Newcomers Guide - PracticingDeveloper/guidebook GitHub Wiki

This is a unique space, unlike anything else you'll find on the internet. Please use this Newcomer's Guide to find your way around.

What to expect from the Workshop

  • A healthy and useful form of diversion, serving some of the similar purposes of something like Reddit, Hacker News, or Twitter, but in a much more friendly and focused setting.

  • A supportive environment for practicing developers. We are kind to each other, and try to keep our discussions deep, thoughtful, and experience-based. Whenever possible, we rely on concrete examples rather than generic opinions to move conversations forward.

  • A discussion group that is made up of people from many different skill levels, cultural backgrounds, industries, and technical skill sets. Think of it as a "second space" that can give you a broader perspective on issues than what you might find in your current workplace, local meetup groups, etc.

  • A stream rather than an inbox. Don't feel obligated to "catch up" on everything that is going on in the space, just pop in whenever you have some free time. If you do that often enough, you'll get plenty of good use out of the space even if you only catch a small percentage of what we've been working on.

Quick and easy ways to get involved

(time commitment ~= coffee break)

  • Read the #introductions channel to learn a bit about others, and post your own introduction there as well.

  • See #index for a list of recent conversations across all of our channels, to get a feel for what kinds of discussions are happening in the space. Click through on the topics you find interesting and skim them.

  • Check out the #links channel for links to things we've been reading/watching/studying, and feel free to share some links yourself whenever you find something you think folks in the Workshop might like.

  • Post to #check-ins whenever you want to share a quick status update on what you're working on and studying. Read the posts there from others to get a feel for what they've been up to.

  • Read and respond to the @here mentions in #general whenever you happen to be around. We typically use mentions to kick off new open discussion topics, or to ask questions that might be interesting to the group.

Digging a bit deeper

(time commitment ~= lunch break)

  • Watch live discussions as they happen in #general -- chat transcripts are easier to understand in realtime than they are in backlog format. Even if you weren't the one to start a discussion, feel free to share your own questions and relevant experiences as long as you think they'll be interesting and useful to others.

  • Check out discussions and live drafting going on in #writing as Gregory works on essays, articles, book chapters, etc. Share your own ideas, stories and feedback in there as long as they're relevant to whatever Gregory is currently working on.

  • Take something you found in #index or #links and start discussion back up -- adding in your own experiences or questions, or shifting the focus to a related topic. Use #general as long it might be generally interesting... if you want to share a tangential note or a small comment to some particular Workshop member, use #hallway instead.

Getting the most out of the space

(time commitment ~= as much you'd like)

  • Whenever #general is free, you're welcome to share a story from your own work or studies -- whether its about a new tool or technique you are learning about, an interesting challenge you've encountered, or anything else that may be of interest to Workshop members.

  • Attend the weekly scheduled study sessions whenever the discussion topic interests you. See #news for announcements about their times and dates.

  • Ask questions about areas of software development that you're not familiar with, but would like to know more about. For example, if you'd like to learn about Clojure, do a @here mention asking for recommended learning resources and ideas for where to get started.

  • Ask questions about non-code aspects of software development, such as career-related stuff, project management, the business of software, communications skills, etc.

  • Ask for feedback on a blog post, article, book, slide deck, or any other learning materials you are preparing, or share work you've already published that you think might be helpful to Workshop members.

  • Share ideas or questions about how to improve the Workshop via our #meta channel.

This guide is a work in progress!

What else might you like to know? Please get in touch with Gregory with your ideas, suggestions, and questions.