Adventures in Mob Programming - Day 2

I'll admit it - the transition from Mac to Windows is going a little clunkier than I had anticipated.

What's the shortcut key to take a screenshot of a single window? Why are the menu bar buttons on the top right and not the top left?? Will I ever stop accidentally doing Magic Mouse gestures on my very dumb Logitech mouse???

However, even if there were minor annoyances/adjustments, today was a very delightful day.

Stand-up was casual and easy-going. I got an impromptu overview from the product owner for all the acronyms and components. It lasted about 40 minutes, and someone told me it's not usually that long. I don't typically see an issue with a longer stand-up as long as folks are benefiting from communication together - but it was still refreshing to know this team doesn't typically have drawn out stand-ups.

After stand-up, we took a short break then went out into the mobs. I had to install AnyDesk in order to see what everyone else was looking at, but once I figured it out the process was easy - someone spins up a teams meeting, shares the remote address, everyone remotes in, and away we go.

I still feel a little helpless when I get the navigator role. Part of this is simply because I'm new to mob programming - but I know part of it is a smidge of self-doubt. All I can do is take a deep breath and try to slow down a little more. Its my way of practicing taking many more much smaller steps in a non-technical way. After all, MMMSS can be applied to more than just coding; it can be a good reminder to stop before taking that big, risky leap and instead determine a safer place to deliberately step to that will actually get you ahead.

In the afternoon, there were a couple meetings - a retro where the team discussed experiments they were trying, to determine whether to adopt them as working agreements or not, and a discussion on a design decision the team wanted to make together. I also had an onboarding meeting with three of my new colleagues (two of them fellow women, yay!) who shared with me the Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship and discussed the Satir Change Model. 

I have never been more reassured than when one of the delightful women who interviewed me reassured me that the entire team knows to lean into the change that happens with a new member joins a team. After all, its not the same team as before, its an entirely new one! Why not embrace it?

I even received some excellent advice from that woman - time as the navigator can simply be used to ask questions and become re-oriented! I'm going to ask so many clarifying questions now!

Throughout the day, I noticed and appreciated all of the little things put into place so that we as programmers can "not think" - or, to reduce our cognitive load. I have always found this concept so fascinating, even before I got into this industry. How can this be routinized? What mental model can simplify this concept safely? What can be chucked behind the curtain so I don't have to look at it again? Maybe it has something to do with being an anxious person, where I need to clear all of the psychological clutter before I can even begin to focus. I'm always delighted to learn that something I assumed was a "me" thing is actually shared by my fellow human beings.

What I still can't get a grasp on is Microsoft Teams! I find it SO annoying that I can be in a meeting, caught up on the chat, but the main Teams window will have a little notification bubble directing me to... that same meeting chat but in a different place???

Oh well. I'm sure there are many other minor annoyances that will make themselves known in the coming weeks. I'm just delighting in the fact that I get to be a mob programmer. Tomorrow I should get to spend more time with the mob, and I'm very excited.

Anyway - I have some studying to do!


What did I study today?