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NFJS2025

The Art of Mentorship (Part 2)

If you've ever tried to mentor another developer in the art of software craftsmanship, you know how maddening the experience can be – why can't we just crack open someone's skull and dump information in? When are they going to invent those brain rods from the Matrix where we can download expert-level skills directly into our brains?

In the absence of brain downloads, learn the next best thing – a practical data-driven mentorship technique devised from years of running mentorship experiments on developers, reading tons of cognitive science books, and lots and lots of practice.

This is part 2 of a 2-part workshop, intended to give you hands on practice with the tools and techniques you need to accelerate skill development of a team member. Even if you didn't attend the first session, feel free to attend the second.

In this second session, we'll discuss how to directly teach first principles using data-driven learning tools (OSS), and the key indicators to look for in the data that give you clues as to what decision-making skills need improvement.

We'll discuss three optimization principles and the relevant indicators of skill gaps in the data:

  • The Haystack Principle - Optimize for small batch sizes or “haystacks”
  • The Code Sandwich Principle - Optimize for low diagnostic difficulty
  • The Waxy-Coating Principle - Optimize the signal to noise ratio of automated tests

We'll run three hands-on coding labs with each coding principle, review the data collected during the coding exercise as a group, and discuss an explicit strategy to teach these principles, and facilitate practice during our everyday jobs.


Arty Starr

About Arty Starr

Arty Starr is a recognized Flow Experience expert, researcher, speaker and thought leader, and author of Idea Flow, how to measure the friction in software development. Arty's PhD research is developing a theory of momentum in software development, and she is creator of the FLOWS platform designed to help developers thrive and find joy through more time in the flow state. The company she founded, FlowInsight, is on a mission to bring back joy to our everyday work.

Arty is also a 2D/3D animator and artist, and has spent the last couple years building 3D apps in AR. She loves to share about her experiences with these technologies.

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