Kids Up Seasonal Site
This week I was reminded how important it is to test things properly, I had written a test case for something but didn't cover a certain role, and they were the prominent end user that had issues.
A while ago I added something on the seasonal site that felt low-priority, so I didn’t test it end-to-end as thoroughly as I normally would. It worked perfectly on dev, but when it was finally actually used in production, some small behavior differences caused issues.
It was a good hit of reality: sometimes the thing you think won’t matter ends up being the thing a manager suddenly needs on the day. Even quiet, background features deserve a proper pass-through.
Mindset Shift – Reading The Pragmatic Programmer
This week I also started reading The Pragmatic Programmer, and it’s changing how I think about my work more than I expected.
The biggest takeaway so far is: assumptions are expensive.
So many bugs and confusing moments come from:
- “I think this is what the boss wants.”
- “This works from Admin view and there is a rush on it, let's go.”
Then months pass, no one mentions it, and suddenly someone in operations hits that one edge case and everything breaks. You realize that past-you didn’t think through reality far enough.
Things I’m committing to going forward:
- Ask more questions before building
- Treat every feature like it will be used in production regularly
- Add manual checks or tests even for tiny PRs
- Leave code in a state someone else could pick up
Looking forward to finishing this book and noting all of my takeaways.
merry xmas all