Community on Andrew Bancroft

WWDC - The Worldwide Developer Community

Mon, 29 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

June is an invigorating time for iOS developers worldwide.

Invigorating… And exhausting.

Me personally? The flurry of new-ness often has me feeling overwhelmed.

WWDC - The Worldwide Developer Chase

When it comes time for WWDC, are you like me? Do you conjure up a mental image of a race?

It’s as if all of us who are enrolled in the Apple Developer Program line up at the starting line and wait for the pistol to fire, signaling the sprint that is the Worldwide Developer ~~Conference~~ Chase.

The race metaphor induces pressure.

Pressure to figure things out as quickly as you can.
Pressure to be one of the rist to download Xcode {next}.
Pressure to install the new beta operating systems.
Pressure to master the new APIs and features of Apple’s platforms. Pressure to make a discovery, publish it out, and get noticed.

For me, it can be discouraging to watch the Twitter feeds of others who seem to be much faster than me at all of those things.

I watch the race to “be first” go on around me and realize: I can’t compete.

But… Why? Why do this to ourselves?

WWDC - The Worldwide Developer Community

What if we could shift the thinking?

If you build apps because it’s something you love to do, here’s what I propose:

Nix the race metaphor.

If writing Swift is something you enjoy because it’s fulfilling in itself, there’s no need to worry about how fast you’re able to grasp all the new-ness.

Competitors are always going to be out there, always trying to one-up another. That’s not the group of people I want to be a part of.

Instead, I gravitate to the global body of like-minded Swifters who, like me, enjoy building apps and contributing our share of bytes to the Internet in order to nudge the world in a positive direction. Thankfully, there are plenty of these kinds of folks out there to befriend.

Bottom line: Take your time. Enjoy yourself.

Build that example Xcode project and publish it to GitHub.

Tweet that new discovery that someone else already discovered and tweeted about before you.

Write that blog post without worrying with how much attention you garner from others.

It’s okay!

Do what you do because you love it. I guarantee it will impact somebody. @me – I’d love to hear what you’re discovering!

WWDC isn’t a Worldwide Developer Competition when you’re contributing to the Worldwide Developer Community.

Agile Blogging

Fri, 21 Nov 2014 01:58:04 +0000

After I wrote my post on 7 Reasons You Should Write About Swift, I began to think about some of the roadblocks that hinder blogging.

Blog Blockers

I started to think about some of my own reservations about blogging, and boiled it down to a couple of big blockers:

Time
Perfectionism

My problems with blogging in the past often came down to the fact that it takes time, and that if was going to publish something, it had to be perfect.

Of course, every one of us is time-bound, and every one of us has the potential to improve, no matter how “perfect” we think we’ve made something.

It’s interesting to me, because these issues come up in software development a lot, and one of the tools that much of the software development community has embraced are “Agile” practices for software development.

I really enjoy many of aspects of Agile (Scrum being the specific flavor of Agile practices that I’ve had experience with), particularly as it relates to enabling the rapid delivery of a useful product that satisfies my customers, and the ability to adapt to change and make iterative improvements on that product.

Agile Blogging

I began to think, “What if some of the things that I enjoy about Agile could be applied to my blogging routine?” How could that positively impact my experience, so as to motivate me to blog more and remove those road blocks that hindered me before?

If I had to pick two key phrases from what I like about Scrum that could apply to blogging, they’d be “rapid delivery of a useful product” and “iterative improvements”.

Rapid, because what I really want is to produce useful content quickly. (Notice I said “useful”, not “perfect”.) And that’s where “iterative improvements” comes into play. Since anything I publish will always have the potential to be improved, it makes better sense for me to prioritize publishing something that has potential to be useful, with the mindset of cycling back around to improve that publication later over time.

Getting Practical

Over the past several months, I’ve been working to set blogging goals for myself using Agile principles to help me meet those goals and improve my content over time. Here’s how I, personally, get pragmatic with Agile blogging:

Set a goal

Without a goal, I find it very easy to not blog, even though I enjoy it.

My goal right now is simple but sustainable: I shoot for producing one blog post a week.

Block off time

I set aside chunks of time throughout my week to blog. Each time block is about 30 minutes in duration. To produce a post that I’m pretty satisfied with (ie, it’s useful and contributes something meaningful to my audience), I use about 2 to 3 of those time blocks per week, but almost never all in one sitting.

Write, publish, improve

My first-priority goal with each post is to get across that main point as clearly as possible. After a quick proofread, I schedule version 1.0 to publish.

Of course there are going to be mistakes with that initial publish. I almost immediately circle back around and view the live post, noting areas of potential improvement. If I still have time in my 30-minute block, I make the improvements I can and publish them. If I don’t, I wait until my next blogging time-block, and make the improvements then.

Since no post will ever be perfect, I work to make things as useful and meaningful as possible, minimizing error as best I can, of course. Sometimes feedback from my readers helps me find places where I can improve. I value that feedback, and often bump that advice to the top of my priority list for a given post. The point is that I write, publish, then improve iteratively.

Examples and supplementary content

I write a lot about programming, and there are often times where a post could be enhanced with an example. I try my best not to pressure myself to build everything for version 1.0 of the post. If I think a full-fledged example that someone can compile and run on their own machine would enhance things and provide additional value to my content, I’ll usually add that “feature” to a post after the initial version in most cases.

Doing it this way does a couple of things for me:

It lets me get the main substance of the post out there sooner.
It provides an opportunity to inform folks on my social media outlets one more time about the post, along with the enhancement.

Summary

Blogging with Agile in mind has been a significant help for my motivation to blog and has served to keep me on track with my one post a week goal. My hope is that by sharing how Agile principles have impacted me, you, too, will be inspired and empowered to start creating great content for us to enjoy! Happy (Agile) blogging!

7 Reasons You Should Write About Swift

Thu, 23 Oct 2014 12:00:13 +0000

If Swift is your iOS/Mac development language of choice, my goal in this post is to persuade you that you should not only write Swift… you should write about Swift. Here are 7 reasons (in the order in which they flowed out of my brain):

1. Swift will never be new again.

How amazing is it that every single Swift developer (besides the ones at Apple) had the opportunity to become a Swift developer simultaneously when Apple announced the new language at WWDC in June of 2014. What an incredible opportunity!

Swift is young, but it’s growing up fast! The content that’s published about Swift today is, in many cases, the first of its kind. You could be that first publisher, helping newcomers to the language and to iOS/Mac development along. You could be contributing the first thoughts, the first guides, the first perspectives to this new world.

Has someone already beat you to the punch on something you’ve thought of writing about? Write it anyway! They didn’t share it the same way you can share it with your unique writing style, background, illustrations, examples, etc. I can’t tell you how often I’ve read something on someone’s blog and it just didn’t click… But two or three blogs later, someone else had the perfect illustration that made total sense in my brain. You can be that someone else! If you write, that is.

2. You know something I don’t know.

Think you have nothing to share? Wrong. You do. You know something I don’t know about Swift. You may know a lot of somethings I don’t know about Swift. I want to learn from you! Many others would join me in that sentiment. The greater the variety in terms of difficulty-level, content, and style, the better (in my opinion).

Contribute to the learning of others – you’ll be glad you did (and we will, too)!

3. Writing leads to better understanding.

When you write about Swift, especially in the op-ed realm, you put yourself out there in what feels like a very vulnerable position. In some cases, you’ll be off-target. I have been before. What I found is that folks were not hateful or insulting to me (after all, I’m just sharing bits of what I’m learning). Comments led to very huge lightbulbs going off in my brain and I wrote about those lightbulbs in a second post. I understand things better now that I’ve written, showed my lack of understanding, and written more, once I received constructive feedback that I needed from those who knew better than I.

In other cases, you’ll write about Swift, and the very act of writing to help others solidifies the concept you’re explaining in your own mind. It’s astounding to me how the attempt to educate another illuminates things that could have never been illuminated any other way.

Write what you know – it’s good for us, and it’s good for you.

4. Writing shapes the Swift developer community.

The Swift developer community is the first community that I’ve ever gotten involved in, and it’s truly been amazing to connect with other Swift developers. From Twitter and from direct contact through e-mail, I’ve had the opportunity to brainstorm with and learn from others who are also programming in Swift.

The Swift developer community is new… it’s vibrant… and it’s active and waiting for one more contributor. Will you be that new Twitter handle tweeting about Swift? Will you be that new blogger sharing your thoughts and ideas with the community? Join us. Shape us.

5. Great opportunities may lie around the corner.

Swift has brought me several great opportunities in terms of building business and building friendships. Who knows what’s next?

Objective-C isn’t going anywhere, but neither is Swift! Employers, while not yet able to legitimately request Swift devs with 5+ years of experience (though some will undoubtedly try), will inevitably desire Swift developers. The sooner you embrace Swift, the more experience you’ll be able to report.

But how amazing would it be to say to a future potential employer, “I’ve been writing Swift since June of 2014, but I’ve also been writing about Swift at www.myBlog.com for nearly as long.”?

In my experience, Swift has also brought me new friendships and an expanded network. I “know” more Swift developers than I do developers of all other languages combined. I follow more Swift bloggers than any other language’s bloggers. I’d love to follow your blog and engage with / share thoughts about what you’re learning.

Who knows what else awaits? The potential for great opportunities are ripe right now. Join in!

6. Reading is more time-efficient for many. Write!

I love screencasts. I listen to podcasts every time I’m in the car alone. But you know what? I can read a blog post or a transcript faster than I can watch a screencast or listen to a podcast. Written content about Swift has the potential to greatly increase the speed and efficiency at which others can solve their problems.

Screencast – do it! Podcast – you bet!

But don’t forget to write, too!

7. Your written words will outlast you

Not a shocker, obviously. This is the “leave a legacy” argument. One way to make a lasting impact is to write what you’re thinking and learning about this language that you’re intrigued by or maybe even passionate about.

Scott Hanselman is one of my favorite people in the developer / educator world. He’s written about writing and impact, and he’s said it way better than I can. Essentially, his argument is that you’ve only got a finite number of keystrokes left in your life before you die. And he’s right. The point of the linked-to article is that if you desire your precious, remaining keystrokes to have the furthest reach and the highest potential impact, you should write… and not just write, but write on the web.

Some love Stack Overflow. Others love forums, or Reddit, or whatever. I prefer blogging. Whatever you favor, your writing on the web travels far and impacts many. I’ve received e-mails that have spawned blog posts and replies with link to the blog post, rather than a direct reply. Why? Well, if one person is asking, others probably are too – why not put it out there for others to benefit from as well?!

In Closing

I love reading about Swift and I’ve benefited from many in the community who are working hard to make programming in Swift a great experience for everyone.

I enjoy writing about Swift, myself. I write about other things too, of course (see the right-hand sidebar). But for the 7 reasons just mentioned, I’ve been writing a lot on Swift these days, and I’ve really had a great time doing it.

My hope is that this post has sparked some ideas in you, or perhaps even motivated you to get in the game and start contributing your share of bytes to the Swift conversation. Holler at me on Twitter if you’re currently publishing about Swift – I’d love to connect with what you’re creating!