A Lunch Chat with Jason Myers

[JnBrymn]

For many, Jason Myers is a sort of role model in the Nashville software development scene. I know most of the people that he's worked with in recent years, and his good reputation resonates whenever his name comes up in conversation. So I was thrilled to spend a couple of hours with Jason over lunch and hopefully absorb a good idea or two. Here are some of the interesting things that I picked up from our conversation.

Always be Learning

Jason reads constantly; he also reads with variety. For instance I was talking with him mostly about software development, but towards the end our our conversation I discovered that Jason also has a deep interest in Theology. Who knew!? I asked Jason for a list of his top reads for software development. When I get them I'll try and remember to post them back here.

Jason is also a "permanent" student at Lipscomb University, picking up courses here and there that he finds interesting. Jason confided that he's not terribly interested in graduating. He just wants to absorb something new.

Always be Working on a Side Project

Jason has tons of side projects. He has helped organize several conferences and meetups (Nodevember, PyTennessee, PyCon, PyNash). He serves as the maintainer for virtualenvwrapper. Soon he will publish his second book (Essential SQLAlchemy being the first). And he has put together several courses with DataCamp (for instance Introduction to Relational Databases).

How can Jason have so many interesting side projects? I'm not quite sure! But I think it has something to do with limiting frivolous time expenditures; picking the right projects (interesting and impactful); and if possible, working with people that share your vision. And most of all, I think a secret is just to get started! Most people miss that step.

Help People

Jason, despite being a self-ascribed introvert, regularly takes lunch and coffee chats with people (one or two a week). He provides advice, helps connect people, and teaches. I've even been the benefactor of this in the past: Jason helped connect me to Eventbrite where I currently work! A neat benefit of helping others is that you get to know people. This is useful!

Slow but Steady Wins the Race

I often think of the best programmers as being able to efficiently churn out code. Jason takes a different tact. He's efficient because he is thorough rather then fast. His current employer was initially surprised that he didn't crank out code more quickly. But rather than quick, Jason prefers to make sure that all the appropriate interfaces and corner-cases are thoroughly tested. In doing so Jason releases very few bugs in his code and over even a short period of time the effects of this practice upon Jason's efficiency become obvious. Additionally, clean code, clear interfaces, and good tests makes Jason's code easier to work with for others, so Jason's thoroughness soon turns into an efficiency boost for those that work near to him.

Thanks for good conversation Jason. Let's do it again!

John

[JnBrymn]

And lookey what I got. Jason's recommended reading list.

In his words:

https://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Oriented-Software-Architecture-Concurrent-Networked/dp/0471606952
https://www.amazon.com/Refactoring-Improving-Design-Existing-Code/dp/0201485672
https://www.amazon.com/Coders-Work-Reflections-Craft-Programming/dp/1430219483
I love all 4 of http://aosabook.org/en/index.html but the 500 lines is a blast
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735611319/
That’s my 5 I guess 

 

That’s leaving off these:
https://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Developer-Best-Practices-ebook/dp/B00JDMPOSY
https://www.amazon.com/Structure-Interpretation-Computer-Programs-Engineering/dp/0262510871/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1510359905&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=sicp
https://www.amazon.com/Elemental-Design-Patterns-Jason-Smith/dp/0321711920/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510359943&sr=8-1&keywords=elemental+design+patterns
https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Pearls-2nd-Jon-Bentley/dp/0201657880/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510359989&sr=8-1&keywords=Programming+pearls