Episode 43 – Nulls, Procs, and Impostor Syndrome

This time we’re talking about problems with nulls, stored procedures, and impostor syndrome.

Link to Episode 43’s Full Show Notes:
http://www.codingblocks.net/episode43

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News

• Join us on slack: http://www.codingblocks.net/
• Thanks for the awesome reviews: darkjedioverlord, Gustav, David W, XiaoHong, neoanomally, IAmAResource, alanw707, GDog, Demiera, kngtfallen, BMay1, jcook1017, XiaoHong89, Thallius, a.alhadhrami, BriCee34, iPawan85
• Great Comments on last episode’s show notes:
  http://www.codingblocks.net/episode42
• Great feedback from Wesley Bakker:
  • https://aspblogs.blob.core.windows.net/media/wesleybakker/TS/Command.html
  • https://aspblogs.blob.core.windows.net/media/wesleybakker/TS/Mediator.html
  • https://aspblogs.blob.core.windows.net/media/wesleybakker/TS/State.html
• Games galore!
  • Dice Tower Con – Do programmers love arbitrary complexity?
  • http://www.c-jump.com/
  • Overwatch! Steam sale! OMG!
  • http://masteroverwatch.com/heroes

The Meat

• Arbitrary dates vs NULLs in relational databases (thanks Steve!)
• Can be faster, and cause less errors – but it’s nasty!
• Queries in procs vs in the code
  • Just use a framework?
  • Proc it, so you can pawn it off on someone else!
• Only 1.5% devs responded as preferring front-end work! wow!
• Pixels matter – we joke about “only moving something two pixels” but we want no need people that care about the pixels
• Awesome things in CSS:
  • Mario! https://codepen.io/M_J_Robbins/pen/NPRGjP
  • MarioKart! http://thingsinjars.com/lab/CSSKart/
• Where to log and why
  • It’s big, it’s heavy, it’s wood
  • https://youtu.be/RTrAVpK9blw
• Impostor syndrome
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome
  • Is it the field, or the people who join the field?
  • Women are particularly prone
  • 23 minutes to get back on task! http://www.fastcompany.com/944128/worker-interrupted-cost-task-switching

Resources We Like

• https://sourcemaking.com/design_patterns
• http://www.csszengarden.com
• https://codepen.io/M_J_Robbins/pen/NPRGjP
• http://thingsinjars.com/lab/CSSKart/

Tips of the Week

• Allen: Javascript JSDoc comments WebStorm http://usejsdoc.org/
• Michael: Output Clause: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms177564.aspx
• Joe: http://capablemonkey.github.io/github-go-to-definition/

Episode source