Developer on Fire
Episode 122 | Adam Tornhill - Learn to Learn
Guest:
Adam Tornhill talks with Dave Rael about broad interests, applying psychology to software, learning and growing, and analysis
Adam Tornhill is a programmer that combines degrees in engineering and psychology. He’s the founder of Empear AB where he designs tools for software analysis. He's also the author of Your Code as a Crime Scene, has written the popular Lisp for the Web tutorial and self-published a book on Patterns in C. His other interests include modern history, music and martial arts.
Chapters:
- - Dave introduces the show and Adam Tornhill
- - Adam's motivations for studying psychology, rooted in software
- - The history and origin of Your Code as a Crime Scene
- - Empear, Adam's startup - a professional product based on the analysis techniques in Your Code as a Crime Scene
- - Adam's definition of value
- - The things that "light Adam up"
- - Adam's way of selecting language on which to dive deep
- - How Adam got started in software
- - Adam and Tae Kwon Do
- - Adam's story of failure - Technical success without understanding the political climate, thinking the best tech would automatically win
- - Adam's success story - Rethinking the big integration with a rewrite and delivering on a seemingly impossible timeline
- - How Adam stays current with what he needs to know
- - Adam's advice for developers to "learn to learn"
- - Adam's book recommendations
- - The things that have Adam most excited
- - Adam's sources of pain
- - The things about which Adam likes to geek out apart from software
- - Adam's prediction for the future of software
- - Adam's top 3 tips for delivering more value
- - Keeping up with Adam
Resources:
- Adam's Blog
- Your Code as a Crime Scene: Use Forensic Techniques to Arrest Defects, Bottlenecks, and Bad Design in Your Programs - Adam Tornhill
- Array Langauges
- J Programming Language
- The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master - Andrew Hunt and David Thomas
- Dave Thomas on Developer On Fire
- Andy Hunt on Developer On Fire
- Christin Gorman Developer On Fire
- American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
- You Can't Always Get What You Want
- Opportunity Cost
- Processing
- Scratch
- You Can Be Busy or Remarkable — But Not Both
Adam's book recommendation:
Adam's top 3 tips for delivering more value:
- Learn to learn
- Explore different fields and disciplines
- Allow time off for your thoughts