Global code retreat Madrid 2016/10/22

This Saturday I participated in the Global day of Code Retreat event organized by Madrid Software Craftsmanship community. This was the first time I went to the a Code Retreat and I can say I like a lot very much the format.

During all the day, we was resolving the game of life, in pairs, with different restrictions and deleting all the code in each iteration... It is a very interesting deliberate practice to improve our skills, and using the same problem all the time allow us to approach using different techniques.

The best part is that in each iteration we change pairs so during the day you have the opportunity to discuss and solve the same problem with different people using very different point of view.
I think that this promiscuous pairing is the most effective way for trying new techniques and learn new insights.

Lot of thanks, the facilitator Juan D Vega, Luis Rovirosa and all the rest of the organizers from Idealista

Thanks a lot to all of my pairs: Alvaro Fidalgo, Ruben Chavarria, Oscar Pernas, Javier del Saz, Guillermo Domingez, Angel Sanz... Sorry but I don't remember the name of another person that work with Angel Sanz and me in the last iteration.

The constrains that  Juan D Vega introduced were:

1. Iteration. Ping-Pong pairing
2. Iteration. No naked primitives
3. Iteration. No Mouse + 3 minutes limit discussion
4. Iteration. No conditional statements
5. Iteration. Mute Session (impossible for me :-) )
6. Iteration. Code swap (with another pair) in the middle of the iteration. Very funny and interesting.

The most difficult one for me was the 5 iteration, because I worked with Java (and I have no idea) and not talking is very, very difficult.
The most funny and interesting iteration for me was the code swap.

For sure the next year I will repeat :)

P.D. I am happy with the code retreat, but I am very happy that two colleagues from TheMotion join me at the event (Cesar Ortiz, Ludo), and even more happy with the post-coderetreat conversations, learning, insights, etc.

References:

• Global day of Code Retreat
• Madrid Software Craftsmanship community
• Book Review: Understanding the Four Rules of Simple Design
• https://github.com/SoftwareCraftsmanshipMadrid
• https://github.com/SoftwareCraftsmanshipMadrid/global-day-of-coderetreat-2016
• https://github.com/SoftwareCraftsmanshipMadrid/global-day-of-coderetreat-2016/blob/master/presentation/theday.md
• https://coderdojo.com/