How to Read Complex Code? • Felienne Hermans • GOTO 2021

This presentation was recorded at GOTOpia Chicago 2021. #GOTOcon #GOTOpia http://gotochgo.com Felienne Hermans - Author of “The Programmer’s Brain” and Associate Professor at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science @felienne ABSTRACT Research shows that on average developers spend about 58 percent of their time on reading code! However, we are not explicitly taught reading code in school or in boot camps, and we rarely practice code reading too. Maybe you have never thought about it, but reading code can be confusing in many ways. Code in which you do not understand the variable names causes a different type of confusion from code that is very coupled to other code. In this talk, Felienne Hermans, associate professor at Leiden University, will firstly dive into the cognitive processes that play a role when reading code. She will then show you theories for reading code, and close the talk with some hands-on techniques that can be used to read to any piece of code with more ease and fewer headaches [...] TIMECODES 00:00 Intro 00:39 How I got started 03:32 Coding for kids 04:42 The best part of programming is finding mistakes 05:16 Programmers only learn from making mistakes 05:50 You will fail often & it will be frustrating 06:44 Never be afraid to mess around & experiment 07:06 Break the rules 07:53 And most importantly: it's fun 09:11 When & how do you learn to code? 11:55 How do people learn? 12:40 We don't teach reading code 15:10 We don't practice reading code 17:02 We don't have theories for reading code 21:44 Different forms of confusion 27:40 More techniques from reading 29:42 Want to know more? 31:13 Summary 32:25 Outro Download slides and read the full abstract here: https://gotochgo.com/2021/sessions/1754/how-to-read-complex-code RECOMMENDED BOOKS Felienne Hermans • The Programmer's Brain • https://amzn.to/3mENbN0 Fabio Pereira • Digital Nudge • https://amzn.to/3yhxJu9 Daniel Kahneman • Thinking, Fast and Slow • https://amzn.to/2XmJEtf Thaler & Sunstein • Nudge • https://amzn.to/3CglrmX Dan Ariely • Predictably Irrational • https://amzn.to/3lyDBd7 Robert B Cialdini • Influence, New and Expanded • https://amzn.to/3tL8GxB Linda Rising • Design Patterns in Communications Software • https://amzn.to/2XsxDCg Linda Rising • The Pattern Almanac 2000 • https://amzn.to/3kfgIfi Linda Rising • The Patterns Handbook • https://amzn.to/3lxDPAS Linda Rising • Fearless Change • https://amzn.to/3AfvyrK Linda Rising • More Fearless Change • https://amzn.to/2Z3bYBh https://twitter.com/GOTOcon https://www.linkedin.com/company/goto- https://www.facebook.com/GOTOConferences #Programming #Coding #ComplexCode #ReadCode #TeachingKidsToCode #KidsCodingClasses #ProgrammingKids #ProgrammersBrain #FelienneHermans Looking for a unique learning experience? Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket at https://gotopia.tech SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL - new videos posted almost daily. https://www.youtube.com/user/GotoConferences/?sub_confirmation=1