Michael TharringtonUpdate: We created badges for both Discussion of the Week and Comment of the Week! Thank you @emmmmmmmmmmmma for these excellent designs!
This weekly roundup highlights what we believe to be the most thoughtful and/or interesting discussion of the week. We're also be highlighting one particularly cool comment in each installment. 🙌
The DEV Community is particularly special because of the kind and thoughtful discussions happening between community members. As such, we want to encourage folks to participate in discussions and reward those who are initiating or taking part in conversations across the community. After all, a community is made possible by the people interacting inside it.
Discussion of the Week
This week I gotta give it up for @gregoralbrecht who posed the question "How do you establish an accessibility-focused developer culture at your company?"
So many of understand the importance of accessibility and want to bake it into that culture of our company, but just don't know where to start. Gregor talks about his company growing at a very quick rate and their attention being drawn to a11y, wondering what kind of processes they can establish to continually be conscious of and regularly work to improve accessibility.
If you have pointers on how to enact a good accessibility protocol within an organization, I encourage you to respond to the thread!
Comment of the Week
This week's winner is @kayis for his thoughtful response to @sloan's "What is your greatest weakness as a software developer?"
It's always refreshing to hear folks talk openly about their own weaknesses, and K's response here fits the bill. Diving straight into the code on a new project versus planning ahead is super relatable. I can imagine quite a few of ya are nodding your heads in agreement. 😁
And, as Kay points out, this tactic is generally quite helpful when maintaining an established codebase; it's when you're starting a new project that this type of behavior can can be debilitating.
Also, props to @mrwensveen for bringing up the problems that arise when you go too far in the other direction:
The reverse can also be true. Over-analyzing, perfectionism and fear of doing something wrong can be pretty paralyzing at times.
We really wanna fall somewhere in the middle — putting ample thought into what it is we're building, but not letting the process of planning immobilize us from taking action. Best of luck to you all in finding that happy middle!
What are your picks?
There's loads of great discussions and comments floating about in this community. These are just a few we chose to highlight. 🙂
I urge you all to share your favorite comment and/or discussion of the past week below in the comments. And if you're up for it, give the author an @mention — it'll probably make 'em feel good. 💚
Jumping into the code right away.
It's a strength when doing maintenance work. I usually feel pretty comfortable combing through other people's code.
But it's a big weakness when starting new projects. I often feel like I have no skills what-so-ever in planning a project in a meaningful way. I always throw things together and iterate until it works.
I mean, after over 10 years of working as a developer have an idea what reasonably good things are to throw together for a project, but besides that I'm often lost.