It's All About Learning and Communication with Andy Hunt

In today's episode, Phil chats with Andy Hunt. Andy is a programmer turned consultant, author and publisher. He's authored a dozen books including the best-selling "The Pragmatic Programmer," and was one of the 17 authors of the Agile Manifesto and founders of the Agile Alliance. He also co-founded the pragmatic bookshelf, publishing award-winning and critically acclaimed books for software developers. Andy shares his story about why he chose I.T as his career and reveals his best and worst experiences in the I.T world. Listen to his career tips and advice. There is a lot to learn from Andy that will help you to become the best that you can be. KEY TAKEAWAYS: [1:21] Phil asks Andy to expand upon the brief introduction provided. Andy shares the story of how he had a real interest in radio electronics at that time. He says that he was very interested in early computers with the S100 BUS and CPM. He recalls that he loved how programming lets you go in and create your own world which, for Andy, is still the most exciting aspect of it. Andy says that programming was easier and much more self-contained back then. The programming world is a very different place than it used to be. [2:41] Phil requests for Andy to share a unique career tip for the I.T Career Energizer audience, one that the audience should know but don't. Andy excitedly answers that he'll give two tips. He talks about his 2008 book "Pragmatic Thinking and Learning", the thesis being that the two things you do more than anything else as a programmer are learning and communication. We communicate with the machine. We communicate with each other, and to end users to gather requirements, to learn requirements. Besides the tech stacks and the latest language of the day, you're learning how the evolving system behave, you're learning how your team behaves, and you're learning how the end users work and what they expect, what the market demands. So, we're all about learning in communication. Those are the important things. [3:42] Andy's first tip is to never stop learning. When you come across something unfamiliar, a term you don't know, a framework you've never heard of, a new language, look it up, Google's right there. It's on your phone. It's right on your screen. Take the 5 seconds when something you're unfamiliar with comes up and see what it is. Look into it. Look more into it if it's something interesting or something that you might have to work with. So, always take that extra step and pursue the unfamiliar. That's part one. [4:16] Andy says that this second tip makes the biggest difference for people who are successful. Always write down your ideas. Carry something with you always where you can jot down a quick note. It doesn't have to be electronic. It might even be better if it's not. Use an App on your phone, send yourself a voicemail. Andy says that he found out that most of the processes in the brain are asynchronous. You get interesting ideas or the seeds of great ideas randomly and usually when you're not at a computer and not at work. So you need something with you to jot them down because you won't remember it later. And then, when you have a chance later, when you're at the computer, when you're working, whatever, follow up on it. Make a note somewhere else more permanently. That's really key to capturing the great ideas that you have but most people just loose. And Phil totally agrees with the idea. [6:54] Phil asks about Andy's worst career moment and what he has learned from it. Andy recalls a story from early in his career when, between the time of being interviewed and starting the job, his interviewer had been fired and the position eliminated. Andy was therefore assigned to a different group. It was an awful place to work and within a year the company went out of business which made an impact on him. The myth of working for a big company and having stability is just a myth. You're not stable with a big company. You're not necessarily stable with a small startup either. So, in terms of career preparation, you really can't count on the organization being there for you for any number of reasons. Later on, during Andy's consultant career phase, one project that he rather enjoyed and he had a good time at. It was very clear from their practices and what they were doing on the project that they were going to fail. Andy made his report, talked to the boss and said, "Okay, here's the problem. This is what you need to fix." They said, "Thank you very much." and didn't change a thing. They lost $14 million. That was a lot of what inspired Andy to get on the early train of lightweight methods which was when the term 'agile' was coined. Andy then provides some insight into the Agile Manifesto. [12:34] Phil asks about Andy's career greatest success. Andy recalls one of his projects which was highly successful. It was replace a debit card transaction system. In fact, that's the project where Andy met his partner Dave...