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J. B. Rainsberger (he)

@jbrains@mastodon.social
mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06
  • Open on mastodon.social

Pro 5-pin bowler who consults for software companies to pay for bowling. en/fr/sv/es/ro https://experience.jbrains.ca https://blog.jbrains.ca

0 Followers
0 Following
37 Posts
Joined July 03, 2018
Question?:
https://ask.jbrains.ca
Mentoring:
https://experience.jbrains.ca
Read More:
https://www.jbrains.ca
Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 5mo ago

When interactions "go wrong", the very thing you are most likely to complain about and try to change is the very thing that most people find hardest and most painful to change about themselves. Result? Merry chaos. I propose an alternative that might actually work.

https://blog.jbrains.ca/permalink/the-fundamental-irony-of-human-interaction/

blog.jbrains.ca

The Fundamental Irony of Human Interaction — The jbrains Blog

When interactions "go wrong", the very thing you are most likely to complain about and try to change is the very thing that most people find hardest and most painful to change about themselves. Result? Merry chaos. I propose an alternative that might actually work.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 5mo ago

Getting Things Done is only about making lists and setting reminders on the surface. There are greater powers in there and it might help you to know what they are...

https://blog.jbrains.ca/permalink/an-alternative-formulation-of-getting-things-done/

blog.jbrains.ca

An Alternative Formulation of Getting Things Done — The jbrains Blog

Describing the transformative benefits of _Getting Things Done_ sometimes sounds like cult indoctrination. Describing the concrete steps of getting started with GTD risks making it sound like pointless busywork. I propose another way to think about GTD that, I hope, makes it sound more compelling, both to get started and to stick with it.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 6mo ago

When I started practising #GTD I didn't realize that I would come to know focusing on a task itself as rewarding and even addictive. I notice more and more, when I feel scattered, an abstract longing for doing something I can focus on.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 6mo ago

I just drafted 1400 words about mock objects (and why you might struggle with them) that have been trying to get out for a long time now. These words might see the light of day, but members of The jbrains Experience are reading them now. ;)

https://experience.jbrains.ca

experience.jbrains.ca

The jbrains Experience

Fractional access to a resident consultant, coach, and mentor. Grow as a leader and find peace at work with a trusted guide at your side.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 5mo ago

"Playing Well With Others: An Example"

Choosing not to perpetuate LinkedIn as a cesspool of self-proclaimed thought leaders yelling past each other.

https://blog.jbrains.ca/permalink/playing-well-with-others-an-example

blog.jbrains.ca

Playing Well With Others: An Example — The jbrains Blog

LinkedIn is full of strong opinions, weakly articulated. You don't have to succumb to the temptation of yelling back about how wrong people are. You can break the cycle. Here is an example of how to do exactly that.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 7mo ago

If we all chose to treat deadlines as an act of love, we could transform the world.

No, really.

http://blog.jbrains.ca/permalink/deadlines-as-an-act-of-love

blog.jbrains.ca

Deadlines As An Act Of Love — The jbrains Blog

You are probably used to interpreting deadlines as a control mechanism, especially since that's how it seems to be in software development. Imagine seeing deadlines as an act of love! No, really! I believe we can make this happen together.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 5mo ago

I ended up having two long consultations with clients, both free of charge. I really enjoyed the work. I also really hope to continue to do great work by being paid for it. #devoxxgr

https://experience.jbrains.ca

experience.jbrains.ca

The jbrains Experience

Fractional access to a resident consultant, coach, and mentor. Grow as a leader and find peace at work with a trusted guide at your side.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 5mo ago

Is there truly nobody struggling with mock objects out there? I asked Claude Code to generate an example of a Java project using mock objects and it generated my Point of Sale teaching example.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 6mo ago

Consider treating your inbox as containing options, not obligations. I know: it's easier said than done. Even so...

https://blog.jbrains.ca/permalink/your-inbox-as-options-not-obligations

blog.jbrains.ca

Your Inbox As Options, Not Obligations — The jbrains Blog

"I can't use to-do lists, because when I write things down, I see how much there is to do, then I shut down and go back to bed. It feels awful! I hate it." The struggle is real, but I propose a way out: a way to have the benefits of the to-do list without the crushing anxiety and constant reminders that you're disappointing everyone, especially yourself.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 5mo ago

RE: https://vmst.io/@DanMorgan/116516129181127637

See you again on July 8!

vmst.io
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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 7mo ago

"When am I going to use this (math-related concepts) in real life?"

Why do those amounts not balance? The difference is a multiple of 9. Aha! Digit transposition, probably...

...found it.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 6mo ago

Iterations/sprints are dead. Scrum is dead. Agile is dead.

Hold on... maybe.

https://blog.jbrains.ca/permalink/when-you-can-safely-leave-sprints-behind

blog.jbrains.ca

When You Can Safely Leave Sprints Behind — The jbrains Blog

You need iterations/sprints long enough to build certain helpful habits, but once you've built those, you might safely leave iterations/sprints behind. This doesn't make them dumb nor wasteful, but that seems to be how many people frame the matter, so I have to use the word for SEO.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 7mo ago

I highly _highly_ recommend this interview. It's long. Very long. Feature-film length.

Even so, I love Dr Hassan's emphasis on what works when trying to help folks out of harmful beliefs, rather than what makes one feel superior over them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UlvAUByG3A

Dr. Steven Hassan: Are You in a Cult and Don’t Even Know It?

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 7mo ago

Rudimentary TDD in #jq/#jaq:

1. Choose an input; make a text file for it.
2. Figure out the expected output; make a text file for it.
3. `diff expected.txt =(cat input.txt | jaq -L "lib" 'main_filter')`

It seems like real work to run multiple tests together, but this is a start.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 7mo ago

A programmer's act of love: documenting and reporting an apparent defect in painstaking detail, then removing as many superfluous words as possible.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 6mo ago

WAT. https://blog.thecodewhisperer.com/permalink/a-tale-of-map-and-parseint-in-three-acts

blog.thecodewhisperer.com

A Tale of map and parseInt in Three Acts, or WAT You Will — The jbrains Blog

Why can't you map parseInt in TypeScript? Because fuck you, that's why!

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 7mo ago

If you love the idea of agents over human workers, then you might need to read Deci's _Why We Do What We Do_.

And no: don't ask an agent to summarize it for you.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 5mo ago

Strategy: Say things so egregious and obviously stupid that the listener is stunned into inaction and can only :shrug:.

Example: "All women love ballrooms."

I would call it "genius" if I thought it were intentional.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 6mo ago
Replying to
@JosephLeedy I appreciate your kind words. I'm trying.
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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 6mo ago
Replying to
@PeterSommerlad I genuinely don't share this view, but I really want to understand it better. What's the short version? (To start.)
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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 6mo ago
Replying to
This is the work I wanted to do when I redesigned The jbrains Experience five years ago. It's happening.
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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 7mo ago

Having grown accustomed to "yank name" and "yank path" in #ranger, I find myself wishing this behavior were available in #hledger (hledger-ui), too! ;)

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 6mo ago
Replying to
If you believe you can help, then please ping me and let's figure out the details. BTW, if there is a chance to do something live and in person with a client in the area, so much the better. 😉
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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 7mo ago
Replying to
@cdegroot LLMs mostly make Common Practice even more common. That might work well, unless Common Practice lies well below your individual standards. :)
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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 6mo ago
Replying to
@PeterSommerlad Good news! These are general properties of tests that point to design problems, usually dependency problems. These signals are not limited to tests that use mock objects. Even so, many programmers seem to accept those symptoms of dependency problems as inevitable outcomes of writing unit tests. This becomes a deeper problem whose solution lies nowhere near "to use mock objects are not to use mock objects".
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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 6mo ago
Replying to
@ctietze I've chosen to find it charming.
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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 6mo ago
Replying to
@PeterSommerlad Thank you for this. I shall take a look, although I have to admit, I don't know when. :) I will need to consume this to inform my current writing.
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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 7mo ago
Replying to
@cdegroot I prefer a kinder, gentler message now, but if drama sells, then let the drama sell. ;)
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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 5mo ago

"Should I pull more tickets?"

These two answers are clearly wrong: "Yes" and "No".

A helpful answer is significant more complicated. We handle these questions are other thorny problems as part of Office Hours. Not free, but excellent.

https://office-hours.jbrains.ca

office-hours.jbrains.ca

The jbrains Experience

Fractional access to a resident consultant, coach, and mentor. Grow as a leader and find peace at work with a trusted guide at your side.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 5mo ago

The Doctor is In at #devoxxgr. Join me for free consulting or coaching. Simply sit down and let's start!

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 7mo ago

I'm _trying_ to trust the process, I really am, but someone in there is getting in the way...

https://substack.com/@jbrains/note/c-218567148?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=afaci

J. B. Rainsberger (@jbrains)
Substack

J. B. Rainsberger (@jbrains)

I had an absolutely disastrous performance in January 2026 in Brantford, then I performed quite well in February in Timmins, but went back to performing very poorly the following weekend in Winnipeg. I noticed some progress: more annoyance and confusion, less despair and pessimism, but I noticed something that I hadn’t noticed for a while: I bowled sad for quite a while during my second qualifying attempt. I think the accumulation of disappointment finally reached my limit and I just felt sad.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 6mo ago

Few things can wake you up quite like downloading accounting information and then seeing a bunch of it disappear. At least, this time, there was a simple explanation for their bug.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 6mo ago

It's a little thing, but when you can't figure out which window you need, you need to set the window title using a`tmux` configuration setting you barely understand.

Everyone starts somewhere.

https://jb.rainsberger.ca/permalink/byobu-session-name-in-terminal-window-title

Byobu Session Name in Terminal Window Title
jb.rainsberger.ca

Byobu Session Name in Terminal Window Title

How do I change the window title in my `byobu` terminal windows so that I can find them when I switch windows in my desktop environment?! Evidently, it's a `tmux` setting.

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Open post
J. B. Rainsberger (he) @jbrains@mastodon.social
· 5mo ago

My webcam image is all... red?!

https://jb.rainsberger.ca/permalink/why-my-webcam-image-is-so-damn-red

Why My Webcam Image Is So Damn Red!
jb.rainsberger.ca

Why My Webcam Image Is So Damn Red!

Why is the image on my external USB webcam suddenly so red?! My face looks like a tomato! Evidently, a setting inside the camera changed.

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