Helping Geeks Produce for Over 40 Years.

My mission is to help people learn how to embrace change and harvest its value. That’s why I started the Camerata: a community of like-minded teams and individuals pushing forward the industry of software development. Click the button and discover the benefits of becoming a member today!

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Latest News

Featured Video: Changing Changing Software

GeePaw has uploaded a video of his keynote from Beauty in Code 2020 in Malmö, Sweden. Click the image to learn about Changing Changing Software now!

GeePaw's Camerata

GeePaw's Camerata is live! A community dedicated to makers making. Access to the Slack, one-on-one time with GeePaw, store discounts, early access to educational videos, and more!

Town Halls

Starting at the end of March 2020, GeePaw will be hosting remote Town Halls via Zoom. These will be small gatherings capped at 25 participants and last about 90 minutes. Click the image to see the upcoming Town Halls.

Recommended Reading

Thanks to respondent feedback, I have been curating a list of all the reading that I mention in my blogs and elsewhere. I will update it as frequently as I can manage.

Recent Posts

Retrospectives: Variety is Key

GeePaw August 4, 2020

ANCHOR HERE I want to start talking about teaching in the geek trades. Today in particular, I want to talk about "emphasis", what our style & materials stresses or underlines about the path to mastery for our up and coming geeks. Black lives matter. Here I sit writing geekery, a sideshow, while my siblings are out there day on day putting themselves at grave personal risk in the quest for equity. I strongly support their efforts. Stay safe, stay strong,

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TDD Tests Are First-Class Code

GeePaw July 31, 2020

My standards for TDD microtests are the same standards I have for shipping code, and I follow them in microtests for the same reason I follow them in shipping code: they make me faster. This geekery muse is comfort food, for me and maybe for you, but I want to keep stressing: I fully endorse and support my sibs out there on the street protesting this violent police uprising. Stay safe, stay strong, stay kind, stay angry. Black lives matter.

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Re-Balancing Made, Making, and Makers

GeePaw July 28, 2020

Some years back I realized my most beloved parts of our software movement could be characterized as re-balancing our approach towards the triad of Made, Makers, and Making, and away from a prior focus only on the Made. Let’s schmooze about this. I once again point out: geekery isn’t terribly important right now to me. What’s important is my friends and family out there working on the crisis. Stay safe, stay strong, stay kind, stay angry. Black lives matter. I

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Microtest TDD is Gray-Box

GeePaw July 24, 2020

Microtest TDD is a gray-box testing approach, neither entirely inside nor outside the code it tests. Let’s talk that over. Before we dive in: Black lives matter. Stay safe, stay strong, stay kind, stay angry. Let’s not just embrace change, let’s initiate it. Any step you take helps, provided only that it’s doable, it’s not definitely backwards, and it’s not the last step. In the ’70’s, an important movement developed in testing theory, called "black box" testing. The idea is

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Understanding Incremental Switchover

GeePaw July 21, 2020

The incremental switchover approach is my default response to any transformation problem I can’t resolve in an hour. It’s the secret to successful brownfield development, but it’s not widely understood & used. Let’s take some time to understand it. As is my wont, I will again say that geekery isn’t really the most important story right now. I, and I hope you, understand this. Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay kind. Stay angry. Work on equity, when you can, how you

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The RAT: Rework Avoidance Theory

GeePaw July 17, 2020

Rework Avoidance Theory, or RAT, is likely slowing your team down more than rework ever would. Let’s talk a little about that today. I am writing these geekery muses in a time of great turmoil, but for the most part they’re not addressing that crisis. They are momentary respite, for me, and hopefully for you. They’re not the main story. Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay angry. Stay kind. Black lives matter. Rework Avoidance Theory is a cluster of related ideas

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Turning Implicit into Explicit

GeePaw July 14, 2020

Turning implicit understanding into explicit code is a great productivity & quality step. Let’s talk about some whys and hows for that idea. As we forge into the topic, please do remember, this is just comfort food, not the main story. I proudly support my friends & family who are working for change in the world, and encourage them to keep at it. Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay kind. Stay angry. Black lives matter. An implicit understanding is anything a

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Model-View, The Desktop, and TDD

GeePaw July 10, 2020

Today, a basic topic: Model/View, the Desktop and TDD. Some geeky respite, and enjoy. We got a lotta work waiting for us after this break. Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay kind. Stay angry. Black lives matter. Demand different. The basic idea behind all Model/View schemes, and there are several of them, is just this: draw a thick line between what your program does and how your program shows what it does. In other words, it’s a compositional heuristic, guidance for

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