The invitation lands in your calendar from a colleague on the next team. Friday, four o'clock, one hour. Coding kata, all welcome. Bring a laptop. The description says you will solve the same small problem every week for a month, in pairs, and delete the code at the end. You wonder why anyone would write code just to throw it away.
That is exactly the point, and it is worth going. Most of what you learn at work, you learn while trying to deliver something. That is valuable, but it has a cost. When there is a deadline, you reach for the approach you already know, because it is safe. You rarely get to try the slower way that might turn out better.
A kata removes the deadline. The problem is small on purpose, a bowling score, a word wrap, a set of simple rules. Nothing depends on it. So you can practise the parts of the craft you normally skip. Writing the test before the code. Taking smaller steps than feels natural. Naming things carefully. Trying a different design and seeing how it feels.
Repeating the same problem is where most of the value hides. The first week you are busy just solving it. By the third week, you know the problem well enough to notice how you are solving it, and that is when habits start to change.
A few things help. Pick one thing to practise each session, and say it to your pair at the start. Today I want to try much smaller steps. Swap the keyboard often. Talk through what you are about to do. And when the hour ends, actually delete the code. Keeping it turns practice back into a product.
Expect to feel slow. You are deliberately working in a way you are not fluent in yet, while somebody watches. That discomfort is not a sign it is not working. It is a sign you are practising something new rather than repeating something old.
If nobody at your company runs one, start one. You need a room, a short problem and one other curious person. A month of Fridays is a small cost for skills you will use for the rest of your career.
– Asael Shinder
Top comments (0)