Exploration Through Example

Context for cluelessness: I was a reviewer for the first paper on mock objects. I completely missed the point. Indeed, it took me most of a decade to finally get it. Now that I have, it’s become my preferred approach to TDD. I’ve carried my preference over to Clojure, going so far as to write a tool, Midje, that supports it (as well as the more-common “state-based” style of TDD).

Given my history, you’d think I’d be smart enough not to expect that people would immediately and completely understand top-down design in Clojure. Nevertheless, I had exactly that expectation. Oops. It seems I must do more than write a tool and record a screencast or two.

I write this in Stockholm. Earlier this week, I taught/facilitated a course/workshop on TDD in Clojure, hosted by the fine folk at Agical. It went well, and it inspired me to do it again. So here’s my proposal.

The course. The course is two days. It’s loosely structured. It consists of my demonstrating how I’d solve a problem, Randori Kata where everyone works on a problem, individual pairs working on a problem, all punctuated by discussions of issues and questions that come up during the day.

The organization. Although I’m calling this a “tour”, it’s actually a series of trips. Ideally, I’d take the train(*) around the USA, stopping to do courses. I could also do the same in Europe or other continents.

My minimum requirement for teaching the course is that I not lose money. What that means, most likely, is that some local company, user group, or person commits to host me, advertises the course locally, and charges other people at least enough to cover expenses. (”Expenses” includes up to two days of extra room and board. I have some hope that teaching the course will lead to something that’ll fill those two days.)

I’ve become fond of Enrique Comba Riepenhausen’s idea of visiting some people, doing some work with them, and saying “Pay me what you think it was worth.” (I did that for the first time today, when I gave a talk to Valtech Stockholm and told them to tell me after the talk what I should invoice them for.) If we could organize that kind of payment so that I’d actually make money on the course, I’d be happy. However, delivering the course and spreading the word is more important to me.

If this intrigues you, contact me.

(*) I’m a “million mile member” of the American Airlines AAdvantage program, but flying has gotten so unpleasant that I’ll take the train when I can.