Unusual Personal Branding

I like personal branding and use a lot of branded items. Besides my obvious Code Cop business cards, I use "Code Cop approved" buttons and stickers as giveaways. I wear my Code Cop shorts and hoodies when meeting new clients and when speaking at conferences. I enjoy keeping track of my reading progress using my Code Cop hand crafted book marks. What else could there be? After the embroidery prototype I was looking for something new to add to my branding toolbox.

Branding Iron
I have no memory of how I ended up with the idea, but I got a Code Cop branding iron. No I do not own any cattle or sheep which I need to mark, but at least "branding iron", gives a new meaning to "developer branding". My branding iron, see its picture on the right, needs to be plugged into electricity to warm up and after ten minutes it is ready. I have no idea how I will use it professionally - I am not selling anything in wood crates that could be marked - but I have a lot of fun marking everything in the house: For example, all my Escrima sticks and tool handles are clearly Code Cop's now.


Medallion
Later, after watching Netflix' The Witcher, I toyed with the idea of a Code Cop medallion, like Geralt is wearing. The Witcher's medallion is pretty large and has a raised and relief design, which means part of the silver wolf's head has a 3D effect. I searched online shops for some month for custom pendants. Most places offer two dimensional ones, using vector graphics to drive the cutting or engraving machine. I tested one such design with a simple pattern. The pendant was fine but it was too thin and flat for me. That was not what I had envisioned.

Eventually I found Lucas from Valeria Custom Jewellery who offered similar custom pendants. He 3D printed a mold and casted silver to create the three dimensional form on top of a large medallion. He sent me several work in progress images to check. During the whole process the cost went over the top, as I wanted a certain (too) large size, then shipping and tax for goods from overseas added on top. The total cost makes me wary to wear it. Further my wife keeps reminding me that I am not a rapper with their oversized and lavish jewellery ;-) While I am not wearing it, my Code Cop medallion is my most favourite branded item, sitting on my work desk right in front of me.


To make my medallion more "magic" like Geralt's one, I fancy some engraving at its flat, smooth back. Maybe some piece of source code that is of general significance? Which code would that be? Surely code like the Apollo-11 guidance system or the first Linux kernel are relevant. There are some collections like Computer History Museum's source code. Usually these are many pages of assembly. As the medallion is small compared to that, the code would have to be really short, a few statements at most. Maybe I will go with Greg Walsh's famous Fast Inverse Square Root calculation from Quake III source code: 0x5f3759df.

Shut up and write a test!

Due to the hype around ChatGPT I wanted to create this text with it. I failed. I tried several versions of different prompts, and also asked the Bing variant, but it failed to create any text I liked. It could not simulate my personal style. I should have to train a model with all my blog posts ... It seemed easier to use with the good old method of writing my texts myself.

Should I Write a Test?
Around ten years ago I stumbled upon a diagram if and when to write a test. This was a repeating question in trainings, when should you write tests? Before or after writing the code? Only when you have time? Only when you feel like it? I loved the diagram because there was only one end state. Whatever the reason or excuse would be, just shut up and write a test! It does not matter if you are tired, or if it is a little change, it should be tested. Such a rule is helpful when you want to adopt Test Driven Development, as there are plenty of excuses why to skip it.


The original diagram was created by Gemma R Cameron, a software engineer and event organiser from Manchester. She was inspired by a similar diagram about skating. Recently, when I was asked again when to test, I wanted to share the diagram and could not find its page. I thought it lost and planned to repost the diagram here. Eventually I discovered Gemma's page again, it had moved from a .me to a WordPress domain. I am glad that the original source is still available. You can find it here.

Java Version
The original version of the diagram was for Ruby, indicated by the use of Automock. What was bad with Automock? It provided some support for automated mocking of Rails application and is dead since 2016. Here I present a slightly modified version for Java, replacing Automock with PowerMock. And I do know what is wrong with PowerMock. It is a powerful mocking tool which uses a custom class loader and bytecode manipulation to enable mocking of static methods, constructors, final classes and methods, private methods and more. It is useful to bring legacy code under test, before seams can be introduced. The bytecode manipulation makes it slow compared to regular mocking. If used often, the whole test suite will run much longer than needed. Further, if code is hard to test, I change its design to make it testable by applying SOLID principles or by creating seams as outlined by Michael Feathers in his WELC book. Using PowerMock for tests does not improve the design. (I am not inherently against PowerMock, it is extremely powerful and as such dangerous. I needed something to replace Automock.)

Download and print the Java version of the Shut up and Write a Test Diagram. The fact that there are versions of this diagram for both Ruby and Java is a testament to the universality of its principle: Shut up and Write a Test! The Code Cop approves, and I am sure your future self will too.

I want you to exceed me

During my time at IBM I started coaching other teams. It was fun and I liked it. Later I went into full time training and coaching, and my motto was "Developing Quality Software Developers". I knew it was the thing I wanted to do, but I did not know why.

Gamification
I use Gamification as a strategy to improve user engagement. To increase participation in my workshops and to express my feelings about that, I created achievement cards, the Code Cop Achievement Cards. Achievements or trophies are concepts from video games, and describe meta-goals defined outside the game's parameters. Meeting the fulfilment conditions, and receiving recognition of fulfilment by the game, is referred to as unlocking the achievement. There are several cards for first time participants in my deck, for example Shortcut Fu when someone uses a rare keyboard short-cut, Regexer for comprehending a crazy regular expression or Finisher for finishing the coding exercise started during the workshop at home - which I always offer but rarely happens. I award these cards to a participant, if I feel that the person has worked hard or struggled to make it.

Appreciation
I wanted my cards to convey my honest appreciation and used NVC (Non-violent Communication) appreciation statements. For a NVC-style appreciation we share the specific actions that contributed to our well-being, the needs that have been fulfilled, and the feelings engendered by the fulfilment of those needs. The focus is to create a clear understanding of how our life was enriched.. This made me think more about my feelings and which of my needs had been satisfied at the moments when I wanted to appreciate some action. I had thought about needs before in more general, less personal way. My friend and NVC coach Aki Salmi helped me to formulate these statements using different phrases to avoid having the same text on each card again and again: For example: "I value the usage of short-cuts as effective and as sign of ongoing mastery in our craft." "I am touched to see courage in situations of uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure." "I am amazed by critical questions based on creativity and independent thought." "I am inspired by the integrity and consistency of sticking to principles in difficult situations." The process of finding the right words alone strengthened my ability to express my feelings dramatically.

Scrutiny
Some of my appreciation cards celebrate learning, including stepping out of one's comfort zone, which is required for learning. One card I of these is titled "Scrutiny", subtitled Correct me when I am wrong. It shows a Whistle icon (by Delapouite CC BY 3.0) and the appreciation is "I am proud when you correct me, showing independence and competence." It does not happen often - still sometimes in a pairing or ensemble session, my focus may slip and I make a mistake or do not call out a mistake on time. And then, sometimes, someone else does.

Growth
There is a common theme in most of my cards: growth. Now that I have seen it, it is obvious to me. Growth is one of my major needs. I want to grow - e.g. learning new languages and other stuff regularly. And I want the people I coach and work with to grow, too. My second motto - surfacing around 2013 - "Developing Quality Software Developers" expresses that clearly. I want them to grow, to learn, to improve - and I am inspired and amazed the most, when they exceed me.

Snatch the Pebble From My Hand
There is nothing more satisfying than when a pupil exceeds his or her master. This is often depicted in movies, where a student must learn a lot, for example in Kung Fu movies: In the television series Kung Fu, Caine is an orphan and is accepted into a Shaolin Monastery. Part of the Shaolin way of life is strengthening the body and the mind. For example, one of Caine's teachers asks him to "snatch the pebble from my hand":


Then, after many years of training, Caine is finally able to beat his master:


What a satisfying moment, and Caine's master smiles. This is one of my favourite TV moments ;-) Like being corrected (see Scrutiny card above), "snatch the pebble from my hand" situations make me proud of my students.

Make Me Look Like a Baby
I want to leave you with a quote from a different and maybe more controversial source of motivation than Caine, ex Navy SEAL member Jocko Willink: Don't try and be like me. Be better than me. Crush me. Make me look like a baby. That's what you do. (Even better when he says it himself.) - OK, maybe there is too much testosterone here ;-)