack of demand for my services. What I have learned during those nearly 30 years is that there are laws that govern engineering economics/processes just like there are laws that govern our universe. Nothing, other than photons, can travel at the speed of light, and you can't get immediate availability without paying for it. There are two ways you pay for availability: 1. The engineers are not quality, and you pay with low reliability or time. 2. The engineers are quality and their hourly rate is 3x-5x market rate. BlueRival adopts a different approach. We've developed efficient systems to onboard quality engineers quickly, without resorting to an  expensive or incompetent bench. We can assemble teams of 5-10 engineers in 4-6 weeks, and even scale up to 30 quality engineers within 3 months. Because we don’t pay a bench of quality engineers to sit idle, we can offer significantly lower rates than the general market, ensuring value and efficiency for our clients. There are other conversations we can have about the impact of 6 weeks lead time vs 6 days, but that still works out in favor of the BlueRival strategy. #technology #engineering #economics

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Any tips on getting a @nextjs + @turborepo setup to run a bit faster? Cold boot takes ~20 seconds. HMR is about the same.

Last month a startup founder called me in a panic. Their product launch was 6 months overdue. The budget was hemorrhaging. Their "rock star" dev team? Unreliable and churning out buggy, unusable code. This isn't a one-off horror story. - 23% of startups fail due to mismatched external teams (CB Insights) - The right partner speeds up launches by 50% (Forrester) - Aligned partners boost talent retention by 60% (Deloitte) Your dev partner isn't just another vendor. They're the backbone of your product, the engine of your vision. Choose wrong, and you're lost in space. Choose right, and you've got a rocket strapped to your back. Here are the 5 non-negotiables I used to turn that startup around with the ideal development group: 1. Startup Battle Scars They've been in the trenches. They know the drill. Key question: "What's the toughest startup challenge you've overcome?" 2. Adaptability in Action They pivot faster than a startup's business model. Key question: "How do you handle sudden scope changes?" 3. Tech Smarts with Business Sense They don't just code. They solve problems and create value. Key question: "How has your tech directly impacted a client's bottom line?" 4. Radical Transparency No sugar-coating. No surprises. Just honest, straight talk. Key question: "Show me how you communicate when a project goes sideways." 5. Resource Optimization Mastery They stretch dollars without snapping quality. Maximizing impact within constraints. Key question: "Describe a time you delivered big results on a tight budget." Selecting a dev partner is a defining moment for your startup. It's not just about code—it's about shared vision, cultural fit, and mutual growth. The right partner doesn't just build your product. They help build the future of your entire business. Tech leaders: What's your deal-breaker criterion for a dev partner? Share below.

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What should we look for in Software Developers? Whenever you're #Hiring, you're essentially building a team. This process involves tempering expectations - as reality often messes with ideals (budgeting and talent gaps are common factors that clash with your goals). But it doesn't have to mean only that. The hiring process is also the perfect moment to evaluate what you're really looking for - and what to avoid. Find out more about hiring dev professionals here: https://loom.ly/jfAeBeU

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