How I Work: Yahoo!’s Doug Crockford On JavaScript

How I Work: Yahoo!’s Doug Crockford On JavaScript

WHAT WERE THE TRAITS OF THE WEAK PROGRAMMERS YOU’VE SEEN OVER YOUR CAREER?

That’s an easy one—lack of curiosity. They were so satisfied with the work that they were doing was good enough (without an understanding of what ‘good’ was) that they didn’t push themselves. I’m much more impressed with people that are always learning. The brilliant programmers I’ve been around are always learning. You see so many people get into one language and spend their entire career in that language, and as a result aren’t that great as programmers.

IN CODERS AT WORK, YOU STRESS THE IMPORTANCE OF DOING CODE READINGS WITH TEAMS. WHY DO YOU FEEL IT’S IMPORTANT TO PRESENT YOUR CODE IN FRONT OF OTHER PEOPLE?

Well, over the years I noticed that there are some terrific programmers out there that are completely content to sit in their cave all day long writing brilliant code. But they don’t interact much with their team, which means it’s a lost opportunity for mentoring other members. As you know, a lot of coders aren’t the most socially adept animals either. So, my idea with code reading sessions is to provide a forum where people can come together and read for each other to get them out of their caves. The masters read for the beginners, and vice versa, as a team-building exercise. The trick for success is to set up rules ahead of time so that nobody is going to get spanked and everyone is respectful in their feedback. It has to be a good learning experience for everyone. You have to be careful with a dysfunctional team, because it can quickly tear apart the group. But I always call the game before it gets that far. The rules are that it’s about improving the quality of the code that we’re all responsible for, improving the quality of our team, and improving our individual capabilities. Some people see this as a terrible time sink. Yet, I’ve found by doing this exercise, bugs are caught way ahead of time and you can prevent a team member from going off the tracks. But again, that’s not the goal, it’s about team building. Over time the masters help pull up the beginners and the overall output from the team gets better.