Liz Keogh's blog

I’m going out to Xi’an, China, for a few months (pending visa application). It’s a very exciting role, full of challenge and responsibility. I’m looking forward to the cultural differences, the language barrier, and having to grow up a bit.

I am secure in my ethicality, and will happily indulge in debate with any comers once I get back. In the meantime, wish me luck! If this blog goes quiet for a while, it’ll be because I’m busy – nothing more!

You know work is good when:

1. Your smile is infectious, even on the tube.
2. Every day you find out something new…
3. …and pass on something to someone else.
4. You wonder how you’re going to have fun, not when.
5. No tunnel is so long that you can’t see the light at the end…
6. …and you’re learning to climb hills instead of ploughing through them.
7. The team can reach agreement on anything except where to have lunch.
8. You come to work with questions, and leave with different questions.
9. Your friend asks you, “How was your day?” and really wants to know.
10. Sometimes you amaze yourself.

They say that if you put a frog into cold water and gradually bring it to the boil, the frog won’t notice. The same is true, I think, of Java devs (possibly others too, but for some reason it seems easy with Java). We get into hot water a lot, and it’s not because we jump in; it just heats up gradually around us. For instance:

• We make a domain object with a status Status.
• We update the status with a StatusUpdate.
• We define a service from which to retrieve the status updates. We call it ServiceStatusUpdate.
• We require the retrieval of updates to the status from the service with a ServiceStatusUpdateRetriever.
• We require a mapper to map the status update messages from the service to the status update objects. We call it ServiceStatusUpdateRetrieverHelper.
• We implement the mapper with a ServiceStatusUpdateRetrieverHelperImpl.

If you’re thinking, “What’s wrong with that?” then write down ServiceStatusUpdateRetrieverHelperImpl on a piece of paper. Show it to everyone in the room. Someone will laugh. Ask them to explain the slightly manic, desperate edge to their laughter, and pair with them today.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too…

Thank you, Rudyard Kipling, for a moment of calm in an otherwise turbulent world.